So Marvin’s Gone!

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But the thing is, it's finding an app that I like well enough. I know the cost is not that much. But I don't like throwing away money on buying an app I may not like. So I like to be as sure as I can.

OK, but you've been singing high praise of MapleRead, recommending it left & right. If it brought you to this degree of enthusiasm, I think its developer deserves to get your purchase, as a small thank-you and a piece of encouragement to continue developing the app, whether you intend to use it full-time or not. Again, if its price was high, that would be different, but what is it? Five bucks? It's really more in the nature of a tip, rather than a "purchase price".

I bought all available MapleRead versions years ago, knowing full well I would not be using it as my main e-reader app. After getting locked in iOS via Marvin, and locked in Android via Moon+ Reader, I know I will not "make that mistake again" – I mean, using a single-platform app as my main e-reader. It just has to be a cross-platform app the next time around, and so, my hopes are currently pinned on BookFusion. Despite all that, I bought all available MapleRead licences, to show appreciation to the developer. Who knows – maybe if enough people do that, he will also start developing MapleRead for Android and for the web?

[arpeggioaccele]

I keep reading on iBooks because I'm used to the aesthetics... but then they changed how it looks in the last major ios update!

The choice for me is obvious, leave Apple and not pay for an app since my first choice is gone sadly. (or just continue to use iBooks because I'm lazy.)

I really need to switch to a ereader or android, it would be nice to be able to sort books and sync using calibre instead of itunes lol.

But I still have the urge to learn swift and make the perfect epub reader that works on macos too... I really shouldn't try since there's no sideloading on ios, thanks Apple.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Faterson

OK, but you've been singing high praise of MapleRead, recommending it left & right. If it brought you to this degree of enthusiasm, I think its developer deserves to get your purchase, as a small thank-you and a piece of encouragement to continue developing the app, whether you intend to use it full-time or not. Again, if its price was high, that would be different, but what is it? Five bucks? It's really more in the nature of a tip, rather than a "purchase price".

I bought all available MapleRead versions years ago, knowing full well I would not be using it as my main e-reader app. After getting locked in iOS via Marvin, and locked in Android via Moon+ Reader, I know I will not "make that mistake again" – I mean, using a single-platform app as my main e-reader. It just has to be a cross-platform app the next time around, and so, my hopes are currently pinned on BookFusion. Despite all that, I bought all available MapleRead licences, to show appreciation to the developer. Who knows – maybe if enough people do that, he will also start developing MapleRead for Android and for the web?

You solution really is to dump either Android or iOS and just use one OS or the other.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by arpeggioaccele

I keep reading on iBooks because I'm used to the aesthetics... but then they changed how it looks in the last major ios update!

The choice for me is obvious, leave Apple and not pay for an app since my first choice is gone sadly. (or just continue to use iBooks because I'm lazy.)

I really need to switch to a ereader or android, it would be nice to be able to sort books and sync using calibre instead of itunes lol.

But I still have the urge to learn swift and make the perfect epub reader that works on macos too... I really shouldn't try since there's no sideloading on ios, thanks Apple.

Android is not all that wonderful. Most reading apps are very poor. They ignore most of the CSS. Moon+, FBReader, etc are all garbage.

If you do switch to Android, one app I can recommend is KOReader.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by arpeggioaccele

The choice for me is obvious, leave Apple

That would definitely be a wiser choice than vice versa (leaving Android in favor of iOS).

But you can do as I did: ditch the iPhone mainly because of how bad and limiting iOS as an operating system is (but also, that gigantic iPhone notch/cutout is ugly as ****), and just continue using the iPads which, hardware-wise, are truly better than any Android tablet I've ever owned (and that could be close to 20).

Originally Posted by arpeggioaccele

I really need to switch to a ereader or android

It's not OR. You can switch to an e-ink reader AND Android at the same time. As I reported in this thread (I think) and elsewhere, the Onyx Boox line-up of e-ink readers is fully comparable, in terms of quality, to Apple's iPads or to Samsung tablets. All sizes of Onyx Boox e-ink tablets are available: from 6 inches through 7 and 8 and 10 inches all the way up to 13 inches. You also have color Onyx Boox e-ink readers at affordable prices (10-inch or 7-inch to start with). I own a 6-inch and a 10-inch black-and-white Onyx e-ink reader, and they're great. They run standard Android and Google Play Store, so you can install all Android apps on them – including such superb e-reader apps as Moon+ Reader Pro, BookFusion and, yes, as Jon recommended, KOReader.

Originally Posted by arpeggioaccele

But I still have the urge to learn swift and make the perfect epub reader

There are many people with dreams like that, but look what happened to Kris and Marvin eventually. This stuff will devour you.

By the way, don't you guys find it curious that all the finest e-reader apps come from developers located on islands? I mean, Kris (Marvin) is in Malta, skillachie (BookFusion) is in Jamaica, the gentleman developing Moon+ Reader is from Taiwan, and KOReader is Korean, needless to say. The proximity to water/the ocean must be miraculously beneficial to software developers, it would appear; I mean, the entire Silicon Valley as well...

Originally Posted by arpeggioaccele

I really shouldn't try since there's no sideloading on ios, thanks Apple.

Exactly. Apple and iOS are a hopeless case – one of imprisonment, and from the point of view of Apple fanboys, "Stockholm syndrome".

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You solution really is to dump either Android or iOS and just use one OS or the other.

Not really. As explained above, hardware-wise, the iPads are the best tablets, and I'm not giving them up. Also, quite a few cross-platforms are better on iOS than on Android (which has nothing to do with Apple, of course). You can keep the iPhone, though (I wouldn't want one for free, because I prefer to use a single phone, as opposed to my 10+ tablets, and I'm not giving up my Samsung Note for anything other than a follow-up model).

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Android is not all that wonderful.

It is. It gives you freedom to do whatever you want with your device. (As someone born in a formerly Communist country I perhaps appreciate freedom and despise all attempts to needlessly restrict people more than you do.)

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Most reading apps are very poor.

Just like on the iPad and iPhone.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Moon+, FBReader, etc are all garbage.

There's no "etc." about it. Moon+ Reader is a great e-reader, the finest on Android, hands down. (Still, I would only rate it 3 ½ or 4 stars out of 5, because no 5-star e-reader app currently exists on this planet, on any platform. That's the overall sad state of things.)

Originally Posted by JSWolf

They ignore most of the CSS.

As do 99% of readers, except for Jon on MobileRead forums, who keeps harping about it for decades.

I love CSS – on the webpages I create and manage.

But I don't give a damn about the publisher's CSS in the e-books I read.

On the contrary: I define a superb e-reader app as one that allows us to override the publisher's CSS completely, and allows us to easily customize as to exactly how we can override it.

That is the no. 1 reason why Marvin and Moon+ Reader Pro are such wonderful e-reader apps: they allow us to throw the publisher's CSS to the trashcan easily with a single tap of a button.

In the world of e-books, every reader is his or her own typographer, so respecting the publisher's CSS is unimportant and marginal.

(Yes, by all means, include such a setting, "display publisher settings", too, for folks like Jon who care about such stuff, but most people don't care, and I'm with them on this.)

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you do switch to Android, one app I can recommend is KOReader.

I agree, it's a great app. (Moon is even better in my experience, though.) The trouble with KOReader for me, however, is the same as with MapleRead – only in reverse: it doesn't cover all three mandatory platforms. Just like there is no MapleRead for Android and the web, there is no KOReader for iOS, so I must currently turn to BookFusion as my no. 1 hope for the future.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Faterson

By the way, don't you guys find it curious that all the finest e-reader apps come from developers located on islands? I mean, Kris (Marvin) is in Malta, skillachie (BookFusion) is in Jamaica, the gentleman developing Moon+ Reader is from Taiwan, and KOReader is Korean, needless to say. The proximity to water/the ocean must be miraculously beneficial to software developers, it would appear; I mean, the entire Silicon Valley as well...

If you expand your perspective further then EVERYONE lives on an island.
Australia is surrounded by water.
Africa is surrounded by water.
Eur-Asia is surrounded by water.
The Americas are surrounded by water… although some of it is frozen. You could even split them into North & South if you consider the Panama Canal as enough water…

We’re ALL islanders! Aloha!!

[Quoth]

Living on an biosphere spinning in the void.

[Sirtel]

The Milky Way is an island in the universe. (Is our universe an island in a multiverse? Hmm...)

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

We’re ALL islanders!

We ain't, because I would go broke if I wanted to go to the beach every day. If you're in Central Europe, you're as land-locked as can possibly be. Or ask someone from Nebraska. Is there a superb e-reader app from Nebraska? I don't think so.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Faterson

We ain't, because I would go broke if I wanted to go to the beach every day. If you're in Central Europe, you're as land-locked as can possibly be. Or ask someone from Nebraska. Is there a superb e-reader app from Nebraska? I don't think so.

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Ah, I found it. Honestly it wasn't the easiest (most intuitive) to find. Now that you pointed it out though I will be able to find it later. It may be that I'm used to referring to 'libraries' when referencing collections of books as that is what all the other software programs I've used over the previous 10+ years has called them...and even your webpage talks about the personal digital libraries one can access... so please excuse the confusion.

Got it. We don't get this feedback often but we can add a walk through or onboarding process that introduces readers to the features.

Originally Posted by Turtle91

That is a little confusing. Why would you support Calibre with a plugin, but not a standardized Open Publication Distribution System (OPDS) which Calibre uses to serve all the books an individual has in their library??

I long ago gave up plugging a wire into a computer to transfer my books. I needed to access my books from literally all over the world and Calibre's OPDS server provided that capability for me to download, upload, and edit my library from anywhere with an internet connection.

The reason is that it was easier to get started by creating a plugin which allows quick access to all platforms instead of writing native Swift, Android and Web code to support the OPDS protocol at the start.

So we created a plugin that integrates directly with Calibre.

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Perhaps I wasn't clear enough. I don't mind the ability to send a book to another app. As a matter of fact, that was the only way I could figure out how to open a couple of my books in Bookfusion. I used Marvin to download the books from my OPDS server, then I used Marvin to send the books to Bookfusion.

What I was concerned about was what Bookfusion's primary function was aimed at: a book management app, a book reading app, or an annotations syncing app. The description provided on the apple store gave me the impression that Bookfusion was trying to be a 'jack of all trades' rather than an awesome reading experience. Again, don't get me wrong, I'm not saying you can't have an awesome reading experience while doing all those other things. It's just much more difficult to do if your focus is spread...and that's the impression I got from your description. (notice the ?? at the end of the paragraph)

OK. We are focused on the reading experience but based on our feedback the reading experience spans the following areas:

- Bookshelf - Being able to easily organize your ebook collection and find the book you want to read

- Reader - Being able to seamless read the way you want your eBooks.

- Annotation & Highlights - Readers that read non-fiction eBooks require not just a great reading experience but also very powerful

We have been focused on the Bookshelf and the Reading experience while building out the other aspects of the platform. As you mentioned the surface area is large but as you can see it is being covered. We actively prioritize what readers say they need first.

Originally Posted by Turtle91

I gave the app a chance as far as I could without being able to upload a book. It's kinda hard to give it a chance when I can't see it do its job

Now that I was able to work out a way to get books uploaded I was able to take a look at it. In general it did a much better job than I've seen in other apps in following the publisher's CSS...although I did find some errors from both books. I'm happy to let you know about them offline...

Haha understood. We will create onboarding screens to help with that.
Oh really? Can you share the EPUB and the errors? We can have this resolved in the next release. DM or reply in our thread works.

Originally Posted by Turtle91

The Marvin forum is probably not the correct venue for that. You say Bookfusion 'respects publisher styles' which is all well and good. However, it would be nice to know what you are respecting and what you are not. I noticed that Bookfusion was NOT respecting some of the publisher's CSS and since I was the publisher I want to see the results of my hard labor - not have an app disregard it because it thinks it knows better!

Marvin had a compromise which allowed the user to select "Publisher's Layout" if the user wanted the app to respect ALL of the publisher's CSS. Kris and I discussed the issues involved with presenting the vast majority of crap-formatted epubs on the market in as good a light as possible while still honoring the publishers formatting artistry. That settings switch was the result.

The default we aim for is to use the publisher's layout and not disregard anything but then they get overridden when a reader toggles any of the settings. If possible could you share the EPUB and which styles we might have ignored?

Originally Posted by Turtle91

It also seems you already made up your mind about what I like and don't like But no, I haven't actually made up my mind. I have been a big fan of Marvin since it's inception because it is the best reading app out there. That does not mean I do not look at other options. When I find one that exceeds Marvin, or Marvin ceases to function on my devices (which hasn't happened yet), then I will, of course, switch to something else.

I totally get that you are continuing to build...and that is a BIG PLUS. I certainly don't expect a perfect app on the first iteration. But I also am not one to shy away from stating any deficiencies I see. OPDS support and honoring publisher artistic layout when the user desires it are two big issues.

Hopefully, you don't dismiss my criticism outright??

Oh ok. Thank you for replying. That is totally fine and I agree, I misinterpreted your response. The honoring publishers styles we can address immediately, we just need some examples of where we fall short with the sample EPUB. OPDS was on the backlog but deprioritized, I will post it to readers to vote with a few other features and then move it to a higher priority.

Thanks again for getting back and providing feedback. As mentioned the surface area that we are addressing is large but we are getting there.

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

BookFusion does indeed everything I need in an ereader app. And it is a very nice app. As a former programmer I understand the work it takes to keep up with something like this and the need to get paid for it, however, on a limited income I cannot subscribe to it. If it was a one-time purchase, I could budget it. Therefore I'll continue to use Marvin as long as I can.

This is totally understandable. We also provide a free option with all features unlocked with no sign up required for up to 10 eBooks. But the truth is if you only use iOS and do not require all the other features then Marvin will cover most of your use case. The reason Marvin and other apps got abandoned was that the developers had to focus on other projects that allowed them to pay their bills and live.


While we wish we could offer a single-time purchase instead of ongoing subscriptions, it just isn't feasible to sustaining the platform longterm.

We don't typically offer a lifetime premium membership for the following reasons:

• Infrastructure, storage, and other costs are due monthly
• Salaries to our hard working team are also due monthly
• Other recurring expenses

In summary, there are ongoing expenses that will always be due monthly or yearly. We want to build a sustainable company that does not depend on ads or selling users' data and will stand the test of time. As a result, we won't be able to provide lifetime plans. The truth is when most platforms offer a lifetime subscription the following is often done:

• The cost is really high to ensure that they will be sure to cover all expenses
• They provide you a lifetime plan but at 5X the current price. Most of the times they plan to sell the company or monetize their users in other ways past the period when lifetime users are no longer profitable

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Well, I subscribed to the lowest BookFusion tier to start with – $19 per year isn't really all that much. If skillachie keeps improving the app at the current rate, I'll be happy to subscribe to a higher tier in future, perhaps, if only to support the app's development.

(The other two tiers are $48 and $96 annually. The only real difference is storage space: 5 GB versus 20 GB versus 100 GB. I currently only use 317 MB out of the 5 GB.)

I sync my books via Dropbox, so don't really need storage space directly or even virtually within an e-reader app.

I only need to keep those books in sync that I currently read. I used to read 7 books simultaneously, but have now increased that to reading 32 books at the same time – in 21 different languages. Some are EPUBs, others (where no quality EPUB is available) only PDFs, and some (worst of all, I guess) are only available online, such as through the Internet Archive (archive.org) online lending library (those are typically scanned books).

So, as can be seen, even BookFusion can't be a "one-stop solution" for me – unless, skillachie, you also incorporate a browser window within BookFusion!

The important thing for me is that, once I run out of storage space in BookFusion, there should be an option to export my annotations reliably. And I think we've been working on that with skillachie in the MobileRead threads dedicated to BookFusion: here and here and here. That is where Dion's and everyone else's feedback to BookFusion would no doubt be highly welcome, so that we're not hopelessly off-topic here in the Marvin section.

(I apologize to skillachie I haven't had time, since last summer, to look at the BookFusion threads, but will do so as soon as time permits.)

Thanks for the support and the detailed feedback. No problem.

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Can Bookfusion allow custom fonts?

The biggest problem (IMHO) is that it's a subscription model. Not everyone can afford such an expensive subscription. A one-time price would do much better. In there days of increased cost of living, a subscription to read ePub is a really bad idea.

Yes, we do allow custom fonts

Custom fonts have been supported in our IOS app a long time ago - A post https://www.reddit.com/r/BookFusion/...graph_spacing/ .

[skillachie]

Originally Posted by Wiggo

Look at the bookfusion toolbar - another reason to uninstall it immediately.

No search - web search - translate - share - lookup

Edit: This may sound harder than it should, but even MapleRead is better than BookFusion in terms of reading functions and I struggle often with MapleRead and custom fonts.

If they would only get closer to Marvin, I would happily pay for subscription

We have search and lookup. Thanks for the feedback though, we will look at exposing these other options to the custom text selection bar.