[Archived] Marvin ePub reader for iPad

[anesthezea]

I have many, many books in Marvin and it is quite slow when loading, taking between 50 to 70 seconds to load the library, then a bit of further time to load the collection menu afterwords, depending which collection was last opened (collections with more books take longer than those with fewer books). I have the same books loaded into collections in iBooks, but it takes hardly any time at all to load that app. Is there a difference in how Marvin and iBooks read/load things? I'm guessing that Marvin does more stuff while loading than iBooks does, hence the wait? I know the solution would be to have a much smaller, easier to load library, but I like having a lot of choices. I never know what I want to read until I browse a bit.

[kguil]

@anesthezea - how many books have you got and what's your iPad model?

[anesthezea]

Originally Posted by kguil

@anesthezea - how many books have you got and what's your iPad model?

iPad Mini 32 GB. Roughly 3,200, I think.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by Jessica Lares

Saw this on MacRumors and thought I'd share here. This is currently free, but will soon be $2.99 according to the developer.

http://marvinapp.com

So what happened to this being $2.99? Did the developer decide that IAP themes was a better route to go?

[kguil]

@anesthezea - Marvin scans books during startup in favour of running the scan as a background task. The advantage is that once Marvin loads, it's behaviour will be more consistent. Of course, the startup time is proportional to the number of books in your library. I am working on improving startup times further (hopefully in the next version). On a personal note I think that 3200 books is bit too much. Still, I'm committed to faster start ups.

@Canuck - I don't think that IAPs are a better route. I have no plans to hide any core features behind IAPs. Themes only exist for people who want to match the overall scheme to the cover of the book they're currently reading (such as myself).

[drofgnal]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

iPad Mini 32 GB. Roughly 3,200, I think.

Why not leave the majority of those in Calibre? I carry around about 20 books at any one time.

[Gurvan]

Sometimes, you do not have access to a computer for a while... As for myself, I do carry around 1.000 books on my iPad and can be gone away from my own computer for months at a time... Thus, carrying your books in Marvin makes sense for some like me. ;-)

[kguil]

@anesthezea, Gurvan - In the next update, most startups will be about 2.5x faster.

[holymadness]

As if having 3,200 books made it easier to choose which one to read. Never mind being away from the computer for months at a time; you would die of old age before reading every one.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by holymadness

you would die of old age before reading every one.

Really not the point of having a large library.

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by RONE

Something that just occurred to me that I thought I should mention:

When you release synchronization between devices, will there be any concerns with shared AppleID's between individuals? The point I'm trying to make is my wife and I use one AppleID between her iPhone, her iPad, and my iPhone (and there will probably be another iPad for me added to the mix this fall). Will synchronization between devices be an issue for us? I would love to be able to pick up her iPad and read my book on it without having to hunt for my page, but I don't want Marvin to automatically open to my last read page of my book on her iPad for when she is trying to read her own book. I hope that made sense??

RONE: you should be able to use one Apple ID for App Store purchases and a separate one for everything else like iCloud and iMessages. That's what my husband and I do.

[RONE]

Originally Posted by anesthezea

iPad Mini 32 GB. Roughly 3,200, I think.

Could you not leave those books in a Dropbox account, 'star' them so they remain downloaded to your device and you don't need an internet connection to access them, and then pull them into Marvin as you decide what you want to read? I guess one problem with that would be you wouldn't have enough space in a free Dropbox account for that many books (so maybe put as many as you can in Dropbox, and keep the rest in Marvin? Also use Google Drive for extra free space?). Another issue would be not having a " batch 'star' " option for Dropbox, so would have to individually load and 'star' each book.

Originally Posted by MeSue

RONE: you should be able to use one Apple ID for App Store purchases and a separate one for everything else like iCloud and iMessages. That's what my husband and I do.

I appreciate the response. I've toyed with that, except that having iCloud synced between our phones gives us the ability to use the notes app jointly on our phones (grocery lists, etc), plus it gives each of us access to the other's contacts in case they were ever needed. Now, if there's a better note-taking app that would let us sync between devices, I'd be happy to try it out.

[Synamon]

Originally Posted by RONE

I appreciate the response. I've toyed with that, except that having iCloud synced between our phones gives us the ability to use the notes app jointly on our phones (grocery lists, etc), plus it gives each of us access to the other's contacts in case they were ever needed. Now, if there's a better note-taking app that would let us sync between devices, I'd be happy to try it out.

Evernote has a shared folder the two of you can use, might require the paid version to sync when not connected to wifi if you need that. You can always access the other person's contacts and calendar via their cloud through a browser if you know their ID and password.

[MeSue]

Originally Posted by RONE

Now, if there's a better note-taking app that would let us sync between devices, I'd be happy to try it out.

Better than Apple's Notes? No challenge there! I like Nebulous Notes which syncs via Dropbox and does not require a dedicated folder.

[Gurvan]

Originally Posted by kguil

@anesthezea, Gurvan - In the next update, most startups will be about 2.5x faster.

Thank you !