MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - E-book app evaluation on the HTC Touch Pro 2

Steven Lyle Jordan · 04-11-2010, 03:12 PM

The next app I went for was Freda, an ePub reading app. (I was planning to get two ePub readers in particular, Freda and Zulu Reader. I went for Freda first simply because it would add no additional folders to the phone, and as I’m still finding my way around it, I wanted to go the easiest route first.)
Again, downloading the app directly onto the phone was wonderful, and installing it from the CAB file was easy (fortunately for my bad memory, opening the File Explorer took me right to the last folder I’d opened, and there were the CAB files). Unfortunately, after a successful installation, the app would not open, because the phone did not have the latest .NET software installed. This ended my Freda install for a few hours, because I had to install the .NET SW from a PC, and I could not do that until I got home.

So, I went for app #3, Zulu Reader. Zulu also required .NET 2.0 or better, but apparently the TP2 had that on-board, because it opened up the app and allowed me to search for my ePub files. Zulu worked properly right out of the box, though it needed to have the Zulu-installed folders I’d moved over from my PDA emptied and reloaded by the app to display all of my files. Still, I could read with a finger-swipe, and all of the controls and menu items worked as desired. You can also open the keypad, switching to landscape mode, and use the arrow buttons to navigate (page up and page down only, not left and right).

Later that evening, I installed the .NET v3.5 framework, which allowed Freda to run. Like MobiPocket and Zulu, the text quality was beautiful, and unlike MobiPocket, the Freda tools all worked as intended. I can tell I'll be spending much more time with these apps in the future.

04-11-2010, 03:12 PM	#4
Steven Lyle Jordan Grand Sorcerer Posts: 8,478 Karma: 5171130 Join Date: Jan 2006 Device: none	ePub apps: Joy. The next app I went for was Freda, an ePub reading app. (I was planning to get two ePub readers in particular, Freda and Zulu Reader. I went for Freda first simply because it would add no additional folders to the phone, and as I’m still finding my way around it, I wanted to go the easiest route first.) Again, downloading the app directly onto the phone was wonderful, and installing it from the CAB file was easy (fortunately for my bad memory, opening the File Explorer took me right to the last folder I’d opened, and there were the CAB files). Unfortunately, after a successful installation, the app would not open, because the phone did not have the latest .NET software installed. This ended my Freda install for a few hours, because I had to install the .NET SW from a PC, and I could not do that until I got home. So, I went for app #3, Zulu Reader. Zulu also required .NET 2.0 or better, but apparently the TP2 had that on-board, because it opened up the app and allowed me to search for my ePub files. Zulu worked properly right out of the box, though it needed to have the Zulu-installed folders I’d moved over from my PDA emptied and reloaded by the app to display all of my files. Still, I could read with a finger-swipe, and all of the controls and menu items worked as desired. You can also open the keypad, switching to landscape mode, and use the arrow buttons to navigate (page up and page down only, not left and right). Later that evening, I installed the .NET v3.5 framework, which allowed Freda to run. Like MobiPocket and Zulu, the text quality was beautiful, and unlike MobiPocket, the Freda tools all worked as intended. I can tell I'll be spending much more time with these apps in the future.