Apple’s iPhone gets access to over 20,000 free public domain books and novels via Project Gutenberg and other Creative Commons licensed texts. The two text type versions supported by the unauthorized eBook reader are plain text or HTML. PDF formatted books is not currently supported.
The software program named Books.app is maintained by Zach Brewster-Geisz and is posted on the iPhone ebooks Wiki page. The Books.app is a native iPhone software application which means that it is not supported by Apple. To get it installed requires a shell script, an iPhone Utility Client and a “jailbreak” utility to copy a program onto the iPhone.
Another eBook service for the iPhone is web-based which does not require a separate program to read the downloaded books. This is not perfect however, if Safari needs to close for any reason, the user is signed off of the site textoniphone and will have to re-login after say a phone call. This website does offer more than 20,000 books.
The Books.app stores the book on the iPhone cellphone after it is installed and the website textoniphone offers the books online. Brewster-Geisz says, “Eventually, this project will include a simple method of syncing eBooks to your iPhone,” referencing the difficulty in installing the Books.app program. This is a better option for iPhone users as HarperCollins only recently announced book excerpts from about 20 titles. Via Pdfzone and Project Gutenberg.