I pad mini can't cope

[49Kat]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It depends on the provider as to how easy it is to tether your phone. AT&T charges to tether. So it's not that easy.

Our iPhone 5's can be used as wifi hotspots. We were away from home one day and DH was busy, I was in the vehicle waiting. Just to see how well it worked, I turned on the iPhone's wifi hotspot and got my iPad mini online that way. Our provider has us on an "unlimited data" plan, but I've been told it's a "soft limit" of 10 Gb per billing period. Then they would throttle your speed. There sure is variation between providers.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

Our iPhone 5's can be used as wifi hotspots. We were away from home one day and DH was busy, I was in the vehicle waiting. Just to see how well it worked, I turned on the iPhone's wifi hotspot and got my iPad mini online that way. Our provider has us on an "unlimited data" plan, but I've been told it's a "soft limit" of 10 Gb per billing period. Then they would throttle your speed. There sure is variation between providers.

Throttling should be illegal. Unlimited it unlimited. That means no limits. Heck, if I had an unlimited plan and got throttled for actually using it, I'd consider taking the provider to court.

[49Kat]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Throttling should be illegal. Unlimited it unlimited. That means no limits. Heck, if I had an unlimited plan and got throttled for actually using it, I'd consider taking the provider to court.

Oh, there are plenty of complaints about isp's and providers and their bandwidth limits and charges. Fine print, "fair access policy", 'reserve the the right to limit users who use more than their fair share', blah, blah, blah. Things need to change, it's coming.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

iBooks is just a lousy piece of software. Please give Marvin a try. I'd love to know how well it can handle 3000 eBooks.

I don't use iBooks. I've always hated it.

Love Marvin, though. I did try to load my whole collection on it a few weeks ago, but found that it slowed down to a crawl at the really high numbers until it actually locked up. So I deleted it and just went back to using the folder manager and just transfer them over as I get ready to read them.

I can't remember where Marvin started to baulk, but think it was quite a bit over 3,000.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I know this is off-topic, but give Mercury a try. It's better then Safari.

I've always been using Atomic Web Browser as my main iOS browser. Thanks for the Mercury hint, though; I've downloaded it and it looks nice, too. Chrome for iOS is also nice, as is the German browser Dolphin. I wish Apple stopped being despotic, enforcing Safari as the default iOS browser -- then I'd never have to see fug-ugly Safari again.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Throttling should be illegal.

It's absolutely the standard here in Europe. I have 2 GB of mobile data per month full speed; after that, the speed drops to a crawl. It's marketed as "unlimited" as a matter of course by T-Mobile (and all other providers). BTW, 2 GB is enough for me; I have a fiber line at my home office.

Originally Posted by 49Kat

Our iPhone 5's can be used as wifi hotspots.

Same for iPhone 4 here in Europe. That's free of charge everywhere. You just need to have a local SIM card, because data roaming charges are obscene.

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I can't remember where Marvin started to baulk, but think it was quite a bit over 3,000.

Please try the most recent Marvin version; Kris keeps optimising the speed with every new release.

That said, I agree with Jon and others and don't recommend keeping b*ttloads of books directly on a reading device. It really strikes me as an old-fashioned approach to ebooks management. I view the cloud (Dropbox, SugarSync, whatever... potentially mirroring the Calibre library) as my bookshelves, and the reading devices as my coffee table / night table / briefcase. Why should I wish to put thousands upon thousands of books onto my coffee table or into the briefcase?

PS: No need to rehash the "no online access" argument... I get it. My claim is, "no online access" on an iDevice in 2013 is an anomalous situation.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Faterson

Please try the most recent Marvin version; Kris keeps optimising the speed with every new release.

I did use the latest Marvin conversion. I always update before experimenting with any software. Saves a lot of time that way.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Faterson

That said, I agree with Jon and others and don't recommend keeping b*ttloads of books directly on a reading device.

It's not the device that's the problem. My apple Mini has no problem carrying thousands of epubs.

It's the software that needs to be able to load the books, index them and open them. I haven't run across one yet that can handle a large amount of files and still be usable.

Storing them in a File manager, OTOH and opening in the book in the program of choice from there is the easiest situation so far. For me, it works well with no fuss. And I can load books over wifi and not have to mess with itunes at all. And I still have tons of room for my music and movies.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I did use the latest Marvin conversion. I always update before experimenting with any software. Saves a lot of time that way.

OK. I thought you said "a few weeks ago", but a new Marvin version has appeared since then.

[Faterson]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

It's not the device that's the problem. My apple Mini has no problem carrying thousands of epubs.

See, to me that's irrelevant. Even if iPad mini carried millions of books, I still wouldn't put my ebooks directly onto iPad mini. Why? Because I have several reading devices. The best way to keep your library in sync, is to put the actual files on the cloud, not directly on the reading device. If you do the latter and have more than 1 reading device, you're stuck with the need to manually keep your various libraries in sync. That costs time, and I hate wasting time.

I also hate wasting space. Instead of keeping thousands of copies of all of my books on each of my reading devices, I only keep a single copy of each book in the cloud, downloading a copy of it to this or that reading device on demand.

I'm convinced that's the modern way of files management (not just books, but also movies or work-related "office" files): manage files in the cloud, not locally. A file manager for iOS is, for me, therefore, obsolete, and not needed. Instead, we need a cloud manager; and for this, I recommend the superb free Documents by Readdle app.

[DuskyRose]

Originally Posted by Faterson

OK. I thought you said "a few weeks ago", but a new Marvin version has appeared since then.

If I can find that they've change it so it can index all my books without locking up, not just have gotten faster for smaller collections, I might check back in with it.

[Faterson]

Overall Library speed improvements were announced in the Changelog for Version 2.2, released 8 days ago (7th October 2013), so you might give it a try.

[UKPFC]

Originally Posted by DuskyRose

I don't use iBooks. I've always hated it.

Love Marvin, though. I did try to load my whole collection on it a few weeks ago, but found that it slowed down to a crawl at the really high numbers until it actually locked up. So I deleted it and just went back to using the folder manager and just transfer them over as I get ready to read them.

I can't remember where Marvin started to baulk, but think it was quite a bit over 3,000.

It does irritate that reader apps struggle with large book collections. Itunes can handle super large music collections and an audio file is so much larger them a text file.

[ilovejedd]

Originally Posted by UKPFC

It does irritate that reader apps struggle with large book collections.

Stanza actually manages large collections very well on an iPhone 4 or 4S. I still use it instead of Marvin on my 3.5" iOS devices since those are already loaded with >4,000 epubs.