eBookMobi: Still hunting a Stanza replacement

[kyteflyer]

Reposted from the Stanza is dead thread, with some minor formatting alterations:
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I've tried a couple more readers this morning (AU time).

eBookMobi at $1.99. Not bad. Theres also a "free" version at 0.99c (I'm quoting au prices here... YMMV according to your country) and I dont know what the differences are, I didnt get the other first, but wish I had.

So far here's what I have noticed
1) Very basic adjustment of colour, but has the swipe to dim or brighten a la stanza.
2) Sideloading capable.
3) Links to a number of free sites, some of which don't seem to work. [edit] You can add your own, and delete the ones you don't want but not OPDS catalogs. Just websites.
4) Links to Dropbox for downloading your stored books from there.
5) Stardict dictionaries can be installed. Instructions on the dictionary tab. I havent, because I dont usually use a dictionary.
6) The library does not show a thumbnail of the book cover. It has a generic icon in a large or small version.
7) Margins are minimal, so you get a full page with maybe 5px left and right, and 10 top and 20 bottom. At least thats what it looks like. it might be 10/20/30 for all I know. Text is fully justified with no way to change it.
8) Tap left or right to move forward or back through the book, and centre to access settings etc or close the book.
9) You can also add bookmarks with a text identification instead of just a pretty graphic
10) No annotation.
11) Theres a translate function: If you are from a NESB you can choose to translate from English (or whatever the book comes in) to the language of your choice (not the whole book but if you find a word you don't know, the translation option is there)
12) You can email direct from the book. Can't think why you would but you can. Perhaps in a discussion with someone.

It hasnt had a hiccup in 5.0.1. More advantages. It can read comics and PDF, txt, .doc and more. No DRM reading though.

I kinda like it, and it *seems* to obey formatting instructions (cant find that formatted epub file someone posted, to test it out).

Also tried ebooks reader but it was linked to the ebooks.com site and there was no sideloading capacity. Dropped.

I have also dropped Readme as a possibility. No response from the developers, and constant accessing the internet. Seems dodgy to me, and it was shaping up so well. Its also become unreliable under iOS5.0.1

[edit] Found the fonts file as attached in the readme thread. ebooksmobi obeys formatting and font italic and bold but NOT when span and class are involved. it only knows about the i and b, and i+b tags. Suits me.

[edit#2] Thumbnails of covers show *after* you open the book. It seems the book is stored in a compressed format until you open it, so the cover is not available til then. Its all good.

[kyteflyer]

I'll continue observations here.

Sorting of books doesn't seem to occur until after you open one. You can sort by author, title or last read, but until the book is unpacked, the reader doesnt know where they belong. So it would likely not be too wise to sideload too many at once.

I loaded 70 books as a test run. As with many other readers, loading this many seems to be fraught. The app crashes at first and then when you reopen, the books appear as they ought to.

I think this one has a lot of potential but I'm not going to email the developer, I'll wait and see what happens.

[kyteflyer]

Booklist appearance: First one after some books have been opened, second is the default appearance when books are first added.





Dictionary Page: Prior to adding a dictionary.



Formatting: Using the fonts serif.epub file. I use TrebuchetMS to read with so the formatting isn't as noticeable as it is with a serif font.







Website Links: Some arent working.



Dropbox works. Login and download.



I understand books can be opened in ebookmobi when you accessed via Safari etc. This would bode well for using other storage sites to keep your books.

[kyteflyer]

General comment after using this for a day... the reading experience is as smooth and trouble free as Stanza's. I hope this continues to be developed.

[Shell30Bell]

Trialling this one too. Would definitely like to see more options for background and font colour. So far it seems reasonably good. The main issue for me will be the number of books that the app can handle and whether or not my metadata changes in Calibre are retained when I load my eBooks.

UPDATE: when I load the eBooks they are listed in title order with no cover image and no author details. Once I open the cover appears but not on all of my eBooks. The author details also appear, so the books can be sorted in author order. My major issue is that my Calibre metadata changes have disappeared. Will try tweaking my metadata details in Calibre and reload to see what occurs.

[kyteflyer]

Yes quite a few tweaks needed for this one but I am finding it relatively problem free. I wish it would be able to access OPDS catalogues but oh well cant do that with bluefire either. What I am not getting with this, that I am getting with bluefire and the rest (including the updated stanza), is lag on page turns. its pretty fast and smooth.

[edit] OH. MY. GOD. EbookMobi connected to my calibre library straight away, where all of the others have failed. I have just found my stanza replacement.

[edit#2] OK this is interesting. I wonder if it is because my computer is now 192.168.1.1 where when I could not make a connection, it was 192.168.1.4. Because the other apps are now connecting, too.

[kyteflyer]

Hmm... thumbnails of covers have disappeared again, leaving a blank space where they were.