Bluefire reader app

[kyteflyer]

Is there a max number of books that Bluefire can handle?

I am using a 3GS 32G and it really struggles to get going. When I had put 80 books in (dragged over via finder/itunes) it just wouldnt open. Well, that is, I became impatient after about 5 minutes and stopped it. I deleted via Phoneview, and have now just dragged in 12 which also took ages to open, but seems OK now. Adding one or two at a time doesnt seem too stressful.

Whats the max it can handle in its database?

[tegamin]

For me, series and/or author grouping for books would be vastly welcome, as well as the ability to edit book meta-data in-app. I personally don't mind drag/drop from iTunes (though it is rather laggy), but if some sort of HTTP server could be implemented I certainly would have no objections

Also, is it just me or does orientation lock reset every time you exit out of the app?

[avere]

Originally Posted by Micah

I'm toying with where to store that data on the cloud. Would dropbox be a reasonable way to go there?

For me Dropbox would make sense as I already store my library there. Perhaps iCloud could be another possibility?

Originally Posted by Micah

I'm curious, in regards to a quicker way to switch to night mode, why is that important?.... I'd have a similar question about brightness settings.

As others have said, night mode and brightness are the two settings I change most often. I will often adjust brightness several times in one sitting as it gets darker, my husband goes to sleep and turns off his light, etc. I liked the swipe-to-adjust brightness because I didn't have to interrupt my reading experience. I would adjust the brightness without even really thinking about it. I do however take your point about having assigned this to scrolling in PDFs and not wanting to create an inconsistent user experience. Maybe a multi-finger swipe for brightness?

That said, I have to apologize. I have tried out so many readers in the past days (before deciding on Bluefire!) that I confused the location of the Night Mode setting with that of another reader, where it is many more clicks away. I think the location of the night mode button in Bluefire is OK. I would prefer having it right on the options bar for the sake of convenience, but I won't quibble over this.

Originally Posted by Micah

user added OPDS makes total sense...I'd like to do that, and it will be interesting to see if Apple will allow that.

Several other readers have this, so surely Apple is OK with it, no?

Originally Posted by Micah

Would just a "lefty" mode suffice? Or are there other tap zone configs that are really useful?

This is one of the things I really miss. I am not a lefty, but like others, I often switch my iPad and iPhone from one hand to another while reading (especially during long reading sessions). Configurable tap zones allow me to set both zones to go to the next page so I can easily turn pages, regardless of which hand I'm holding the device in. I just use a swipe on the rare occasion I need to turn back a page.

Sorry for this long-winded answer, but you have been kind enough to read and respond to all this feedback, so I wanted to return the courtesy.

Thanks again for a great app!

[avere]

Originally Posted by artbatista

Finally, one thing I neglected to add to my suggestions, when in library view, there's no way to see the book description and other metadata that may be available in the ePub container.

Yes, that would be very nice. I really like the look of a book info window, and it would be even better if it displayed the book's description.

[NimNams]

Like many others, I've turned to Bluefire after Stanza's unfortunate demise. I must say, I have been very happy with it! I love that I can add books through iTunes, and the level of customization has been the best I've found so far.

I'm not sure if this is possible, but I would love to see the app get greater touch sensitivity. With Stanza, the slightest touch in either corner would turn the page. With Bluefire, I find myself having to tap the screen much harder, sometimes even needing several taps before the app responds.

I also found that a right-to-left swipe would make a page turn in Stanza, no matter where it was done. This was handy when I held the phone in my left hand and swiped with my thumb, which naturally would hit the middle and slide to the left side of the screen. With Bluefire, I'm finding that the page only flips if I start flush from the right.

I'd also love to see some of Stanza's bookmarking features carried over. The first was the handy 'right corner tap' to bookmark a page without having to go through a long process. Every time I tapped the right-hand corner, the page would dog ear and I knew the bookmark was set. As well, I find the bookmark 'entry' screen in Bluefire to be a superfluous step. This may be entirely subjective, but I never add titles to bookmarks, so I'd much rather have the step removed for a faster, simpler bookmark process.

Finally, I'd also love to have Bluefire tell me how many pages are left in each chapter. It's a small thing, but it's nice.

That probably seems like a lot...but I really am quite happy with the app! With these tiny changes, I think it'd be close to being the perfect ebook app.

[NimNams]

Originally Posted by Barty

. I don't know if it's the jailbreak, but it won't save orientation lock. It saves my other settings. I looked in tv.bluefire....plist and see nothing that looks like orientation lock. Is there a key/value I can add manually?

I have this problem too, and my phone's not jailbroken. All the other settings save, but for some reason, orientation needs to be locked again every time.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

Is there a max number of books that Bluefire can handle?

I am using a 3GS 32G and it really struggles to get going. When I had put 80 books in (dragged over via finder/itunes) it just wouldnt open. Well, that is, I became impatient after about 5 minutes and stopped it. I deleted via Phoneview, and have now just dragged in 12 which also took ages to open, but seems OK now. Adding one or two at a time doesnt seem too stressful.

Whats the max it can handle in its database?

There is not an "actual" limit, though collection in excess of a few hundred can get unwieldy. Especially when initially sideloading lots of books - where the app can take a *long* time to rebuild the library and the entire app will run very slow until it completes (there's a lot going on in the background when books are added to the library - in large part in order to provide the Library Lending features/DRM). Also, the app generates cover art from taking a snapshot of the first page of each book. When we added Retina resolution support to that feature, oy! it slowed way down. Working on that.

I've considered enforcing an arbitrary limit, just to avoid people hating on us for that slow library build, and related performance issues with large libraries. But, as the devices get faster, it is less of an issue, and seems wrong to limit it across the board.

Maybe we just need better ways to communicate with users telling them while we are working in the background to build the library, and maybe we need to have some kind of "alert" for large libraries informing users they might want to consider archiving some of the titles for better performance?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Micah

artbatista:
Understood. Thanks for the suggestions.

Speaking of suggestions, how about using the latest ADE?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Micah

Yea, the sync would be awesome. I'm toying with where to store that data on the cloud. Would dropbox be a reasonable way to go there?

Why not just use the iCloud on iOS 5?

[Micah]

Just to let folks here know, we've heard the requests loud and clear, and we are switching our feature priority list around to get some features important to exStanza users in soon. Things like Collections, Edit Meta, User Added OPDS, quick brightness control, etc have jumped to the top of the list. We hope to get an update out with at least a few of those in the next couple months (adding features takes work, time, and testing). I know everyone has their pet feature, and some will be disappointed by our choices, but we are tyring to gauge what are the most common requests, and we also take into consideration how long a given features would take to release.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why not just use the iCloud on iOS 5?

Could, and it would be easy, but we do try to find approaches that will work with Android too.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by NimNams

I have this problem too, and my phone's not jailbroken. All the other settings save, but for some reason, orientation needs to be locked again every time.

I'll take a look at that. Thanks

[Micah]

By the way. We are looking for more Android and iOS developers in Seattle, so we can make even more cool ereading stuff. If you know any good people in Seattle who might want to work with a small startup in Ballard, please send them my way at jobs-at-bluefire.tv
-Micah

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by Micah

...
Maybe we just need better ways to communicate with users telling them while we are working in the background to build the library, and maybe we need to have some kind of "alert" for large libraries informing users they might want to consider archiving some of the titles for better performance?

Good idea. Its working well now, and I rarely have more than 2 or 3 going at the same time, I guess I got carried away by previously being able to have dozens in Stanza... but I was not loading them all at once, I was downloading one at a time. So sideloading a few at a time, letting the library rebuild and then doing it again, whilst slower, is less annoying than not quite knowing whats going on.

Is it possible to place an alert saying that the library is rebuilding and that it will take time according to how many books have been sideloaded?

[kyteflyer]

Originally Posted by Micah

Just to let folks here know, we've heard the requests loud and clear, and we are switching our feature priority list around to get some features important to exStanza users in soon. Things like Collections, Edit Meta, User Added OPDS, quick brightness control, etc have jumped to the top of the list. We hope to get an update out with at least a few of those in the next couple months (adding features takes work, time, and testing). I know everyone has their pet feature, and some will be disappointed by our choices, but we are tyring to gauge what are the most common requests, and we also take into consideration how long a given features would take to release.

This is really good news, Micah.

Something else I would suggest, given whats happened to Stanza, is that you start asking for donations or charging for the app. I'd hate to see you tempted by an offer from Amazon which will surely come in the future, because you are doing this for $0 I've paid up to $10 for reading apps I don't use because they are now not up to scratch. I'd be happy to pay for something which is excellent, ad-free, and staying available with all iOS updates (and Android updates... still not sure which way I will jump in the long run).