Calibre app for android.

[expatbrit]

I expect this has been asked many times and please excuse me if this is so, but a stand alone app for Android systems now that most tablets have 32GB or more would seem to be a great idea.

Calibre is head and shoulders above anything else out there and the only thing missing is the ability to use it on tablets without having to connect it to your PC or stream books to it via CC.

I may be alone in this but my PC has to be switched off when we travel and therefore I have no access to my book collection. Yes I do transfer those I think I might want to read but if we find a new book or RSS feed I have to wait until we get home to read/convert it etc.

I expect that converting Calibre to Android would however be a huge job so if it's not possible I understand and thanks for taking the time to read this.

Graham.

[Ravensknight]

Calibre Companion works great for me on my Nexus 7.2.
Cheap, great software and it has its own little forum here for when you run into a problem. I highly recommend it.

Edit:
Oops, missed that CC part. Sorry about that :-)

[eschwartz]

calibre would have to be completely rewritten in Java, I would think... Android doe not support Python as an app language...

Some tablets run an actual desktop OS, and have no problem using the current releases of calibre. You can also find apps to Remote Desktop into your PC.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

calibre would have to be completely rewritten in Java, I would think... Android doe not support Python as an app language...

Some tablets run an actual desktop OS, and have no problem using the current releases of calibre. You can also find apps to Remote Desktop into your PC.

Android supports Python (cough, cough), not yet good enough for calibre I suspect, this ones in beta ==>> QPython - Python for Android -

Rumour has it that 'they're' working on WINE for Android.

BR

[DoctorOhh]

Everything you say is true and it would be neat to have Calibre on my tablet, but until then...

Originally Posted by expatbrit

Calibre is head and shoulders above anything else out there and the only thing missing is the ability to use it on tablets without having to connect it to your PC or stream books to it via CC.

... I'll keep my entire library on my tablet and use CC to navigate it.

Originally Posted by expatbrit

I may be alone in this but my PC has to be switched off when we travel and therefore I have no access to my book collection. Yes I do transfer those I think I might want to read but if we find a new book or RSS feed I have to wait until we get home to read/convert it etc.

... If I find a RSS feed I'll add it to Feedly to read on my tablet and any new book that I must read, I'll purchase through Amazon or Google Play so I can read it immediately.

Originally Posted by expatbrit

I expect that converting Calibre to Android would however be a huge job so if it's not possible I understand and thanks for taking the time to read this.

It may be possible but Kovid develops using a set of tools that spans 3 Operating Systems, if the environment is ever expanded to include Android there might be a chance, but there are no plans to do this on the horizon.

As BetterRed suggests a WINE for Android app might happen allowing you to run calibre on Android.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by BetterRed

Android supports Python (cough, cough), not yet good enough for calibre I suspect, this ones in beta ==>> QPython - Python for Android -

Rumour has it that 'they're' working on WINE for Android.

BR

And looking around a bit, I see Qt5 now claims support for Android and iOS.
And for Python + Qt I kept seeing references to PySide not Qpython. But now Qt5 *supports* Android PyQt *should* work too.

This would be really cool. But probably a lot of work.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And looking around a bit, I see Qt5 now claims support for Android and iOS.
And for Python + Qt I kept seeing references to PySide not Qpython. But now Qt5 *supports* Android PyQt *should* work too.

Be very wary. PyQt (I think) uses C or C++ wrappers to talk to Qt. Android Qt seems to be rewritten in Java (which is not at all a surprise). If both of these are true then PyQt would need to be redone to work against Java. Possibly that is as simple as using Jython, but in my experience nothing of this complexity is that simple.

It would probably be easier to develop a client/server version of calibre and then implement that client using native libraries on the device. And funny thing -- that is exactly what Kovid is planning to do. He will take care of clients for the normal operating systems (but I am sure he is hoping for help). Others will build clients for systems not natively supported.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by chaley

Be very wary. PyQt (I think) uses C or C++ wrappers to talk to Qt. Android Qt seems to be rewritten in Java (which is not at all a surprise). If both of these are true then PyQt would need to be redone to work against Java. Possibly that is as simple as using Jython, but in my experience nothing of this complexity is that simple.

It would probably be easier to develop a client/server version of calibre and then implement that client using native libraries on the device. And funny thing -- that is exactly what Kovid is planning to do. He will take care of clients for the normal operating systems (but I am sure he is hoping for help). Others will build clients for systems not natively supported.

Like I said, "but probably a lot of work". I know Kovid is planning client support. Doesn't make this any less cool, in a totally theoretical way.

A mite though.

[BetterRed]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And looking around a bit, I see Qt5 now claims support for Android and iOS.

@e..w - that I believe is one of Qt5's main claims to fame - you really do need to get out of your cloistered and spiked dream existence a little more frequently

@chaley - thanks for the insight into future developments

BR