[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[Philantrop]

There are times I'm wondering why mankind hasn't yet suffered extinction due to laziness.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by maxjens

Yes have been trying that one on my pc. It takes a lot of effort to get ones books in, they did not import calibre catalogs.

Not sure what your process was, but I was able to get my entire library (minus those older books predating isbn) of over 2000 books into the database in a little over an hour...It might have taken 2 hours if I had used the scanner on the iPad/iPhone instead of a handheld one.

How long did it take you to get all the data into Calibre in the first place??

If calibre has an export function you can export a csv file and use that to import into the other program.

[Turtle91]

Originally Posted by maxjens

Basically most solutions now availible are pc oriented. They do not take advantage of the touch environment of the iphone or ipad. The best ipad or iphone apps are simple in use and focussed on swipes and touches, not data entry.

Have you actually used the CLZ Barry/Books apps or just the PC program? The app is all "swipes and touches" and simple scans for data entry.

Anyway, I think this might be turning into a different forum topic so I'll shut up now.

[maxjens]

Originally Posted by Turtle91

Have you actually used the CLZ Barry/Books apps or just the PC program? The app is all "swipes and touches" and simple scans for data entry.

@Turtle91 yes i have used it on my ipad and pc. Its a great app, but not what i was looking for. Let me try too explain. I use calibre as my book management system, all my books are cataloged there. I use cops to provide this info online by opdf or html to any device. Currently i use Marvin as my ebook reader, due to the fact that it is the best book reader and because it connects perfectly with cops and calibre. Now i am not looking for a solution in which i have to upload my calibre data to another app and keep it synchonised or convert it to a ebook-catalog. I am looking for an app that basically uses the metadata from calibre perhaps enhanced by extra data. Marvin already has a beautiful library screen, with lots of functionality. That together with a offline catalog on the ipad is basically what i am looking for. Kris called it a Virtual Bookshelf, i like that concept.

Next to reading books i like the search for that next book that will captivate me. By having the info with me i can do this search in a book store, or on the train or ... CLZ Books could do all that if it was tightly integrated with Calibre, but it has its own catalog/cloud. Keeping different catalogs in sync is not my strong suit, i always end up with them being out of sync.

Hope this clarifies things a bit, i tried all the suggestions in the previous posts, they ended up being a lot of work.

[Barty]

Feature requests:

Please add a menu autohide option. Yes I'm too lazy to tap in the middle to hide the menu in reading screen

Make all built in iOS fonts available, particularly Optima.

Thanks.

[kguil]

Noted.

[Barty]

Another proposal (for way down the road)

Text to speech. It probably doesn't make sense financially to license it for general use, but you could partner with a TTS company and offer TTS as an in app purchase. The company will be selling access to their engine and voices through your app, and you get a cut of the purchase. (Most TTS companies have their own apps, but they usually have lousy epub reader and poor UI.). Your users who want TTS can get it; the rest can ignore. Win win win.

I think TTS is pretty useful sometimes, eg, when I'm too tired to read.

[Turtle91]

If they do purchase the TTS can you change the marvin icon to put lips below the glasses??



- Not putting down the suggestion - it's a great idea - just laughing!

[Jessica Lares]

TTS would be a game changer. Does anyone do it on iOS to begin with?

[GRiker]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

TTS would be a game changer. Does anyone do it on iOS to begin with?

Voice Dream.

G

[kguil]

I concur. TTS in Voice Dream Reader is done really well.

[Manosk]

Hi,

I've recently installed Marvin on my iPad 3 (iOS 6.1.3). As you know, this app lets you easily change brightness, warmth and contrast of the page. I have some questions about this very feature:

1. I've noticed that the brightness control in Marvin is not app-bound, it sets the brightness for the whole iPad. Could this behaviour interfere with the iOS auto-brightness feature?

2. Are the warmth and contrast settings really app-bound as it seems? If so, what are their default values?

Thanks
Manosk

[kguil]

@Manosk

1) Yes. Marvin controls hardware brightness. No. It doesn't interfere with auto-brightness.

2) Warmth and tint apply in the book only. The defaults are off for both. Tint only works if you have warmth dialled in.

[Gurvan]

Was out for a few days and I noticed a bug on my iPad 1. But it is a very minor one and probably not worth correcting...

When you start the App with the iPad in an upside/down position (Connector on top), the App starts upside/down too during the small init phase and then moves the text correctly doing a 180° turn...

Really NOT important...

[kguil]

@Gurvan. You're right. The startup splash screen does not auto rotate. The next update will support upside-down portrait (not landscape).