Marvin 3.0 is out

[democrite]

Originally Posted by evanbernstein

- Not sure why there isn't a letter scrubber on the right side to easily get to a certain letter when sorting by author or title. I was never clear why Marvin 2 didn't have it either. The scrubber on the bottom is interesting, and sort of serves the same purpose.

I believe iOS only provides an easy way to use an index scroller with certain views, maybe only a table view, so one for cover view, Kris would need to make himself. I forgot to mention it and you reminded me. I found one custom control that Kris might be able to adapt; perhaps there are others.

https://github.com/kreeger/BDKCollectionIndexView

[odamizu]

Marvin 3

@kguil: Sorry to pile on, but any chance you could increase the maximum font size? My visually impaired eyes would appreciate it.

(Right now I edit each book's CSS to increase the body font-size to 200%, but would be nice to not have to do that to get it big enough for me to read comfortably )

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by kguil

@Therisa In publisher settings mode many of Marvin's formatting tools do not work. That's why the setting isn't included in the 'inheritance' behaviour. However, it will be included in the 'apply to all'.

Thank you, as I make my formatting out of the app so it looks the same at any device.

[Terisa de morgan]

@Kris, my problem now is with the library. As there' a left section for shortcuts (even a narrow section is too wide), the covers in list wide are narrow too, and there's very few space to show:

• Title
• Author
• Series
• Reading progress

In Marvin2, all the concepts where in different lines, with Reading progress in a smaller font. In Marvin3, the additional concepts you show are in the same line than Reading progress, in a smaller font and one after the other, no separation, so it has a cluttered and crowdy look.

[twowheels]

I loved Marvin 2, but never used it, yet I still bought the Marvin 3 premium IAP because the Marvin apps have been some of the best iOS apps I've ever seen -- and I keep saying that if I ever read on my phone, Marvin would be the app to do it.

One feature I've wanted, badly, ever since I had my Palm 3, was auto-scroll -- and that's what pushed me to grab this update. I loved that feature on the ebook app I had way back when and have sorely missed it on the Kindle (clearly there are technical limitations there). That said, on the Palm it used the up & down arrows to adjust the speed, and I used that frequently... if I was getting behind I'd hit the down arrow, if I was getting ahead I'd tap the up arrow. An easy mechanism to change the speed seem to be missing in this app. Ideally (IMO) it would use the volume buttons, if Apple would allow that (I seem to remember them objecting to hijacking the volume buttons). If not, some other gesture or on-screen controls would be nice, even if they took a little bit of the screen real-estate (which is less precious with auto-scroll). I'd also like an easy way to quickly toggle between horizontal page turns and vertical auto-scroll mode, depending on my mood. (thought that's less desired than the easy speed adjustment).

Karaoke mode looks very promising as well, and I might give that a try. Initially I feel lost without context, but I think I could get used to it as I have used similar apps for reading websites and it worked well. Again, an easy speed adjustment (without pausing, adjusting the slider, then continuing) would be nice.

A horizontal swipe might be a good gesture for both of those modes... swipe one way to speed up and the other way to slow down.

[quiris]

Originally Posted by quiris

I have several dozen of EPUBs stored on Google Drive. All of the EPUBs show the reported error.

I would like to report that today I have no problem with Google Drive. Strange... I have not performed any spectacular action to workaround the problem since original reporting.

[kguil]

@MSWallack - I posted this to explain exactly how M3 and SxS work together.

@evanbernstein - (1) I can't seem to reproduce the headers and footers issue here. Can you try explaining again? (2) As per the tip, you can swipe down on the toolbar to quickly enter search mode, (3) I'm working on reducing the number of taps on iPhone. Using the quick panel on iPad it's still 2 taps, (4) I'm working on adding 'book cover banners' in another update to make the info box easier to parse, (5) Now extra dimming is a per preset setting rather than a global one, which I think is a bit better given that there are more preset slots.(6) I'm working on a "custom header and footer" to configure it any way you like.

@odamizu Thanks for your feedback. Larger text sizes will be coming in an update.

@twowheels Noted. Thanks for your feedback.

@quiris Thanks for the update.

[atjnjk]

Originally Posted by vs40

http://s017.radikal.ru/i428/1606/32/1e445bd748e2.png

Arabian right-to-left style in menu looks awkward

Originally Posted by kguil

@vs40 I just realised that my reply to your issue with Marvin's right-aligned menus might have been a bit crude. I apologise.

Here's a better explanation: I've experimented with several menu layouts that allowed me to have complex menus that can run very long. It is the best one I came up with and based it on a similar idea in saw in a popular app that is widely respected for its design chops. I also feel that the right alignment works because most menus are invoked by performing an action that's physically to the right of the screen minimising eye travel.

I can totally live with Arabian style, but I must admit I felt a bit dizzy reading that menu. I still think left-aligned text is best for LTR languages (easier to locate where the next line begins). Perhaps a popup or sidebar menu can minimize eye movement on iPad (and it's prettier than a fullscreen menu).

I currently can't use M3, so I read ALL Marvin's social channels to feed my cravings. With the current flood of feedback, maybe you could open a M3 tracker to track bugs/features and to reduce repetition.

Just some suggestions.

[kguil]

@atjnjk I'm working on an update that will let you choose between left/right aligned menus.

[deadman36g]

@kguil I clicked the 24 hour trial, but I would like to go ahead and purchase the full version how can I do that?

Also, since I have no iPad Pro and no plans getting one any time soon (currently have iPad 4 and next will probably be an iPad Air 2) is there any reason for me to get Marvin SxS?

[kguil]

@deadman The Air 2 fully supports split view (don't remember if the 4 supports slide over) and SxS isn't only useful for side by side reading. You'll find some use cases here: http://blog.appstafarian.com/post/146297027803/

I'm afraid you'll have to wait for the day to be over before being able to purchase. As promised, the preview mode turns Marvin into exactly what you'd see after the IAP. Thanks a lot for your support.

[deadman36g]

Awesome, thanks kguil

[tomsem]

Chris, thanks for the detailed 'side-by-side' post. That will be useful for the 'two languages' and 'two libraries' use cases.

But I wonder if some sort of an MDI ('multiple document interface') would be more flexible. While I have not seen that done in a mobile reading app, certainly it is ancient GUI pattern and would support things like having two views of the same book (with common set of notes), the 'two languages' case, maybe tabbed views to support quick switching between books, etc., and it would work on more than just iPad Air 2 and iPad Pro.

Thanks, and I'm looking forward to using Marvin 3!

[kguil]

@tomsem I've thought about MDI a lot when designing M3. Many devices that Marvin is expected to run on don't have enough resources (memory mostly) to run MDI. There are also some reading modes that are 'logically' inconsistent when running together e.g. vertical auto scroll one book and text to speech on the other that make the proposition rather complex. This complexity could also translate into a more cluttered UI for the majority of people who wouldn't be interested in the feature.

[Mr. Goodbar]

Dim headers and footers are working for me in night mode