Mobipocket new release (with iLiad support) on May 3rd

[henkvdg]

I just downloaded it from iRex.

It works.

[vvoi666]

it would be cool if someone could post some screenshots.

does the mobipocket reader have it's own contentlister/browser? does it display cover/add. infos?

as i understand it, the way that the content is displayed on the iliad (last viewed etc.) is not changed. if you click on a mobipocket book, it just opens mobipocket instead of, say, the pdf viewer, right?

i would really like to have some kind of database where i can browse by title/author/year/genre ... does the mobi/iliad viewer do that?

[splat]

Originally Posted by bruce

Not having desktop just means you have one-time extra step of grabbing your iLiad's personal id number from the file Mobipocket_PID.txt and registering it with the website (something which the Desktop software seems to handle automatically) but after that, it should be as straightforward to simply download your purchases into the desired directory on the iLiad.

THanks for pointing out the PID. I had downloaded a book with out registering the PID and never checked it. Would have been a pain to discover this while away this weekend

[splat]

Originally Posted by vvoi666

as i understand it, the way that the content is displayed on the iliad (last viewed etc.) is not changed. if you click on a mobipocket book, it just opens mobipocket instead of, say, the pdf viewer, right?

That is pretty much it, browse to a Mobipocket book as you would any other and open it. The only difference are the on screen buttons while in mobipocket. There are 5 new options. 1 brings you to the contents page, two increase / decrease font size, another allows you to flip between two pages. eg view page 4, change to page 8, press button and you are back to page 4. The final button I am not sure what it does as it is grayed out.

[Adam B.]

Are any other functions there? Scribble, rotate, etc?

[CommanderROR]

I've just downloaded and tired the Mobipocket. Works.Page-Turnung seems a bit slow, and the text looks more gray than black (no idea why), but apart from that it seems to be working fine. Still only a few functions implemented, but it's version 1.0 so that's OK.

Now, where is the unbricking thingy...

[splat]

Originally Posted by Adam B.

Are any other functions there? Scribble, rotate, etc?

None that I can see, although all the regular icons that appear on the right hand side of the screen are still here.

[Moonraker]

I have just connected to IDS and downloaded the viewer onto the iLiad.

I am very pleased that the font size can be increased or decreased on the device. (two icons on the bottom right).

The other three icons on the left are greyed out for me. Probably because of the way I have made the .prc file. i.e. no table of contents, no links and no cover image. However, because I have embedded the cover image in an HTML file it does appear before the text which is where I placed it. I had to drag the .jpg file in addition to the .html file before building the book otherwise the image did not appear.

The text is very easy to read because I can change the size. It seems to be finer and less black than I am used to. I should imagine this is because the mobipocket viewer uses its own font. Does anyone know if this is the case and what font is being used?

It does not seem any slower than reading my PDF files.

Overall, I am extremely satisfied with this important new addition.

[ig88]

Originally Posted by bruce

If you want to bundle your mobipocket books with a manifest.xml file and coverpage image for nicer browsing, there's some extra work but you have to do that work anyways regardless of whether you are using Desktop software as under windows,.

Being new to MobiPocket (contemplating buying an Iliad this July)- could you elaborate -

What is a manifest file? What is it for? Does this mean each "book" will be two files (the book and the manifest)? if it is two files, do you see two files when browsing for book titles?

How do you create the manifest file?

[yokos]

Originally Posted by ig88

What is a manifest file? What is it for? Does this mean each "book" will be two files (the book and the manifest)? if it is two files, do you see two files when browsing for book titles?

How do you create the manifest file?

manifest.xml contains information about Title, Description, Cover Image.
iLiad internal file browser (iRex' name: Contentlister) uses this information.
You can use iLiad Manifest Creator https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10348.

[bruce]

Originally Posted by ig88

Being new to MobiPocket (contemplating buying an Iliad this July)- could you elaborate -

What is a manifest file? What is it for? Does this mean each "book" will be two files (the book and the manifest)? if it is two files, do you see two files when browsing for book titles?

How do you create the manifest file?

Practically speaking, a book on the iLiad consists of a directory containing a manifest file plus 1 or more additional files -- how many will depend on the content of your book. The iLiad browser treats any directory with a manifest file as a book. You only see one line in the browser describing the book -- regardless of however many files may comprise it behind the scenes. The browser treats any directory without one as a folder into which you may descend and in which you may find books or additional folders.

The manifest file contains information in XML format with elements that tell the iliad various useful things like the title, a description, the filename containing the cover image, the file or files containing the actual content of the book, etc. It gets create one of two ways.

The first way happens when you drop a naked PDF, MobiPocket, html or other supported format ebook onto the iLiad. The first time you open it, the iLiad will automatically reorganize the book into its own directory containing the book and a bare-bones manifest file.

The second way it happens is that you create the book directory and its contents yourself by hand, or using software. It is possible to conconct a fairly complicated layout for books, particularly those consisting of many html files with previous and next references all over the place (see iRex's documentation for more details), but fortunately the normal case is quite simple.

Here is what I use for most of my books. Each of my books generally consists of three files, manifest.xml, book.{pdf,mobi,prc,html} and cover.jpg. I create a directory named after the book (this is only a convention, the iLiad doesn't care). Inside that, I drop in the book.* file, cover.jpg and my boilerplate manifest.xml, editing the <Title></Title>, <Description></Description> and <startpage></startpage> elements to match the book. As long as I make my coverpage file a jpeg named "cover.jpg", I don't need to edit the <image></image> line.

You may download my boilerplate manifest.xml from the following URL:
http://bruce.howard.org/iliad/manifest.xml

[bruce]

(whoops, Yokos' reply snuck in while I was editing my reply)

[pdam]

The mobipocket reader works great - the creation software particularly works well at sucking in PDFs - making them reflowable through mobipocket format is a very easy way to make A4 PDF's quickly more usable - early tests have worked really well for me. The fact it works with a good selection of standard format makes it very usable for me.

The iRex mobipocket documentation is functional - but could have been much better. The software syncs well and is straightforward in it's DRM handling - but for none DRM content - the fact you can put it anywhere (e.g. on an SD card) is not mentioned, nore is the folder location on the iLiad (although this is obvious).

Lack of annotation is a pain ...

All in all this makes the iLiad much more desirable and easier to use.

[ig88]

Thanks Bruce - that was a perfect explanation

[ig88]

I was just over at mobipocket.com and noticed that there software page says that ANY client can annotate. Any try on the Iliad?

"You can add and delete annotations on your reading device and on your PC at the same time. "