Related
So I'm sure there are similar threads out there dealing with general android devices, but I thought since I spent a good majority of my day yesterday looking through some ebook apps specifically for my nook, I'll post my findings.
First off, I'm going to talk about my top finds. Trust me, there are a lot out there and I didn't download them all, but I probably went through a good 15-20 apps. If you have an app that isn't listed that you like for whatever reason, post about it and I'll look into it! Make sure if you post an app below, that you give as much info as possible about it (and you've tried it on your nook)
App: Nook
Pros: Has a wide variety of books from major publishers, store sync's well with app, many options for viewing, allows you to import epub and pdf books.
Cons: Kinda basic, changing pages via the scroll bar doesn't work well, don't seem to be able to export books easily.
Bottom Line: Although it's a solid app, it doesn't have nearly as many books as the Kindle nor does it have as good a reading experience as other apps. With that said, it does offer some books that the Kindle store doesn't. I recommend this if you're loyal to B&N.
App: Kindle
Pros: Nice interface, huge store with major publishers (more than the Nook), good viewing options, allows import of epub and pdf books.
Cons: The app redirects to a webpage for the store, which doesn't work as flawlessly as other apps, Like the NOOK app, changing pages via the scroll bar doesn't work well. The mobi format isn't that common and doesn't add for easy exporting.
Bottom Line: The Kindle app offers more choice in books than any other app, but the reading experience still lacks somewhat. It has just as much options as the Nook, but being able to customize it more would have been nice. It is very similar to the Nook in terms of usage. If you are loyal to Amazon, it's great.
App: Overdrive
Pros: Free books rented from local library, also offers audiobooks.
Cons: Selection varies depending on your area, Library account needed, there is a wait on most books, the app itself sends you to a webpage.
Bottom Line: This is a good complimentary app IF they offer anything for you in your area. Out of the three area's I have tried, only one had support for it. Free is always nice!
App: Laputa (free version)
Pros: Free books from both major publishers and independent writers, many Public Domain books, support for Chinese books, allows for easy import/export (due to epub and pdf file types), Multiple sources from which to get books from, Virtual shelf interface.
Cons: Reading experience lacks, most books are bootleg (therefor illegal), small buttons make it almost impossible to touch, many links in the stores are broken, misspelled/missing text within downloaded books.
Bottom Line: If you don't mind getting books illegally, it has a lot of major series (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Sword of Truth series, Holmes, and many more). Most (if not all) of the downloaded books are in epub format so importing them into another reader is easy. Right now (apparently with the last app update), book covers is broken, so to utilize that feature in any reader, you have to manually download and add them. Not many reading options don't help the reader at all. Good way to get free books, but not to read them.
App: Aldiko
Pros: Best reading experience, many many options (from font size to margins), multiple library views, categories, and tags, Store works OK with a lot of public domain and creative common books, along with paid books, importing books is really easy, as is setting up cover art (if the book doesn't already come with it), Support for Catalogs and easy "Last Read" button, also support for Adobe DRM (which I have not tried out)
Cons: The paid section of the store doesn't offer as many books as Nook or Kindle, but still has a good amount, plain Home interface and store.
Bottom Line: Although the store lacks compared to a big company such as Amazon or B&N, you can find many books with this app. There is no reading experience as good as this one, with options to change text, brightness, orientation settings, day/night colors, margins, and even advanced formatting to override the books initial formatting to suit your style. The library offers both "bookshelf" view and "list" views, which can be sorted to your desire independently. List view also offers tabs to view by Author, tags, and Collections (some books come preset with tags, others don't. Either way you can add your own, and your own tag types) By far the best way to view epub and pdf books, I just wish they had support for mobi and other formats so that I could import my kindle and nook books that I have.
Each of these offer different reasons to use them, but if you can find your ebook in epub or pdf format, Aldiko gives you the best reading experience by far. The fact that it makes it so easy to import, download, and use ebooks is refreshing compared to the Kindle and Nook. Although I do not fully understand Adobe DRM, because Aldiko supports it, it seems to only enhance it. On a final note, I downloaded the first book from Harry Potter from Laputa and imported it into Aldiko and read the first 4 chapters. The file was OK, with some spacing, spelling, and formatting errors that I KNOW and official release of the Harry Potter book would NOT have.
I will be updating this with further information and maybe other apps when I can. Let me know what you think and if you have different experiences than me (or I got something wrong)
PLEASE NOTE: I'd like to say that I do not condone getting ebooks illegally, however one of the apps I talk about above (Laputa) does allow you to do so (at the cost of spelling errors, formatting errors, etc.). I also believe (not 100% sure, but it makes sense) that the law on ebooks would be similar to the law on video game ROM's, that is if I won the book I can technically download a free version of the ebook if I can find it, such as the case with the Harry Potter book I mention.
I don't know about your legal interpretation of that. It's a different platform/format. If I buy a movie on DVD, I'm not entitled to download and burn a blu-ray copy of that same movie.
I prefer Nook from Android Market combined with Calibre ebook manager on the PC. You can pretty much feed Calibre any ebook format and it will not only convert it to which ever device you wish to read it on but it will load it onto the device in the directory that the device expects to find ebooks. (unless you tell it otherwise) Killer ebook combo.
Hi,
I have been using FBReader for my eBook reader and find it works very well. It
handles epub and a variety of other formats. (but not PDF). It has a good 'night
mode' and the ability to dim the backlight in the app.
There is a third party called FBSync in the market that will use the web to sync
book mark progress in books and/or the books to Dropbox. Particularly useful when
changing ROMs too often on the Nook Color!
I use Repligo for pdf reading, the reflow works reasonably well.
I know you are looking mainly at eBook readers, but you haven't mentioned Calibre
an opensource PC/MAC ebook library management program:
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Calibre will also download and manage covers, reviews and do format conversions.
Calibre works well with an Android app 'Calibre library' (paid) and FBReader.
I like your writeup and plan to try some of the other apps you suggested.
Thanks,
Peter
I'll put another vote here for FBReader.
I used Aldiko since I first got an Android phone in 2009. It was awesome, the absolute best reader software on Android. And then they lost their damn minds.
It is now 10 times bigger. And has one third of the options it used to have. I still haven't figured out what they did to accomplish that. When that happened I went looking for another option.
I had already given up on the Nook reader software because I keep a lot of books on my phone (and now on my Nook). The Nook reader software just couldn't handle it and basically self destructs when I try to load up my library. Laputa sucks in so many ways it isn't even worth mentioning.
I had tried FBReader way way back and it just wasn't good enough, but to my surprise when I tried it again all of the original issues were gone. It is easy to use, easy to configure to your liking, and can handle my 500+ book portable library with ease.
A. Nonymous said:
I don't know about your legal interpretation of that. It's a different platform/format. If I buy a movie on DVD, I'm not entitled to download and burn a blu-ray copy of that same movie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I just looked this up and you're right. I guess because I was thinking about digital rights and not literature rights, I thought that way. I'll update my post to reflect this.
Atahachi said:
I prefer Nook from Android Market combined with Calibre ebook manager on the PC. You can pretty much feed Calibre any ebook format and it will not only convert it to which ever device you wish to read it on but it will load it onto the device in the directory that the device expects to find ebooks. (unless you tell it otherwise) Killer ebook combo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nook app, IMO, lacks both features and usability. I'll have to check out Calibre, sounds like something i was looking for, thanks!
pmilford said:
Hi,
I have been using FBReader for my eBook reader and find it works very well. It
handles epub and a variety of other formats. (but not PDF). It has a good 'night
mode' and the ability to dim the backlight in the app.
I saw FBReader but decided not to download it after reading all the negative reviews of it. However, after seeing what you guys have said, I'll check it out and probably post my thoughts on here maybe tomorrow.
JMMusic said:
I'll put another vote here for FBReader.
I used Aldiko since I first got an Android phone in 2009. It was awesome, the absolute best reader software on Android. And then they lost their damn minds.
It is now 10 times bigger. And has one third of the options it used to have. I still haven't figured out what they did to accomplish that. When that happened I went looking for another option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What more options could they have? It has more than any of the others I've seen.
JMMusic said:
Laputa sucks in so many ways it isn't even worth mentioning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only reason I mentioned it was because of it's store. Also, the app used to work pretty well when it first came out, but basically has not been updated since then.
Thanks guys for your input, I'll check out FBReader!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the write up.
I'd like to note that Aldiko's PDF viewer is quite limited (no zooming or panning whatsoever) unless the device is running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and up, which spoils it for me running the stock ROM (Eclair). Not finding any free alternatives, I purchased ezPDFreader, the least expensive option, and am quite happy with it so far.
For compiled HTML files (chm), iReader is a good option. It's very customizable and handles zooming and re-flow pretty well... and it's free
I'm on stock ROM and using Moon+ reader, lovin' it so far.
that moon reader seems pretty good. nice tip.
I also read (and documented somewhere) that you can set up Calibre in a server mode to serve up your own library of books. It seems that Aldiko will interact with it remotely in this manner. I read about it and intend to do it when I have a chance but haven't tried yet so that's about the extent of my knowledge on it
The three best reviewed Ereader Apps are Aldiko, Moon+ and FBReader.
FBReader was one of the original apps, from something like 15 years ago.
Of course, all of these are designed to read DRM-free books, so the "store" references in your review are not really relevant.
pmilford said:
Hi,
I have been using FBReader for my eBook reader and find it works very well. It
handles epub and a variety of other formats. (but not PDF). It has a good 'night
mode' and the ability to dim the backlight in the app.
There is a third party called FBSync in the market that will use the web to sync
book mark progress in books and/or the books to Dropbox. Particularly useful when
changing ROMs too often on the Nook Color!
I use Repligo for pdf reading, the reflow works reasonably well.
I know you are looking mainly at eBook readers, but you haven't mentioned Calibre
an opensource PC/MAC ebook library management program:
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Calibre will also download and manage covers, reviews and do format conversions.
Calibre works well with an Android app 'Calibre library' (paid) and FBReader.
I like your writeup and plan to try some of the other apps you suggested.
Thanks,
Peter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally support. Been using the FBReader for ages now and with FBSync app there's absolutely no fuss now with different gadgets I read on.
Been using Aldiko here. Though it is a little big size wise, I like the feature set as well as visibility. Looks and performs really well, and allows you to import any other online catalogs you favor.
Combining that with Calibre, got a pretty nice pair.
Also, theres a portable test version of calibre incase you wanna throw it on a stick, or even your phone:
portableapps.com/node/20518
Cool Reader
Seems to work well on Rooted 1.1 - lots of options and very little bloat.
Another vote for Moon+ reader here! Been using it since day one and it's awesome.!
Sorry it's taking me so long to update my post guys, I'll be doing it soon, I promise! It's been a busy week on my end and I haven't had much nook time. Thanks for everyone who has replied!
Still waiting lol
Since this thread has popped up again, I would just put out there that Mantano has replaced both aldiko and any other PDF reader out there for me. The PDF reading experience is the most complete I've found to date, and with its new support for OPDS catalogs, should now be able to interact directly with calibre in server mode (although I haven't tested this yet... been too busy to read anything in the last month).
I've been using Kobo for epubs, it's pretty cool it gives you stats on your reading. It works great with the default dpi, unlike the nook app. Also, there's no need to move your files around in the sdcard since the app searches for all supported files in the card.
Another vote for Kobo! Lighter than Aldiko and with similar options.
So I've been having a blast obsessing over my NT. I find that I actually like the stock Home for reading & browsing books, pdfs & comic book archives. These are some quick observations:
Sideloading via USB to My Files... will use the "reserved for B&N" space.
Any compatible formats will show up in the Library, Home Screen & the Daily Shelf if they're side loaded via USB. But if they're transferred over a network, using ES File Explorer, they won't. You can still find them through search, or browsing through "my stuff" in Library. I'm wondering if there is a way to "refresh" the Library, so they know they're there, as is done when transferred via USB.
PDFs: Covers don't appear. Titles & Author will be displayed if the info is available. I used PDF-Xchange Viewer to edit Title & Author in unlocked PDFs. Cover art does NOT display, which doesn't make sense because they work with CBZ.
CBZs: Comic Book Archives that are ZIP work really well. I used a batch script that I found here: http://www.advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/diary.html?start=363 to convert all CBRs to CBZs. It's way quicker than manually converting. The first page will show up as cover art, which is really cool.
epub: Some, obviously, are better produced than others. If there is cover art, it'll show up. If not Title & Author will be displayed over the generic icon if it's available. I was able to edit (add) that information in FBreader (a super simple windows epub reader.) I wish there was just as simple way to add cover art.
gaaamer said:
Not only can you get good covers for your epubs, but I actually know the ideal resolution. And even covers that are embedded in the epub that are misaligned, crappy resolution, or generally garbage I've learned how to fix and perfect.
I WAS going to make a tutorial video showing how to do all of this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Omg nirv come back again xD
Thanks for your observations. Its good to know sideloading will go into the B&N space rather than the 1Gb of space. Now I know you are doing it for books etc - but can you tell us if sideloading mp3s and say a movie file will do the same and go into the reserved space? Please try it out and let us know.
Its a shame that the covers of PDFs dont show. Thats kind of a bummer. I don't even understand why that wouldn't just work by default. Is there somewhere official we can go to complain about that so they might fix it? I want to throw lots of pdfs on there and hope to see the covers!
PDFs are legit and supported files, so it wouldn't hurt to comment or suggest that the stock home support PDF covers.
The stock library or home page does not display videos as far as I can tell. The way that media, like pics, music and video work they show up join the Media Gallery, which sucks. But again those are supported file formats, so it's something worth commenting and makings suggestions about. Email their support at [email protected]
I second the notion that cbz work very well on the NT.
Though the lack of some features that actual dedicated comic reader apps offer is really evident when you're stuck with the stock viewer.
Double pages are often shrunken down onto one page, you can't automatically advance to the next comic, you can't create shelves within shelves so you can organize your comic series, etc.
It'll do in a pinch, but the stock reader will never replace stuff like comic reader mobi and perfect viewer. If only those would show up in the B&N app store and become "official."
reverenddak said:
epub: Some, obviously, are better produced than others. If there is cover art, it'll show up. If not Title & Author will be displayed over the generic icon if it's available. I was able to edit (add) that information in FBreader (a super simple windows epub reader.) I wish there was just as simple way to add cover art.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Download calibre. It is a free program for windows (maybe mac too..dunno) that you can add/edit any information for the epub books and convert from/to most formats. I have a lot of mobi ebooks that I have converted to epub and added the cover art and it shows in the stock library. It also has a nifty search program that automatically searches for cover art from multiple sources.
Has anyone experiamented with pdfs > 50mb? I am mostly worried about RPG pdfs... hoping to not have to lug a ton of books to the gaming table...
reverenddak said:
Sideloading via USB to My Files... will use the "reserved for B&N" space.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Could you or anyone please explain this in detail for a noob?
You're saying this uses the 11GB of B&N "reserved" *hijacked* RAM, not the 1GB left for the user?
When I plug my rooted NT into my computer, the MyNOOK drive is mounted, but it's only 1GB. (Also my SD card mounts). Copying to My Files reduces the 1GB. So there must be more to 'sideloading via USB' than this, so what am I missing? Or is it just certain files and formats go to the B&N space?
You can still find them through search, or browsing through "my stuff" in Library. I'm wondering if there is a way to "refresh" the Library, so they know they're there, as is done when transferred via USB.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
So far the closest I've found is clicking 'Edit' in the My Shelves section- a list will pop up with media on either internal or SD card and let you individually select each item to add. Would be a real PITA with a large number of files though.
Thanks for the conversion to CBZ script. I was batch-extracting my .CBR files, zipping them, then changing the extension to .cbz but the script is obviously much faster for large collections.
PrinceMorganti said:
Has anyone experiamented with pdfs > 50mb? I am mostly worried about RPG pdfs... hoping to not have to lug a ton of books to the gaming table...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Stock reader works great for RPG book PDFs. I've used files with sizes ranging from 1-2MB to upwards of 75MB (I've got all of DnD 3rd,3.5, and 4th ed and quite a bit of 2nd scanned and OCRed), and only very rarely notice lag, even when reading off of SD. Only real downside is the PDF cover problem that has existed since the NC. For me, it was enough of an annoyance that I started using Mantano Reader (the paid version) on my rooted NT until such time that it ever gets fixed, since it allows browsing by cover thumbnail.
PrinceMorganti said:
Has anyone experiamented with pdfs > 50mb? I am mostly worried about RPG pdfs... hoping to not have to lug a ton of books to the gaming table...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've loaded a few 60MB+ pdf files that I use for work. Paging through them is reasonably fast. The stock viewer has really clumsy navigation and bookmark controls though.
I'd rather use QuickPDF, but it has an issue where all the options are trapped under the status bar
zaptoons said:
I've loaded a few 60MB+ pdf files that I use for work. Paging through them is reasonably fast. The stock viewer has really clumsy navigation and bookmark controls though.
I'd rather use QuickPDF, but it has an issue where all the options are trapped under the status bar
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I was reading on another post where someone turned off the status bar, accidently at first, but then liked it better that way.
Here it is:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=19761265&highlight=status#post19761265
Nook native reader chokes on some PDFs
I got my NT to be a universal ebook reader. It works great for that with Calibre.
The native PDF reader is good for selecting text passages, but it will choke and hang on certain PDF's that don't appear to handle text flow correctly. I get a PDF subscription to Monitoring Times, and I've run into that problem. The reader will hang, and then suddenly present you with two sentences of selected text smushedtogetherwithoutspaceslikethis.
The NT comes with QuickOffice Lite and you can read PDF's with it. I decided to buy the Pro version--I needed to be able to edit Word/Excel docs, and the PDF reader on QO Pro is quite a bit smoother. It's worth $7 bucks (and I can't stand Angry Birds anyway...)
I haven't yet found an upper limit for PDF size--a lot of files I have are scanned computer manuals from bitsavers.org, but I regularly read PDF's of 50-60 megs or more on the device.
Otherwise, it's a great first tablet. I had whole folders of PDF's, .mobi, Plucker, .doc and plain text files that just went right in, at least after I used Calibre to convert them.
HMG10 said:
I was reading on another post where someone turned off the status bar, accidently at first, but then liked it better that way.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Haha, yeah that was me. Unfortunately, this was specific only to GoLauncher. No way to turn it off in QuickPDF.
Fortunately, it doesn't matter; I got rid of the paid QuickOffice entirely. (I got it free from Amazon. I'm glad I didn't pay for it, because it sucked on the NT)
I've since found (thanks to someone here) that I prefer Mantano Reader Free. It's available straight from the market.
It has an awesome interface, it's own bookshelf, it generates/shows PDF covers, and it's blazing fast. It seems tablet aware; it only shows the status bar when you tap the bottom of the screen, and it's own menu is high enough not to get stuck behind it. I highly recommend it.
dmoisan said:
I got my NT to be a universal ebook reader. It works great for that with Calibre.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
2nd this. Calibre is amazing. I use the 'Fetch News' feature to gather content from various sources, and it creates a perfectly formatted mini-magazine out of them. I was surprised when I attached my NT; Calibre recognized it as a Nook Tablet, and automatically copied my news 'digests' to My Files.
reverenddak said:
So I've been having a blast obsessing over my NT. I find that I actually like the stock Home for reading & browsing books, pdfs & comic book archives. These are some quick observations:
Sideloading via USB to My Files... will use the "reserved for B&N" space.
Any compatible formats will show up in the Library, Home Screen & the Daily Shelf if they're side loaded via USB. But if they're transferred over a network, using ES File Explorer, they won't. You can still find them through search, or browsing through "my stuff" in Library. I'm wondering if there is a way to "refresh" the Library, so they know they're there, as is done when transferred via USB.
PDFs: Covers don't appear. Titles & Author will be displayed if the info is available. I used PDF-Xchange Viewer to edit Title & Author in unlocked PDFs. Cover art does NOT display, which doesn't make sense because they work with CBZ.
CBZs: Comic Book Archives that are ZIP work really well. I used a batch script that I found here: http://www.advogato.org/person/AlanHorkan/diary.html?start=363 to convert all CBRs to CBZs. It's way quicker than manually converting. The first page will show up as cover art, which is really cool.
epub: Some, obviously, are better produced than others. If there is cover art, it'll show up. If not Title & Author will be displayed over the generic icon if it's available. I was able to edit (add) that information in FBreader (a super simple windows epub reader.) I wish there was just as simple way to add cover art.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
How did you get the items you sideloaded into the reserved space via USB?
When I copy files from my computer to "/media/my files/Books" they go into the 1gig space.
Are you sure they are in the 12gig reserved space? In which directory do you see them with root explorer?
I have the same experience.
I did not root my NT coz I am scared (noob here), so I am just sideloading.
Most of the ebooks I downloaded actually go to my library which means it uses the 11 or 12gb that BN reserved for "their" content.
I am not sure if this go to all other files but all the things I downloaded from the browser go to the MyFiles (Downloads) folder of the library, be it ebooks or apps. I haven't tried to download anything from the browser other than ebooks and apps at the moment.
I am using an mp3 download app from the market and the mp3s I downloaded from the app goes to the sd card...
You will load into My Files/Books. If it's on the main storage, this folder is in that 1G area. If you have a SD card, then it's on the SD card. SD card shows on your desktop as another drive.
Possible PDF Cover solution?
PDFs: Covers don't appear.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been annoyed by this issue for a few months now, I think I might have made a little headway though.
I made a post on the nookdevelopers.zendest.com, where one user recommended dropping a PDF into an ePub since it's basically a Zip file. It took me awhile to learn the ePub format since it's a little more involved than just zipping the cover/pdf together.
My final product was a PDF w/ a cover, which showed up nicely on the Nook Tablet "Desktop"!! However now when I open the PDF (well, it's like an PDF/ePub hybrid now), it renders horribly, the page turns are slow, and if I navigate to any page past 80 or so it crashes. This blows my mind because the naked PDF works just fine in the reader app.
Here is a link the now unresponsive Zendesk post: Can't link yet
Here is the ePub/PDF & Cover I created: Can't link yet
Here is a link to the raw PDF: Can't link yet
(Until I can link, head over to the zendesk and search for 'pdf in epub with nook tablet', there are 2 different threads, the newest one has links to the PDF and ePub wrapped PDF I created)
I'm hoping this is a clue that will tip someone off to breaking this problem wide open.
Once the kinks are worked out, I can throw together an app to auto-wrap PDF's into ePubs. A complete bandaid to the problem, but since the Nook developers are asleep at the wheel, it's at least something.
I still have my wi-fi off and probably will until after holidays when I can concentrate on how to either block or root my NT. That said I am wondering about public library books and update 1.41. If someone does get stuck with that and/or are one of the ones that buy a new NT and it is already installed am I correct this is going to stop the use of public library ebooks or will they still work off our microSD card?
I have one under the tree and want to know that also. What about other sources of books. My Simple Touch can get those. Can we put e-books on the sd card from our computer and will the updated nook tablet read the PDFs?
It will read pdfs, however, it sucks. It does not do text reflow or work well with images. Ive converted a couple of pdfs to ebooks using calibre, and the experience improved, but it wasnt like reading a normal ebook. Frankly, i think the best device to view pdfs is an ipad. Btw i also have an asus transformer and im not impressed by its pdf capabilities either. Just my $0.02
** just got the adobe pdf reader update with text reflow. Works well on just text, but the pdf im viewing ( a byte of python) has a grey color behind the code that doesn tdisplay right with text reflow selected. Its either above or below the actual text. (***massive pet peeve)
mtemal said:
It will read pdfs, however, it sucks. It does not do text reflow or work well with images. Ive converted a couple of pdfs to ebooks using calibre, and the experience improved, but it wasnt like reading a normal ebook. Frankly, i think the best device to view pdfs is an ipad. Btw i also have an asus transformer and im not impressed by its pdf capabilities either. Just my $0.02
** just got the adobe pdf reader update with text reflow. Works well on just text, but the pdf im viewing ( a byte of python) has a grey color behind the code that doesn tdisplay right with text reflow selected. Its either above or below the actual text. (***massive pet peeve)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
A devices ability to do anything with any file type is based on the app you are using, not the device itself (unless speaking from a form-factor POV). You should have noted that you are talking about the stock PDF reader on the NT, and try not to mis-inform people. I have a Transformer as well, with EZ PDF Reader on it, and it's great.
miniblue: Side-load EZ PDF Reader from the market. Best PDF app I've ever seen for Android.
I used multiple pdf apps and none of them worked right for ME.
Adobe
Quick office
Documents to go pdf to go
Aldiko
Reader
I would continue to list them but i just got the ota update pushed to my device. So sorry if you felt that i was spreading FUD.
-cheers
The questions still remains does an NT updated to 1.41 work with public library ebooks?
bluespire said:
miniblue: Side-load EZ PDF Reader from the market. Best PDF app I've ever seen for Android.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Unless you end up with 1.41, then you cant side load.
But back to the topic, i don't think it would effect library use, or that would be cutting their own throat as that would effect a large number of customers.
Mine is on 1.41 and i may try our local library next week just to see. I am able to still load free format PDF and ePub files that are on my SD card. Thankfully i installed ezPDF before the update.
Nurb432 said:
Unless you end up with 1.41, then you cant side load.
But back to the topic, i don't think it would effect library use, or that would be cutting their own throat as that would effect a large number of customers.
Mine is on 1.41 and i may try our local library next week just to see. I am able to still load free format PDF and ePub files that are on my SD card. Thankfully i installed ezPDF before the update.
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Please let me know you you make out with this if you do try it. Hubby bought me this for more than just the ability to read library books but still that is important to me. Thank you for your input.
I opened up GetJar and stumbled upon Smart Office Plus which is currently being distributed there for free. I noticed that it renders PDFs pretty well, so I tried throwing at it the files that nearly every PDF reader grinds to a halt on... large entire transit system PDF maps. I am duly impressed - when I zoom or pan around, the map renders in 1-2 seconds and never crashes. I cannot say the same of any of the following other readers I've tried - Adobe Reader (although it used to be far worse), Aldiko, ezPDF Reader, QuickOffice, Good Reader, PDF Viewer, and many others.
So if you still don't have an ideal large-PDF viewer on your NC, try this one out
Thank you very much! You're a life saver!
Also free: Asphalt 6 hd, Wifi explorer pro, Babel Rising
Have you tried Mantano? It works really well on large pdfs...but what is your definition of large? Mantano has no problem opening up magazines of 100mb or more in size.
zires said:
Have you tried Mantano? It works really well on large pdfs...but what is your definition of large? Mantano has no problem opening up magazines of 100mb or more in size.
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When I say "large" I mean one large page, which is the case with many transit maps. It seems that most PDF viewers are okay with large multi-page files such as magazines, but not with large single pages, even if the file is not that large (2-3 MB). I have not tested this with Mantano.
Try the TTC (Toronto) PDF system map for example.
http://www.ttc.ca/images/fixedImages/TTCRideGuide.pdf
If I open it in Adobe Reader and try to zoom up close, it gets all blocky and takes a good 30+ seconds to load clearly. In ezPDF it produces a similar result. This had been one of my Android pet peeves for over two years (and iOS too has trouble with it) seeing as I'm a transit geek
That is a monster pdf file.
On a side note, why not just use an app like Transit Now Toronto so you won't have to use that huge file?
sjmoreno said:
That is a monster pdf file.
On a side note, why not just use an app like Transit Now Toronto so you won't have to use that huge file?
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It's nice to have apps like that but they are not a replacement for a complete transit map. If I'd like to see where the routes go and what are the routes in an area, what I need is to see the system map.
And in general, not every transit agency has that information bundled into an app. I also like to be able to look at city bike maps when I'm traveling with my bike in another city, and the official PDF maps have far better information than Google's bike map.
Just playing around with Smart Office, the one caveat I've found is it sometimes refuses to open protected files (although I do have a program to crack them).
Adobe Reader is not as bad as it used to be - I can open Vancouver's Translink system map in there with reasonable speed, but it still chokes on TTC's.
Ultimately, yes these are "monster" PDF files, but if you were to load them on a single-core 800 MHz PC with limited RAM, they'd still load in time and not crash the whole system, and they wouldn't have a severely limited zoom capacity. It's just badly written software that prevents these files from being accessible.
An even more monstrous test case: Vancouver regional cycling map.
http://www.translink.ca/~/media/doc...maps/translink regional cycling map west.ashx
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I know this is frowned apon at XDA but can someone PM me or post the apk. I tryed getting it from GetJar and it doesn't work... It loads but then doesn't respond to touch.
I just got smart office plus and when I tried to view a 20 meg, 338 page book I got a memory full errror and some pictures didn't load or were strangely formatted with black block backgrounds. If I view this same pdf with adobe it correctly displays everything, but it takes a while to bring the blurry/text images to sharp.
I looked though the help file but it doesn't seem to have a trouble shooting section. Is there some setting that would help fix the memory problem?
No idea. For files with a lot of pages, Aldiko might be a good choice.
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Hello everyone. I am new to the forum. I tried posting this under the Asus transformer section, but due to me having less that enough posts it said I must post in general.
So I tried looking on the forum for exactly what I wanted and could not find it. I want an app that will let me edit any office or PDF file and let me to do it with a stylus writing freehand. I don't want to merely edit and just write in text, or highlight I want to be able to use my stylus and actually circle a word in power point, or be able to write notes freehand with the stylus on the side of the PPT. I do notice that Adobe let's me kind of do it with it's reader, but it just feels really laggy for me. If there is an APP available for me to try I don't mind if I even have to purchase it due to it being used for school.
Please give me your input! and thank you for letting me be apart of your community!
Polaris Office which is included free with your Transformer Prime let's you create and edit Word, Excel and Power Point files. I don't know about scribble-annotating them since I don't believe that the Microsoft Office Suite knows how to display that kind of notation. Also for any meaningful editing you will need the onscreen keyboard or keyboard dock.
As for editing PDF files, I don't know of any apps off the top of my head that will do what you ask. You might try searching the Play Store.
almightywhacko said:
Polaris Office which is included free with your Transformer Prime let's you create and edit Word, Excel and Power Point files. I don't know about scribble-annotating them since I don't believe that the Microsoft Office Suite knows how to display that kind of notation. Also for any meaningful editing you will need the onscreen keyboard or keyboard dock.
As for editing PDF files, I don't know of any apps off the top of my head that will do what you ask. You might try searching the Play Store.
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Yeah I tried Polaris office...and I really want to do free hand scribble editing. PDF editing I am actually ok with Adobe as it lets me do what I want, but I really need something else for my office programs, because I am going to use this for school in lecture. I do have the keyboard as well, but I want to be as light as possible with just the tablet and stylus in hand.
I use ezPDF Reader Pro for PDF annotations for notes from my professors at school. I think it was $2.99 in the play store. It works great.
I havent found a good office app. Polaris Office, though it came on the prime free, is buggy and is limited on formatting. It works great for basic docs. You can only save in .doc format and docs i have created sometimes look way different when opened on a computer. But it does work.
I am still looking for the best app for an Office suite on android. Although SoftMaker Office mobile is coming along great. It is in beta still.
Find it at the following:
www.softmaker.net/down/TestMaker.apk for word
www.softmaker.net/down/PlanMaker.apk for excel
www.softmaker.net/down/Presentations.apk for powerpoint
Have you tried using the dedicated writing programs for use with the stylus already (just to see if you can even tolerate writing with the Prime)? Even with the apps to improve the TFP's response to stylus input they're still not something that's even remotely efficient to take notes with. If you just want to draw arrows or circle things or make quick (but relatively large) drawings, it's okay.
I generally annotated my pdfs using Repligo reader. I could do light annotations with the stylus and enter comments in stickies. You could easily convert powerpoints into pdfs and comment on them that way.
As far as I know there isn't any Office app that supports inking yet, which isn't that odd since most suites can't even do basic tasks like display charts properly in Excel and Powerpoint.
IMHO, Android is still pretty abysmal when it comes to doing this sort of thing.
The official adobe reader app lets you scribble annotate straight out of the box. I use it regularly
Office Pro 6
I don't know if it will solve your issues, but Office Pro 6 is on sale at the Amazon App store for $.99. It's normally $15.
http://www.amazon.com/Mobile-Systems-Inc-OfficeSuite-Professional/dp/B0051UP5NQ/ref=mas_6pack_productivity_Suite_link?pf_rd_m=ATVPDKIKX0DER&pf_rd_s=center-5&pf_rd_r=054VF38RVZ32RE41XXGQ&pf_rd_t=101&pf_rd_p=1371696742&pf_rd_i=2350149011
I think it's better than Polaris, especially on spreadsheets.
BTW first off let me thank all of you for your responses! I did know about adobe having its native edit and I had stated above I was fine with that . Although on the other hand, the power point is the BIGGEST one I have an issue with. Although punitenshu I like your idea the most which is just to convert it over to PDF...I just didn't want to do that every time I received a new lecture.....Thank you everyone you have been such a big help!
Repligo Reader hands down. If you really fussy about accuracy, use it in conjunction with touchscreen tuner.