Kindle Fire will read epub

[Jean]

According to the Suntimes review http://http://www.suntimes.com/techn...er-device.html the Kindle Fire can read epub via the Mantano Reader which can be purchased for $7.49.

Thanks to Mantano Reader ($7.49 and well worth it), I now have what I’ve always wanted: a Kindle that can open and read ePUB books. Mantano even supports Adobe DRM . . . so at least in theory, the Kindle Fire can even import the books you might have bought from a competing digital shop, such as the Google eBookstore.

[LoganK]

I'm going to hijack a bit since I've never used Mantano...

How fast is it? In my experience:

• Aldiko has been pretty quick and renders very accurately. It doesn't include any annotation support, but it supports multi-level Table-Of-Contents (although always expanded)
• Nook for Android used to be slow and render every time. The new version is slow to open the first time but very fast after that ... if it loads (very large books just fail to ever open). It renders accurately and supports multi-level TOC (although always expanded)
• CoolReader is very fast but renders poorly. The multi-level TOC support is beautifully done. It does not use Adobe's page numbering formula, which is a bummer.
• Nook Color renders quickly and beautifully. It also annotates well. It totally lacks multi-level TOC support and has no jump-to-page feature.

Can Mantano open password-based Adobe (i.e., B&N) books?

Call me cheap, but $7.49 is past my impulse-buy threshold and Google's 15 minute refund window isn't enough to come to a solid judgement.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by LoganK

I'm going to hijack a bit since I've never used Mantano...

How fast is it? In my experience:

• Aldiko has been pretty quick and renders very accurately. It doesn't include any annotation support, but it supports multi-level Table-Of-Contents (although always expanded)
• Nook for Android used to be slow and render every time. The new version is slow to open the first time but very fast after that ... if it loads (very large books just fail to ever open). It renders accurately and supports multi-level TOC (although always expanded)
• CoolReader is very fast but renders poorly. The multi-level TOC support is beautifully done. It does not use Adobe's page numbering formula, which is a bummer.
• Nook Color renders quickly and beautifully. It also annotates well. It totally lacks multi-level TOC support and has no jump-to-page feature.

Can Mantano open password-based Adobe (i.e., B&N) books?

Call me cheap, but $7.49 is past my impulse-buy threshold and Google's 15 minute refund window isn't enough to come to a solid judgement.

There's a free version (ad supported) in the Android Marketplace if you want to try it. Yes, it reads Adobe DRM, but not Barnes and Noble's.

[Eskarina]

"Yes, it reads Adobe DRM, but not Barnes and Noble's."

You can read books purchased from B&N on Mantano w/o stripping the DRM. You need to enter a username and a password though.

Username: Name on the credit card with B&N
Password: Credit card number used with B&N

Good news is you only need to do this once. It works the same way on Aldiko BTW.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by LoganK

I'm going to hijack a bit since I've never used Mantano...

How fast is it? In my experience:

• Aldiko has been pretty quick and renders very accurately. It doesn't include any annotation support, but it supports multi-level Table-Of-Contents (although always expanded)
• Nook for Android used to be slow and render every time. The new version is slow to open the first time but very fast after that ... if it loads (very large books just fail to ever open). It renders accurately and supports multi-level TOC (although always expanded)
• CoolReader is very fast but renders poorly. The multi-level TOC support is beautifully done. It does not use Adobe's page numbering formula, which is a bummer.
• Nook Color renders quickly and beautifully. It also annotates well. It totally lacks multi-level TOC support and has no jump-to-page feature.

Can Mantano open password-based Adobe (i.e., B&N) books?

Call me cheap, but $7.49 is past my impulse-buy threshold and Google's 15 minute refund window isn't enough to come to a solid judgement.

Mantano is the best in my opinion. Just sideload the Free Market version and give it a try. It does support multi level TOC and it does a good job. It's fast and renders beautifully! I've tried them all but Mantano is the one that works the best for me. It reads external style sheets really well. Has collections and other ways to organize your library. You can take notes and do many other things with it. I got mine when it was on sale but it's well worth the regular price. The free version does everything but it has Ads.

Wow, so with Mantano available via Amazon's app store this must be the first device released by a major bookstore player that offers both MOBI and ePub without jailbreaking or using some kluge methods. Just straight forward good rendering of both formats. The Kobo Touch had MOBI support but it rendered it looking like a DOS text file, yuk! Way to go Amazon. (Note that Apple has both on the iPad but Apple isn't a major bookstore player IMO.)

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Eskarina

"Yes, it reads Adobe DRM, but not Barnes and Noble's."

You can read books purchased from B&N on Mantano w/o stripping the DRM. You need to enter a username and a password though.

Username: Name on the credit card with B&N
Password: Credit card number used with B&N

Good news is you only need to do this once. It works the same way on Aldiko BTW.

Thanks for clarifying. I didn't know they updated it to provide that functionality. All this time I thought it was only Aldiko that provides that feature.

[Jessica Lares]

Originally Posted by jswinden

(Note that Apple has both on the iPad but Apple isn't a major bookstore player IMO.)

I agree! I know absolutely NO ONE who uses the iBookstore. NO ONE. I know loads who have an iPhone, and iPad, and a Kindle though. The only reason why iBooks is more popular is the fact there's the annoying message asking if you want it the first time you load a new iOS update.

The iPhone/iPad is great for magazine reading, but not for reading a 300+ page book.

But great to see Amazon is playing nicely with everyone.

[soondai]

anyone have a copy of the ad-supported Montano apk they could share so I can try it out?

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by soondai

anyone have a copy of the ad-supported Montano apk they could share so I can try it out?

You can download the apk from the official Mantano website. That's probably the best option to ensure there's no malware and stuff.

[Blossom]

Originally Posted by jswinden

Wow, so with Mantano available via Amazon's app store this must be the first device released by a major bookstore player that offers both MOBI and ePub without jailbreaking or using some kluge methods. Just straight forward good rendering of both formats. The Kobo Touch had MOBI support but it rendered it looking like a DOS text file, yuk! Way to go Amazon. (Note that Apple has both on the iPad but Apple isn't a major bookstore player IMO.)

It would seem so. Now someone needs to get Mantano to release the Ad Version on the App Store as well.

[soondai]

Originally Posted by ilovejedd

You can download the apk from the official Mantano website. That's probably the best option to ensure there's no malware and stuff.

the only link on the site I see is in the blog announcing the free version, and it's a dead link.

Originally Posted by soondai

the only link on the site I see is in the blog announcing the free version, and it's a dead link.

Did you check the Android Market website?

Oh here, I found this link on the Mantano website to SlideMe.org where it can be downloaded. It looks like a 7-day trial version, but that will at least let you see if it is worth buying.

[tomsem]

The Kobo app is also in Amazon Appstore. However it will not side-load DRM-ed ePub.

Overdrive Media Console can probably be side-loaded using .apk at Overdrive's web site (if it doesn't show up in Amazon Appstore). Mantano does not yet deal with library DRM so if you want to read a library book in ePub format on Fire OMC is an option (as is Aldiko, which will also do Adobe DRM PDF). OMC of course also does audiobooks and music. The OMC ePub reader itself is very basic, I would not use it unless it is the only option.

[soondai]

thanks jswinden. don't have market access, but slideme let me download it to my computer. much appreciated (crashed the heck out of my Pandigital, no surprise )