any open source ebook reader apps?

[kennyc]

As I await the arrival of my Droid X and hope to use it as an e-book reader as well. I'm wondering about apps in general and what I might develop and in particular about ebook reading apps. I know there are several out there that I plan on trying out, but does anyone know of any open source code out there for ebook reading apps?

[Logseman]

FBReader was ported and called FBReaderJ:

http://www.fbreader.org/FBReaderJ/

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Logseman

FBReader was ported and called FBReaderJ:

http://www.fbreader.org/FBReaderJ/

Right, but is the source code for the Android app available? That's my question.

[Logseman]

Download FBReader sources

Here they are.

[kennyc]

Originally Posted by Logseman

Here they are.

Wow! Very Cool! Thank you!

This should be fun to load up and fiddle with.

[Logseman]

Thanks for the Karma-Shot!

As I said before, I can find the source code, but i can't do absolutely anything with it... so you've got the edge

[kennyc]

I really appreciate that. I am waiting on my Droid X to arrive and have set up a development environment and build a little sample app so this should be great for studying learning and even fits in the the MR Website objectives and interests!

[kennyc]

After a bit of fiddling I've been able to build both debug and release versions using the command line tools (ant) and in Netbeans. Don't have anything to deploy it to yet but am about to figure out how to deploy to the emulator.

Thanks Again

[Logseman]

Aside of the general fiddling, what enhancements have you got in mind?

[kennyc]

Nothing in mind at this point. I'm just trying to learn Android app building etc....then LOOK OUT WORLD!

BTW I just was able to deploy my build to the emulator (all worked) and am trying to get a epub to it....

YES! Success! Just downloaded "The Secret Garden" from Google books using the emulator and opened with FBReader app I deployed on the emulator....very cool!

Also used the deployed FBReader app to connect to Feedbooks and download "Alice in Wonderland"

Woo-hoo!

[devilsadvocate]

Remember to set compatibility to allow Android 2.2; I don't know what changes are in store but better safe than sorry.

[jeffcobb]

I think I have like five different ereaders on my X10 (raided the Android free section about 2 minutes after initial charge):
BeamReader (for PDF)
BookFMReader
eBook Explorer
Moon Reader
and a couple of more specialized ones. I think I use the Explorer one most.

[devilsadvocate]

Originally Posted by jeffcobb

I think I have like five different ereaders on my X10 (raided the Android free section about 2 minutes after initial charge):
BeamReader (for PDF)
BookFMReader
eBook Explorer
Moon Reader
and a couple of more specialized ones. I think I use the Explorer one most.

How's the X10 working for you? I haven't heard a thing about it since the Sony "countdown clock" thing on the website. Can't find any comparisons to the DX either. Not that I would switch to AT&T, just curious to see what the buzz was about.

[jeffcobb]

Originally Posted by devilsadvocate

How's the X10 working for you? I haven't heard a thing about it since the Sony "countdown clock" thing on the website. Can't find any comparisons to the DX either. Not that I would switch to AT&T, just curious to see what the buzz was about.

I am loving it. I am only using a sub-set of the functionality but the lead designer was into everything it does and watching him work with it kept me charged about providing the plumbing that sets it apart from basically all other Android devices. Will you like it? It all depends on how you live your life; if you like to live it just on the edges of the net, using the phone just as a phone, occasionally lurking on Facebook (if at all), only listen to music at home, etc, the X10 is probably not for you. If on the other hand you are into being super-connected with your friends on Facebook, MySpace, Twitter, watching YouTube, the X10 is probably the single most useful and entertaining thing you can own. It links all of your online friends and your contacts and your media (video, pictures, audio) in a way that hasn't been done before (or at least it had not two years ago when we started working on it). A friend on Facebook can post something, it will pop up on your screen and with a touch of the screen you can call the poster if they are in your contacts (or add them to your contacts, along with avatar photo if not), comment on the posting, whatever. Also if you are doing something fun you can use the 8 megapixel camera to take video or pictures and instantly post them to your social network along with comments. Speaking of the camera two kind of interesting features built into it are smile detection and facial recognition; with smile detection, it automatically finds the faces in the view finder and waits to take the snapshot until they are actually smiling. Yes this actually works. The facial recognition software works too; once you train it (takes surprising little time) you can take a picture with a friend in it, it automatically knows who it is and can file it with your other pictures of that friend, associate to your social network with that friend (with correctly named labels) etc. On top of that (and this is where things can get a little on the spooky side if you are not into it) it uses the GPS to basically know on this date and time, at this place (linked with Google Maps) you and your friend were doing X.

This only scratches the surface of what it can do...but also like I said, how much you like it totally depends on how into this sort of super-connectivity you are. I am personally somewhere in the middle; I don't have a data plan (yet but one is coming) but I do use the wifi on it to interact with my Facebook friends, like the advanced camera abilities, checking email (I like the virtual keyboard far better than the crappy mechanical one that was on the TMobile G1 we were experimenting with in the early days of the development but that is a personal quirk). When I get the data plan I will get more use out of the GPS in that I can be literally anywhere, get a hankering for (say) Italian food and it will find the closest restaurant for me, along with street view, step-by-step directions. I really like the unusual UI on it though like anything new and different, it will take some getting used to for those accustomed to your typical iPhone or even a standard Android UI. I was already used to it because I was there during all stages of development (and then had to wait a year to get one in the US) so I was already used to it. It does chew battery life using all of this connectivity but that is common with all such devices that are always-on (GPS, Wifi, constantly updating multiple social network sources, email, etc). That said, I am supremely proud of working on bringing it to life and I will also add this final note: before I got the X10 my wife and I were pretty strictly cell users, never had a data plan, never had a desire for an iPhone (and we are some serious techno-geeks). When I got the X10, slid my SIM card into it, fired it up, configured it for GMail and Facebook and within minutes it had basically synchronized my whole online existence. After a few days of using it I came home from work and found my wife with her phone in pieces (it magically "broke") and she was looking at YouTube videos of people using the X10 Mini. Heh. Data plan, new phone for her, here we come.

[jeffcobb]

Oh one thing I will add is that this is the first bit of hand-held hardware I have ever owned that I *don't* have to transcode video (read: movies, etc) for. Every other device I have had required downsizing the bitrate, audio type conversion, video format conversion, frame-rate conversion, whatever. Yeah I *can* do it but its sure nice not having to so I can get up in the morning, push some episodes of Ghost in the Shell to the phone while I am getting ready for work and then watch them at work on lunch. Nice.