The shape of things to come?

Nature.com iPhone app in pictures
[Via Gobbledygook]

Just four weeks ago I wrote a blog post titled How do you read papers? 2010 will be different. Not only have we since seen the announcement of the Apple iPad, but last Monday the free Nature.com iPhone app was launched. The application gives access to the full text of all Nature and Nature News content (through until 30 April 2010, how access is handled afterwards hasn’t been announced yet). A version for the Android platform was promised for April, and the app will work with the just-announced iPad. I included a few screenshots for those without an iPhone or iPod Touch. A free Nature.com personal account is needed to use the app.

The iPhone app doesn’t use HTML or PDF but rather the ePub format. The Nature.com website will soon offer downloads in ePub format (an example article is here). Adobe Digital Editions and Stanza are examples of ePub readers. In contrast to PDF, ePub adapts to the screen size and is therefore a much better format for the iPhone.

References are links in the text, clicking on them opens a new window.

Figures are also links in the text that open in a new window. The figures can be saved to the iPhone Photos application.

[More]

ePub is a nice format for these publications. And the articles will be free until April. I am going to test this out. Especially for an iPad, this could really change things, particularly when it comes to accessing scientific content.