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When I ordered the iPad, I was really excited about using it to view all the tech book PDFs I have been accumulating over the months. Before the iPad arrived on Saturday, I converted a couple of PDFs to epub using Calibre. It went as expected, but I finally installed them and opened with iBooks, I was a little disappointed because the formatting was removed. Since tech books and texbooks (and magazines as well) are heavily formated, epub was not going to work for me.
So that is when I discovered GoodReader. It is seriously an awesome piece of software that can handle all the PDFs that I have thrown at it. PDFs I have opened have ranged in size from 2MB to some over 80MBs.
There are a variety of ways to get the PDFs onto the iPad:
1. use iTunes, go to the "Apps" tab when your iPad is plugged in. Scroll all the way down and you will see GoodReader there with the option to browse your computer and upload PDFs that way.
2. GR can connect to: Google Apps, Box.net, MobileMe, Dropbox, any webdav server, FTP, etc.
3. You can add a URL to the PDF and it will download it.
Files are downloaded to your iPad and you can manage files (create folders, rename files, copy or move files, email from GR, etc) easily.
It works EXTREMELY well and is fast.
Since I'm an avid Google Apps user, I have created an account on my domain called "ebooks" and using the file upload functionality of Google Apps, I uploaded a few technical books (HTML, CSS, JavaScript, iPhone Dev stuff, etc). Browsed with GR and downloaded. This is a very convenient (and essentially free!) way to have an accessible digital library that any member of a development team can access.
Now I just wish that GoodReader could read CHM files, then it would be the perfect technical reader!
Oh, and to answer the OP original questions. Nope, there aren't any animations when you flip from page to page. But you can swipe up or down or tap up/down to navigate. No scrolling.
Yes you save the files locally, I have about 30 PDFs saved locally. It was after I discovered GR last night when I started to question whether or not 16GB was going to be enough! I might want to see about upgrading to the 32GB!
Spending 99 cents on GoodReader was probably the best buck I have ever spent on an app.
Cheers,
Sealos
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