Sony's 'Reader' app: Finally available for iPad

iPad owners have no shortage of ebook apps to choose from, be it Apple's own iBooks, Kobo, Amazon's Kindle, B&N's Nook and dozens of others.

Curiously missing was Sony's Reader app. Until now.

Finally, those who shop at Sony's Reader Store can access their book collection on an iPad.

The Reader – eBooks from Sony app is a little glitchy when it comes to activation – and it requires a free Adobe account for its digital rights management -- but after that it's smooth sailing.

Sony's free Reader app shows your library of books from the main page – to start you off, you'll get a free 20-page short story called Trouble on Reserve by Kim Harrison -- and then you'll simply tap on a book cover to open it up full screen.

You've got four ways to turn pages by swiping from right to left: "flip" pages like a real book, slide the pages across the screen, fade out the old page and quickly fade in the new, or a raw "cut" that simply replaces the old text with the new one. Personally, I like the flip effect; rather than a curl in the corner, however, the entire page turns over.

Other options include varying text sizes, how much of the screen the words should take up (with five options), brightness (on a slider bar or choose to swipe up or down while reading to adjust), night mode (that reverses the black text on white background) and if you want to see page numbers in the margin or not. You can also tweak the font style, text and background color, and more.

The text looks crisp, even on a non-Retina display tablet (like iPad mini). Add a bookmark, if you like, but when you launch the app it'll continue where you left off.

If you press and hold down on a word you'll get a few options, such as define, highlight, note, share or copy. The problem with the define feature is it opens up Google to give you a definition. That means you need an Internet connection. If you're on a plane without Wi-Fi and you want to know what a word means, you're out of luck. Apple's own iBooks app has an offline dictionary, by comparison.

As with most other ebook apps for iPad, also be aware you can't access the Sony Reader Store from within the app. Instead, to acquire new books, you need to log in via a web browser, download your content and then when you log into the Reader app on iPad it'll be there.

Despite a couple of issues -- beginning with the Reader app not activating the first few attempts (I received an error "50509") – the free Sony Reader is a decent download for iPad, iPhone and iPod touch. This is especially true for those who've previously purchased books from Sony's Reader Store.