Annotations and platform neutrality

[Kumabjorn]

I'm starting this thread because this actually goes beyond Marvin, but here seems to be some of the cleverest people with knowledge about e-Readers.

I have used e-Readers since Kindle second generation (soon exchanged for 3rd generation since it came on the market only two weeks later), with the advent of smartphones and tablets e-reading has been simplified, but also diversified. That is wonderful in so many ways as it give consumers more choice and a plethora of features in our preferred e-Readers. But it also raises some problems with regard to annotations and highlighting. Simply put, they are not transferable between apps and platforms. But, when I carry a paper binder it doesn't know if I'm reading in my personal book, a library book or some book I've borrowed from a friend.

I think the next big step in e-Reader compatibility has to come within this area. Now that I started using an iPad Pro 9.7 and find that Marvin supports my reading needs better than those I've used on other platforms I also realize that all the hard work I've put down on other books, annotations, highlights, comments, restructured outlines (I read a lot of non-fiction) and other things are for all practical purposes lost since they don't travel over apps and platforms.

So here is what I'd like to know. Doesn't highlights, annotations etc. adhere to some sort of rules under the ePub definition? Couldn't those be synced to a standard format in a cloud directory defined by the user? Hence, they would be available for the reader regardless his/her choice of platform and app.

As an example, I don't use iPhone but Android and I get that there is little incentive to develop for that platform. But if I'm reading a book in Marvin and I suddenly realize something about it I need to jot down, but don't have my iPad with me but my Android phone, I'd like to open that book in Moon+ or Mantano or something else, find my place and add those thoughts and then they would be available next time I look through my annotations in Marvin.

Maybe I'm asking too much, but my music is fairly platform agnostic. I get the same covers on Google Play Music as I get in iTunes. I just wish this was possible for books as well.

[kguil]

@Kuma This might helpful - http://www.idpf.org/epub/linking/cfi/epub-cfi.html

[democrite]

Yes would be nice but of the requirements, there would need to be some common sync platform and participants. Any commercial source, like iBooks, Kindle, Kobo, or B&N Nook will likely stick to their own sync, for being able to verify sync reliability, maybe other issues, plus interest in selling books from them. But a common platform to store highlights and 3rd party apps syncing with it, could be possible but no one perhaps has attempted it.

Though there are also sync issues. On iOS, many will choose CloudKit since it is zero config. Another method of syncing, Parse, I think they closed and went open source so everyone has to have their own server. Yes, a common sync solution could be possible though it seems the needed min is a site and a way of syncing available on both iOS and Android that programmers could employ. Then again, there is also the question of how to determine what book is what so it's known it should be synced. For that, even sync of Marvin with Marvin is a difficult question.

Not sure if later it'd be possible to import iBooks annotations, maybe partially per book by text string matching, sure would be nice. But there are enough things to do that I don't mind if it's delayed to never.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by kguil

@Kuma This might helpful - http://www.idpf.org/epub/linking/cfi/epub-cfi.html

Thank you, that was interesting and at least theoretically hopeful. At least they seem aware and willing to rectify it.

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[Kumabjorn]

With declining sales for tablets you'd think that manufacturers would begin to realize that platform interoperability should be a boon to them. That lack is what held me back from iOS for a long time. I knew I didn't have any sync problems with my Samsung devices, so why create some by investing in an iPad?
Well, the iPad Pro was just too tempting with the Pencil, but most people in the Android corner didn't feel that way. They just saw problems of bad functionality when it comes to interoperability, so they suck to what they knew.

Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.

[Faterson]

That would indeed be a wonderful world where something like this would exist. However, I fear it's totally unrealistic. As everyone can see, we're struggling mightily even with single-platform syncing. It's year 5 of Marvin, and we still have no device-to-device automatic syncing of annotations. I know people who ditched Marvin over this, saying: "If it didn't get done in 5 years, it's never going to get done." Well, I'm not that pessimistic.

PS: A few years ago, Kris quixotically approached the developer of Moon+ Reader Pro (clearly the finest Android e-reader), suggesting to find a way to enable at least the syncing of reading location between Marvin and Moon. Nothing came out of that praiseworthy initiative, unfortunately – and not through Kris's fault, as I remember.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by Faterson

PS: A few years ago, Kris quixotically approached the developer of Moon+ Reader Pro (clearly the finest Android e-reader), suggesting to find a way to enable at least the syncing of reading location between Marvin and Moon. Nothing came out of that praiseworthy initiative, unfortunately – and not through Kris's fault, as I remember.

Ha, too bad, good initiative though. I use Moon+ as well on my Android devices and I would love if they synced up properly. Isn't all that in the .opt file? Can it really be that difficult?

Twitter is to communications as haiku is to literature.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Isn't all that in the .opt file?

I'm afraid it's not...

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Can it really be that difficult?

Impossible now, I'd say, given that Marvin 3 now uses iCloud to sync reading location. I don't know why, but the Dropbox sync (which, at least in theory, could have cooperated with Moon's Dropbox sync of reading locations) in Marvin 2 never worked reliably – I frequently landed in very different locations than those that were stored on a different device. In contrast, in Marvin 3, syncing reading locations seems almost perfect, based on my observations so far. Not sure if it has anything to do with the syncing platform, Dropbox vs. iCloud, but it seems clear Marvin and Moon can no longer cooperate now that Marvin 3 is using Apple-only iCloud...