Palm Reader (eBook Reader)

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by bugduk

1. I tried to load a big HTML file. Didn't work. But this used 1 of my 2 allotted slots for books. Bummer. Allowing two books but requiring one to be removed before loading another would have been reasonable. I still eventually would have wanted to store a library and would buy the app.

2. Progress Bar on the way? Nice to know how far along I am.

I have removed everyone's current books so you all can open two more. I know the limitation is not done as well as the rest of the reader; to be fair, I had no intention of putting a limitation on it at all. I wanted to go straight to the app catalog, but that seems to be taking a little longer than anticipated

I don't know if an on-screen progress bar is worth the screen real estate it would take up. Try this: while reading, select Goto -> Specify from the app menu and it will show you a progress bar of sorts.

Originally Posted by craftsman

Very weird but it says that it is expired and I have not even loaded a html book.

See above - you should be able to open two books now.

Originally Posted by neve

Some things I'd like to see improved:
1. More background color options.

Noted. I assume that means the black text on gray background doesn't cut it for you?

Originally Posted by neve

2. My personal formats of choice are .txt, .doc, .pdf, .rtf, .pdb, .html, and even .jpg (for comics and magazine scans.) DocView already supports the first three of these, but if it doesn't support bookmarks, it's not hardly worth it. Anyways, as WebOS now supports txt files (or at least DocView does) would that make it any easier to provide txt support for your reader?

Yes, I could probably add TXT support fairly easily. The rest of them, though, require conversion, which requires binary file access, which I don't have

Originally Posted by rboatright

Uh.... you really REALLY need a way to support chapter and page tags inside the app.

Thank you for the feedback. I will definitely see if that can be done within the current framework.

Originally Posted by tarirene

Make orientation changes to landscape and back automatic with rotating the pre? I can foresee difficulties with keeping the reader's place in the text once everything changes like that, but for instance, the email app even when reading very long emails handles this aspect of rotating the file just fine (I don't know the details tho).

Most books are much, much larger than even the largest email, so there are difficulties here, mostly in that it takes a good long time for the Pre to rotate such a large block of text (i.e. the entire book). HOWEVER, this IS supported, if you go to preferences and select "Orientation -> Use Actual Orientation."

Originally Posted by tarirene

I love the ability to customize the background, but I like putting black background and light colored text, and then the bottom at the bar interferes with the effect (it's obnoxiously bright, in fact, see screen shot). Can this be automatically hidden until you do something to call it up like swiping down or forward or something?

Along the same lines, I've noticed that some apps (most notably the photo app) take up the ENTIRE screen, covering even the bar assistant at the very top. The more screen real estate the better - is this something you can add to your app?

Hmmm... I understand your concern. I'll think about ways to add a full screen option, which would remove the buttons.

Originally Posted by Deltfather

THANK YOU FOR BUILDING A DECENT, FLEXIBLE, EBBOK READER!

You're very welcome

Originally Posted by Deltfather

What price point are you anticipating for the app?

Probably $4.99

Originally Posted by Pegsie

being able to read DRM'd eBooks is a must for me, also.

This is simply not an option unless Mobi and the other distributors CHOOSE to let me do it. Otherwise it is just plain illegal for me to build an app that can read DRM books. Trust me, I'd love to give this to you!

Originally Posted by Oz

Perhaps as part of the install you could include a short public domain book for testing (unless the install process would not be able to write things in that folder)? You may get more valuable feedback that way?

Good idea! I'll do that.

[davis.rob]

Nice app, thanks for another choice in bookreaders on the Pre (which I really enjoy). This seems to work really well for the free (i.e Project Gutenberg) books. Between this, the Shortcovers reader, and the supposed eReader, we should have some pretty good choices. It's a shame that ebooks are such a mess right now with DRM and multiple formats ... hopefully they (the publishers and book sellers) will straighten that out eventually (but I'm not holding my breath).

Just a couple of suggestions ...

I'm used to swiping R->L on Shortcovers to go to the next page. Seems more natural to me, like turning a page. An option to do that would be great.

Also, an option to get rid of the Auto/Stop/Page buttons. All you really need while reading is to swipe pages, so wasting 3 lines of text with the buttons is really annoying.

And, as others have suggested, some way to have "chapters" would be really nice.

Thanks again ... looking forward to the full version.

[jhoff80]

Originally Posted by SirWill

Nice Contradiction there.....

Uh, what contradiction? I don't know how much more clear I could be. You need to remove DRM to convert books that you buy to other formats.

[DeathsArrow]

Originally Posted by vance6842

Yes, I could probably add TXT support fairly easily. The rest of them, though, require conversion, which requires binary file access, which I don't have

TXT support would be most welcome. It's easy enough to covert anything else.

Originally Posted by vance6842

Probably $4.99

That's reasonable. Can I pay you now?

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by davis.rob

Nice app, thanks for another choice in bookreaders on the Pre (which I really enjoy). This seems to work really well for the free (i.e Project Gutenberg) books. Between this, the Shortcovers reader, and the supposed eReader, we should have some pretty good choices. It's a shame that ebooks are such a mess right now with DRM and multiple formats ... hopefully they (the publishers and book sellers) will straighten that out eventually (but I'm not holding my breath).

Just a couple of suggestions ...

I'm used to swiping R->L on Shortcovers to go to the next page. Seems more natural to me, like turning a page. An option to do that would be great.

Also, an option to get rid of the Auto/Stop/Page buttons. All you really need while reading is to swipe pages, so wasting 3 lines of text with the buttons is really annoying.

And, as others have suggested, some way to have "chapters" would be really nice.

Thanks again ... looking forward to the full version.

There is an option in the preferences menu to use "Flick" paging. Just enable this option and it works exactly like Shortcovers.

Other posters have commented on a "Full Page" option to remove the Auto/Stop/Page buttons. Seems like a good idea, we are working on it.

Chapters are a challenge, will let you know what we come up with.

[DeathsArrow]

By the way, thank you for resetting the book limit.

I have a suggestion, in the "go to" option, it would be handy to have something that indicates how far you've selected either a percentage or a page number of total pages.

[davis.rob]

Originally Posted by vance6842

There is an option in the preferences menu to use "Flick" paging. Just enable this option and it works exactly like Shortcovers.

Yeah I found the "flick" option, my only problem is that it actually works just the *opposite* of Shortcovers. Flicking this way <- goes to the next page in Shortcovers (think about turning a page). On this reader, flicking to the left goes to the previous page. A minor point, but an option would be nice.

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by davis.rob

Yeah I found the "flick" option, my only problem is that it actually works just the *opposite* of Shortcovers. Flicking this way <- goes to the next page in Shortcovers (think about turning a page). On this reader, flicking to the left goes to the previous page. A minor point, but an option would be nice.

I got it, I didn't even notice the fact that they were opposite. I will look into adding a user preference for this function. Thanks for the feedback.

[jzb]

When I try to install your program I get an install error. Please help

[Version_3]

Originally Posted by jzb

When I try to install your program I get an install error. Please help

Reformat, reinstall.

While that may not be any help, perhaps you can clarify what the error actually is.

[jzb]

That's what I get when I try to install your program. please help

[jzb]

Originally Posted by Version_3

Reformat, reinstall.

While that may not be any help, perhaps you can clarify what the error actually is.

Don't know what else to tell you. When I go to the app and try to download it I get the install error message

[dreznicek]

Shortcover's handles the removal of the bars by tap-holding the screen. tap-hold and the bars disappear. Tap-hold again and they reappear. Works really well.

[Preeminent]

A full fledged eBook reader for the WebOS. The Shortcovers application has limited functionality preventing it from being a fully realized eBook reader application. Palm Reader is a complete eBook reader with functionality users have come to expect.

This opening paragraph is a bit misleading. While I am confident that you will produce a "full fledged" and "complete" ebook reader, it falls just a tad short at this time. You might also want to mention in the description that it only supports html until future release.

While I applaud the effort, and hope to see this app go somewhere, I think I'll wait awhile to try it out again - and to vote.

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by Preeminent

This opening paragraph is a bit misleading. While I am confident that you will produce a "full fledged" and "complete" ebook reader, it falls just a tad short at this time. You might also want to mention in the description that it only supports html until future release.

While I applaud the effort, and hope to see this app go somewhere, I think I'll wait awhile to try it out again - and to vote.

I changed the description with your suggestions in mind. We are very aware that limited format support is an issue, we are pestering Palm with emails to accomplish this very thing.

[Preeminent]

Filecoaster tells me an update is available, but it remains at 1.0.

I've also gotten "trial version is expired", can't seem to get around it. It looks like I really WILL have to wait

Thanks for description change.

[SirWill]

Originally Posted by vance6842

Chapters are a challenge, will let you know what we come up with.

I know they are a challenge. Last I looked the built in web browser doesn't even support Anchors.

I too would vote for a full screen option. And Text support.

[SirWill]

Originally Posted by vance6842

I have removed everyone's current books so you all can open two more. I know the limitation is not done as well as the rest of the reader; to be fair, I had no intention of putting a limitation on it at all. I wanted to go straight to the app catalog, but that seems to be taking a little longer than anticipated

I just noticed that you said YOU removed everyone's current books so we could open two more. does this application "Phone" home? Is the 2 book limit server implemented? What data do you track? Can you tell what books I have installed?

While I have been a little critical of the lack of navigation, and I bring up the phone home question here... I'd like to say thank you for making this reader to begin with. With just a little more tweaking and a few enhancements I think it is a very viable product and will probably pay for it.

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by SirWill

I just noticed that you said YOU removed everyone's current books so we could open two more. does this application "Phone" home? Is the 2 book limit server implemented? What data do you track? Can you tell what books I have installed?

The two book limit is server-implemented to avoid a re-installation loophole; however, no information is recorded other than the device ID (for uniqueness) and number of books opened.

[Paladin]

OH YEA!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I started the E-book request thread and I want to personally say THANK YOU!!!!!!!!!
ii

Small request; for the next release can you add some type of option to remove carriage returns or extra lines?

The HTML looks normal in a web browser but in the program it is adding or displaying about 4 spaces or lines for each space/line in the browser version.

I am using the ABC Amber Palm Converter.
Free download ABC Amber Palm Convertor, convert PDB, PRC documents to PDF, HTML, CHM, HLP, RTF, DOC, TXT

Can you also add a search to take me to that word in the book? I am basically just trying to get to another chapter easily. ii

On loading the program can you auto load the previous book? I would basically like to continue right where I left off without having to re-load it..