Google Nexus 7

johnwhelan · 09-14-2012, 11:17 AM

I'm looking for information on reader software. If I read the BBC web page the clear text on a white background is nice and readable.

It looks as if I need to use Google talk rather than Skype which doesn't bother me too much. OSMAND the free off line mapping looks interesting as you can load it with maps from different sources.

I've purchased more than a 1,000 ebooks and my first ereader got abandoned when the cost of a replacement battery was more than a new device so software that only lets me buy ebooks and download them to my device isn't of interest. The library is in Calibre by the way.

Aged parent is getting very aged these days so being able to display large clear text on a Nexus would be useful. I could buy her another one.

I haven't found a way to load epub books into the default library. FBreader works in so far as I can load epub books in from my PC but the background to the pages seems speckled and I can't see a way to increase the type face size easily. The fonts also seem a little restricted compared to what I'm used to.

Any suggestions on different ereader software that allows copying epubs from a PC ideally with Calibre but has clearer text?

Thanks John

livramax · 09-14-2012, 12:24 PM

Have you tried the Mantano ereader? You can change the font size by swiping the finger up/down the page.

johnwhelan · 09-14-2012, 01:59 PM

At $9 plus a few reviews that suggest it isn't quite as stable as it could be I hesitate.

But thanks for the thought.

When I look at the three ereaders I've played with so for the typefaces all seem to be too small for comfort even on the maximum size.

The lite version does seem to be able to display larger fonts sizes, I assume the pro version would let me select the typeface? I quite like the white text on black background.

Cheerio John

Cdesja5 · 09-14-2012, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

At $9 plus a few reviews that suggest it isn't quite as stable as it could be I hesitate.

But thanks for the thought.

When I look at the three ereaders I've played with so for the typefaces all seem to be too small for comfort even on the maximum size.

The lite version does seem to be able to display larger fonts sizes, I assume the pro version would let me select the typeface? I quite like the white text on black background.

Cheerio John

Try Aldiko, free version has pretty much all the features of the paid version except for some small ads until you get to reading material (but not annoying) . You can set up Calibre as a "catalog" to load the books with the Calibre server and text/font choices are good in my opinion.

cfrizz · 09-14-2012, 02:59 PM

You can also try Sony's tablet version. It's free.

http://ebookstore.sony.com/download/

supermighty · 09-14-2012, 03:34 PM

I really like FBReader on all my android devices. I reads epub and mobi, is highly customizable and flexible. You can even put your own fonts in /sdcard/Fonts and it picks them up, even without root or hacking.

Also I'm pretty sure that Skype is available on the Nexus 7.

Moe The Cat · 09-14-2012, 04:07 PM

Yes, I have Skype on my Nexus 7 and it works well.

livramax · 09-14-2012, 04:15 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by johnwhelan

At $9 plus a few reviews that suggest it isn't quite as stable as it could be I hesitate.
...
The lite version does seem to be able to display larger fonts sizes, I assume the pro version would let me select the typeface? I quite like the white text on black background.

Cheerio John

The version I am using (with adjustable font size) is the free, lite version.

goldberry · 09-14-2012, 07:35 PM

Have you tried coolreader it changes text size quite well?

RainingLemur · 09-14-2012, 07:43 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by supermighty

Also I'm pretty sure that Skype is available on the Nexus 7.

Skype is available on...almost anything anymore. I have it on my PSP and it works rather good.

Hopskinny · 09-14-2012, 10:18 PM

I am using Bluefire Reader and Mantano Reader and Kindle on my Nexus 7. All work well and are completely stable - I just use whichever reader was my source for the ebooks in question. I managed to copy over all of the ebooks in my Calibre library to Mantano Reader. Kindle has the books I bought through Kindle, and Bluefire has some free ebooks I located through that reader's sources. I love my Nexus 7 - it is so much more versatile for ebook reading than my Sony PRS-T1 and has a higher resolution so the fonts are crisper.

Hopskinny · 09-14-2012, 10:24 PM

I went back and re-read your original post and note your comment about Calibre. I have not been able to get Calibre and the Nexus to make beautiful music together. This is partly because the Nexus uses MTP and therefore does not show up in My Computer with an assigned drive letter. Calibre therefore cannot see the Nexus. If you look at the Calibre forum on this board you will see that lots of other people are struggling with it as well, and I am not computer literate enough to use the work arounds that are suggested. I also have a problem with Calibre itself on the PC because it refuses to open the content server, no matter what I do - it says the port is not available even though the firewall has opened the port. I simply located all of the books in the Calibre folder in my PC and copied them over. At least I can read them now...

Hopskinny · 09-14-2012, 11:03 PM

Kovid has just released a new version of Calibre that is v0.8.69 with beta drivers to communicate with MTP devices.

There is a thread about this in the Calibre forum, where Kovid is seeking testers for the version. I only saw this thread after reading and replying to your question.

You will see that I have posted my experience in Kovid's thread in the Calibre forum. I have just installed it, and done the tweak that Kovid talks about in his instructions, and Calibre now recognises my Nexus 7. I asked Calibre to list all the books on the device, which it did. I was also successful in getting Calibre to upload a book from the Calibre library to the Nexus 7.

At present the drivers are beta in the new version of Calibre and have only been tested with Win7 and Linux. However, Kovid thought they should work with WinXP provided Windows Media Player 11 (or later) was installed. Thus far, it is working well with my WinXP PC/Nexus 7.

johnwhelan · 09-15-2012, 09:37 AM

For some reason since Skype has been taken over by Microsoft I wasn't sure if the Nexus was supported. That's good news since switching both aged relatives in Texas and the UK to Google talk from Canada was something I wasn't looking forward to.

Calibre looks interesting but for the moment I can copy epub books onto the device and that's good enough. I'll keep an eye on this to see how it progresses.

To restate on FBReader the issue is the background colour and the font size. Clarity is the main requirement for elderly eyes.

The full Mantano seems to do the trick,the white on black background is useful and being able to switch the display font is as well. I tried the lite version first.

Some of my books are a bit specialised and come from smaller publishers so the idea of using three different ereaders depending where the book has come from does not appeal. Kindle and Bluefire appear to be closed shops, ie difficult to read epub books that are on my PC. Bluefire didn't inspire me with its font sizes available nor by the way it left files on the Nexus when I uninstalled it.

Thank you all for your insights.

Cheerio John

leclospierre · 09-15-2012, 10:21 AM

Hello John. On my Nexus 7 I am using Moon+ Reader Pro as my reader app - you can very simply link it directly to your Calibre Server. You can also download the Calibre App from Google Play but Moon+ gives a one-stop solution and as it reads a wide range of formats (including MOBI) frankly, you don't need anything else. Plus you can spend many happy hours twiddling with colours and font sizes and goodness knows what else - buy you probably don't need to.

Best of luck
Peter.

09-14-2012, 11:17 AM	#1
johnwhelan Zealot Posts: 104 Karma: 475752 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Kobo Touch, Cybook Gen 3, Google Nexus7	Google Nexus 7 I'm looking for information on reader software. If I read the BBC web page the clear text on a white background is nice and readable. It looks as if I need to use Google talk rather than Skype which doesn't bother me too much. OSMAND the free off line mapping looks interesting as you can load it with maps from different sources. I've purchased more than a 1,000 ebooks and my first ereader got abandoned when the cost of a replacement battery was more than a new device so software that only lets me buy ebooks and download them to my device isn't of interest. The library is in Calibre by the way. Aged parent is getting very aged these days so being able to display large clear text on a Nexus would be useful. I could buy her another one. I haven't found a way to load epub books into the default library. FBreader works in so far as I can load epub books in from my PC but the background to the pages seems speckled and I can't see a way to increase the type face size easily. The fonts also seem a little restricted compared to what I'm used to. Any suggestions on different ereader software that allows copying epubs from a PC ideally with Calibre but has clearer text? Thanks John

09-14-2012, 01:59 PM	#3
johnwhelan Zealot Posts: 104 Karma: 475752 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Kobo Touch, Cybook Gen 3, Google Nexus7	At $9 plus a few reviews that suggest it isn't quite as stable as it could be I hesitate. But thanks for the thought. When I look at the three ereaders I've played with so for the typefaces all seem to be too small for comfort even on the maximum size. The lite version does seem to be able to display larger fonts sizes, I assume the pro version would let me select the typeface? I quite like the white text on black background. Cheerio John Last edited by johnwhelan; 09-14-2012 at 02:17 PM.

09-14-2012, 10:24 PM	#12
Hopskinny Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 500030 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Sony PRS-T1	I went back and re-read your original post and note your comment about Calibre. I have not been able to get Calibre and the Nexus to make beautiful music together. This is partly because the Nexus uses MTP and therefore does not show up in My Computer with an assigned drive letter. Calibre therefore cannot see the Nexus. If you look at the Calibre forum on this board you will see that lots of other people are struggling with it as well, and I am not computer literate enough to use the work arounds that are suggested. I also have a problem with Calibre itself on the PC because it refuses to open the content server, no matter what I do - it says the port is not available even though the firewall has opened the port. I simply located all of the books in the Calibre folder in my PC and copied them over. At least I can read them now... Last edited by Hopskinny; 09-14-2012 at 11:03 PM.

09-14-2012, 11:03 PM	#13
Hopskinny Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 500030 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Sony PRS-T1	Kovid has just released a new version of Calibre that is v0.8.69 with beta drivers to communicate with MTP devices. There is a thread about this in the Calibre forum, where Kovid is seeking testers for the version. I only saw this thread after reading and replying to your question. You will see that I have posted my experience in Kovid's thread in the Calibre forum. I have just installed it, and done the tweak that Kovid talks about in his instructions, and Calibre now recognises my Nexus 7. I asked Calibre to list all the books on the device, which it did. I was also successful in getting Calibre to upload a book from the Calibre library to the Nexus 7. At present the drivers are beta in the new version of Calibre and have only been tested with Win7 and Linux. However, Kovid thought they should work with WinXP provided Windows Media Player 11 (or later) was installed. Thus far, it is working well with my WinXP PC/Nexus 7. Last edited by Hopskinny; 09-14-2012 at 11:07 PM.

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09-14-2012, 12:24 PM	#2
livramax Addict Posts: 275 Karma: 1115510 Join Date: Jan 2012 Location: USA Device: Nook ST, Aura HD, Galaxy Note 8, Fire HD10, Galaxy S6 Lite	Have you tried the Mantano ereader? You can change the font size by swiping the finger up/down the page.

09-14-2012, 02:59 PM	#5
cfrizz Wizard Posts: 1,531 Karma: 34583358 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Quincy, MA Device: Samsung 54A, Kobo Libra H2O, Samsung S6 Lite	You can also try Sony's tablet version. It's free. http://ebookstore.sony.com/download/

09-14-2012, 03:34 PM	#6
supermighty Groupie Posts: 165 Karma: 6384806 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Walled City Device: Kobo Libre 2	I really like FBReader on all my android devices. I reads epub and mobi, is highly customizable and flexible. You can even put your own fonts in /sdcard/Fonts and it picks them up, even without root or hacking. Also I'm pretty sure that Skype is available on the Nexus 7.

09-14-2012, 04:07 PM	#7
Moe The Cat Bear Melt Posts: 919 Karma: 5433051 Join Date: Jul 2008 Location: Toronto Device: Google Pixel 6, Moto G9 Power (both with Fbreader) & Kindle PW2	Yes, I have Skype on my Nexus 7 and it works well.

09-14-2012, 07:35 PM	#9
goldberry Groupie Posts: 199 Karma: 1105816 Join Date: Sep 2010 Device: Nexus 7, Kindles (wife's), now obsolete Nook and Sony	Have you tried coolreader it changes text size quite well?

09-14-2012, 10:18 PM	#11
Hopskinny Enthusiast Posts: 25 Karma: 500030 Join Date: Dec 2011 Device: Sony PRS-T1	I am using Bluefire Reader and Mantano Reader and Kindle on my Nexus 7. All work well and are completely stable - I just use whichever reader was my source for the ebooks in question. I managed to copy over all of the ebooks in my Calibre library to Mantano Reader. Kindle has the books I bought through Kindle, and Bluefire has some free ebooks I located through that reader's sources. I love my Nexus 7 - it is so much more versatile for ebook reading than my Sony PRS-T1 and has a higher resolution so the fonts are crisper.

09-15-2012, 09:37 AM	#14
johnwhelan Zealot Posts: 104 Karma: 475752 Join Date: Jan 2009 Device: Kobo Touch, Cybook Gen 3, Google Nexus7	For some reason since Skype has been taken over by Microsoft I wasn't sure if the Nexus was supported. That's good news since switching both aged relatives in Texas and the UK to Google talk from Canada was something I wasn't looking forward to. Calibre looks interesting but for the moment I can copy epub books onto the device and that's good enough. I'll keep an eye on this to see how it progresses. To restate on FBReader the issue is the background colour and the font size. Clarity is the main requirement for elderly eyes. The full Mantano seems to do the trick,the white on black background is useful and being able to switch the display font is as well. I tried the lite version first. Some of my books are a bit specialised and come from smaller publishers so the idea of using three different ereaders depending where the book has come from does not appeal. Kindle and Bluefire appear to be closed shops, ie difficult to read epub books that are on my PC. Bluefire didn't inspire me with its font sizes available nor by the way it left files on the Nexus when I uninstalled it. Thank you all for your insights. Cheerio John

09-15-2012, 10:21 AM	#15
leclospierre Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 146 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: France Device: Kindle 3, Nexus 7	Hello John. On my Nexus 7 I am using Moon+ Reader Pro as my reader app - you can very simply link it directly to your Calibre Server. You can also download the Calibre App from Google Play but Moon+ gives a one-stop solution and as it reads a wide range of formats (including MOBI) frankly, you don't need anything else. Plus you can spend many happy hours twiddling with colours and font sizes and goodness knows what else - buy you probably don't need to. Best of luck Peter.

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