Bluefire reader app

[simplyparticular]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm left-handed so I definitely agree with the need to allow for left-handed taps to turn pages.

It won't be perfect for me though until it has dictionary support and two-column landscape view. Both of these are deal killers for me as the iPad screen is too large to read in single column landscape and I hate using it portrait. Without a dictionary it is hamstrung, regardless of what the lesser educated people might think. Some of us do some serious, scholarly reading and no dictionary equals no usage.

Otherwise the app is really coming along and has a lot of functionality. It really needs more font selection too, though.

I'm just adding my voice to the request for left handed tap to turn, two page landscape view and a dictionary. Frankly, I'd like to recreate the Kindle app, just with ePub and Adobe support instead of mobi.

[kjk]

Left handed tap to turn as well here...actually I like both sides to tap forward-if by some rare reason I need to go back, swipe works fine for me.

BTW, I put in my requests for features to improve Bluefire, but I don't think I mentioned how great the app already is. You have done a very nice job with it. Thank you!

[Iznogood]

I just got a tip to migrate all my library from Stanza to Bluefire, and has done so because I liked what I saw in Bluefire. At last I think I have found one of the most sensible implementations of the epub-standard, and an implementation that actually presents the contents as expected. Especially, I liked the option to disable publishers formatting and use my own. But there are some of Stanzas possibilities I miss in Bluereader, for instance to adjust paragraph spacing, line spacing and paragraph indent when disabling publishers formatting.

[yunti]

The number one additional feature I would like to see is inbuilt dictionary support. I would love to use bluefire more but without a dictionary it's limiting.

just saw this comment from an earlier post and couldn't agree more:

Originally Posted by jswinden

It won't be perfect for me though until it has dictionary support and two-column landscape view. Both of these are deal killers for me as the iPad screen is too large to read in single column landscape and I hate using it portrait. Without a dictionary it is hamstrung, regardless of what the lesser educated people might think. Some of us do some serious, scholarly reading and no dictionary equals no usage.

Additionally much better note support is also a must. Someone mentioned it does highlighting earlier in the thread? I can't seem to find that, just notes?

[l..k]

BlueFire is my favorite app for reding PDFs. I real like the navigation in landscape/portrait modes - simple tap and the application seems to know what you mean, that's brilliant Honestly what else would I tap the screen for I do not like swipe gestures in other applications, it's an effort and distract the reading experience.

If I may ask for features, I would like to have dictionary (customizable as I read in several foreign languages), and perhaps a quick look into Wikipedia definition as a popup would be nice when reading technical magazines.

I would like to have a true reflow. In fact I am looking for it on AppStore all the time but none of available apps seems to do a full reflow. They merely extracts text - what about vector graphics and embedded bitmaps? Look how PC software "adobe acrobat reader" does reflow, I dream of having such reflow on my iPad.

[Vague Rant]

While I haven't yet picked out an app to use for full-time eBook reading, being a 3G user running 3.1.3 I've been using the //nav/transfer method to upload my books to Bluefire, and I found the whole process so enjoyable I had to set myself up a home screen shortcut which would directly boot the server tool.

The process is mildly complicated and, as far as I could tell, impossible to do without a jailbreak--I really tried, too--but it results in a clean looking "app" style button appearing on my home screen and happily sitting beside the Bluefire app. As you can see, I called the shortcut "Redserver", largely in deference to the icon, which itself is only red because I lack the artistic ability to do any better than a recolor. I toyed with calling it Redice but preferred to use something meaningful.

As for the particulars: it's simply a Safari home screen bookmark. These are typically done by visiting a page, hitting the + button, and selecting "Add to Home Screen". Unfortunately, visiting any bluefirereader:// "protocol" links takes you to BR immediately, so you don't get an opportunity to add it as either a bookmark or home screen shortcut. While you can enter a bookmark for it manually, you can't add a bookmark to the home screen, so that's not the path I took.

Instead, I added a home-screen link to Google just to see if the results would be easily manipulated. Navigating the (jailbroken) iPhone's filesystem, I found the Google shortcut had written itself to /private/var/mobile/Library/WebClips/{LONG HEX SEQUENCE}, as a PNG icon and XML (and ASCII, thankfully) plist. I did a quick edit of the Bluefire icon to turn it red and add the standard gloss finish and rounded edges, and edited the plist to point to "bluefirereader://nav/transfer" with the name "Redserver". I edited the IconURL too, to point to a non-existent icon on the Bluefire Reader web page, but only because it's what Apple would have done; it has no actual impact.

If anyone else wants to try this (and of course, any negative results incurred as a result of blah blah blah not my fault), here's my icon and plist. I recommend creating a home screen shortcut using Safari first and replacing its contents with these rather than trying to add it from scratch, mainly because of the {LONG HEX SEQUENCE} part of the file structure, the importance of which I am unsure of but which is probably best handled by iPhone rather than human.

Spoiler:

<?xml version="1.0" encoding="UTF-8"?>
<!DOCTYPE plist PUBLIC "-//Apple//DTD PLIST 1.0//EN" "http://www.apple.com/DTDs/PropertyList-1.0.dtd">
<plist version="1.0">
<dict>
	<key>FullScreen</key>
	<false/>
	<key>IconURL</key>
	<string>http://www.bluefirereader.com/apple-touch-icon.png</string>
	<key>Scale</key>
	<real>1</real>
	<key>ScrollPoint</key>
	<dict>
		<key>x</key>
		<real>0.0</real>
		<key>y</key>
		<real>-60</real>
	</dict>
	<key>Title</key>
	<string>Redserver</string>
	<key>UIStatusBarStyle</key>
	<string>UIStatusBarStyleGray</string>
	<key>URL</key>
	<string>bluefirereader://nav/transfer</string>
</dict>
</plist>

[Iznogood]

Interresting reading, Vague Rant. How do you combine a jailbreak with Bluefire reader? I have a jailbreak too, but Bluefire crashes my ipad.

As for easy transfer to Bluefire, I personally prefer to use calibre and its built-in server. This is a server that runs on your computer, you type in an address in your browser, and up comes a list of your books. Tap on a book, and you can choose what program to open the book in. It works without a jailbreak and of course it is possible to protect your server with username/password. The server is only available locally (i.e. when you are connected to your local network.

[toddos]

norway1456, Bluefire needs the Backgrounder hack in order to work on a jailbroken iOS device.

It's linked elsewhere in this thread (multiple times), but the short story goes something like:

1. Download Backgrounder (make sure you get the right one for your iOS version -- the 2.x version in Cydia is for iOS 2.x and should not be used on iOS 3.x or 4.x)
2. Open the Backgrounder app and select Overrides
3. Add a new override for BlueFire and set backgrounding method to Off.

Bluefire should now work without crashing your jailbroken iOS device.

[Vague Rant]

Originally Posted by norway1456

Interresting reading, Vague Rant. How do you combine a jailbreak with Bluefire reader? I have a jailbreak too, but Bluefire crashes my ipad.

I've never had any problems with it on my iPhone 3G running 3.1.3. From the sound of toddos's post, it seems like the issue is to do with how Bluefire handles being multitasked, and iOS 3 just doesn't have multitasking. So that probably explains why I haven't come across the issue. Sorry that isn't useful information, but toddos's Backgrounder tip seems to have been well-tested. The Bluefire FAQ even directly suggests it: http://www.bluefirereader.com/help/index.html

[Karin54]

I'm mostly using Stanza at the moment and the incentive for me to switch fulltime to Bluefire would be support for:

1: icon for accessing night mode from main reading screen instead of settings

2: jump back button on main reading screen

3: quicker page turn

4: OPDS catalog support

5: no crashing with large libraries (1000+)

6: swipe for light adjustment

7: hyphenation

[Micah]

Originally Posted by Oh, Why Not?

@Micah... Looking forward to the Android version of Bluefire!

It has taken longer than I had ever thought it would, but we are making good progress and looks like weeks vs months.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by ATimson

I don't suppose you'll follow up with a Windows Phone 7 app?

I think Windows desktop is probably next. Win Phone 7 does not yet sallow C++ code, (though the platform is capable of it) which we need for the Adobe DRM code. Hope they allow that soon.

[Micah]

Lefty friendly and dictionary support needed. Got it. Moving that up the list.

[sualc1812]

I'm using BFR on my iPhone 3GS.
I can successfully download and read protected epub files from my public library
using the bluefilereader://fulfill method.
However I did not manage to dowload/read protected pdf from my public library.
I tried bluefilereader://fulfill and bluefilereader://download with no success.
Any hints ?

I can open the protected pdf files on my PC with Acrobat Reader.