Amazon announced this week that it has acquired Lexcycle, the maker of the Stanza e-book reader for the iPhone and iPod Touch.  The reader is a free download that allows iPhone and iPod users to access free sites and some stores, such as Barnes & Noble’s, that sell e-books. 

 

Lexcycle also offers a desktop version, which allows users to convert PDFs and Word documents to formats that can be easily read on the iPhone and iPod devices. 

 

Amazon also recently began offering versions of its Kindle software that allow iPhone and Blackberry users to read its Kindle e-books.