[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[artbatista]

Originally Posted by Synamon

You could ease your conscience by giving the app a review, that might help it gain traction later when it's no longer free.

How cold I have forgotten?

I just rectified that oversight.

I was surprised that there so few reviews, but all were 5 stars except for one 4.

Cheers.

Art

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by kguil

My strategy for opening Mobi (if) is to do an "under the bonnet" conversion to ePub during import. If I can achieve the quality that Calibre outputs using conversion then it would be fine.

I suspect it will be simpler than that. A under the bonnet conversion to HTML with your standard overrides for things like margins should be enough. MOBI is actually a fairly simple format. You just need to be able to interpret some HTML inline formatting like it all was in the olden days.

Dale

[kguil]

Thanks for the hint Dale.

[ssholloway]

Originally Posted by kguil

@mycurlylocks Thanks a million. I'm really glad you're enjoying it.

@dale, @jswinden I'm still sort of torn about mobi but I didn't give up on the idea. As far as the first update after the holidays is concerned, I'd like to prioritize between (1) Calibre+OPDS (2) 2-column landscape+vertical scrolling, or (3) mobi. What do you think? What would you like to see first? I'd rather go for frequent updates rather than occasional massive ones.

This is absolutely marvelous! An excellent replacement for Stanza and goes beyond it in many ways.

As far as new features, 2-column landscape is at the top of my wish list. I have small hands and read in landscape almost exclusively. Native OPDS support would be nice, but since I can access my Calibre server through Safari and open a selected book in Marvin that way, it's not my first priority. Mobi would be far down my critical path.

One feature I don't remember seeing requested is Adobe DRM support. I read a lot of public library books using Overdrive but would love to use Marvin instead. It would not surprise me that Adobe's licensing cost would be prohibitive but would you please look into it at some point if you haven't already?

Like many others, I would certainly pay for this app to support further development and to thank you for what you've done so far. In the meantime, I've left a 5 star review on the app store, which I hope will help popularize Marvin.

[kguil]

ssholloway, whilst I'm not excluding it, Adobe DRM isn't on my radar yet. I haven't investigated what it would cost but I've read that it is indeed prohibitive. If anyone knows what the costs are, please let me know (although I'm sure there would be an NDA somewhere).

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by kguil

ssholloway, whilst I'm not excluding it, Adobe DRM isn't on my radar yet. I haven't investigated what it would cost but I've read that it is indeed prohibitive. If anyone knows what the costs are, please let me know (although I'm sure there would be an NDA somewhere).

I am not sure as to the cost. Most of the people complaining about the cost are making books that have DRM, not reading DRM. Bluefire is free and has support for DRM so it can't be too expensive just to be able to read DRM books. I think the ADE API (mobile edition) has everything you need.

Dale

[kguil]

Thanks Dale. I'll write them and check it out.

[Philantrop]

One of the huge issues with Adobe DRM (apart from being DRM) is that one has to use Adobe's horrible SDK which makes writing an epub reader very, very annoying.

If you really want to go that route (which I wouldn't), this should be a good starting point: http://www.adobe.com/devnet/readermobile.html

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by kguil

@mycurlylocks Personally, I have a bit of an aversion to lite and crippled versions of apps....

In a perfect world, I'd find an alternative way to make Marvin sustainable and keep it free forever. Any ideas are more than welcome.

Lite and crippled versions are often horrible, depending entirely on how its done... however... for people to get a feel for the app before dropping the dollars, I think its probably worthwhile. A lite version would, for example, have a restricted set of options. Say, only 5 fonts. No dropbox integration. That kind of thing. And theres always the option for iAds, and having those removed in the paid version.

I would have paid $10 for Stanza, in the past. I have often paid up to $5 for a reader app only to discover later that I hated it. $2.99 (which would end up being $3.49 in Australia in spite of the fact that our dollar has been above parity with the USD for the past year) is doable, but $1.99 would get more sales. eg: Sell 10 copies at $2.99, or sell 50 at $1.99. Which is best. You'll get a lot more sales at a lower pricepoint.

[kguil]

Thanks for all your comments. I'll look into them and keep them in mind when deciding how to proceed next.

[Faterson]

It was a long wait, but here it finally is: what looks like the definitive Stanza replacement. I must have tested and needlessly bought about two dozen reader apps so far, but none of them could really compete with Stanza. Marvin can.

My feature request (while seconding those expressed by others): please add the option to resume the app directly in the last-open book (where I left off) instead of on the app homepage, whenever relaunching the app.

PS: Leaving a 5-star review in the App Store as well.

[kguil]

Thanks Faterson! Added to the wish list.

[NETLOLA]

I just discovered the Marvin App, and I cannot tell you hiw much I appreciate your efforts! Finally, finally a replacement for Stanza! Thank you! Thank you! I just left a 5 star review in the App Store.

One request - is there any thought to providing a Library checkout feature, such as is available in Bluefire? This would be an amazingly useful feature!

[kguil]

Hello Netola. Glad you like it.

Right now, Marvin doesn't support DRM. I'm looking into it, but to be honest I don't think it will be coming very soon. It depends on many things that I can't necessarily control.

[NETLOLA]

Originally Posted by kguil

Hello Netola. Glad you like it.

Right now, Marvin doesn't support DRM. I'm looking into it, but to be honest I don't think it will be coming very soon. It depends on many things that I can't necessarily control.

Thanks for the quick reply. Even without DRM support, Marvin has still become my reading App of choice. For me, being able to configure my reading, with just the right font, layout, etc, is extremely important, and Marving does that and more. The other features, such as Deep View, really enhance the reading experience.