Samsung Galaxy Note - after a first week - Page 3

imaredr · 02-03-2012, 09:41 PM

I can't wait until Sunday when I can pre-order this. It sounds like a great device. I just hope the data plan doesn't take me to the poor house.

Filark · 02-04-2012, 02:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by imaredr

I can't wait until Sunday when I can pre-order this. It sounds like a great device. I just hope the data plan doesn't take me to the poor house.

Me too. Both those things!

Guadalupe83 · 02-13-2012, 09:02 AM

I am using this device for almost a month and all the other smartphones seem to me like toys. Their screens are way too small for me, that is for sure! I love this android gadget and I hope I will be using it for a long long time!

______________
PDF Converter

macminer · 02-13-2012, 08:48 PM

I've recently acquired a Galaxy Note, even though I already have a Kindle.

While Kindle is good enough for reading most stuff, it simply cannot be considered a mature reader if one needs to read some serious academic stuff. Page layout in .mobi files is quite simple and cannot really represent many books which rely heavily on tables, footnotes, in-text frames etc. That's why so many textbooks and academic books are published as PDFs. Kindle can display PDFs, but its screen size makes most of them unreadable (characters are really tiny or just "greek").

I expected Galaxy Note to be able to display such stuff much better than my Kindle and so far I can say I am not disappointed in the least. PDF support is truly great. I have already installed three different PDF readers (in addition to Polaris Office, which was preinstalled) and all of them are way better than Kindle.

Polaris built-in reader is rather basic and page navigation is non-existent (you can't easily jump to some place, you must scroll through the text).

ezPDF reader is quite feature-rich and does a great job at displaying various documents. It is not the fastest reader, but is fast enough. It can also reflow a PDF. It is a paid app, but well-worth the money.

Smart Devices Reader (free from Samsung Apps) is blazing fast. It has also good annotation options, comparable to ezPDF. Overall, if one doesn't need some pro features (form filling etc.) this would be good enough for all PDF reading.

iAnnotate is an evolving application. So far it is not as complete as ezPDF or SDReader, but it looks promising.

All of these allow pinch-to-zoom, but even without zooming the text is quite readable for most PDFs. I was amazed when I saw the difference between our National Statistics Yearly displayed on Kindle (7 inch!) and Note. On Kindle it is barely readable, and not navigable at all. On Note it looks perfect, despite significantly smaller screen (5.3") and navigation is as easy as can be.

Obviously, Note is not just a PDF reader. It came preinstalled with Samsung's reader's hub, which gives access to Kobo's library and also with an app for one of our local e-bookshops (Nexto.pl). I was surprised to see that books I had acquired at Nexto got automatically downloaded to my mobile device. That was clever and quite Kindle-like!

One area where Note doesn't compare well with Kindle is battery life, but that should be obvious. You either go for an e-ink screen, which is extremely battery friendly or for a beautiful color AMOLED screen, which is quite a battery eater. But with reasonable use the Note can survive the whole day without recharging.

sjfwhite · 02-14-2012, 05:47 PM

I got mine today. This is my first Android device (I am not counting my Kobo Vox - I have ignored it and given it to my daughter) and replaces my iPad 2 and iPhone 4s. I had a great system going with my ios devices using Dropbox for my ebook collection and getting the books into whatever IOS app I wanted from there (Kindle for mobi and iBooks for epub). I have not figured out how to manage this with the Note. I downloaded the Kobo app from the market place hoping I could side load epubs into there from dropbox but no luck - dropbox tells me there is no app for epubs.

How are folks managing to get their books onto their devices and what are your favourite reader apps for the note that support epub? Thanks!

macminer · 02-14-2012, 06:23 PM

Kobo seems to be able to import the epubs that you have on your device. So you need to put them in a folder either on the internal memory or external SD card (by connecting your Note to PC or transferring files to SD card via a card reader).

But there are also several other readers, mentioned in other threads in this forum, like Moon+, Mantano Reader, Cool Reader. I have tried myself the Moon+ and it's adequate. I haven't, however, checked it with DRM-ed files, just the ones that were DRM-free.

=X= · 02-14-2012, 06:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjfwhite

I got mine today. This is my first Android device (I am not counting my Kobo Vox - I have ignored it and given it to my daughter) and replaces my iPad 2 and iPhone 4s. I had a great system going with my ios devices using Dropbox for my ebook collection and getting the books into whatever IOS app I wanted from there (Kindle for mobi and iBooks for epub). I have not figured out how to manage this with the Note. I downloaded the Kobo app from the market place hoping I could side load epubs into there from dropbox but no luck - dropbox tells me there is no app for epubs.

How are folks managing to get their books onto their devices and what are your favourite reader apps for the note that support epub? Thanks!

The two "best in class apps" for ePUB are Moon+ and Montano. And I believe both apps are associated with ePUB, so dropbox will launch either app when an ePUB is downloaded... For sure I know Moon+ does.

I use dropbox and a third party app called dropsync to synchronize my folders. The sync happens in the background so I don't have to download my book, it's already on my device. So I don't download from dropbox I just open the apps and they're there.

With android you also have a little more freedom you can connect your Android device to the PC, on your Android device you can navigate the file system and just drop the files into place.

=X=

sjfwhite · 02-15-2012, 08:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by =X=

The two "best in class apps" for ePUB are Moon+ and Montano. And I believe both apps are associated with ePUB, so dropbox will launch either app when an ePUB is downloaded... For sure I know Moon+ does.

I use dropbox and a third party app called dropsync to synchronize my folders. The sync happens in the background so I don't have to download my book, it's already on my device. So I don't download from dropbox I just open the apps and they're there.

With android you also have a little more freedom you can connect your Android device to the PC, on your Android device you can navigate the file system and just drop the files into place.

=X=

Thanks - I was being an idiot. Before I read this I downloaded FBReader and Aldiko and both of them associated themselves with epub. I also realized that the reason Kobo wasn't importing books was because I had device mounted on the computer and the microsd wasn't accessible while this is occurring. D'oh.

I will give the apps you suggested a try. Thanks again!

ilovejedd · 02-16-2012, 12:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by =X=

The two "best in class apps" for ePUB are Moon+ and Montano.

Correction, I believe it's Mantano not Montano. Excellent app - worth every penny. Mantano's library organization is the best I've used in a mobile app - essential when you've got a large library. The only ebook program that beats it when it comes to organization is Calibre (by kovid).

manush · 03-07-2012, 09:19 PM

I know I'm a little late here to the party, but I just googled galaxy note reading a book and here I am. Anyways dropbox can export files to folders on your phone. If you navigate to an epub file in dropbox and hit export you can save it to your sd card in your phone and then you can choose which folder to save it to. On my phone(android) I click export and save the file to my documents in my nook app.

Filark · 03-07-2012, 10:02 PM

Welcome, Manush!

Thanks for the info! Good to have you here on MobileRead.

Eskarina · 03-08-2012, 07:38 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sjfwhite

I got mine today. This is my first Android device (I am not counting my Kobo Vox - I have ignored it and given it to my daughter) and replaces my iPad 2 and iPhone 4s. I had a great system going with my ios devices using Dropbox for my ebook collection and getting the books into whatever IOS app I wanted from there (Kindle for mobi and iBooks for epub). I have not figured out how to manage this with the Note. I downloaded the Kobo app from the market place hoping I could side load epubs into there from dropbox but no luck - dropbox tells me there is no app for epubs.

How are folks managing to get their books onto their devices and what are your favourite reader apps for the note that support epub? Thanks!

I second what others have said about Mantano. It is a fantastic epub reader.

As for downloading from dropbox, there's an app called ES File Explorer which can be integrated with your dropbox account. Just enter your dropbox username and password and you can use the "copy to" function to download your epubs/pictures/music etc into the appropriate folders on your device. No need for the dropbox app. And even better is that unlike the dropbox app, it can also download multiple files and entire folders.

monkeyluis · 03-09-2012, 06:24 AM

This looks like an awesome device, but it's grossly expensive. I don't even see just a wifi version only. I wouldn't need the phone capabilities so all of that can be taken out. Sell me a wifi only for $199. I'd buy it today. Samsung missed the mark....again.

ilovejedd · 03-09-2012, 02:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by monkeyluis

This looks like an awesome device, but it's grossly expensive. I don't even see just a wifi version only. I wouldn't need the phone capabilities so all of that can be taken out. Sell me a wifi only for $199. I'd buy it today. Samsung missed the mark....again.

You know, all that hardware crammed into the Galaxy Note isn't free and Samsung does need to turn a profit. If you just want a 5" Android device with Wi-Fi, they do have the Samsung Galaxy Player 5.0 (currently $235 from Amazon).

Eskarina · 03-10-2012, 10:34 AM

Lisa from mobiletechreview loves the note. In case no one's posted it yet, here's her review. And youtube video of AT&T's version.

I've seen the note out in the wild three times this past week and boy that sucker is huge. However, I like that Samsung is bringing back the stylus so I hope it succeeds.

03-07-2012, 09:19 PM	#40
manush Member Posts: 10 Karma: 2862 Join Date: Mar 2012 Device: nook color	I know I'm a little late here to the party, but I just googled galaxy note reading a book and here I am. Anyways dropbox can export files to folders on your phone. If you navigate to an epub file in dropbox and hit export you can save it to your sd card in your phone and then you can choose which folder to save it to. On my phone(android) I click export and save the file to my documents in my nook app. Last edited by manush; 03-07-2012 at 09:33 PM.

03-10-2012, 10:34 AM	#45
Eskarina Zealot Posts: 121 Karma: 62782 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: NOOKColor (sdCM7), Kindle 4	Lisa from mobiletechreview loves the note. In case no one's posted it yet, here's her review. And youtube video of AT&T's version. I've seen the note out in the wild three times this past week and boy that sucker is huge. However, I like that Samsung is bringing back the stylus so I hope it succeeds. Last edited by Eskarina; 03-10-2012 at 10:51 AM. Reason: Added youtube video

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02-03-2012, 09:41 PM	#31
imaredr Collector Posts: 440 Karma: 1002238 Join Date: May 2005 Location: Harker Heights, Texas Device: Cybook	I can't wait until Sunday when I can pre-order this. It sounds like a great device. I just hope the data plan doesn't take me to the poor house.

02-13-2012, 09:02 AM	#33
Guadalupe83 Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2012 Device: none	I am using this device for almost a month and all the other smartphones seem to me like toys. Their screens are way too small for me, that is for sure! I love this android gadget and I hope I will be using it for a long long time! ______________ PDF Converter

02-13-2012, 08:48 PM	#34
macminer Connoisseur Posts: 98 Karma: 660420 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Poland Device: Boox Nova 3, Lenovo Tab 4 8" (formerly many others)	I've recently acquired a Galaxy Note, even though I already have a Kindle. While Kindle is good enough for reading most stuff, it simply cannot be considered a mature reader if one needs to read some serious academic stuff. Page layout in .mobi files is quite simple and cannot really represent many books which rely heavily on tables, footnotes, in-text frames etc. That's why so many textbooks and academic books are published as PDFs. Kindle can display PDFs, but its screen size makes most of them unreadable (characters are really tiny or just "greek"). I expected Galaxy Note to be able to display such stuff much better than my Kindle and so far I can say I am not disappointed in the least. PDF support is truly great. I have already installed three different PDF readers (in addition to Polaris Office, which was preinstalled) and all of them are way better than Kindle. Polaris built-in reader is rather basic and page navigation is non-existent (you can't easily jump to some place, you must scroll through the text). ezPDF reader is quite feature-rich and does a great job at displaying various documents. It is not the fastest reader, but is fast enough. It can also reflow a PDF. It is a paid app, but well-worth the money. Smart Devices Reader (free from Samsung Apps) is blazing fast. It has also good annotation options, comparable to ezPDF. Overall, if one doesn't need some pro features (form filling etc.) this would be good enough for all PDF reading. iAnnotate is an evolving application. So far it is not as complete as ezPDF or SDReader, but it looks promising. All of these allow pinch-to-zoom, but even without zooming the text is quite readable for most PDFs. I was amazed when I saw the difference between our National Statistics Yearly displayed on Kindle (7 inch!) and Note. On Kindle it is barely readable, and not navigable at all. On Note it looks perfect, despite significantly smaller screen (5.3") and navigation is as easy as can be. Obviously, Note is not just a PDF reader. It came preinstalled with Samsung's reader's hub, which gives access to Kobo's library and also with an app for one of our local e-bookshops (Nexto.pl). I was surprised to see that books I had acquired at Nexto got automatically downloaded to my mobile device. That was clever and quite Kindle-like! One area where Note doesn't compare well with Kindle is battery life, but that should be obvious. You either go for an e-ink screen, which is extremely battery friendly or for a beautiful color AMOLED screen, which is quite a battery eater. But with reasonable use the Note can survive the whole day without recharging.

02-14-2012, 05:47 PM	#35
sjfwhite Enthusiast Posts: 43 Karma: 20 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Ontario, Canada Device: Kobo Libra 2, Apple iPad Mini 2	I got mine today. This is my first Android device (I am not counting my Kobo Vox - I have ignored it and given it to my daughter) and replaces my iPad 2 and iPhone 4s. I had a great system going with my ios devices using Dropbox for my ebook collection and getting the books into whatever IOS app I wanted from there (Kindle for mobi and iBooks for epub). I have not figured out how to manage this with the Note. I downloaded the Kobo app from the market place hoping I could side load epubs into there from dropbox but no luck - dropbox tells me there is no app for epubs. How are folks managing to get their books onto their devices and what are your favourite reader apps for the note that support epub? Thanks!

02-14-2012, 06:23 PM	#36
macminer Connoisseur Posts: 98 Karma: 660420 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: Poland Device: Boox Nova 3, Lenovo Tab 4 8" (formerly many others)	Kobo seems to be able to import the epubs that you have on your device. So you need to put them in a folder either on the internal memory or external SD card (by connecting your Note to PC or transferring files to SD card via a card reader). But there are also several other readers, mentioned in other threads in this forum, like Moon+, Mantano Reader, Cool Reader. I have tried myself the Moon+ and it's adequate. I haven't, however, checked it with DRM-ed files, just the ones that were DRM-free.

03-07-2012, 10:02 PM	#41
Filark Armed with a smile :) Posts: 1,421 Karma: 2463560 Join Date: Sep 2009 Location: California, USA Device: enTourage eDGe & Pocket eDGe, Samsung Galaxy Note II	Welcome, Manush! Thanks for the info! Good to have you here on MobileRead.

03-09-2012, 06:24 AM	#43
monkeyluis Banned Posts: 725 Karma: 656644 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Central Florida Device: iPad "3", Kindle Touch, Kindle Fire, iPhone 4S	This looks like an awesome device, but it's grossly expensive. I don't even see just a wifi version only. I wouldn't need the phone capabilities so all of that can be taken out. Sell me a wifi only for $199. I'd buy it today. Samsung missed the mark....again.

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