MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - Kindle for iPad and iPhone 2.5 supports side-loading

tomsem · 01-10-2011, 07:03 PM

What's New in Version 2.5:
• Continue downloading books while the app is in the background on OS 4 devices.
• Access millions of free and out-of-copyright books from Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, and other online sources. Open supported files from Safari and Mail or use File Sharing in iTunes to transfer files to your Kindle app.
• Improved image zoom
• New book indicator
• Bug fixes

----

#2 (various forms of side-loading) was the thing I was looking for most.

On a Kindle device, images display at 100% resolution unless the page is not large enough, in which case it scales to fit. The 'improved zoom' in the iOS app seems to refer to the ability to zoom these scaled-down images to 100%, and then pan around. Useful for cover images, and Kindle DX-sized graphics, but it doesn't solve all of the issues, because of limitations of mobi format.

Images are often used to stand in for math formulae, unusual scripts, etc., and are typically sized to work best on a 6" 166dpi Kindle's screen. The inability to specify scaling of images by ems, %, etc. means that such images display too small on devices like iPhone with vastly higher dpi than Kindle or a computer. They should probably provide an app option to scale these images up so they are at least the right relative size, even if they have jaggies. But this won't get better until they fix mobi format so the ebook designer can do what they would surely like to do, and can do in ePub.

In app browsing of Kindle store would be nice, as would ability to add OPDS catalogs (like calibre, feedbooks, gutenberg) directly in the app.

01-10-2011, 07:03 PM	#1
tomsem Grand Sorcerer Posts: 6,959 Karma: 27060153 Join Date: Apr 2009 Location: USA Device: iPhone 15PM, Kindle Scribe, iPad mini 6, PocketBook InkPad Color 3	Kindle for iPad and iPhone 2.5 supports side-loading What's New in Version 2.5: • Continue downloading books while the app is in the background on OS 4 devices. • Access millions of free and out-of-copyright books from Project Gutenberg, Internet Archive, and other online sources. Open supported files from Safari and Mail or use File Sharing in iTunes to transfer files to your Kindle app. • Improved image zoom • New book indicator • Bug fixes ---- #2 (various forms of side-loading) was the thing I was looking for most. On a Kindle device, images display at 100% resolution unless the page is not large enough, in which case it scales to fit. The 'improved zoom' in the iOS app seems to refer to the ability to zoom these scaled-down images to 100%, and then pan around. Useful for cover images, and Kindle DX-sized graphics, but it doesn't solve all of the issues, because of limitations of mobi format. Images are often used to stand in for math formulae, unusual scripts, etc., and are typically sized to work best on a 6" 166dpi Kindle's screen. The inability to specify scaling of images by ems, %, etc. means that such images display too small on devices like iPhone with vastly higher dpi than Kindle or a computer. They should probably provide an app option to scale these images up so they are at least the right relative size, even if they have jaggies. But this won't get better until they fix mobi format so the ebook designer can do what they would surely like to do, and can do in ePub. In app browsing of Kindle store would be nice, as would ability to add OPDS catalogs (like calibre, feedbooks, gutenberg) directly in the app.