iPad Another iPad thread... FBReader

[orwell2k]

Sorry for raising another iPad thread!

But but say what you will, love it or hate it, 20+ iPad threads on the Apple forum and probably a dozen more spread throughout the MR forums, plus the Apple device forum icon has already changed to an iPad - the Apple iPad has made a hell of a splash!

I mainly read FB2, and love the CoolReader implementation on BeBook and the FBReader implementation on PB360. I see stanza as a last resort on my Mac, but I notice heaps of people use it on the iPhone/iPod Touch.

Is there an FBReader implementation for iPhone?

And would it be possible to have one for the iPad?

It may be obvious as to why this has not happened (then just call me stupid, but tell me why). Or perhaps there is one and I couldn't find it (then just call me stupid!).

[kjk]

Bookshelf looks like it has FB2 support. I have not tried it yet though.
http://www.iphonebookshelf.com/

[orwell2k]

Yeah, but it's not free. I noticed a number of other free apps that purport to support FB2 on iPhone, so I might have to try them first.

Can anyone comment on Stanza on iPhone? On Mac OS X it is pretty lame, showing only text without proper styles, no images, etc. Does it actually work correctly on iPhone and show images and correct formatting for FB2?

Cheers!

[Bremen Cole]

Stanza on the iPhone is pretty darn good. Easy to transfer books tirelessly using Calibre, and good options. Of course just like any reader there can be formatting issues that need to be addressed during conversion. But overall easier to use than my Sony.

I don't have any books on it with images other than the covers, so can't speak to that issue.... other than the covers look okay. I have to believe that it will be easier to format for than the tiny iphone screen.

[orwell2k]

Thanks for the info.

I managed to read up a little more on Bookshelf and it seems quite good, and as you say Stanza also seems pretty good for iPhone (hence I hope iPad also) - much better than stanza on Mac OS X.

I also found a few other freebie apps that may work well - ShortBook and ShortBookLE, and textReader might be OK (although without the formatting). Anyway it seems there are some decent FB2 apps, and hopefully iBooks on the iPad will handle all ePub (non-DRM as well) and not just the Apple-bought stuff. After all, iBooks will only be available to US users, so the device must be able to handle other ePub books, although I'm guessing DRM ePubs (i.e. ADE) are out (unless we get ADE for iPad?).

[orwell2k]

So, until I got an iPad (last week) I didn't really pay attention to the fact that Stanza for iPad, unlike Stanza Desktop, does not actually support FB2 - WTF!?

I understand iPad apps are different from iPhone apps, which are different from Mac OS X apps, but why remove or neglect to include one of the big features of Stanza desktop when porting to the iPad? I was assuming (foolishly, it turns out) that I could just use Stanza on the iPad to read FB2, Mobi (non-DRM of course) and even ePub if iBooks was too lame.

But no - what a pain. So now I am trying other FB2 readers - I have so far only tried the free stuff, which is usually a 'lite' version of a pay app, just to see how they perform. Nothing great so far - adequate but that's it.

I am curious about a cheap app called readMe - seems like an option, as it supports ePub and FB2 (not Mobi, alas). Anyone out there used it yet?

[toddos]

Why not use Calibre to convert your books? FB2, mobi, and epub all convert back and forth relatively cleanly.

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by toddos

Why not use Calibre to convert your books? FB2, mobi, and epub all convert back and forth relatively cleanly.

Until now I have been a die-hard FB2 user, as it is the best format on my PB360 using FBReader (and frankly, any other small-screen e-Ink device - ADE just doesn't cut it, regardless of recent 'updates' and 'improvements'). But the larger display of the iPad makes ePub a more viable option.

It was the same with my iRex DR1000S - I used to convert all my bought mobi ebooks to FB2 because mobireader couldn't compare to coolreader on my BeBook, but on the iRex FBReader worked very well with Mobi.

Anyway, long story short, I convert to FB2 and do a fair bit of clean-up on the original ePub or Mobi source. It's very rare to find a commercial eBook without some errors, even minor errors such as extra spaces before/after some quotes - quite common errors are things like:

- John 's
- " 'quoted text'..." or for UK quotes ' "quoted text"...' (I'm guessing there are some auto-formatting issues with the tools used to proof the source text, or the electronic 'typesetters' think it makes the paired quotes more readable?)
- Also common is some extra spaces on open or close quotes (i.e. ' Hello...' or " Hello...")

There are other more serious errors on some eBooks, depending on publisher and even between books from the same publisher. So far Random House seems to me the worst for inconsistency in the sense that some ePubs have been almost error-free, and others have been riddled with errors, such that I cannot understand how thay could be considered as 'proofed'.

In such cases I have complained to the seller and/or publisher, along with an exhaustive list of errors I've found, and have been either reimbursed or a corrected copy has been provided (and I assume made available to future customers inplace of the old one). In the latter case, I still think I should be reimbursed as I have done the job of the publisher in correcting errors, but they disagree - smacks of MicroSoft's policy of selling OS and app software that is riddled with bugs and relying on the locked-in users to point them out so they can be fixed!

Anyway, my point is that I have my final, clean eBooks in FB2, and I will try to use Calibre to convert to ePub but I'm afraid some of my formatting will be lost - I need to play around as I have rarely used Calibre. Never had a Sony (and never will - I know Calibre does much more but that is the origins) and their FB2 generation is problematic, so I have avoided using it, but it seems I may have a genuine need now.

One last point for iPad users, I decided to buy readMe and am very impressed. Have tried ePub and FB2 and it works very well. A lot of people complained about the 3D animated page flip (a la iBooks) but I like it - traditionalists can have the basic scroll function set instead. But as a cheap and nice alternative to iBooks and as an FB2 reader, I highly recommend it.

And getting books onto the device/app doesn't even need iTunes! You can use the traditional iTunes app loading method, but the app has a built-in HTTP server, so you go to that in the app on iPad, then navigate to the page on your computer web browser and just load the books on there via WiFi - very nice!

P.S. I still think Stanza'a lack of FB2 sucks big time!!

[toddos]

For what it's worth, Calibre's FB2 functionality just got a lot of love in recent updates. http://calibre-ebook.com/whats-new, scroll down to 0.7.25 (0.7.26 is the latest, but appears to be mostly a bugfix release for regressions in 0.7.25).

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by toddos

For what it's worth, Calibre's FB2 functionality just got a lot of love in recent updates. http://calibre-ebook.com/whats-new, scroll down to 0.7.25 (0.7.26 is the latest, but appears to be mostly a bugfix release for regressions in 0.7.25).

Thanks for that. It seems that addressed FB2 input, which may ensure a good solution to the iPad problem of converting from FB2 to ePub for Stanza and/or iBooks.

I notice also that Aug/Sep updates saw improvements in FB2 output, which was my main issue with using Calibre to creat my FB2s - they always had errors, or failed, or didn't read on my eInk devices. As I had a good production process already, I didn't bother persisting with Calibre since early 2010. But perhaps it's time to give it another go and see how it handles FB2 creation as well as input/conversion for the iPad.

Thanks again for the info!

And BTW, I'm quite impressed with readMe - I plan to do a proper review of a few readers for iPad, but I like that one for FB2 - handles the styles and formatting exceptionally well. The only gripe I have, as for iBooks, is font choices - they suck!

Georgia is about the best option, but in readMe italics text tends to 'bunch up' to the plain text immediately following in some cases (depends on letters). I hope this gets addressed, as well as adding some better fonts, like Fontin for example!

[slayda]

Speaking of the FBReader SW and the iPad, would anyone know if the developers of FBReader are planning to port it to the iPad. I really love many of its features that just are not available on other readers.

[GntlmnBndt]

Originally Posted by slayda

Speaking of the FBReader SW and the iPad, would anyone know if the developers of FBReader are planning to port it to the iPad. I really love many of its features that just are not available on other readers.

Probably won't happen as FBReader is licensed under GPL.

The app store licensing terms are not compatible with GPL software. A few GPL projects have made brief appearances, as Apple does not seem vet the licensing as part of the evaluation process, but they disappear as soon as someone points out the GPL violation. Probably the most notable example would be VLC which was pulled this last January. ZDNet Has a nice summary: http://www.zdnet.com/blog/open-sourc...app-store/8046

For a developer, there is little point to going through the time and trouble to port and optimize an app only to have it pulled just that quick.

The Bandit