Palm Reader (eBook Reader) - Major Update

[dwhitman]

Originally Posted by vance6842

I've just released a minor bug fix update to deal with a few of the issues you fine beta testers have already uncovered

I confirm that bookmark deletion is now working.

[Paladin]

Okay had a few min to play with this more. I deleted the old version then installed this one. Just FYI.

I am curious what the top bar is about. Can we turn that off? I don't see the need for it overall. I would rather see just the bottom one when I am not in full screen mode.

It seems that the Files' are interfering with the overall percentage displayed. It resets the percentage when it goes to the next file. Basically it is not displaying the books percent as it should.

Also when I touch the % I have to choose something or it won't let me back to my book. I am using a converted to .txt book (Same one I sent you)

Also my book seem to load and display okay at first. Then while playing with various things it somehow gets corrupted showing weird characters.
Added: I cleared all the books, did a Clear DB and started over and it seems okay so far... I will keep you posted.

Please add the ability to remove books from the Library by swiping them to the side per WebOS standards. Please make it need a confirmation as well

While scanning for new books it is hard to tell what is what due to the limits of text length.
Basically I cannot see the entire text file name to tell which one it is I want. Can you word wrap it and/or add the ability to do it from landscape mode?

I already have my Ebooks in various folders. Is there a way it can simply show a listing of my folders then allow me to navigate down through them? It does not have to load all of the books of course, until I select them, but I basically want to be able to add/remove books from these folders, run your program and see them all nice, neat and organized. Then I can simply select one to pre-load. Maybe put a * next to the names of the ones I have "loaded"
I just like folders and organization of my books. it is also kind of a pain to select them all one-at-a-time just to see them. I guess I just want o see them all right off the bat somehow.

Am I being clear?

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by Paladin

Thanks for trying with the iSilo format.

I am trying to load a book that I am unsure what format it is. It is just sitting here loading..loading... Maybe it needs to time out after awhile and report that the book won't work etc.. Kind of feels like it is stuck in a loop.

The app definitely needs some better (or in some cases, just some) error handling in it. Been in a rush to get all the features in and public that I've been remiss on such things. Now that I don't have a lot more to implement, I think, I'll probably start putting some time into that.

If ya wanna send me the book, I can see if it's a bug or just an unsupported format. I think you have my email address.

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by Paladin

I am curious what the top bar is about. Can we turn that off? I don't see the need for it overall. I would rather see just the bottom one when I am not in full screen mode.

The top bar shows file and position information and allows navigation between files. Since the full screen mode removes it, I see no problem leaving it up when not in full screen mode. Possibly I may add a setting to remove it at some point.

Originally Posted by Paladin

It seems that the Files' are interfering with the overall percentage displayed. It resets the percentage when it goes to the next file. Basically it is not displaying the books percent as it should.

When I navigate between files, the percentage calculates correctly. Are you saying it ALWAYS says "1%" at the top of a file and "100%" at the bottom of a file? That is not the experience that I am having.

Originally Posted by Paladin

Also when I touch the % I have to choose something or it won't let me back to my book. I am using a converted to .txt book (Same one I sent you)

When I press the percentage button, and the go to dialog displays, the back gesture removes it without making a selection just fine. Does that not work for you?

Originally Posted by Paladin

Please add the ability to remove books from the Library by swiping them to the side per WebOS standards. Please make it need a confirmation as well

I'll certainly put that on my list of suggestions as something to consider.

Originally Posted by Paladin

While scanning for new books it is hard to tell what is what due to the limits of text length.
Basically I cannot see the entire text file name to tell which one it is I want. Can you word wrap it and/or add the ability to do it from landscape mode?

I already have my Ebooks in various folders. Is there a way it can simply show a listing of my folders then allow me to navigate down through them? It does not have to load all of the books of course, until I select them, but I basically want to be able to add/remove books from these folders, run your program and see them all nice, neat and organized. Then I can simply select one to pre-load. Maybe put a * next to the names of the ones I have "loaded"
I just like folders and organization of my books. it is also kind of a pain to select them all one-at-a-time just to see them. I guess I just want o see them all right off the bat somehow.

The FilePicker is not my widget, it is Palm's. Unfortunately, it is the only method of accessing files, and I cannot control how it does it. Sorry.

[Pre-Occupied]

l tried to open an eReader file sans DRM twice with no luck. I waited 20+ minutes each time. Then I converted the file to a Palm Database File using Calibre and had the same problem. I will try converting to another file type and will let you know if it works,

Pre-Occupied

[semprini]

Looks good. I'm looking forward to Search functionality.

[Paladin]

Originally Posted by vance6842

The top bar shows file and position information and allows navigation between files. Since the full screen mode removes it, I see no problem leaving it up when not in full screen mode. Possibly I may add a setting to remove it at some point.

Well sometimes I actually like it in normal mode and the top bar is just in the way

Originally Posted by vance6842

When I navigate between files, the percentage calculates correctly. Are you saying it ALWAYS says "1%" at the top of a file and "100%" at the bottom of a file? That is not the experience that I am having.

No it is showing the percentage of the current file, not the entire book as it should. Actually the percent AND page's are off.

Right now I am at 26% page 149/233 File2. If I go to File3 I display 32% page 1/253. So it is displaying the sections information.

It should always give me the overall book percentage and page I would think as that is what people care about.

Originally Posted by vance6842

When I press the percentage button, and the go to dialog displays, the back gesture removes it without making a selection just fine. Does that not work for you?

Ahhh yes that does work. I thought I tried that, I guess I didn't

Originally Posted by vance6842

The FilePicker is not my widget, it is Palm's. Unfortunately, it is the only method of accessing files, and I cannot control how it does it. Sorry.

Damn sometimes I am hating WebOS. Why does it seem like such a step backward over PalmOS at times??

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by Pre-Occupied

l tried to open an eReader file sans DRM twice with no luck. I waited 20+ minutes each time. Then I converted the file to a Palm Database File using Calibre and had the same problem. I will try converting to another file type and will let you know if it works,

Pre-Occupied

Are you using a European phone? As I've mentioned, those phones are stuck on an old OS version that does not allow our multi-format support to work. If you're not using a European phone, can you verify that you've got WebOS 1.2 running? If so, I'd love to get a copy of those books to see what the problem is. Let me know.

Originally Posted by semprini

Looks good. I'm looking forward to Search functionality.

Is there a problem with the search functionality currently in the Palm Reader app? While reading a book, use the app menu to select "Search," and let me know what you think.

Originally Posted by Paladin

No it is showing the percentage of the current file, not the entire book as it should. Actually the percent AND page's are off.

Right now I am at 26% page 149/233 File2. If I go to File3 I display 32% page 1/253. So it is displaying the sections information.

Actually, that is perfect. When you change to file 3, you are jumping 6% further into the book, so the % changes from 26 to 32. How is that not right?

The page numbers are indeed for the current file only. It is not really possible to determine how many pages are in the rest of the book, as they are dependent on the orientation, font size, and so on, which can and very likely will change as you navigate through the book.

[dwhitman]

Originally Posted by Pre-Occupied

l tried to open an eReader file sans DRM twice with no luck. I waited 20+ minutes each time. Then I converted the file to a Palm Database File using Calibre and had the same problem. I will try converting to another file type and will let you know if it works,

I've had several instances with earlier versions, and once with this new version where a file will seem to hang and never open, but if I close the app, reopen and try again, the file will open just fine. It's like the program went off into never-never land for some reason perhaps not even entirely to do with the file (out of memory, and this tipped it over the edge?), so that a fresh start lets it work ok.

Might be worth a shot to try those files again, after restarting the app and/or rebooting your Pre.

[dreznicek]

1. I like being able to page through the book by swiping, but sometimes my finger actually makes it scroll down or up. Then I have to look and find out where I stopped by scrolling around. I would like an option to not be able to scroll up or down, but ONLY swipe so that I am guaranteed the Page turns at a set point in the document.

2. If I HAD option 1, I would like the screen to not "cut off" the text at the top or bottom of the screen. Like have some delineation between the top and bottom of a page (or what the app considers a page) so that the sentence only has the top or bottom half of the letters.

Hope that makes sense. Great update, BTW!

[tamvegas]

Thanks for this app.
I was having a lot of probems earlier with it locking up about 8 pages into a file, but that was with pdb files I downloaded.

Using Caliber to convert all my books to pdb format I was able to get all 160 titles onto the Pre in an hour. Now all of them load perfectly.

Question. I see reference to page numbers. Is there supposed to be page numbers displayed on the screen? I have none and no option to display them. I have the latest version (downloaded today).

Suggestion 1 - Rather than display all the files available when looking for a book, could a "recently opened files" button be added? I'll often jump between 4 or 5 files and going thru the complete list is a pain.

Suggestion 2 - Is there any way to display the cover art for the file? Most of my titles have artwork and it would be nice to see it.

Thanks again for this long-needed app!

[tarirene]

Awesome - I have so many .lit files. SO many.

Only they don't seem to work. I get some kind of error about an original file name, and then it kicks me back to my empty library. See attached screenshot.

I tried this on several of my books, and verified with each that they open fine without errors in microsoft lit reader.

[vance6842]

Originally Posted by tamvegas

Thanks for this app.
I was having a lot of probems earlier with it locking up about 8 pages into a file, but that was with pdb files I downloaded.

Strange. Can you direct me to one of the books in question, or send me one via email?

Originally Posted by tamvegas

Question. I see reference to page numbers. Is there supposed to be page numbers displayed on the screen? I have none and no option to display them. I have the latest version (downloaded today).

At the bottom-right of the screen, between the paging buttons is a panel that says something like "1 / 50" indicating that you are on page one of fifty in this chapter file.

Originally Posted by tamvegas

Suggestion 1 - Rather than display all the files available when looking for a book, could a "recently opened files" button be added? I'll often jump between 4 or 5 files and going thru the complete list is a pain.

Unfortunately, as I explained above, the FilePicker is not something I have control over. It is a Palm widget, and I imagine they will improve it eventually.

Originally Posted by tamvegas

Suggestion 2 - Is there any way to display the cover art for the file? Most of my titles have artwork and it would be nice to see it.

That's planned for the next major update. Not sure exactly when that will be, but the cover art will not be ignored forever

Originally Posted by tarirene

Awesome - I have so many .lit files. SO many.

Only they don't seem to work. I get some kind of error about an original file name, and then it kicks me back to my empty library. See attached screenshot.

I tried this on several of my books, and verified with each that they open fine without errors in microsoft lit reader.

Sorry about that. My bad. Try again now.

[Leathal]

iSiloC32.exe from this collection of utilities seems to work for converting iSilo pdbs back to a more universal format. Unfortunately it doesn't appear to preserve the formatting, but I needed some way of converting my several dozen ebooks on my Centro to work on my Pre.

Thanks for this AWESOME program by the way.

[dwhitman]

Flick paging seems harder to do than in earlier versions (?). I've got it set for right-to-left flicking. Seems like if I start the gesture too far to the right, it doesn't respond. Starting at midscreen works better. Backing up with a left-to-right flick doesn't seem nearly so touchy, seems to work well even starting at the far left.

On v0.21, I was having some difficult-to-reproduce-but-happened-more-than-once problems with the ?button bars? at top and bottom disappearing.

• Might have been related to using dictionary lookup.
• Might have been related to receiving an external notification.
• Might have been related to being in a spot with no network connection.

Is that vague enough? If they disappeared, shifting back and forth to full screen mode did NOT fix the problem, but closing an ebook and reopening would. Occasionally, when the bars had disappeared, I'd see that notorious grey band at the bottom of the screen, I think after a dictionary lookup. Haven't seen any of this yet in v0.22 - maybe fixed, or maybe I just haven't blundered into what the real cause is again?

[jauderho]

Will DRM'ed pdb support be forthcoming i.e. the ereader format? Maybe something like pdbshred.

Untitled Document
eBooks and DRM (1) « Coderyder’s Weblog

[tamvegas]

Originally Posted by vance6842

Strange. Can you direct me to one of the books in question, or send me one via email?

At the bottom-right of the screen, between the paging buttons is a panel that says something like "1 / 50" indicating that you are on page one of fifty in this chapter file.

I deleted the files after conversion, sorry. I'll go and download one or two again. If the problem replicates, I'll email the file to you.

On page numbers, I have nothing but text on the screen. No numbers or page buttons. Here's a screen shot (from an old Doctor Who novel):


I do have many Preware patches installed. Could there be some conflict?

[einnyen]

This is exactly what I've been anxiously awaiting!

I have over a hundred ebooks I've purchased from Baen, and the ones Tor was inviting people to download some time back.

Unfortunately something isn't working in the formatting. Basically I'm seeing all the tags for what I assume is the metadata, although it looks an incredible amount like html. My files are all in prc.

Pretty sure I got the attachment in this post. If you need any further information please let me know.

The community greatly appreciates your efforts, I'm certain.

Jack

[fordchico]

I'm also trying to download a book I got from Gutenberg, the Divine Comedy and it is stuck on the loading page. Any thoughts? It's a pdb file.

[boseco]

Originally Posted by vance6842

This is a major update of the Palm Reader app, so I created a new thread.

Here is the change log:

• Longer files are now split up into manageable chunks. This allows for considerably faster formatting and better overall performance while reading.
• Apostrophe characters in title names now allowed.
• Chapter-navigation from table of contents pages is, with most books, implemented.
• Selecting a book in the library now defaults to loading book; tap-hold-release brings up the additional menu.
• Overlarge images are scaled to fit the screen, when possible.
• Some bugs with positioning across orientation changes and font size changes have been fixed.
• Support for Mobipocket (PRC), ePub, Microsoft Reader (LIT) and PalmDoc (pdb) files has been added. Be sure to read the help section about multi-function support!
• Major interface changes for usability.
• Version number reduced to 0.2 based on a rumor that Palm requires less than 1.0 for the beta app catalog.

when i go to load sometimes it freezes and other time when it comes up there are symbols that come up instead of the words