Freda Ebook Reader for Windows and Android

[Jim Chapman]

The Freda ebook reader has now been ported to Windows Phone 7. As and when you acquire a Windows Phone, you can download the program free of charge from the Windows Marketplace.

Details here, and a video demo of the program here.

Please post any questions to this thread, or email me at jim@turnipsoft.co.uk.

Thanks,

Jim

[Jim Chapman]

Freda is now available for Windows 10 (as a Store / Universal Windows Platform app) and for Android, on Google Play. Please see the end of this thread for the latest news on Freda features and development.

[Marseille]

The HTC 7 Pro is a pretty slick looking piece of hardware. Are you eying it?

I'm looking forward to washing my hands of MS's mobile division, but I'm still interested in how it fares while I wait for HTC to move that premo hardware to their android division.

[milka]

G'day Jim!

I had a quick chance to play with Freda for WP7 on my gf's LG Optimus 7 and was incredibly impressed!

I've been reading ebooks (primarily lits and pdfs) on Windows Mobile devices for the last 9 years, and I'm thrilled to see the power and control going forward with the Freda & calibre solution for WP7. Solid ebook reading is my primary requirement for any mobile platform, and you've made that possible on WP7.

Well done! Looking forward to seeing updates as they become available!

Cheers,
milka

[sennywolf]

Hi There,

first of all, great work you have done there with Freda. Really appreciate your effort.

I am using the new HD7 with WP7. I followed your steps to connecting and the server is set up. however, when i go to the calibre page on my phone, it starts downloading and suddenly stops and says can't download.

I can't access my own books that way. Any way to get round that?

[sennywolf]

just sent a log file to you.

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by sennywolf

just sent a log file to you.

I'll respond to the email.

To other folks who are maybe reading this: the first step is to work through the instructions in the 'how to' at http://www.turnipsoft.co.uk/freda/calibre-how-to.htm .

Then if that isn't producing any useful result, the most useful things to email me are:
1) Freda's log file (by pressing the 'support email') button on the app.
2) The OPDS catalog content that isn't working (from the web browser session in step 8 of the how-to, do 'View Page Source', save that content somewhere, and email it to me).

Email is jim@turnipsoft.co.uk

Cheers,

Jim

[emilHD7]

hey this is a great app. I used to use Stanza on my iphone and I am happy to see similar app on WP7. thanks a lot. 2 simple question.
- when i load a book using calibre, there is percentage sign telling me 20% or kind of.. does it mean download percentage? because books seems there.
- how do I scroll to page I want or is there chapter overview ?
thanks

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by emilHD7

- when i load a book using calibre, there is percentage sign telling me 20% or kind of.. does it mean download percentage? because books seems there.

that's telling you a (very rough) estimate of how much of the book you have read. But I agree it's misleading. I will remove it in the next release.

Originally Posted by emilHD7

- how do I scroll to page I want or is there chapter overview ?
thanks

To bring up the control/navigation screen, you need to long-tap (tap-and-hold) in the central area of the page, while on the book reader screen. Tap the screen on the list of section numbers towards the lower right, to move to another section of the book. Or if the book is an EPUB file with a table of contents, you can find that by (from the control/navigation screen) swiping left, to move to the 'contents' tab.
Check out the manual at http://www.turnipsoft.co.uk/freda for more details (and screenshots).
Moving to a specified page number is not available in the current release. The next release (within a week, I hope) will implement this as an enhancement in the 'section number' control.

Jim

[swr2408018]

I just got my Windows 7 phone, and it's great to have a way to download all my epub content for reading; thank you very much indeed!

I do seem to have a lot of trouble with the app crashing when trying to change settings (but once I've got them where I like them, that's a low-frequency operation!) If I send a logfile the next time that happens, will that be helpful?

Steve

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by swr2408018

I just got my Windows 7 phone, and it's great to have a way to download all my epub content for reading; thank you very much indeed!

I do seem to have a lot of trouble with the app crashing when trying to change settings (but once I've got them where I like them, that's a low-frequency operation!) If I send a logfile the next time that happens, will that be helpful?

Steve

Hi Steve,

The next version of Freda (which should appear on Marketplace in the next few days) should fix various stability issues (and also adds ways to get books onto your phone from DropBox and websites generally). Hopefully that will work better for you. But please do feel free to send me the logfile as and when you have any problems.

Thanks,

Jim

[swr2408018]

My HD7 has enough space for dozens if not hundreds of books; 20 seems like an oddly low limit.

Thanks!

Steve

[Jim Chapman]

Originally Posted by swr2408018

My HD7 has enough space for dozens if not hundreds of books; 20 seems like an oddly low limit.

Thanks!

Steve

Unless your phone is very full, it probably has room for thousands of books (book files are only 1MB or so). The 20 limit is because the 'bookshelf' display on the program will start to perform badly if you put much more than 20 items in it.

In principle I could add 'library management' functions (similar to what the WinMo 6 version of Freda has), and a 'book import/synch' process to let people load hundreds/thousands of books onto the phone. But I'm not sure how much demand there really is for this. The Windows Phone 7 design philosophy says that you 'ought to' keep your content on the cloud, not locally, and Freda supports that by integrating with DropBox, OPDS catalogs (including Calibre) and a website-interface. That might be sufficient for most users; I'm waiting to see how many people find they actually need to keep their whole library on the phone.

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim

[swr2408018]

The UI design issue makes sense. I keep a hundred or so books on my Sony reader, and their navigation system starts getting clumsy to use around there. "Collections" help, but it can still take several taps to get to the book I want.

WP7 tries to address that problem for music and video. While WP7 is pushing for cloud solutions, at the same time Microsoft's own Zune software interface that synchs music and videos when attached to a PC doesn't impose any limits, and the WP7 media player app has a metadata-driven navigation system that supports a relatively large library.

Put me down as a vote for more than 20, and thanks again for making Freda!

Steve

[swr2408018]

I don't have a dropbox option in chooser. (I do have a dropbox account that other apps on my phone can access, however.) Is there a setting to enable it?

Thanks! Steve