[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[kguil]

Tint desaturates the "redness" of the warmth. It has no effect unless some warmth is dialled in.

[kyteflyer]

I can't wait til you get some kind of sync and an iphone app happening, this is really exciting for those of us who have been dedicated Stanza users. Thanks for your hard work, Kris, and your attention to users and detail. WOW. Maybe the other reader devs can learn something from you.

[Shykat]

I'm excited about the program as well. Just need to get my Mini and also have the iPhone app and then I can really hope that Kris is successful with an easy to use Sync feature.

As I haven't had a chance to use the program yet, another feature I had mentioned wondering if it was in the program yet or could be added to the "Want List": The ability to have an icon accessible from within the book that would allow you to see the cover picture as well as read the info about the book. It's the Metadata, I believe, or at least it's where I add the info when I edit the data on the ebook when using Calibre.

Hope that makes sense.

[kguil]

Shykat, the book info, description, cover, and calibre metadata is definitely coming in the update after the holidays. In fact, it is already ready. I just didn't make it on time for this week's update. There are also new library sorting options and meta data editing.

[Richard Moody]

This just sounds better and better!!

[Shykat]

Fantastic!!!

Please keep the Sort By Order Added. That's an important feature for me.

Thank you so much for all your hard work. Even though I haven't been able to try this program yet, it sounds better and better.

Shykat

Originally Posted by kguil

Shykat, the book info, description, cover, and calibre metadata is definitely coming in the update after the holidays. In fact, it is already ready. I just didn't make it on time for this week's update. There are also new library sorting options and meta data editing.

[Faterson]

Hi Kris,

feature suggestion: could you, please, also introduce three-finger-swipe to the app? I'm currently using the two-finger-swipe to turn 5 pages, but I also like the idea of "smart-snapping" (browse by chapters/bookmarks).

Thank you for considering this. It works great for video apps like AVPlayerHD or VLC Streamer: two-finger-swipe = jump by 10 seconds, three-finger-swipe = jump by 30 seconds, etc. Marvin gestures might accomplish similar things, just for books, not movies.

[kguil]

Faterson, you read my mind. Check this out: http://marvinapp.com/whatsnew.html

[Richard Moody]

Oh wow!!

[Faterson]

That's absolutely magnificent, Kris. I must pinch myself if I'm not dreaming. I suppose I should draft a thank-you letter to Amazon for killing Stanza, because in view of Marvin's features (on a par with and excelling those in Stanza), it has now turned out to be a blessing in disguise.

I have a bug report. I know the description says the Extend and +Word buttons are experimental features, but still. The +Word button has always worked correctly for me so far. The Extend button, however, only works correctly when I press it once. The selection then gets extended to the end of the current sentence, which is correct. I would expect that a second press of the Extend button would then extend the selection to the following (second) sentence. Third press, third sentence (and so on). It would be logical, and I would find it very useful. Instead, what the second press does now, it actually decreases the selection by one word -- which can scarcely have been the desired effect. Thank you for fixing the button's behaviour, if possible.

[kguil]

Thanks Faterson.

My method to extend to the current sentence has always been very temperamental. In fact, in some cases, it also fails to extend to the first sentence the first time. I've spent countless hours trying to figure out the problem but had no luck (that's why I marked it as experimental). I'll try and look into it some more.

[Valkrider]

I have now permanently switched from Bluefire to Marvin.

One thing I am not keen on though is all the icons being displayed all the time on the top and bottom of the page. I think have explored the options but haven't found a way to turn them off, is it possible?

[kguil]

You can hide them by tapping in the middle of the page.

In fact, in the version coming this week, there is an option to hide the headers too if you want.

[Faterson]

One-minute response time from the developer, ROFL.

Yes, you can definitely hide the icons in Marvin, as you can see from the 4 Marvin screenshots I posted here.

As to the header and footer, I like to keep them displayed while reading -- they're very elegant and unobtrusive in Marvin: in a small, faded font. When Marvin for iPhone arrives, however, I might well choose to hide the header and footer, too. I think Kris should make it possible, for Marvin on iPhone, to utilize the entire screen real estate to display the book text. This is crucial on a small smartphone screen. That is, if a Marvin on iPhone user chooses to hide the header and footer, they shouldn't simply be hidden, but the text of the book should fill the now-empty space where the header and footer would otherwise have been.

This is one of the things I hate about iBooks: the default, non-customizable page margins are intolerably wide, and when you select the so-called "Full-Screen Mode" in iBooks, it's not really a full-screen mode at all! All it does is to hide the header and footer, while keeping the page margins as intolerably wide as they were before. Marvin for iPhone should avoid this pitfall. Full-screen is full-screen, period. It's not just "hide header and footer".

Stanza is very smart in full-screen mode in that it still manages to indicate the overall progress in the book with an extremely thin progress strip along the bottom edge of the smartphone screen. See the Stanza screenshot below. This is the best arrangement anyone could hope for. Of course, tapping in the center of the screen brings up the full menu and icons.

[kguil]

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