Register Guidelines E-Books Search Today's Posts Mark Forums Read

Go Back   MobileRead Forums > E-Book Readers > Apple Devices

Notices

Reply
 
Thread Tools Search this Thread
Old 09-23-2009, 12:16 AM   #1
bthoven
Evangelist
bthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enough
 
bthoven's Avatar
 
Posts: 475
Karma: 590
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
Read full-content feeds on iPhone Kindle App

I love the mobipocket/mobireader on my Nokia E51 symbian, Palm, and Pocketpc PDA. I usually subscribed several enews in Mobipocket on my PC desktop and automatically sync to my device. It was very fast, easy, and convenient to read offline enews from the combination of tools. It's strong point was it can retrieve full enews content, not just the synopsis. I can read The Econimists, Psychology Today, Scientific American, etc. in full content!.

When I switch to iPhone, I've realized that I cannot find any good replacement software for my mobipocket. I cannot get full-content feeds from any iPhone app. I've tried Calibre on desktop; even it can retrieve full-content feeds, it was very slow and always drag my PC to crawl when retrieving the feeds. Now I've found an excellent way to do it; though not that convenient as the mobipocket/mobireader tools.

What I need are:
- on PC, mobipocket on desktop (the same software I used earlier)
- on iPhone, Kindle app from Amazon
– on PC, iPhonebrowser (it is like a file explorer showing every folder/file in your iphone)

I use mobipocket on desktop to subscribe and retrieve my feeds as usual. It is fast and convenient as usual. However, what I lack is the ability to automatically sync the content with my iPhone. So how can I move the feeds to my iPhone?

The solution is a 3rd party freeware iPHonebrowser (now version 1.9.1).

After connecting my iphone to my PC via usb cable, I just run iphonebrowser. Find the folder where Kindle app keeps all the ebooks in you iPhone (in my iPhone, it is "/User/Applications/96B0846D-F49A-4F96-8D08-90E1E9A4B09B/Documents/eBooks" folder ); then open the folder (you should also add this folder as one of your favourite folder so that you can find it easily next time).

On your PC, after mobipocket completes retrieving your enews, open your file explorer and go to "c:\Documents and Settings\xxxyourusernamexx\My Documents\My eBooks\Feeds\" folder. This is where all your feeds are kept. Sort the file listing by type, you can see all the files with prc extension grouping together; these are all your enews files. Select all prc files and just drag them to your iphonebrowser folder! Then open your Kindle app on your iPhone, you can see list of those enews, and enjoy reading them!

Next time you refresh your enews on mobipocket desktop, you just repeat the same process:
- open iphonebrowser,
- open the Kindle ebooks folder,
- open the same mobipocket Feeds folder on desktop,
- and copy all those prc files (same filenames but with updated content inside) to your iphone via iphonebrowser. The old files on your iPhone will be replaced by the new files.

Now I'm very happy to have those full-content feeds on my iPhone and I'll miss my Nokia less than before.

Hope this is of interest for some of you.

Last edited by bthoven; 09-23-2009 at 05:05 AM.
bthoven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2009, 11:31 AM   #2
travis
Enthusiast
travis has learned how to buy an e-book online
 
Posts: 40
Karma: 86
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: USA, Philippines, Colombia, Mexico
Device: Ipod Touch 3G, 10" Acer Netbook, Kindle 3
Thanks for such an informative post. Two questions:

1) There is nothing Kindle-specific about what you are doing on the Iphone, right? so you could use most any reader, not just Kindle?

2) Is retrieved content via mobipocket on PC expensive?

Thanks,
Travis
travis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2009, 11:46 AM   #3
daffy4u
I'm Super Kindle-icious
daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
daffy4u's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,734
Karma: 2434103
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia
Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis
Quote:
Originally Posted by travis View Post

2) Is retrieved content via mobipocket on PC expensive?

Thanks,
Travis
I can answer this part. It's free (the software and the RSS feed retrieval but it's PC only, not Mac compatible).
daffy4u is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2009, 11:55 AM   #4
travis
Enthusiast
travis has learned how to buy an e-book online
 
Posts: 40
Karma: 86
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: USA, Philippines, Colombia, Mexico
Device: Ipod Touch 3G, 10" Acer Netbook, Kindle 3
Quote:
Originally Posted by daffy4u View Post
I can answer this part. It's free (the software and the RSS feed retrieval but it's PC only, not Mac compatible).
The link indicates that that tool(s) are free. But also the content? For instance, the OP mentioned:
Quote:
It's strong point was it can retrieve full enews content, not just the synopsis. I can read The Econimists, Psychology Today, Scientific American, etc. in full content!.
So it is possible, for instance, to get this content for free? I am not necessarily looking to pay nothing for stuff, just trying to see what is available.

Thanks,
Travis
travis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2009, 12:04 PM   #5
daffy4u
I'm Super Kindle-icious
daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.daffy4u ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
daffy4u's Avatar
 
Posts: 6,734
Karma: 2434103
Join Date: Apr 2008
Location: Long Drive, Calinadia Candafornia
Device: KDXG, KT, Oasis
Quote:
Originally Posted by travis View Post
The link indicates that that tool(s) are free. But also the content? For instance, the OP mentioned:


So it is possible, for instance, to get this content for free? I am not necessarily looking to pay nothing for stuff, just trying to see what is available.

Thanks,
Travis
I can't speak to those specific magazines, so I'll let the OP answer that for you. My experience has been with newspaper feeds where the RSS feeds are freely available.
daffy4u is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2009, 09:50 PM   #6
bthoven
Evangelist
bthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enough
 
bthoven's Avatar
 
Posts: 475
Karma: 590
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
Quote:
Originally Posted by travis View Post
Thanks for such an informative post. Two questions:

1) There is nothing Kindle-specific about what you are doing on the Iphone, right? so you could use most any reader, not just Kindle?

2) Is retrieved content via mobipocket on PC expensive?

Thanks,
Travis
I'm not sure I understand your first question right. Anyway I try to answer it:

1. other reader software on iPhone (not Kindle app): as long as such reader software can read mobipocket file format (.prc), it should be able to read the content. However, the way each reader keep their enew/ebook files on iPhone are different. For some software, you need to download each feed one by one through their specific screen interface; you cannot simply copy those files to a specific folder because there are some internal arrangement by the software during the download process. So far I only find Kindle app allowing me to simply copying the prc files to its internal folder, and the Kindle app can read it right away. For example, Stanza app on iPhone, it cannot see prc files on their download screen interface, it can only see epub files; you also cannot simply copy epub files to any Stanza internal folder, as I explained above.

2. other ereader tablet: I cannot tell whether you can, or if you can, how to copy the prc files into those tablets (if it support prc files). I have no experience to any dedicated ebook reader hardware.

As you know, Apple do not provide data transfer via usb (except some specific media files through iTunes), you need to do it somehow via wifi. I found this extremely inconvenient. iPhonebrowser is a god-send tool which allows me to transfer files between iphone and my PC via usb cable, off course as long as you find which folder in the iPhone pertaining to your iPhone apps. Apart from Kindle, I found Goodreader, iSilo, and Quickoffice folders which I could simply copy my documents into.

Last edited by bthoven; 09-24-2009 at 02:57 AM.
bthoven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-23-2009, 10:01 PM   #7
bthoven
Evangelist
bthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enough
 
bthoven's Avatar
 
Posts: 475
Karma: 590
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
Quote:
Originally Posted by daffy4u View Post
I can't speak to those specific magazines, so I'll let the OP answer that for you. My experience has been with newspaper feeds where the RSS feeds are freely available.
All the enews are free and legal.

As I'm not at home now, I cannot give you the direct feed url now. I'll post the url later.

For The Economists, it is full content like the printed edition.

For Psychology Today, it may not be the same articles as in the printed edition; but it is full-content feeds, probably from their daily blog articles. I believe some of the articles are also printed in their magazine.

For Scientific American, it is the same as the printed magazine.

For Newsweek, it is also full-content; but I'm not sure it is same as the printed magazine or not because I've never made any comparision.

For BBC, it is full-content news.

I'm not not in US, so I've not tried other US newspapers.

The mobireader on desktop PC (not Mac), have a huge enews online catalogue for you to subscribe from. The catalogue keeps on expanding because any specific feeds you add by yourself into Mobireader, will be added into the central online catalogue automatically; a very clever approach. The drawback is you may find a lot of duplicated feeds from the same source (url); but it is not a major issue.

Hope it is clear...thanks

Last edited by bthoven; 09-24-2009 at 02:52 AM.
bthoven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-24-2009, 12:38 AM   #8
tejohn
Junior Member
tejohn began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 6
Karma: 10
Join Date: Sep 2009
Device: none
some great information in this thread.. thanks.
tejohn is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-24-2009, 01:28 AM   #9
travis
Enthusiast
travis has learned how to buy an e-book online
 
Posts: 40
Karma: 86
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: USA, Philippines, Colombia, Mexico
Device: Ipod Touch 3G, 10" Acer Netbook, Kindle 3
Thanks very much! I don't have my Ipod touch yet, but I can download the tool and test it on my PC. Now I know that I will be able to read the same content on my Ipod Touch, thanks to your post.

Travis
travis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-24-2009, 10:53 AM   #10
bthoven
Evangelist
bthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enough
 
bthoven's Avatar
 
Posts: 475
Karma: 590
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
The Economists - Full Printed Edition: http://feeds.feedburner.com/economis..._print_edition

Scientific American: http://www.scientificamerican.com/xm...fm?type=global

Psychology Today: http://www.psychologytoday.com/articles/index.rss
bthoven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-25-2009, 06:44 PM   #11
travis
Enthusiast
travis has learned how to buy an e-book online
 
Posts: 40
Karma: 86
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: USA, Philippines, Colombia, Mexico
Device: Ipod Touch 3G, 10" Acer Netbook, Kindle 3
Thanks for the information, I downloaded Mobipocket Reader on my PC and started using it. I don't have my Ipod Touch delivered yet so I can't test on it yet.

Question: When you move the feeds from your PC over to your Ipod Touch, they are just feeds right and not the whole article (as in the 3 examples above)?

If that is the case, couldn't one just any RSS reader that is native on Ipod touch to do the same thing? It is true that in that case the feeds may not be embedded in a nice reader like Kindle software, but I am just wondering. Also, it looks like in either case one would have to be on-line with the Ipod Touch to read the article. Please correct me if I am wrong.

Ideally what I would like to do is periodically archive some content on my Ipod Touch for reading when it is not on-line.

Thanks,
Travis
travis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 09-26-2009, 05:17 AM   #12
bthoven
Evangelist
bthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enough
 
bthoven's Avatar
 
Posts: 475
Karma: 590
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
Hi Travis,

Mobipocket reader on desktop will retrieve the whole article, not just short feed sentences. So what you copy into your ipod will be the full article feeds. The purpose is to have full articles for offline reading.

Most RSS reader apps for ipod/iphone will retrieve just feeds (a few sentences); only when you want to see the whole article, you have to go online browsing for that particular feed..

Last edited by bthoven; 09-26-2009 at 05:39 AM.
bthoven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2009, 06:39 PM   #13
travis
Enthusiast
travis has learned how to buy an e-book online
 
Posts: 40
Karma: 86
Join Date: Jan 2007
Location: USA, Philippines, Colombia, Mexico
Device: Ipod Touch 3G, 10" Acer Netbook, Kindle 3
I believe that one huge overlooked detail is that your Iphone or Ipod Touch must be jailbroken to do this, correct? Since I have not yet really used my Ipod Touch Kindle reader for downloaded content, it is possible that a directory will be written when I do so. But for now I can't see anything to do with Kindle on my iphonebrowser.

I just downloaded Iphonebrowser and they suggest doing a jailbreak, although the process is not necessarily straightforward.

Apparently, only the most recent, beta version of Iphonebrowser works with Itunes 9 (and this is what I have working together, Iphonebrowser beta version 1.03 and Itunes 9).

Thanks,
Travis
travis is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2009, 09:23 PM   #14
bthoven
Evangelist
bthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enoughbthoven will become famous soon enough
 
bthoven's Avatar
 
Posts: 475
Karma: 590
Join Date: Aug 2009
Location: Bangkok, Thailand
Device: Kindle Paperwhite
Yes..Travis..you're right. I forgot mentioning about having to jailbreak your Ipod touch in order to work on that approach!.

Since I jailbroke my iPhone from day one, I usually lose sense of what are the additional advantage of having a jailbroken phone 8-)
bthoven is offline   Reply With Quote
Old 11-02-2009, 10:30 PM   #15
carlobee
Fanatic
carlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-bookscarlobee has learned how to read e-books
 
Posts: 535
Karma: 972
Join Date: Jul 2009
Device: The new iPad
oh. my iPhone lacks just one thing... it still is not jailbroken.

carlobee is offline   Reply With Quote
Reply

Thread Tools Search this Thread
Search this Thread:

Advanced Search

Forum Jump

Similar Threads
Thread Thread Starter Forum Replies Last Post
Getting Full Content from Partial Content Feeds thread314 Calibre 5 05-05-2012 10:49 AM
iPod 1g 32gb --Is there an app that can read aloud epub or lit files for the ipod/iphone? Shasta_d Apple Devices 12 05-28-2010 02:31 PM
kindle app? is it possible to design a app to full support PDF? lili1989 Amazon Kindle 12 02-05-2010 05:29 PM
Classic Can DRM-protected ePub content from Overdrive be viewed using nook app on iPhone? doog_smith Barnes & Noble NOOK 9 02-05-2010 03:29 AM
What iPOD/iPhone app to read this book? jorgeanoguera Apple Devices 1 10-26-2009 09:39 PM


All times are GMT -4. The time now is 05:35 AM.


MobileRead.com is a privately owned, operated and funded community.