[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by Barty

My only question for now is, can the top status bar be turned off?

Yes, from settings on the home screen (gear icon, top left corner).

Edit: Kris beat me to it.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by kguil

Hi JayLaFunk. Sorry. You can't do that yet. I'm trying to make this happen.

Kris, what would require to make that (counting total pages) happen?

It seems measuring size is a nontrivial task for ePub. Absent standard metadata, which ePub does not seem to have, you need to count words by interating through the files and stripping out tags. That's hard enough. To get page count for a chapter, I imagine you have to actually lay out the chapter? Doing that for the entire book will be sloooowwww.

[kguil]

Barty... a lot

I've got some ideas but I'll work on them once I've finished an important update for iPad and then the iPhone version.

[JohnUSN]

(Sarcasm alert...) I am extremely upset! I was content with my solution for reading since Stanza died. Then I ran across Marvin. I tried it out, immediately downloaded about 500 books to it on my iPad, and now I can't seem to put it down. This is decreasing my productivity around the house and putting a serious dent in my book collection. And worse, I feel so let down when I switch to my iPhone app when I don't have my iPad with me!(eagerly awaiting the iPhone version) And with all that, I couldn't even purchase a full version, but had to settle for free! I am another that would have gladly paid dearly for this. I did the best I could by buying the theme pack, but still feel dissatisfied and hope I can buy a separate add on with the iPhone version. Seriously, this app has elevated my e-reading experience to a whole new level. I much appreciate the time and effort, kguil! My only feature request would be that mentioned above, let us purchase a separate theme pack when the iPhone version comes out, don't link the in-app purchase from the iPad!

[kguil]

Thanks John.

[Nat Sabriel]

Originally Posted by kguil

Nat Sabriel... The offline dictionary has not been removed. Offline dictionaries have been added. If you go to the home screen, settings (gear icon) and the "More" tab you'll still see "System Dictionary" (the same Apple offline dictionary Marvin always had).

I've written a tutorial how to add custom online dictionaries and an explanation on how the offline dictionary works here: http://blog.marvinapp.com/post/49858195407/

I read your blog but I thought it was outdated since the change log for version 1.5 says

Removed experimental iOS dictionary support.

Thanks for the clarification.

[andy88]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Hi Andy,

I've just mentioned the name of that app above, and also several times earlier in this thread.

I recommend the iOS app Lingvo. Its price is symbolic, and it works on both iPad and iPhone. It's from the makers of FineReader, which probably you know is the best currently available OCR software.

Of course, it depends on exactly what languages (and language pairs) you are interested in, but for my (very broad) language interests, Lingvo satisfies most of the dictionary needs I have.

Unlike the crappy internal iOS dictionary, Lingvo gives you the option of both monolingual, and translation dictionaries. And all of them work offline -- no Internet access is necessary. Even better: you can have both dictionaries displayed at the same time. That is, you get an English word explained in English, and then also translated to a language of your choice, right below that.

Many dictionaries inside Lingvo are free-of-charge, while other, more advanced dictionaries from top-of-the-line publishers (like Collins), can be purchased additionally. Those advanced dictionaries tend to be very expensive (meaning up to a couple of dozen dollars), but you get what you pay for: top dictionary quality. None of the iOS dictionary crap where you can't even search within the dictionary, all the hyperlinks between various entries are dead, and you can't define words used in the definitions themselves. None of that crap in Lingvo -- dictionaries in Lingvo work just like they are supposed to work.

So, all you need to do is enable the Lingvo button in Marvin as one of your custom menu buttons, by entering the following as your command text:

abbyy.lingvo://{define}

This line is available as a preset in Marvin, so you don't need to type this manually! Just tap the Lingvo preset in Marvin when setting up your custom menu button, and that's it.

PS: Besides Lingvo, I also enjoy using the Larousse app as my French-to-French dictionary.

Thanks a lot for the detailed explanation. I have now installed Lingvo on my iPad and it's been great to use with Marvin.

However I found out that for every word definition - Marvin launches the Lingvo app to display the definitions. Is this normal ? Shouldn't it open on the Marvin ebook itself ?

Thanks again,

[kguil]

Yes Andy. Unfortunately, it is normal. Marvin can only launch the app (you can't have apps side by side). This is made slightly worse by the fact the the splash screen is shown (every ?) time it is launched. There isn't much I can do about that.

[Faterson]

Yeah, every time. But so far, it hasn't been as distracting/annoying as I feared it might be. Seems like the eyes get used to the flicker of the splash-screen and stop registering it after a while, much like website visitors have by now been "trained" to automatically ignore all blinking banners.

I certainly hope it will be possible to split the iPad screen between two apps in a future version of iOS.

That said, Andy, the content displayed by the Lingvo window is typically so rich that a pop-up bubble wouldn't hold all (or even most) of it, anyway. Especially if you instruct Lingvo to display both a definition, and a translation of the word you're looking up, from two different dictionaries at the same time, which is a great Lingvo feature. You'd have to be scrolling a lot within the pop-up bubble, which isn't optimal, either. And, that iOS dictionary pop-up bubble exists only on the iPad, whereas it's a separate screen on the iPhone, much like the Lingvo screen now in Marvin.

I believe the Kindle app is the smartest when it comes to displaying dictionary definitions. They always appear at the very bottom or at the very top of the screen, and you tap them if you wish to read the entire definition. If Kris could emulate that with Marvin/Lingvo/any 3rd-party dictionary app in future, that would be great.

My bigger concern is the return from Lingvo to Marvin. I'm fine with the 4-finger slide gesture on the iPad, but it's not available on the iPhone. I'm afraid I'll have to jailbreak the iPhone just to be able to use that gesture there as well. The alternative for returning from Lingvo to Marvin on the iPhone would be pressing the physical Home button and then the Marvin icon on the home screen manually every time, but I suspect that can quickly get annoying.

[Shykat]

I am anxiously awaiting the iPhone version of Marvin. I figure I'm pretty much a simple user. I read ebooks for pleasure so I don't need external libraries, etc. So far, Marvin on my iPad Mini does exactly what I want it to.

Currently, I convert any books that need it with Calibre. Then, books that are ready to be loaded onto my Mini go into a Directory in Dropbox (not in the Public folder) called Ebooks for Cloud.

When I need to add more books to my Mini, I just use Marvin to go to that directory in Dropbox and I download the files and I'm off and reading.

Once the iPhone version is ready, would it be able to download the same files and then Sync my reading location between the two devices? My Mini is wifi only but it's available so many places, plus my home network, I am hoping that the syncing would be super easy.

Did that all make any sense?

I really want to be able to sync my reading location in the books so I can switch between devices quickly and easily.

Sure hope that the iPhone version will be available SOON!!!! Maybe before the end of September, pretty please!!

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by Shykat

Once the iPhone version is ready, would it be able to download the same files and then Sync my reading location between the two devices?!

Yes, definitely. I think Kris said syncing the reading location will be available immediately, and syncing everything else (like annotations) will come later.

I'm a bit different from you: I find syncing the last-read location unimportant (I keep track of it in Google/Readdle Calendar manually anyway), but to me, syncing notes and annotations is of primary importance. GoodReader does this superbly for PDF files using iCloud, so I hope Marvin will accomplish the same for EPUBs.

Originally Posted by Shykat

Sure hope that the iPhone version will be available SOON!!!! Maybe before the end of September, pretty please!!

That's definitely the plan: to release Marvin for iPhone in one of the summer months.

As I see it, though, there's no rush. Quality of Marvin for iPhone is more important to me, than to have it available immediately. (I'm still chugging along using the half-defunct Stanza on iPhone for now.) If Kris needs more time to ensure top quality for Marvin for iPhone, by all means he should take it.

Again, GoodReader is a great role model: GoodReader for iPhone offers 100% functionality of the iPad version, in a smart way customized for the small screen, and this is a top priority for me. I'd hate to see a stripped-down Marvin for iPhone version, lacking some of what the user might label "crucial" functionality from the iPad. Naturally, because every user is different, everyone might consider something different "crucial" for him or her, regarding Marvin functionality.

[kguil]

Hello Shykat. Yes, when the iPhone version is ready, you'll be able to sync positions. In fact you should be able to sync positions between any iDevice (say, iPad-to-iPad-to-iPhone).

The aim is to release the iPhone version before September.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by kguil

The aim is to release the iPhone version before September.

Good to know! Here's hoping it arrives on schedule or even earlier.

[Faterson]

The release of Marvin for iPad and of iPad 3 with Retina screen were the top 2 IT events of 2012 for me.

It appears that the release of Marvin for iPhone and of iPad mini with Retina screen might become the top 2 IT events of 2013. OK, let's make it top 3 by also including the Mailbox app, which has completely revolutionized the way I'm handling the hundreds of email messages I receive every day.

(And yes, I'd classify the original release of iPad mini last year, with an obsolete screen and at an inflated price, as one of the top disappointments of 2012.)

[Barty]

Originally Posted by kguil

Tacty, paper/texture backgrounds are on my to do list.

Thank you for this.

Most people think background textures/images are a useless gimmick, but I think most people are prejudiced by all the horrible / garish textures/images they've come across and don't consider it's entirely different when they can choose their own. To me, having subtle variations in the background makes it easier to read than a solid color.

I attached an example of background image in Stanza and solid color in Marvin. Stanza lets user import a picture for background and set its opacity; some interesting things can be done with this.

Another useful thing is if none of the supplied background colors suits me exactly, I can just create an image with the solid color I want. Voila.

PS: my idea of 'subtle' may be someone else's idea of nightmare, but that's why customization is good.