Calibre for iPadOS?

[favero_]

Hey everyone!

I'm a long time user of Calibre, and the app is awesome! Calibre 4 was a nice surprise for me this year.

I've recently purchased an iPad and have been using it a lot for laptop based tasks, although to access calibre and transfer things to my kindle or kobo, I still have to use my PC.

That made me wonder: since ipad OS made its debut this year, and it aims at being an hybrid between a desktop and a mobile solution, would it be possible/interesting to have Calibre for iPadOS?

Or maybe reframing in a better way: what would be necessary for Calibre to be developed for iPadOS?

Am I the only one with his demand?

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

As far as I know ipados is just a rebranding of ios with slightly different chrome. It's no more capable of running desktop applications than iOS is. Your best bet for accessing calibre on ipads is via the calibre content server, which off late is more or less a fully fledged interface to calibre.

[favero_]

It is just slightly different, but the tendency is to differ more and more from iOS. But I guess also the point is the hardware in it (now even stronger than the MacBook air) and external memory support, it is equally capable to attend the need of calibre (I guess)

I know I can use calibre content server, but that's only on my home wifi, right? Or even if in another wifi, I can't use it offline.

But when traveling, I'd like to take my iPad and use it to download and manage my ebooks, or convert an epub in mobi...

Thanks for the support!

[kovidgoyal]

Yes you can use it offline, once you opena book to read it gets stored ina cache and you can continue reading it.

[Sirtel]

My solution to the tablet problem was to get the Microsoft Surface, which runs full Windows 10 and you can install any desktop program on it. It's possible to do everything in Calibre on my Surface, even without the keyboard attached, just using the pen.

The ability to install and use Calibre was the main reason I bought the Surface instead of an iPad or an Android tablet.

[kovidgoyal]

Originally Posted by favero_

It is just slightly different, but the tendency is to differ more and more from iOS. But I guess also the point is the hardware in it (now even stronger than the MacBook air) and external memory support, it is equally capable to attend the need of calibre (I guess)

the hardware was never the problem, the operating system was and still is

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by favero_

It is just slightly different, but the tendency is to differ more and more from iOS. But I guess also the point is the hardware in it (now even stronger than the MacBook air) and external memory support, it is equally capable to attend the need of calibre (I guess)

iPadOS still doesn't allow low level access to external storage afaik.

Calibre already runs on the ARM-based Raspberry Pi and at the time of initial release, then current Apple chipsets were already faster than what the RasPi had. As Kovid mentioned, it's the software and not the hardware that's the issue.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

My solution to the tablet problem was to get the Microsoft Surface, which runs full Windows 10 and you can install any desktop program on it. It's possible to do everything in Calibre on my Surface, even without the keyboard attached, just using the pen.

The ability to install and use Calibre was the main reason I bought the Surface instead of an iPad or an Android tablet.

I have a Surface Pro 2 that I have Calibre on and it runs very well.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by favero_

It is just slightly different, but the tendency is to differ more and more from iOS. But I guess also the point is the hardware in it (now even stronger than the MacBook air) and external memory support, it is equally capable to attend the need of calibre (I guess)

I know I can use calibre content server, but that's only on my home wifi, right? Or even if in another wifi, I can't use it offline.

But when traveling, I'd like to take my iPad and use it to download and manage my ebooks, or convert an epub in mobi...

Thanks for the support!

Apple could easily make a tablet that runs OS X. But they won't so you end up with a tablet that runs iOS with Apple claiming with an iPad you don't need a laptop or desktop. That's incorrect. There's so much I cannot do with an iPad.