Calibre Companion for iPhone has been started!

[Almamida]

Oh good news !
I have an iPad mini Retina and and iPhone 6S to test it

[sydmalicious]

I have an iPhone 6s and an iPad Air 2. I'd love to test it!

[Steve_Haley]

OK, thanks to all volunteers. That's enough people for now so we don't need anyone else yet. I've had email addresses from about half of you so far; could those who haven't please email me at steve@multipie.co.uk or send me a private message. There's no hurry at though.

Testing on an iPod Touch

The iPod Touch 5th Generation should be OK since it runs iOS 9. However, Apple tells me that iPod 4th Gen still runs iOS 8 so unfortunately we won't be able to test on those. (We're building the app to work on iOS 9 & 10; by the time we're ready to make CC for Apple public, iOS 10 will be launching, so we have to focus on supporting that instead of iOS 8.)

[johnnyb]

Hi! That is great news! I have no programming skills whatsoever but I'd be happy to make the icon for the app
Looking forward to its release!

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Steve_Haley

Thanks everyone - it's been great to see so many replies so quickly.

[...]

I might as well get your email addresses now so I can finalise this list. I didn't expect so many volunteers quite so quickly! So if you could PM them to me, or email me at steve@multipie.co.uk (mentioning your MobileRead username), I'll put those in my list. We will still stick to the schedule of the first alpha version in about 2 weeks.

Thanks!

I reported the thread and apparently someone in the moderating team agreed with me, so this is now pinned on the frontpage news.
So expect lots of attention.

...

Great work. I'm not really an Apple person, but apparently a lot of people are and CC has always been one of the big advantages of Android.
It is always good to see significant advances in the ebook world...

[chaley]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I reported the thread and apparently someone in the moderating team agreed with me, so this is now pinned on the frontpage news.
So expect lots of attention.

...

Great work. I'm not really an Apple person, but apparently a lot of people are and CC has always been one of the big advantages of Android.
It is always good to see significant advances in the ebook world...

Thanks for reporting the thread to the powers-that-be, and thanks for the good words.

[BetterRed]

I for one, never visit the MR Home page, but because I have one I do occasionally glance at the Android Devices forum. So maybe this thread should be pinged to the Apple Devices forum too.

BR

[Steve_Haley]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

Hi! That is great news! I have no programming skills whatsoever but I'd be happy to make the icon for the app
Looking forward to its release!

Thanks for the offer, however one of my colleagues is already working on that. You're right though that we need a new one; I don't think Apple would like us using an app icon that still had the Android robot on it.

Originally Posted by BetterRed

So maybe this thread should be pinged to the Apple Devices forum too.

For now, we only wanted people who had used the Android version. What I'll be sending out in about a week and a half won't really be ready for people who don't know what the app is or what it's supposed to do. This is an early step in the development process; we're trying to balance getting valuable early feedback with not accidentally putting people off when they use an unfinished app.

[gbm]

Originally Posted by Steve_Haley

Thanks for the offer, however one of my colleagues is already working on that. You're right though that we need a new one; I don't think Apple would like us using an app icon that still had the Android robot on it.

Replace the robot with an apple core.


I do not use apple but good luck and may you only be off on your estimates of when you will be done, only by a factor of 2.


bernie

[Steve_Haley]

We're ready for the first version! Everyone who's on the list above and who sent me their email address should shortly receive an email with the next steps. It will be from something to the effect of "MultiPie Ltd (via Crashlytics)", with the subject "You've been invited to test Calibre Companion".

There are just a few steps once you get that email:
1) Open the email on your iPhone (or other Apple device) and tap the "Let me in" button. Follow the instructions on the website, which will include installing a certificate from Crashlytics.

2) That gives me the serial number for your device, which I need for some set up with Apple. (I need to tell them it's OK for your device to download the app even though it's not on the Appstore yet.)

3) Sometime on Friday, hopefully once most people have followed step 1, I will send out another email via Crashlytics which will let you actually download and install the app.

That last point is important: until I send the second email, you won't be able to download the app yet. That's completely normal.

The reverse is also true - if you don't follow step 1 before I send the email with the download link, you won't be able to download the app even after doing step 1. That's because your device(s) won't have been on the list I first sent to Apple. As I'm sure some people won't manage to sign up in time, I'll send other emails next week to make sure everyone gets a chance.

[AlexBell]

I seem to be doing something wrong, or something is not working.

I use my desktop Windows 10 computer as my main computer, for email and the rest. I got an email from you a day or so ago on my computer, opened it on the iPad, downloaded a file on to the iPad which left me with an icon with Beta underneath it.

Tonight I got another email, and opened it on my iPad. I didn't really understand the instructions and messed around a bit, and now have a greenish icon with books on it on my iPad screen. I opened calibre on my computer, and opened connect/share and started a wireless connection; then tapped the CC icon on the iPad and the connect, and was able to download an ebook from calibre to the iPad. Is that what I should have done?

But I can't open the ebook. I know the ebook works since I have it open on my Sony and can read it.

What should I do now?

[chaley]

Originally Posted by AlexBell

I seem to be doing something wrong, or something is not working.
...

Moderator Notice
I created a separate thread for iOS CC Alpha 1:
[iOS] CC for iPhone Alpha 1 discussions

[rGiskard]

This is awesome news, I've been reluctant to get an iPad because I love Calibre Companion so much. Wish I'd gotten in on the testing since I'm an avid Android user as well as a Mac user and now an iPad user.

Can't wait for the public release!

[chaley]

Originally Posted by rGiskard

This is awesome news, I've been reluctant to get an iPad because I love Calibre Companion so much. Wish I'd gotten in on the testing since I'm an avid Android user as well as a Mac user and now an iPad user.

Can't wait for the public release!

You can still get in on the testing phase for the (one hopes) final alpha. See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=278758

[rGiskard]

Thanks Chaley, I went ahead and got my device info registered with Crashlytics yesterday.

Just want to say, you guys are a National Treasure. My Calibre library is humongous and in my experience nothing else comes close for book collection management. To be able to effortlessly access it and manage files locally on my tablets is literally over half the value of the tablets. For me they would be mere toys without CC.