E-reader apps for Android

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by kennyc

BTW I've used my DroidX the last couple of mornings to read as I walk just before/after sunrise and it is wonderful for that! Reading Mark Murphy's - Android programming books with FBReader.

I'm really surprised at how much I love using Aldiko on the Droid X. Sometimes I'll use it over my 4 eink readers that are sitting right next to it.

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by kennyc

The thing with Aldiko is that I couldn't find an easy way to drag and drop the books in....after spending some time with no success I figured it wasn't worth any more effort. It's possible I missed something....I'm leaning new things about this DX every day it seems.

That's funny because I'd forgotten how I imported books and just wen through this a few minutes ago. I finally went on their website and imported my books step by step. What I'd forgotten to do is go to the notification area and change the selection from "USB Mass Storage" to "Charge Only". On my old Droid 1 I believe the option said "Unmount".

http://www.aldiko.com/support.html#faq987438943

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

That's funny because I'd forgotten how I imported books and just wen through this a few minutes ago. I finally went on their website and imported my books step by step. What I'd forgotten to do is go to the notification area and change the selection from "USB Mass Storage" to "Charge Only". On my old Droid 1 I believe the option said "Unmount".

http://www.aldiko.com/support.html#faq987438943

Yeah the whole "mounted drive" thing and the way it is handled on Android/Linux drives me crazy since I got my DroidX.

If I plug an SD card into my Windows PC there is no contention. I can read/write it from the computer it is on or from a networked computer etc.

Not the case with the phone sd card.
Guess Android/Linux just doesn't like to share.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Yeah the whole "mounted drive" thing and the way it is handled on Android/Linux drives me crazy since I got my DroidX.

If I plug an SD card into my Windows PC there is no contention. I can read/write it from the computer it is on or from a networked computer etc.

Not the case with the phone sd card.
Guess Android/Linux just doesn't like to share.

When Linux (but actually Windows works this way too) "mounts" a drive, it has an "exclusive" hold on the device's storage, that's why you need to "unmount" the SD card and "mount" it to Windows. Yes, when you choose "USB Mass Storage" you are actually unmounting it from Android and mounting it in Windows, so that windows has exclusive hold on your phone's MicroSD card. In fact, you can't access your SD card from Android while "USB Mass Storage" is active.

To follow your example, when you plug an SD card into your Windows PC, only your windows PC has direct access to it.

If you have a wireless network at home, you can get rid of the problem by installing SwiFTP from the Android Market, and using an FTP client on your PC: this makes the transfer of files to and from your Droid X as easy as dragging and dropping files, without the need to unmount anything (because by using FTP it's still your Droid X who has exclusive hold of its MicroSD, and your PC communicates with the Droid X, not the SD card).

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

...

To follow your example, when you plug an SD card into your Windows PC, only your windows PC has direct access to it.

...

Absolutely not true.

I can read and write to it from the pc it is plugged (mounted) into as well as from other networked computers.

[RoboRay]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Absolutely not true.

I can read and write to it from the pc it is plugged (mounted) into as well as from other networked computers.

Absolutely is true. Those networked computers are NOT writing directly to your SD card... the computer it's mounted to is doing it, exactly the same as in the FTP case mentioned above.

Where he says "direct" access is the key factor. Only the machine it's mounted to can write to it. As most Android devices can't join your network and share the SD card as a network drive, you have to unmount it from the Android device and mount it to the PC first. The PC can share it as a network drive, so the other PCs on your network simply tell the one PC it's mounted to what to write. But, that doesn't change the fact that one and only one device has control over the SD card, and that's the one it's mounted to.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by RoboRay

Absolutely is true. Those networked computers are NOT writing directly to your SD card... the computer it's mounted to is doing it, exactly the same as in the FTP case mentioned above.

Where he says "direct" access is the key factor. Only the machine it's mounted to can write to it. As most Android devices can't join your network and share the SD card as a network drive, you have to unmount it from the Android device and mount it to the PC first. The PC can share it as a network drive, so the other PCs on your network simply tell the one PC it's mounted to what to write. But, that doesn't change the fact that one and only one device has control over the SD card, and that's the one it's mounted to.

You, of course, are absolutely correct. Consider the chaos that would ensue if more than one master had "direct" access to a slave device.
For a more on topic post, it appears that CoolReader 3 is just entering Alpha testing as an Android reading application, so there will be one more reader to consider soon.

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Yeah the whole "mounted drive" thing and the way it is handled on Android/Linux drives me crazy since I got my DroidX.

Yeah, it has me a little confused as well, like, what's the difference btwn "PC Mode" "Windows Media Sync" and "USB Mass Storage" as options when you plug it in? I just got used to "Mount" or "Unmount" on the Droid 1.

[SolRaven]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

If you have a wireless network at home, you can get rid of the problem by installing SwiFTP from the Android Market, and using an FTP client on your PC: this makes the transfer of files to and from your Droid X as easy as dragging and dropping files, without the need to unmount anything

Do I need separate program on my pc? My phone is set up to use the network via DNLA sync but I've only checked it out by viewing pics on my phone on my Samsung HDTV with apps. I'm still pretty new to all of this.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by kennyc

Absolutely not true.

I can read and write to it from the pc it is plugged (mounted) into as well as from other networked computers.

Actually, as RoboRay and Dave_S pointed out, it IS true. When you access your SD card "from other networked computers", your networked computers are just "talking" (allow me to use this word for sake of simplicity) to the one computer which has the SD mounted, and it is THAT computer who is reading/writing on the SD card.

If you try to use the FTP protocol, as I suggested you above, you'll be in the exact same situation: your Android device has the SD card mounted (so, exclusive rights) but through the FTP explorer your PC will "talk" to your Android and make him read/write files.

I know that from the user's point of view, all of this doesn't appear (the so-loved and so-called transparency), but it's how it actually happens

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by SolRaven

Do I need separate program on my pc? My phone is set up to use the network via DNLA sync but I've only checked it out by viewing pics on my phone on my Samsung HDTV with apps. I'm still pretty new to all of this.

You need an FTP "server" (the SwiFTP app from the market) which will allow you to manipulate files in your Android, and an FTP "client" on your PC to access the "server".
If you have a linux distro, chances are that you already have an FTP client installed, if you have Windows I can suggest you to use FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org/), the client version of course: it's free, constantly updated and very easy to use.

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by Lo Zeno

You need an FTP "server" (the SwiFTP app from the market) which will allow you to manipulate files in your Android, and an FTP "client" on your PC to access the "server".
If you have a linux distro, chances are that you already have an FTP client installed, if you have Windows I can suggest you to use FileZilla (http://filezilla-project.org/), the client version of course: it's free, constantly updated and very easy to use.

Windows also has a built-in FTP client called "ftp", but it is a command line application. Your "FileZilla" recommendation is very likely more appropriate for an inexperienced user.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by RoboRay

Absolutely is true. Those networked computers are NOT writing directly to your SD card... the computer it's mounted to is doing it, exactly the same as in the FTP case mentioned above.

Where he says "direct" access is the key factor. Only the machine it's mounted to can write to it. As most Android devices can't join your network and share the SD card as a network drive, you have to unmount it from the Android device and mount it to the PC first. The PC can share it as a network drive, so the other PCs on your network simply tell the one PC it's mounted to what to write. But, that doesn't change the fact that one and only one device has control over the SD card, and that's the one it's mounted to.

No. The point is that it is being done WRONG in the phone. In the example given I can access the SD card and modify files from both the pc where it is mounted and other pcs at the same time. ( I don't care how it is done or for explanations of why it doesn't work) Not the case when I connect the phone to my computer....suddenly the phone can't see the sd card!
If the windows situation were the same then the networked PCs couldn't see the windows "mounted" sd card. It's simply wrong.

[Lo Zeno]

Originally Posted by kennyc

No. The point is that it is being done WRONG in the phone. In the example given I can access the SD card and modify files from both the pc where it is mounted and other pcs at the same time. ( I don't care how it is done or for explanations of why it doesn't work) Not the case when I connect the phone to my computer....suddenly the phone can't see the sd card!
If the windows situation were the same then the networked PCs couldn't see the windows "mounted" sd card. It's simply wrong.

(emphasis mine)

You are comparing apples and oranges: you can't expect a physical direct serial connection, like the USB cable, to behave like a network.
The difference between YOUR example of windows situation and what I wrote, is that you wrote about "Networked PCs", while you have never networked the Android phone and your PC. You connect them via USB cable, which is NOT networking at all. If you have a network, ONE device has control over the "SD drive", and all others communicate to the device through some sort of message-exchanging network; when you plug the USB cable from your android phone to your PC, unfortunately, there's no network involved: you have 2 computers (I include any smartphone under the name "computer"), both of which want direct, physical access to the SD card. You have to choose.

If you want to reproduce the same situation using 2 windows PC, try to buy an external SD card reader, and connect it to both PCs at the same time (assuming that you can), and try to use the SD card from both. You can't, simply: one of the two will tell you that the device is held by another hardware.

You want to access files from the SD card from both the Android phone and your PC? Network is the way to go, as in your windows example. And the FTP solution I wrote about is just that: a networking implementation that is compatible with both windows and Linux, and so it works.

Under the sheets, what happens (in both FTP and windows networks) is that ONE computing device has control of the memory device, and the other PCs "ask" the first to perform operations on his SD card.

[kennyc]

No, I'm saying how it should be. It's not.

(as I said above I don't want to hear excuses or explanations. I've been in this business long enough to have heard most of them already anyway. )