iPad Bookmaster - ePub and PDF reader for iOS

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by ArthurianLegends

Wow! I'm truly impressed by the diligent reply and the level of attention given to users. I have followed your instructions and it works beautifully—even nicer than Marvin in that I can view my Calibre library in its catalogic glory.

I am really glad to hear that the detailed instructions offered in Help has really helped you out with calibre.

... The detail of being able to customize the bookshelves with my own images is exquisite. For my Arthurian bookshelf, I now have a painting that reflects the theme as well as for my sherlock Holmes collection with 21 Baker Street. This is a dream to look at!...

Would you like to show us some screenshots of the above Scene images by posting them here?

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

The iPhone version is still on schedule as announced two months ago. It is coming soon by the end of this quarter (i.e., before June 30, 2016).

For the latest development of the iPhone version, there is now a new thread “MapleRead -- iPhone version of BookMaster -- now ready for beta testing”.

Check out the good news over there!

For related discussions, please also go over there too.

For the mature products, BookMaster SE and CE apps, please continue to use this thread.

Thanks.

[49Kat]

I'll admit I haven't read through this entire thread. Book master looks nice, but I have no interest in DRM stripping, and a lot of my books are DRM'd. This is where Marvin lost me as well. Bluefire manages epubs with and without DRM, but it lacks in other areas and the syncing is poor.

[cedhax]

@49Kat - I think Bluefire can only handle Adobe's DRM scheme and cannot handle other major DRM schemes such as Amazon's. As far as my DRM'ed books bought from Amazon over the years are concerned, Bluefire is just as bad as BookMaster or Marvin in terms of its inability of opening the books without DRM stripping.

[49Kat]

@cedhax: As far as I know, Bluefire can only read epubs and pdf's. At the moment, on my iPhone, it's not functioning to open epubs downloaded from my local e-library, so I'm using the Kobo app there to read a book I have recently borrowed.
I happily use my Kindle app to read my Amazon books, and to me, Kindle is the 'gold star' standard when it comes to reading apps. It just works. I can create collections, my books all sync to point read in all my devices. I can annotate.
Kobo for epubs...well, it's a lot prettier than Kindle (nice themes and backgrounds, pleasing to the eye), but it's a little buggy in function. I would trade the pretty for smoother functionality.
Bookmaster looked nice when I saw it in the App store, but if I can't use it to read epubs without stripping the DRM from them first, Bookmaster is of no use to me.
My wish is for one reading app that works as seamlessly as the Kindle app does but handles ALL epubs, DRM'd and not. If Bookmaster can do that, it would be my go-to app for epubs. I would be willing to pay for an app that does that, too. I mean, the developers do need to make money from it.

[slantybard]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

@cedhax: As far as I know, Bluefire can only read epubs and pdf's. At the moment, on my iPhone, it's not functioning to open epubs downloaded from my local e-library, so I'm using the Kobo app there to read a book I have recently borrowed.
I happily use my Kindle app to read my Amazon books, and to me, Kindle is the 'gold star' standard when it comes to reading apps. It just works. I can create collections, my books all sync to point read in all my devices. I can annotate.
Kobo for epubs...well, it's a lot prettier than Kindle (nice themes and backgrounds, pleasing to the eye), but it's a little buggy in function. I would trade the pretty for smoother functionality.
Bookmaster looked nice when I saw it in the App store, but if I can't use it to read epubs without stripping the DRM from them first, Bookmaster is of no use to me.
My wish is for one reading app that works as seamlessly as the Kindle app does but handles ALL epubs, DRM'd and not. If Bookmaster can do that, it would be my go-to app for epubs. I would be willing to pay for an app that does that, too. I mean, the developers do need to make money from it.

Unfortunately, DRM is not the answer to anything. Many of us believe that once we buy an e-book, we shouldn't have to worry that this book will just disappear one day from our library because the place it was bought from has disappeared or the DRM server has been shut off. Remember these places:
-Sony eReader bookstore
-Diesel ebooks
-BooksonBoard
-Fictionwise

Many readers lost their books because they purchased DRM books from these sites (and many other sites over the years). DRM doesn't benefit anyone - it forces consumers into locked down apps or devices while anyone interested in pirating simply googles a copy of an ebook.

As well, if maplepop was to integrate DRM reading capabilities into BookMaster, there would likely be licensing costs to do so, thereby lowering the profit margin by a substantial amount.

[rfog]

Solution, illegal or not in your country, is to remove DRM from your own purchases, that is the thing I do for all my ebooks and, if I cannot, I don't purchase from that shop.

DRM is the cancer of the literature and other similar media, and must be eradicated because it does not solves the piracy and never will do. You only need to dig into the darkness (ej., a google search with your book title and the epub word to see DRM is completely inefficient to do it).

Education and low prices are the solution.

PS: I know to talk about piracy and DRM removal is not a think liked here by the managers, but hiding it does not resolve the problem.

[49Kat]

I don't intend to participate in a discussion about DRM removal, and such a discussion would actually be hijacking this thread. I'm just providing my feedback to the developer of Bookmaster that I, personally, would like them to consider adding the capability to read DRM'd epubs.

[rfog]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

I don't intend to participate in a discussion about DRM removal, and such a discussion would actually be hijacking this thread. I'm just providing my feedback to the developer of Bookmaster that I, personally, would like them to consider adding the capability to read DRM'd epubs.

Then they must use the Adobe ADE or similar KIT, that is not cheap (at least last time I ask for it), and will lose all the customisations they currently have. And is not precisely a good ePub parser...

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

I'll admit I haven't read through this entire thread. Book master looks nice, but I have no interest in DRM stripping, and a lot of my books are DRM'd. This is where Marvin lost me as well. Bluefire manages epubs with and without DRM, but it lacks in other areas and the syncing is poor.

Originally Posted by 49Kat

I don't intend to participate in a discussion about DRM removal, and such a discussion would actually be hijacking this thread. I'm just providing my feedback to the developer of Bookmaster that I, personally, would like them to consider adding the capability to read DRM'd epubs.

1. Yes, please don't hijack this thread. Starting a new thread about "DRM and ebook readers" would be better and more interesting to a perhaps wider audience, as this is an important issue not tied to any specific iOS reader app like BookMaster.

2. @49Kat: Since you first raised this topic 6 days ago, I haven't seen anyone else second your feature request yet. In fact, a few persons have clearly expressed that they are not in favor of DRM and I doubt they would want to pay for it.

3. Maplepop needs to hear more voices expressing the same demand before seriously considering the DRM feature, as BookMaster is a consumer product for the mass market.

[DaleDe]

There is a wiki page for this product now BookMaster. It is based on their web site and collects links to this forum.

[49Kat]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

...
3. Maplepop needs to hear more voices expressing the same demand before seriously considering the DRM feature, as BookMaster is a consumer product for the mass market.

I had to think about this for a while before I responded to this...I guess my thinking was that expanding the range of file formats that BookMaster is able to read (ie adding DRM'd epubs) would have increased and improved market availability. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the majority of people who read ebooks only read non-DRM'd material.

Just saying...BookMaster developers will do what works best for them as a business, and that's fine. I respect that decision.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by 49Kat

I had to think about this for a while before I responded to this...I guess my thinking was that expanding the range of file formats that BookMaster is able to read (ie adding DRM'd epubs) would have increased and improved market availability. I wouldn't necessarily assume that the majority of people who read ebooks only read non-DRM'd material.

Just saying...BookMaster developers will do what works best for them as a business, and that's fine. I respect that decision.

When I said "3. Maplepop needs to hear more voices...", it was addressed to everyone who might be a reader of this thread that I would like to hear voices from those who want to second 49Kat's request.

But so far, no one has seconded. Is this is a sign of not having sufficient market demand of this feature? Moreover, as others have also pointed out, Adobe's DRM scheme licensing is costly too.

49Kat, thank you for requesting this feature here. But without anyone else seconds, I think it will sit there as a low priority item on our nice-to-have feature list.

[DaleDe]

I do not know how costly DRM is to a program. It is very costly to make a book with Adobe DRM but that is a totally different subject. DRM opens the world of library book checkout so I think it would be a good thing.

Dale

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

I do not know how costly DRM is to a program. It is very costly to make a book with Adobe DRM but that is a totally different subject. DRM opens the world of library book checkout so I think it would be a good thing.

Dale

Getting involved with the library ebook borrowing business involves (much) more than just DRM. For example, OverDrive seems to be a pretty well entrenched app for the public library in my local county. There has to be a significant setup process between the library system's server and OverDrive. It's not the case of an open system where any technically compatible ereader will work.