Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet

[Russ_Kauk]

I've just installed Calibre on my PC and have gathered together all my digital editions in one place. Now I'm ready to get this all working with the Android Kindle software on my Lenovo Thinkpad Tablet. The tablet is running 3.1 Honeycomb.

The problem I'm having is that Calibre does not seem to recognize my device. When I installed Calibre, I stated that I was using a Kindle Fire device since I think that is the closest Kindle to the Android Kindle software.

The Kindle plugin is active but just not seeing it. When I try the user defined device, it is not seeing it either.

When I plug the Lenovo tablet in to the computer, I have three options; charge only, mount SD card, or Media Transfer Protocol. I've tried all three options. When I mount the SD card, the computer sees the external SD card but not the internal hard drive on the tablet - which is where the Kindle software is installed. When I use the Media Transfer Protocol, the computer sees what I believe is the internal memory of the tablet (not the hard drive - but some sort of boot drive). This option also invokes the device sync software on the Lenovo laptop that I'm plugging it in to.

Does anyone have any suggestions? Is there a way to tell Calibre that I'm using an Android tablet now that I've already gone through the initial installation so I can see if that will solve the problem?

Thanks!

[kovidgoyal]

http://manual.calibre-ebook.com/faq....d-phone-tablet

[Russ_Kauk]

Kovid, thanks for your reply.

I tried setting the Calibre software up as a server per the instructions in the manual that you linked me to and still no go. I'm pretty much giving up at this point thinking that I can connect my tablet to the Calibre software.

Not only does the Kindle software not have the ability to browse with an internet browser (when you click on the Kindle Store link it takes you directly to the Kindle store and there is no way to enter your own URL), but when I attempted to connect to port 8080 with the standard internet browser I was unable to connect. This may be an issue that has nothing to do with Calibre, but I'm at my wits end.

I've settled for connecting my tablet as a USB device, copying the .mobi files that I created in Calibre over to the external SD card on the tablet and then having to disconnect from the PC and manually copy those same files into the the folder used by the Kindle software. I'll post back and at least let everyone know if the Kindle app will then recognize my books.

[Russ_Kauk]

It appears that the book imports fine by copying the .mobi file into the folder where the Kindle app stores its books, but there are no covers. I can't tell if any of the other metadata (like tags) gets carried over since the Kindle software is extremely limited in it's ability to search except by title or author.

[kovidgoyal]

Why are you so set on using the kindle app? Use one of the many good epub reading apps instead, they will not have all these problems.

[Russ_Kauk]

I've used Aldiko and have actually been very pleased with it on my phone. The EPUB format seems to be somewhat superior as I've now started to delve into and learn more about e-books.

For whatever reason, I figured once I got the tablet I should go with something more "legit" that I can use to check books out from my local library, etc.

Since this has become such an issue, though, I may indeed decide to stick with Aldiko. I don't have that much investment into either borrowed or purchased books yet with the Kindle app.

From some other posts on this forum it sounds like the solution might be to convert from MOBI to MOBI and that somehow this will add the thumbnail image that seems to be missing.

Either way, it doesn't appear that Calibre is going to be able to manage my library on the tablet itself so I'll still be stuck with a multi-step manual file transfer process. But it still seems to be a good tool for managing my library in a central location and its conversion utilities.

The bulk convert utility (EPUB to MOBI) seems to fairly consistently crash my Windows 7 laptop, however...