[stangri]

Originally Posted by kacir

... the ability to adjust the frontlight below some arbitrary level without darkening the background with black. You see, most LCD screens can dial down the back-light only to a certain level and then the app starts using darker and darker background to turn the light further down on such screen. When the app (my beloved CoolReader) starts doing that on e-ink screen the results are disastrous. And for me light at 20% is way too much under any lighting conditions.

Yeah, that's a valid concern. I know there's an Xposed module to expand configurability of the backlight, it probably would have worked with the e-ink backlight as well, if it wasn't for the ancient Android, not sure if there's an Xposed for Android before KitKat.

Originally Posted by kacir

When I find a book that jumps to the top of my "To Be Read" pile I start an ftp server on my Android device, copy book from PC and switch off the ftp server 30 seconds later.

I'm glad that works for you, to me it sounds like a huge PITA. If you need physical access to both reader and computer at the time of transfer, I would have just as well plugged the reader into computer. I got spoiled by Kindle, where I could push titles from my computer to cloud and then *when convenient* would pull them onto Kindle.

Originally Posted by kacir

Also have a look at OPDS.

Thanks for the tip about OPDS. I totally see how that would be a preferred solution for people with thousands of books (and how Play Books web-site probably is inadequate or significantly less convenient to them).
However, I *only* use the "To Be Read" pile. My grandpa was a very hard worker and an avid books collector, which he hoped he'd read when he retired. Sadly, with his late retirement came old age and many health problems which prevented him from reading almost at all.
So I'm not interested in just collecting the books (even electronic) which I'm not going to be reading right away or at least in the next 6 months. With my modest reading needs OPDS with its burden of using Calibre is definitely an overkill, even if the setup wouldn't take any time at all.

Originally Posted by kacir

Other people like to use Calibre Companion app on their Android devices and run Calibre server on their home PC. There are quite a few people that have static IP at home and run Calibre server on their home computer accessible on the Internet (as long as you know the IP address and port number).

If I ended up running an OPDS server, then rather than keeping an open port on a public IP (doesn't matter static or dynamic), I would have used hamachi. No need to have static IP, remember the ip address and is way more secure.
Ah, ancient Android, not sure if it supports PPTP.

Originally Posted by kacir

Please notice I haven't mentioned using DropBox or other on-line file service to host books ;-)

That's right, but own OPDS server is even worse! ;-)

Originally Posted by Tikker

if that's your user case, then great, playbooks works just fine

Please confirm which device/ROM you have personally tested that.

Originally Posted by Tikker

but you originally asked specifically about playbooks on an android (e-ink specifically) and whether or not there were better options

If you cared to read my original post, I specifically asked how well Play Books app works on e-ink Android devices. All the options in the poll are there to confirm wherever Play Books app works or not. If you decide to use last option of the poll as a reason to preach something else, having zero experience using Play Books app on the e-ink Android device yourself, please go somewhere else.

Originally Posted by kacir

I miss an option in the pool:
- I have Android device and I have never bothered to install (or even start, in case it came pre-installed ) Google Play Books

I don't care for that option. As I just pointed out, all the options in the poll are to confirm/deny Play Books app works. If it turns out I can't use Play Books app, I'll look at alternative solutions. May I just note tho, that the Play Books app is a first app in "The big list of apps" thread. I find it surprising that you didn't explore that option (possibly not a replacement of your ways, but out of curiosity and the desire to learn), considering that you're most likely a maven in the e-readers.

Originally Posted by Dopedangel

As far as I can tell it works on my T68 Boyue reader. I just installed it to check for the OP the page turn button and sync etc work. But a regular user might find problems which I didn't find in 10 min of use.
I don't use it as it is not configurable enough when it comes to the look of the text etc. And anyway the page sync requires the wifi to be on which I turn on only when I want to connect calibre companion to calibre.

Thank you so much for checking it out! I couldn't find that specific model tho. So when you say T68 Boyue -- do you mean OnyxBoox T68 which is running some Boyue ROM? Also, did you not have any issues posted below during your 10 minutes use?

Originally Posted by Geenween

On my Energy Reader Pro+ (Boyue T62+) the app doesn't work well: after a few turn pages the margins get shifted and the next page starts appearing on the left side of the screen.

Thank you so much for checking it out! As I'm planning on getting T63, your hardware is probably closest. As reported here, the version of the Play Books app matters. Which version of Play Books did you try? Was it older or newer than 3.5.15? Can you please try 3.5.15 (there are many sites which host old APKs, this link worked for me).