eReader on iPhone -- adding books not purchased

[NightVVulf]

As a side note. For anyone out there that wants to delve a little deeper into the inner workings of your iPhone. You can always SSH your books directly into the eReader app. You will need to jailbreak phone, but with surprisingly small amount of effort I was able to drop a few books over in eReader format.

All the files within the app are signed however, and you may have to do a little tweaking to get things to work just right.

But as mentioned above, a new version is in the works.

[thebrave]

I have taken some screenshots of both "legal" iPhone apps: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?p=223796

[thianliongpatpoh]

what little tweaking?
I was able to copy the .pdb into var/mobile/7BCB..../Documents/Bookshelf and into var/mobile/7BCB..../eReader.app/Bookshelf, but the ereader.app still won't show/list the copied .pdb ebook.
is the tweaking involved terminaling and chmod-ing?

[NightVVulf]

Originally Posted by thianliongpatpoh

what little tweaking?
I was able to copy the .pdb into var/mobile/7BCB..../Documents/Bookshelf and into var/mobile/7BCB..../eReader.app/Bookshelf, but the ereader.app still won't show/list the copied .pdb ebook.
is the tweaking involved terminaling and chmod-ing?

I was able to get non-DRM protected .pdb files to open within eReader by renaming them with a title of a book I already downloaded through the eReader service. The new book will still come up on the bookshelf with the lagit books name, but you are able to download the original book again.

All in all this method is rather painstaking and makes things confusing.

What I finally ended up doing is using textreader which is available through Installer or Cydia. You will have to jailbreak your phone, ( though if your SSHing files over you most likely have already done that.) but using that app is the only free, easy method I have found to read all my old books.

There is Bookshelf, but that service requires you to upload books and documents to a server as well as pay for the app. Bookshelf works rather well, but sadly, at this moment there is no app that is pretty and seemless as eReader.

I'll continue playing with different methods, and if I do make any head way I will post again.

PS: I am using an older 8gb phone with 2.1 software installed. Cydia is my main source of apps.

[thianliongpatpoh]

Thx for the tips!
There's a 'bookreader' apps from cydia that will read .html. I tried it with the ebooks i purchased from fictionwise, by using convertlit to extract html from .lit. Transfering to the iphone's ebook directory is simple using iphoneexplorer (well, i have jailbroken old 8gb iphone with customised 2.01).
I put 1 book title html (and its jpgs) into 1 folder, and copy that folder to the iphone's ebook folder (not SSH, too much hassle).
Problem 1:
The iphone OS does not automatically set the file attributes to archive. it stays as read-only. When the bookreader apps open the html (yes, it would see the ebook in its list/library right away), the apps creates some sort of tracking file for last opened page, etc. Since the the folder is read-only, it can not create that file. So, after accessing and analysing the ebook/html, it gives 'error cannot create yaadaa yaddaa'.
Solution 1:
The Problem 1 can be solved with terminal apps, and using some chmode command to manually UN-read-only the ebook folder. Googleing the net helped me find details of this process. I applied it, and Voila... the ebooks i put for 'bookreader' apps is now readable..

Problem 2:
I assume the same read-only situation applies with 'ereader' ebooks (.pdb). So i did the same process, of copying and terminaling (chmod-ing) the file. Yet, while terminal shows i was succeeded, the books are not listed on the ereader library.
Solution 2:
NightWulf 'renaming' technique. I will test this when I have access again to the laptop i'm hooking my iphone (the wife's using it). Willl check what result I'd get.

thx, great forum, great technical discussion
TK

[Robotech_Master]

Why are you still messing with trying to SSH your books into eReader now that they offer their personal content uploading system?

But for what it's worth, there's also another way to do it if you have a computer and a wireless network.

Get some kind of simple web server application for your OS (or enable the web server your OS may already have built in). Put your pre-compiled eReader files on that web server, then do the "add" thing in eReader, choose "Another site," and enter the URL, using the LAN IP address for the computer. For instance, "192.168.2.101/my_ebook.pdb". It'll download it to your system just like any other e-book.

[thianliongpatpoh]

My avoiding the upload/download to/from personal content is that i'm still with the gprs iphone, and the gprs cost is a bit expensive here. There's no iphone yearly subscription service with teleco here, yet. Until then, guess i have to tinker with my laptop wireless setup to create a wifi connection and use the iphone to surf the web via wifi, through my adsl.

[nohmi2]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There's also a version of MobiPocket for the iPhone/Touch in the works, too. I'm waiting for that, personally, since Mobi is my preferred format.

That's great news, as my husband has given me an iPhone 3G for my birthday. I probably will not be reading on it much as I love my Kindle, but would like to download *something* onto it, probably some poetry. Mobipocket is also mu format of choice.