Bluefire reader app

[Micah]

If you tether Nook, and transfer a book to ADE, then transfer to BFR (e.g. via itunes or Drop Box), then open it in BFR. Hopefully you'll get prompted for user name and pass. Try: user: <first> space <last> pass: CC# you used to purchase. If anyone tries this please post whether it works.

[xristy]

Originally Posted by Micah

Thanks for the suggestions. FYI, it does support notes and highlighting. in EPUB you tap/hold over a word until you get a magnifying glass, then you might need to "nudge" around to select a word. Then you can edit the selection by dragging the "lollipop" handles. In PDF, once you get the magnifying glass, you drag across the area you want to select. Yea, it is a drag (pardon the pun) that the two are different. Anyway, once you get a desired selection, you can "bookmark" the selection (or copy it if the publisher permissions allow) which will highlight the range, record a bookmark in the list, of which you can attach a note to.

I would suggest that it might be a little more helpful if highlighting didn't imply a bookmark and a note. I was confused because when I tried the gesture for selecting I thought I would see several selections including highlight, but saw only "add bookmark" and "copy". This led me to make the comment that you replied to.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by xristy

I would suggest that it might be a little more helpful if highlighting didn't imply a bookmark and a note. I was confused because when I tried the gesture for selecting I thought I would see several selections including highlight, but saw only "add bookmark" and "copy". This led me to make the comment that you replied to.

Are you the xristy123 on iTunes that said it crashes? If that is true, can you please post here repro steps and if possible affected file?
Thanks

[jeankap]

Originally Posted by xristy

I would suggest that it might be a little more helpful if highlighting didn't imply a bookmark and a note. I was confused because when I tried the gesture for selecting I thought I would see several selections including highlight, but saw only "add bookmark" and "copy". This led me to make the comment that you replied to.

Continuing on this subject... I agree that it will be useful to differentiate bookmarks from highlights,noye, and other annotations, since bookmarks have a very specific definition and purpose in the PDF world.

Also, I would greatly appreciate a highlighting UI that uses as few taps as possible after selecting the text to be highlighted. Right now I've got one tap&hold to start selection, then I have to wait for the bookmark/note dialog to come up, then tap save before I can move on. This can be time consuming for the highlighter obsessed, such as myself.

Nook, iBooks, and Goodreader all have acceptable approaches to highlighting. Not so much with Kindle and Stanza (again, they make you go through at least one extra tap to "save" your highlight).

Thanks in advance for considering these suggestions!

[GlennD]

I'm happy to say I've finally found a reader that I like for the iphone. On a 3G at least it's quite a bit faster than any of the other options that I've tried. Great job, Micah (and co.).

If I had one request it would be to be able to sort by series and see the series number in the Library. I often bring a whole series over to my reader at once and often forget which book is 'next'.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by GlennD

I'm happy to say I've finally found a reader that I like for the iphone. On a 3G at least it's quite a bit faster than any of the other options that I've tried. Great job, Micah (and co.).

If I had one request it would be to be able to sort by series and see the series number in the Library. I often bring a whole series over to my reader at once and often forget which book is 'next'.

Sorting by Title doesn't do the trick?

[Micah]

Originally Posted by jeankap

Continuing on this subject... I agree that it will be useful to differentiate bookmarks from highlights,noye, and other annotations, since bookmarks have a very specific definition and purpose in the PDF world.

Also, I would greatly appreciate a highlighting UI that uses as few taps as possible after selecting the text to be highlighted. Right now I've got one tap&hold to start selection, then I have to wait for the bookmark/note dialog to come up, then tap save before I can move on. This can be time consuming for the highlighter obsessed, such as myself.

Nook, iBooks, and Goodreader all have acceptable approaches to highlighting. Not so much with Kindle and Stanza (again, they make you go through at least one extra tap to "save" your highlight).

Thanks in advance for considering these suggestions!

That is a good idea. Thanks for the suggestion

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by Micah

If you tether Nook, and transfer a book to ADE, then transfer to BFR (e.g. via itunes or Drop Box), then open it in BFR. Hopefully you'll get prompted for user name and pass. Try: user: <first> space <last> pass: CC# you used to purchase. If anyone tries this please post whether it works.

I don't have a Nook, but have Nook4iPhone & Nook4PC and 'purchased' a free book (with DRM), and downloaded it to Nook4PC. ADE would not open the book ('authorized to a different user'). However BFR prompted for User/Password (credit card name and #) and when I finally managed to type these in correctly, I was able to open and read. So it looks like it works!

[GlennD]

Originally Posted by Micah

Sorting by Title doesn't do the trick?

I use the series name and number fields in Calibre; I don't put any series info into the title field. So sorting by title just gets me the series in alphabetical order.

[simplyparticular]

I've tried several ways to load OverDrive eBooks from eNYPL and BECPL, including emailing myself the link to the .acsm files, and no joy.

If you can get this working, along with some improvements in UI, you'll have a winner.

My note would be to offer a landscape two page option. iBooks and Kindle have it, but they don't have Adobe's DRM.

[jes1]

BFR is definitely a good start. I transfered about 90 books over and it went smooth. I definitely prefer BFR to Txtr for the ease of loading my books. A few things I would like to see in future upgrades are:
* An option for editing the book info on the iPod. Right now, if I sort by author, some
books sort by first name and some by last name. It would be nice to be able to fix
that within the app.
* A way to see which books have been read and which are in progress. That lack is
one of my big pet peeves with the Kindle app. I sometimes forget what I have
read.
* Other sort options are always good, such as by tags or series or genre.
Overall it is a nice reading app with a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what you are able to do to improve it, Micah.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by jes1

BFR is definitely a good start. I transfered about 90 books over and it went smooth. I definitely prefer BFR to Txtr for the ease of loading my books. A few things I would like to see in future upgrades are:
* An option for editing the book info on the iPod. Right now, if I sort by author, some
books sort by first name and some by last name. It would be nice to be able to fix
that within the app.
* A way to see which books have been read and which are in progress. That lack is
one of my big pet peeves with the Kindle app. I sometimes forget what I have
read.
* Other sort options are always good, such as by tags or series or genre.
Overall it is a nice reading app with a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what you are able to do to improve it, Micah.

Thanks. Editing meta data is definitely high on the list.

And BTW, while I'm the big blabbermouth around here about Bluefire Reader, I just want to mention here that I'm just one member of a great team:
Patrick
Shane
Keith
Dennis
Tim
Casey

[Micah]

Originally Posted by jes1

BFR is definitely a good start. I transfered about 90 books over and it went smooth. I definitely prefer BFR to Txtr for the ease of loading my books. A few things I would like to see in future upgrades are:
* An option for editing the book info on the iPod. Right now, if I sort by author, some
books sort by first name and some by last name. It would be nice to be able to fix
that within the app.
* A way to see which books have been read and which are in progress. That lack is
one of my big pet peeves with the Kindle app. I sometimes forget what I have
read.
* Other sort options are always good, such as by tags or series or genre.
Overall it is a nice reading app with a lot of potential. I'm looking forward to seeing what you are able to do to improve it, Micah.

I hear you on all fronts. And while I recognize that it is no replacement for a more convenient "library level" indicator of place-in-book - just fyi - in Library list view (which is all iPhone has) if you tap on the circle button on the right side of a list item, you view the "Book Info" screen and it does include a "Current page <x> of <total pages>" indicator.

And while on the topic, one of the things that I think is cool about Bluefire Reader, is that you can use that same "view" to jump directly into the TOC or Bookmarks list of any given book right from the library.

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by simplyparticular

I've tried several ways to load OverDrive eBooks from eNYPL and BECPL, including emailing myself the link to the .acsm files, and no joy.

If you can get this working, along with some improvements in UI, you'll have a winner.

I agree. The first app that works easily with OverDrive library books will sell very well.

[Jsimon]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

I agree. The first app that works easily with OverDrive library books will sell very well.

That's what I've been saying. The other features are nice but it's the ability to use the iPad for public library reading which is revolutionary and the game changer. It turns the iPad into the ultimate ereader and I guarantee turns this app into a major seller even with a price tag attached to it.