Bluefire reader app

[Micah]

Originally Posted by sachinwalia

Any plan for supporting bookmark syncing across multiple iOS devices?

That is something we'd like to support at some point. Not sure how soon we can implement it though.

When we do that, we need to be very thoughtful about how we implement the features as it is really, really important to me to protect the privacy of our users. I'm a bit fanatical about that actually.

That can be addressed with smart technology approaches. Just want to make sure we are very careful about how we do that - which takes time to both plan and build.

[Mickey330]

Originally Posted by toddos

The only thing missing is the ability to read from your local Calibre installation's OPDS feed. Boo!

Maybe I am missing something, but I can download and read books from my Calibre library...

- I have my library on Dropbox (in the public folder per instructions somewhere around here...)

- I run Calibre2OPDS to create a catalog (I set the catalog for compatibility level = Stanza)

- Once the catalog gets updated to my Dropbox (takes a while...), I go to Dropbox>Public>Calibre>_catalog. Within that catalog folder is a file called "catalog.html."

I open that file so I can get the actual link address. I put that link into Safari on my iPad and browse away through the catalog of my books. Once I find one I want, I select "Download this book in epub" (at the bottom of the book description page.

Safari opens to a new page where I have two download buttons: (1) Open in... (2) Open in "Bluefire Reader".

When I select "Open In..." - by holding the button until a selection grid opens - I can open the epub in Bluefire reader, iBooks, Stanza, BAM Reader, Kobo, Borders, Goodreader and iCabMobile. They open fine.

Well, except iCabMobile and Goodreader ... they download the book, but since neither can read epub, they don't open the book. The others do, however. Though, I bet Goodreader would open a PDF just fine (I have mostly epub books, however).

Huh. This is interesting. As I said before, I get two buttons. The first button, "Open With..." is always there. But, the second button changes to open with whichever ereader app you last used. Very strange - but that second button is a default, I guess. Who knew?

This is a long, rambling post with really no purpose other than to say, I can get a boat-load of books on my iPad now!

There's the little bookmarklet where you can download library books directly to Bluefire from within Safari and now this. Cool!

So, did you guys work this magic with Bluefire, or is this an update for Safari ... or did it work before and never knew it?

Regardless, it's pretty neat!

[Micah]

@Mickey330
That's an iOS thing. Though beyond epub and PDF we register .acsm which is not an ebook file, but rather a fulfillment token used to download a DRM book from the interwebs.

The dropbox approach for a Calibre library is very handy.

[toddos]

That's a lot of extra work. Calibre includes a web server with an opds feed. I want to be able to point right to that.

For comparison, here's how I download books in Stanza:

1. Open Stanza and go to "Get Books"
2. Assuming I'm on my home network (which is a valid assumption), Stanza finds my Calibre library automatically
3. I browse through the Calibre feed and download what I want

I don't have to sync my books to dropbox. I don't have to manually generate the OPDS files and structure. As long as I have the Calibre server running (and I always do), it's automatically available to me in Stanza. That's what I mean by bluefire missing the ability to read from the OPDS feed. There are plenty of other ways I can put books into Bluefire (sync from itunes, use the //nav/transfer URL and copy books through my PC's browser, jump through your hoops, etc), but none of them compare to the ease of use a built-in OPDS browser can provide. I'm even fine with not implementing UPnP discovery and making me have to type in my calibre server address, as long as the app remembers it so I don't have to type it in every time.

After the OPDS feed, Bluefire needs to add hyphenation (iBooks finally got that, though only on 4.2 for some ridiculous reason), more font choices, and more control over layout such as indentation depth, spacing between paragraphs, and line spacing in general, and the ability to merge publisher styles with selectively overridden formatting from the app itself (right now, I can either have my own font and colors or I can have the book's font and colors, but I can't have my own foreground/background and font settings while retaining the book's formatting styles for margins and such). Then it might finally supplant Stanza for me. I'm rooting for Bluefire to get to feature-parity with Stanza because BF is actively being developed and Stanza apparently is not (it gets updates maybe once or twice a year).

[ChristopherTD]

@Mickey330

That must have been added to Safari in iOS 4.2, it didn't work before. What a great find though. I am happy enough with that facility!

Many thanks for finding it

[Mickey330]

Originally Posted by toddos

...[snip a bit for this part only]...Calibre includes a web server with an opds feed. I want to be able to point right to that. ... [snip some more to quote this:] ...[*]Assuming I'm on my home network (which is a valid assumption), Stanza finds my Calibre library automatically[*]I browse through the Calibre feed and download what I want

Toddos - I totally get what you mean. It is more convenient to have Calibre as a server. However, doesn't that mean you have to be connected on your home network to get to your books via this method?

I'm not saying that it won't be handy to have BlueFire have direct access to the Calibre server, but when I have my books in the "cloud" (in my case, Dropbox) and I run Calibre2OPDS to make the catalog - it means I can access my library from wherever I am, so long as I have Internet access. This also means via 3G - if the iPad has it.

Yeah, it's a bit of a pain, time wise, to initially transfer the entire Calibre library to Dropbox. But, it's only once.

And, it's a bit of a pain to upload the catalog to Dropbox (I have 2000+ books and it takes about ... 15-ish minutes). But, once it's done, it's done. You can update the catalog whenever you want, but the old one stays accessible from within Dropbox. Oh, and Safari can be bookmarked to save that catalog's web address. Which stays the same even if/when you update or change that catalog.

The catalog itself takes hardly any time to create (you use a GUI format to set some defaults ... from then on it's a simple "click") and when I add books to Calibre, it's very quick to update in Dropbox.

So, yeah, there's a few steps in there, most of them at the very beginning (and done once). But, now I can access my books from wherever I am (heck, I can use someone else's computer, so long as I have the catalog's web address). And finding out I can download from within Safari onto my iPad, within the app of my choice? - kewl!

I'm just amazed that technology has gotten to this point, is all I'm saying.

[Jane12]

Originally Posted by toddos

... more font choices, and more control over layout such as ... line spacing .... Then it might finally supplant Stanza for me. I'm rooting for Bluefire to get to feature-parity with Stanza because BF is actively being developed and Stanza apparently is not ....

I, too, am rooting for Bluefire to reach the point where I can let go of Stanza and switch to forward-thinking Bluefire. But before I can make that switch, I really need landscape orientation lock so that I can read while lying down without having the orientation flip around whenever I move (very annoying).

I'd also like to see more font choices, more control over layout, and the ability to organize books into collections.

BTW, if/when Bluefire is able to offer all the feature options of Stanza, I would happily pay for this app.

Thank you BFR Team!

[toddos]

Originally Posted by Mickey330

Toddos - I totally get what you mean. It is more convenient to have Calibre as a server. However, doesn't that mean you have to be connected on your home network to get to your books via this method?

By default, yes, but that's okay -- I've very rarely found a need to load books away from home. But if I do, I could always poke a hole in my firewall and expose the calibre server to the internets at large. UPnP discovery wouldn't work, but I could specify the URL directly.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Micah

We have fixed the occasional freeze when returning to an open book in 4.2 and will be submitting the update in the next few days. In the mean time, you can quit the app and re-launch to solve it.

As to the jailbroken phone issue of freezing on exit, we are still struggling with reproducing it. If anyone on this list has experienced it, can you please post a note here with model, OS, what kit you used for jailbreaking, and any details that might help us reproduce it? Alternatively you can send the details in email to info@bluefire.tv

iPhone 3G 8GB iOS 4.1 jailbroken with Redsn0w. The jailbreak directions are on redmondpie.com.

[toddos]

new bootrom iPhone 3GS 16GB iOS 4.1 jailbroken with limera1n (previously jailbroken for 4.0 with Spirit, where the issue also reproed). The issue only happened for me when I had loaded my own books via the //nav/transfer method. Books downloaded from the feedbooks opds feed did not cause the hang, which is why I erroneously reported no repro at first. Fixed by disabling Native backgrounding for bluefire using the jailbreak app Backgrounder, so it seems like it's something to do with your multi-tasking implementation, possibly conflicting with Backgrounder.

Note that Backgrounder has had several updates since I first saw a repro, but I've not undone the workaround to verify if the issue still repros. It's possible that the issue is with Backgrounder and not with Bluefire, though I believe others had the problem post-jailbreaking but without having installed Backgrounder.

[Mickey330]

Deleted post ... 'cause I was trying to give directions for using landscape orientation on an iPad to someone who's using an iPod. My bad...

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Mickey330

Deleted post ... 'cause I was trying to give directions for using landscape orientation on an iPad to someone who's using an iPod. My bad...

Didn't iOS 4 give the iPod touch an orientation lock as well? (in the same place it can be found on the iPad after 4.2?)

[Micah]

Originally Posted by toddos

That's a lot of extra work. Calibre includes a web server with an opds feed. I want to be able to point right to that.

For comparison, here's how I download books in Stanza:

1. Open Stanza and go to "Get Books"
2. Assuming I'm on my home network (which is a valid assumption), Stanza finds my Calibre library automatically
3. I browse through the Calibre feed and download what I want

I don't have to sync my books to dropbox. I don't have to manually generate the OPDS files and structure. As long as I have the Calibre server running (and I always do), it's automatically available to me in Stanza. That's what I mean by bluefire missing the ability to read from the OPDS feed. There are plenty of other ways I can put books into Bluefire (sync from itunes, use the //nav/transfer URL and copy books through my PC's browser, jump through your hoops, etc), but none of them compare to the ease of use a built-in OPDS browser can provide. I'm even fine with not implementing UPnP discovery and making me have to type in my calibre server address, as long as the app remembers it so I don't have to type it in every time.

After the OPDS feed, Bluefire needs to add hyphenation (iBooks finally got that, though only on 4.2 for some ridiculous reason), more font choices, and more control over layout such as indentation depth, spacing between paragraphs, and line spacing in general, and the ability to merge publisher styles with selectively overridden formatting from the app itself (right now, I can either have my own font and colors or I can have the book's font and colors, but I can't have my own foreground/background and font settings while retaining the book's formatting styles for margins and such). Then it might finally supplant Stanza for me. I'm rooting for Bluefire to get to feature-parity with Stanza because BF is actively being developed and Stanza apparently is not (it gets updates maybe once or twice a year).

Yes, adding OPDS feeds is important, High on my list.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by Jane12

I, too, am rooting for Bluefire to reach the point where I can let go of Stanza and switch to forward-thinking Bluefire. But before I can make that switch, I really need landscape orientation lock so that I can read while lying down without having the orientation flip around whenever I move (very annoying).

I'd also like to see more font choices, more control over layout, and the ability to organize books into collections.

BTW, if/when Bluefire is able to offer all the feature options of Stanza, I would happily pay for this app.

Thank you BFR Team!

More fonts are high on the list. More layout control also high. collections not so high. I'm thinking ability to edit meta is more important and will help with organization. Collections are certainly still necessary, but sadly probably not coming for several months.

But hey, maybe we'll be really successful, and we can hire extra people and make it happen faster.

[Micah]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

iPhone 3G 8GB iOS 4.1 jailbroken with Redsn0w. The jailbreak directions are on redmondpie.com.

Thanks.