Quote:
Originally Posted by QU2C371FcY
My dad loves his kindle, and is never without it. He get's all his books in an FB2 format, converts them to text and then moves them over to the kindle. A few of his friends got an iPad, and he's considering getting it to replace his kindle.
My question is this. If he downloads his books in FB2 format, which reader would make it easiest for him to download and read those books? I know that both the iOS and Android have apps capable of reading FB2 books, but which tablet will be best for downloading the books? He would like to avoid having to sync the tablet to something like iTunes.
The three tablets I have in mind are iPad 2, Notion Ink Adam and Motorola Xoom.
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First a caveat - the following is just my €0.02 worth, and my opinion only!
I use an app for €1.59 ($1.99) on iPad called readMe (
http://unrealmojo.com/en/readme/) and find it very good for FB2, as well as ePub. Some features, with varying degrees of usefulness, include:
# Beautiful text rendering and formatting
# Support for popular file formats FB2 and EPUB
# Sort books by author, name and date when it was added
# Built-in HTTP-server to load books from your computer, Mac or PC
# Upload many books to readMe at once by archiving them in ZIP format
# Download books from the popular e-book sites
(plus many others in their promo/marketing blurb).
From my point of view, the text rendering is pretty good, but not
beautiful - Bluefire reader is better, and the font choices in readMe are plentiful but poorly chosen for eBooks (much like the lame iBook choices, only more of them!). I have found using Georgia is probably best at the moment, but I have written to the developers to try and get them to allow users to add fonts, or if this is problematic, then adding a bunch of the great free fonts that a lot if users use on eInk device sand are better suited to eBook rendering (such as Fontin, DejaVu, etc.). IN addition they need to tweak their font kerning as it doesn't always adapt well when transitioning from italics to normal text.
Supports FB2 and ePub, which for me is what I need! In addition, iTunes-haters like me can often avoid that crappiest of programs by using the in-built WiFi HTTP server to transfer books, including transferring a ZIP archive of multiple books which will be expanded upon transfer and added to the library - nice! I also use GoodReader, which has a similar HTTP transfer method, and then do an 'Open in...' to get them to readMe. Basically, most of the good apps out there have ways around using iTunes!
And BTW...
Quote:
Originally Posted by jocampo
Any reason why your dad sticks to that format? It's an old format and lacks of a lot of features.
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An iPad would be overkilling and unnecessary, in my humble opinion.
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An interesting opinion on FB2, but I suspect from someone who's never really used the format in earnest (my apologies if I'm wrong).
FB2 may be an older format, but in many ways it is still superior to most of the formats currently being used. It is pure XML, allowing the content of the eBook to be displayed on any device with a suitable app (FBReader on m,any eInk devices, readMe on iPad, Stanza and others on Mac/PC, etc.). ePub may be all the rage, but in many aspects it is far too complex for simple eBook reading, and many features are unused.
For text books, and books with many footnotes/links, tables, graphics, etc. ePub has a clear advantage when properly implemented, but in many cases the poor formatting efforts of the publisher combined with the low standard of reader app (in most cases ADE, which offers users very poor reader support on most devices IMHO) have made my ePub reading experiences less than stellar.
And let's face it, Mobi has never been much good - Amazon and Mobi deserve one another!...
Reading basic eBooks/novels, I still prefer FB2 as a format - perhaps because it was the format I started with and I'm used to it. There are many creation/edit tools available, and as I said, it focuses on content rather than format, leaving the reader app to worry about device particulars, screen sizes, etc.
And in addition to all that, it is easy to use Calibre to convert to/from FB2, allowing you to use ePub (then Bluefire reader is well worth checking out), or if you really must, to Mobi (which can be rad on the Kindle app).
Plus an iPad so many other uses, I cannot live without mine now! I have three other eInk devices (BeBook, PB360 and iRex DR1000), all with great FB2 support, but they are all in the drawer since I got my iPad!
So if you ask me, I would say go iPad. But if battery life and compact size are truly important (and they are valid requirements) then I would advise looking at some other options such as PocketBook devices or BeBook-type devices. These alternatives have excellent FB2 support, as well as usually ePub and Mobi capability, plus many others (HTML, DOC, TXT, CHM, PDF, etc.), giving maximum flexibility.