Bluefire reader app

[Maggie Leung]

Originally Posted by Micah

Maggie,
Thanks much for the kind words. The best way to support our efforts is to buy a good book (or two..) from one of the bookstores in the Get Books area of the app. As to the "inverted tapping" - that is on my wish list. I do struggle with finding a balance between simplicity and features. But especially on iPhone, the inverted tapping could be very nice.

Sure thing. Look forward to seeing how the app and stores develop.

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by Micah

... I am thinking that we should at least change the label of "use publisher formatting" control to "override formatting" (which would also require inverting the on/off toggle) so that it is more clear what is actually going on. And when set to "on" we would go ahead and over-ride the body margins and set them to zero.

Any comments good/bad on that approach?

Hi Micah,

Yes! Please over-ride the body margins and set them to zero -- then let users adjust from there. Thanks!

P.S. Saw your Tweet about orientation-lock on the way. So looking forward to that! Thanks for listening!

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by Micah

... The best way to support our efforts is to buy a good book (or two..) from one of the bookstores in the Get Books area of the app.

Hi Micah,

I prefer to buy books from my computer then sideload onto my iPod (tiny iPod screen makes it hard to browse).

If I purchase from one of your partners (say, Books-a-Million) then sideload (through, iTunes synch or your nifty //nav/transfer technique) do you guys still benefit? Or do I need to make my purchase via Bluefire and/or download directly from the store into Bluefire for you to benefit?

[ChristopherTD]

Originally Posted by Micah

That is rather high on my list to address. I've still not decided to try to completely strip CSS (would be a LOT of work actually) but I am thinking that we should at least change the label of "use publisher formatting" control to "override formatting" (which would also require inverting the on/off toggle) so that it is more clear what is actually going on. And when set to "on" we would go ahead and over-ride the body margins and set them to zero.

Any comments good/bad on that approach?

I think this approach is good. Sticky margins are a nuisance, so being able to override them would be very nice.

Being able to add your own fonts would be too - not just embedded ones...

[PiAir]

Originally Posted by toddos

Did you try the workaround of adding an exception for BlueFire in Backgrounder and set its backgrounding mode to "None" rather than Native? Oddly, I didn't have the hang with Feedbooks-downloaded books, but as soon as I copied my own books into the reader I immediately got the hang. Adding the Backgrounder exception got rid of the hang for me.

Just wanted to report that this workaround solved the problem for me also. I didn't even have Backgrounder installed on my iPad with Jailbreak and got the freezes on exit. Installing Backgrounder and adding an Override for Bluefire Reader choosing either "Off" or "Backgrounder" fixed the problem.
Switching it back to "Native" returned the freezing problem.

I'm glad it works again now, BlueReader is a great app for DRM'ed eBooks (though DRM s*cks)

[luvshihtzu]

Cockeye,
Go back to the link I gave you for the Philadelphia Free library, let the page open and then click where it says eBooks on the right side of the page about 3/4 of the way up. It isn't that hard to find. As of tonight they now have 4141 eBooks.

[jbarsnes]

I have some problems with having my files looking good on the Bluefire reader. Does anyone know about a publishers guide?

[midlifec]

Finally got the "backgrounder" workaround set and I am using Bluefire. Easy - I recommend it to any jailbroken, BF users.
Where stanza continues to score heavily over BF, though, is in the "number of words on the screen." The margins and spaces between lines are still rather wasteful...please Micah could you do something about that?
Also the app won't allow access to epubs transferred via iphone explorer; no problem with sideloading from itunes. Is this a bug or is it deliberate?
...but still loving the app.

[Shell30Bell]

Originally Posted by Shell30Bell

Is there a limit to the number of eBooks that Bluefire can handle? I have nearly 400 books in my Bluefire library on my iPad. I prefer to have my eBooks sorted by Author but every time I start Bluefire it starts at Recent. When I tap on Author, or even Title, the Bluefire app crashes.

Have reduced the number of eBooks in Bluefire on my iPad to under 350 and no longer have the continuous app crashes.

[ATimson]

Originally Posted by jbarsnes

I have some problems with having my files looking good on the Bluefire reader. Does anyone know about a publishers guide?

Books should generally look about the same in Bluefire as on other Adobe devices (the Sony and Nook readers), so if you find a guide aimed at those it should translate to Bluefire pretty well.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by Jane12

Hi Micah,

I prefer to buy books from my computer then sideload onto my iPod (tiny iPod screen makes it hard to browse).

If I purchase from one of your partners (say, Books-a-Million) then sideload (through, iTunes synch or your nifty //nav/transfer technique) do you guys still benefit? Or do I need to make my purchase via Bluefire and/or download directly from the store into Bluefire for you to benefit?

NO, only if you buy something after following a link in the app - e.g. the standard affiliate thing. But we want our partners to succeed as ebook retailers in general (the more the merrier!) so we encourage our friends and users to shop at those stores.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by midlifec

Finally got the "backgrounder" workaround set and I am using Bluefire. Easy - I recommend it to any jailbroken, BF users.
Where stanza continues to score heavily over BF, though, is in the "number of words on the screen." The margins and spaces between lines are still rather wasteful...please Micah could you do something about that?
Also the app won't allow access to epubs transferred via iphone explorer; no problem with sideloading from itunes. Is this a bug or is it deliberate?
...but still loving the app.

Yea, we'll work on the margins. Line spacing is also very high on my list. It is trickier than it might seem as different fonts have different line spacing (a good thing) so it needs to be relative/proportional (if done, right, which is important to me)

As to the iphone explorer, it is not intentional. If we get a chance we'll look into that.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by PiAir

Just wanted to report that this workaround solved the problem for me also. I didn't even have Backgrounder installed on my iPad with Jailbreak and got the freezes on exit. Installing Backgrounder and adding an Override for Bluefire Reader choosing either "Off" or "Backgrounder" fixed the problem.
Switching it back to "Native" returned the freezing problem.

I'm glad it works again now, BlueReader is a great app for DRM'ed eBooks (though DRM s*cks)

Yes, the current eBook DRM landscape sucks giant rocks. my mission is to make it suck less, as it is a reality - and I believe a necessity in some cases (e.g. Library lending) . Glad to hear I'm making at least a little headway on that front.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by Shell30Bell

Have reduced the number of eBooks in Bluefire on my iPad to under 350 and no longer have the continuous app crashes.

Glad to hear it. We've been looking into managing memory better for large libraries. If we make any breakthroughs, I post about it.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by Jane12

Hi Micah,

Yes! Please over-ride the body margins and set them to zero -- then let users adjust from there. Thanks!

P.S. Saw your Tweet about orientation-lock on the way. So looking forward to that! Thanks for listening!

Yes, we do listen. Work is all done, so should be released very soon.