Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[kguil]

Hi KiLeAk, unless the cover is in the ePub, Marvin cannot read it. Are you referring to when books are downloaded from Calibre's OPDS server (that might be the only case I can do this)?

There aren't any immediate plans for PDF support. I understand the need to have a unified library but there many, many really good ones out there and working on something to out-do them would be a massive undertaking.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by KiLeAk

Honour the book cover art. Though Calibre may have the correct (or any!) cover art (custom, etc), Marvin wants to display the art that is embedded in the file, sometimes that means no art. That's plain ugly ;-)

Remember that Marvin's metadata editor now allows you to assign any book cover to the books you have in your Marvin Library.

For example, many Project Gutenberg releases come without a book cover, but it's a matter of seconds to assign a book cover to a book in Marvin if it's missing in the EPUB (or if the default book cover in the EPUB is ugly). What I do is:

1. launch the Google Images search engine
2. input the book title
3. tap and hold a thumbnail of a nice book cover of a paper edition of the book
4. select "Save Image"
5. in Marvin's metadata editor, assign that new book cover to the EPUB.

Thanks to this ability to assign random book covers, Marvin's Library looks gorgeous in Version 1.2.

Originally Posted by kguil

There aren't any immediate plans for PDF support. I understand the need to have a unified library but there are many, many really good ones out there and working on something to out-do them would be a massive undertaking.

I agree it's not worth it. GoodReader is a great PDF reader, and like I've just reported in another thread, I've now discovered PDF Expert, which seems to be even more fabulous than GoodReader.

Why should Marvin want to compete with those PDF-focused apps? It's much better for Marvin to focus on its core functionality, EPUB books. It's much better to be outstanding in a single area of expertise (see Marvin) than to be mediocre in several areas (see iBooks, Kindle).

[Kretzer]

Originally Posted by Kretzer

Somewhat OT: I just realized there is an "Marvin" smiley on the list , but I have no clue what this is meant to be:

Man, I'm slow today! Only now I notice, it's the droids head ... Not a familiar face for me, though, as I know the "Hitchhiker" only from reading and listening.

It's funny, anyway, how different associations are. Where I come from, Marvin (like Kevin) is very likely to be the name of a "problem child".
There is certainly some prejudice (and class bias) in this, but my friends who work with lots of school kids tell me, they met some Marvins who were really an enormous pain in the neck.

[_noel_]

Marvin is marvelous !!!

Now I've found the successor for Stanza!

the configuration modes are comprehensive, two columns in landscape mode, the library on my ipad 4 contains now about 1900 books :-) and I can see the metadata & the description .... wow

Kris you made my day, my week, my .... my ipad has got an increase of value of about 100%

looking forward for the features of the next versions ... maybe there could be some folders or bookshelfs in the library.

Kind regards & thanks
Eberhard

[hbtaylor]

Originally Posted by artbatista

Again, Kris has already fixed the refresh bug in the next version (due anytime, going thru Apple's vetting process).

Originally Posted by Faterson

This caching is a bug that Kris has already fixed.

Thanks for the heads-up. I should have known it was already in the pipeline! It definitely isn't a huge issue, since I have at least 2 workarounds for it that will sustain me through the "pain" until the update hits. Plus, I already have Marvin loaded up with the next 5 books I'm going to read, so I should focus on actually reading!

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by _noel_

maybe there could be some folders or bookshelfs in the library.

Already in the works.

[Philantrop]

Suggestion: Since repeated feature requests for the same stuff and "already in the works" seems to become a predominant issue in this thread, maybe you, Kris, could open a new thread (and have a moderator close this one) and in its first post, link to your roadmap. I think that might help a bit to get the "spam" level down a bit.

[hbtaylor]

Originally Posted by Philantrop

Suggestion: Since repeated feature requests for the same stuff and "already in the works" seems to become a predominant issue in this thread, maybe you, Kris, could open a new thread (and have a moderator close this one) and in its first post, link to your roadmap. I think that might help a bit to get the "spam" level down a bit.

I was wondering if it might be appropriate to create a forum/sub-forum just for Marvin. That way, things would get their own thread without polluting the Apple Devices forum.

[kguil]

@Faterson - not in the very next update, but in the following one you'll be able to do a Google cover image search straight from within the meta data editor.

@Noel - That's a big library. I'm working on an optimisation that will substantially improve Marvin's startup times. You'll love it.

Re new thread. How do people get around doing this, do I contact a moderator?

[Faterson]

I'm against a new thread. On the contrary: creating more Marvin threads would, in fact, be that same "polluting" of the forum that you wish to avoid.

Everything is fine as it is. Those MobileRead users who aren't interested in Marvin, can easily avoid opening this single thread.

If you feel you must blame someone for repetitiveness, then blame those posters who submit a feature request without bothering to check if it has already been mentioned earlier in the thread. Yeah, this is a long thread and not everyone has the time to plow through dozens of pages of posts, but a new poster might perhaps at least check the last few pages before posting a request. Library folders have been mentioned pretty frequently here recently.

Also, there is a GoogleGroup mailing list devoted to discussing Marvin Beta versions. Apple only gives limited Beta-testing slots to Kris, which is why he can't satisfy all potential Beta-testers with Beta access. I don't see, however, why everyone who is interested could not at least join the GoogleGroup. That way, you'd see what Marvin features are being tested and prepared, and you could chime in with your own suggestions.

[Turtle91]

I think it is a great idea to give Marvin it's own sub-thread below "E-Book Readers". That would give it the prominence it deserves...and get it away from all those other yuckie apple posts...blech!

Plus, I could certainly see different topics needing their own threads within the Marvin sub-section.

[Philantrop]

Originally Posted by kguil

Re new thread. How do people get around doing this, do I contact a moderator?

I'd simply open one with all important information in the first post (which you can always update in case of changes in order to avoid/minimise repetitive questions) and contact a moderator to get this thread closed.

@Alex, no offence intended. I know it's not your fault.

[kguil]

I would like to keep that Google group for beta testing only. I'll come up with an alternative mechanism to make feature requests public.

[mariosipad]

@Kris for Marvin!

Most of my E-book-reader-wishes were implemented before I could formulate them.

However I have one (very small) problem I will try to describe here.
I use Marvin (and Stanza and Shubook) with an OPDS catalog. I use Calibre but mainly COPS. COPS is a Calibre OPDS (and HTML) PHP Server I use with Apache webserver in windows 7 and Debian Linux. Browsing and downloading from the server work perfectly.
The (small) problem I am having is that Marvin does not show a description in the popup window when I tab the three dots (...) on the right side of the screen next to the book. This description is shown by Stanza and Shubook.
If I download the book and check the metadata the description is there! It was just not shown in the (preview) popup window.

I do not know if the problem (if you can call it that, I just strive for perfection here) lies with Marvin or COPS. The author of COPS does not make COPS with IOS devices in mind (he does not have one) so it is difficult for him to test with Marvin. On the other hand Kris might not do Apache, so it would be equally difficult for him to test compatibility with COPS.

All I can say is that Marvin and Stanza work the same with Calibre but do not with COPS, while COPS uses the same (literally) Calibre-database and e-book directories. Does Marvin handle OPDS different form Stanza? If so, is there room for improvement? If not, I'm equally happy with Marvin.

I will probably put a link to this post in the COPS-Forum to see if this problem can be solved (and promote Marvin at the same time).

If my description of this problem is not totally clear I can post some screenshots.

Again for Marvin!

[kguil]

@mariosipad. I don't have a setup similar to yours. Would it be OK for you if you send me an email at support. I'd appreciate if we can work together to make this work.