Marvin 3.0

[kguil]

Hello everyone.

First of all, I’d like to apologise for being incommunicado for so long - I’ve been dealing with some personal issues and working on Marvin 3.0 for the past year. Nonetheless, I’ve followed most feature requests and suggestions here on MR, GitHub, and Marvin’s social media channels. Most of M3 is based on that feedback.

The beta version of Marvin 3.0 has been approved by Apple so, depending on how good of a job I did, things should be close.

If anyone is interested in beta testing Marvin, you are welcome to sign up here: http://blog.appstafarian.com/post/144557489963/

I have limited beta slots available, and will be giving preference to MobileRead readers who stuck with Marvin for so long.

[mariosipad]

Great to read about the upcoming version 3 of Marvin, my favorite ebook reader on my iPad.

Very interested in the new features for the iPad pro (12").

[kguil]

Thank you!

[eschwartz]

@kguil,

I believe one of the biggest issues bothering Marvin users, at least here on MobileRead, is the incompatibility with the calibre plugins which Apple caused in iOS 8.3 (IIRC).
As far as I know, the only current way to use the plugins is on a jailbroken iDevice, using the Cydia hack "House Arrest Fix".

Do you have any idea/plans to recreate a communications channel between Marvin and the calibre plugins? I am sure many of your users would be thrilled -- I was under the impression that one of the biggest draws of Marvin used to be the unparalleled level of interoperability with calibre, and it would be a shame to let Apple break that without at least trying to fix it.

Maybe get in touch with @Philantrop (the current plugin maintainer) to discuss things?

[kguil]

Hello @eschwartz.

Yes, I am absolutely working on the new Marvin/calibre interface. So far, I have a quick-and-dirty prototype. The plan is this...

1) M3 is currently in beta (see link upstairs if you'd like to join) and will be initially released without the calibre interface.

2) When things settle down, hopefully in a few weeks, I'll polish my end of the interface, document the new procedure/protocol and publish it for anyone to pick it up and implement the plugin. I'm not competent to build the calibre plugin myself.

3) Assuming that someone does implement the plugin, it will happen. I've had a very high-level conversation with @Philantrop about this.

4) I found a way to make the whole iOS-side of the interface much more robust to policy changes from Apple. Hopefully the iOS 8.3 issue won't happen again.

[eschwartz]

I don't actually use Marvin, on account of I dislike Apple products. But I take an interest in what people are discussing on MobileRead, and I stick my nose in when I think I can be helpful.

So it is good to hear that the people who will benefit, have something to look forward to.

[MSWallack]

I'm very excited to read about both the new version of Marvin and the possibility of an updated Calibre plugin. I use Calibre extensively, but I probably won't sign up to beta test simply because I'm extremely busy with several other projects and I don't want to make a commitment to using and testing that I'm not positive I can deliver upon.

[kguil]

@MSWallack Thanks a lot. I'll keep you updated with progress about the plugin.

[Vega]

Kris,
I've been testing for the last 60 minutes, and I have to say: Holy hell.
This is one of the most comprehensive, well thought-out application I ever seen. It's not even fair to compair it to other reader apps, it's so much above the competition.

That said, I'll have a list of ideas and suggestions about layout, menu structure, etc.
One of the main one is that you should really have a basic/advanced toggle for settings, because while I'm having an hour long geekgasm here, you'll make an average user cry with this much choice.

As far as bugs go, i couldn't really find one so far, and I've been looking.

In the next few days I'll do some more serious serious testing, like importing large libraries, downloading a few thousand books at once, etc.

Great work!

[kguil]

@Vega Wow! Thanks a lot. I'm really happy you're liking it.

In my experience, there's limited scope building a version/mode with basic settings. I tried that with Gerty (a simplified Marvin) and it catch on as much as Marvin. I think that people looking for that experience are already served by other ebook readers.

Although M3 is much more customisable than M2 and has many more features, I've tried to keep those options out of the way but discoverable (M3 is more text than icon heavy). There are also extensive help screens where needed (e.g. settings pages, and in-book).

I'd love to get more of your feed back when you grill it some more.

[chilady1]

I am literally doing a HAPPY DANCE around this new version of Marvin and potentially the re-inststement of the plugin that makes Calibre and Marvin work. I have truly missed it and will be over the moon when both are out. Thanks kguil for all the hard work and I will be first in line for the new version. So excited about the new features - can't wait. ��

[Turtle91]

I am totally amazed at what I've seen so far - and I have only tested a couple of my older ePub 2 books. You really outdid yourself with M3!!

Now I need to test some of the ePub3 support and CBR/CBZ!

I really hope that M3 will be ported over to android devices. While I do get a small sense of superiority when I show those poor unfortunate folks what they are missing it would open Marvin up to a very large market...and we all know Marvin puts all those other reading apps to shame...

Keep up the great work!

[Kumabjorn]

I'm very new to iOS, but a long time Windows/Android user. My knowledge of the Apple world is thus severely limited, so please forgive some, probably tedious, questions.

1) Can Marvin read Sony's epub books? More specifically, Japanese books published in tategaki, i.e. vertical text moving from right to left?

I'm asking because though the Sony PRS series offer note taking, the Sony app on Android doesn't, and I have several books for a project that requires me to take notes on their content.

2) Does Marvin support multi-page copy?

This pretty much ties in with the problem above. I sometimes need to copy a chunk of text that may cover three pages, a tiny bit on the first, the whole second page and a tiny bit on the third. This becomes three operations in my other readers and since there are copy restrictions involved, will count as three pages copied rather than one piece of copy in relation to total text.

Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

1) Can Marvin read Sony's epub books? More specifically, Japanese books published in tategaki, i.e. vertical text moving from right to left?

Marvin will read non-DRM epubs. As far as the Tategaki books...I'm not sure, I haven't tried those. Do you have a non-copyrighted book you could post here? I'll be glad to test it for you.

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

2) Does Marvin support multi-page copy?

The Appstafarian blog (here) discussed the new version of Marvin (not released yet). That blog mentions that you can highlight text across pages, so I expect that to be among the new feature list...but again...I haven't been able to test that yet so I'm not sure what form it will take in the final release.

Sorry for the almost-answer...but stay tuned for official info from Kris!

[kguil]

@Turtle91. Thanks for your kind words. Glad you're liking it.

@Kumabjorn Not sure about (1), I'd need to see one of the books. Regarding (2), yes you can copy text across pages in v3 which is currently in testing.