iPad Bookmaster - ePub and PDF reader for iOS

[rfog]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

Actually no. Apple Pencil is designed to work with the iPad Pro and does not work with any other iPad devices including the iPad Air 2 or iPad mini 4. It seems that no current BookMaster app user action (including highlighting) really requires the new capability of an Apple Pencil.

iBooks has annotation capability with pencil and sometimes is more disturbing than helping because if you touch the text with the pencil, it automatically gets selected and marked. And only allows mark, not for example underscript or do a round circle text, then is better no support than bad support as it is in iBooks.

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

Yes, password protection at the app and/or book set level has been on our internal nice-to-have feature list for a long time. But we hesitate to implement without sufficient user input.

I'm glad someone finally raises this password protection issue on this thread of discussion. Anyone else seconded?

Is an app level password protection sufficient? This clearly requires the least amount of work on our side.

However, if you want to let your young kids also enjoy reading on BookMaster, then you may want book set level protection.

Do you want to prevent your kid ust from opening a book or even from knowing the existence of the book (in the Library) in the first place?

More thoughts from everybody? Do you care to have password protection in BookMaster at all?

First of all, I love your app--BookMaster SE. It's already the best reader app by far among the two dozen reader apps I've tried since I acquired my first generation iPad. As you are openly soliciting feedback, I'll give my 2 cents.

Password protection is a nice-to-have feature, but it's definitely not a high priority item in my case. Having said that, I would like to offer a few suggestions here for your consideration. If this doesn't make sense to you, don't take it too seriously. I may not have thought through all the implications anyway.

1. An app-level protection should always be available in any usage model to be offered.
It should work kind of like the iPhone screen lock when you try to open the app.

2. Support a usage model where only a few books out of hundred or thousands of books are unprotected.
Sometimes I let kids read books (other than playing games) on my iPad. But I'm a bit worried that they may open my books and inadvertently mess up my notes, bookmarks and reading progress marks. I would rather restrict their access to the few books I'd encourage them to read, perhaps all in a book set specifically created for them. Thus, a model that protects all books by default with one switch and unprotects all books in one book set with another switch seems best for me in this case.

3. Only unprotected book sets can be switched to and displayed.
I don't mind others seeing all the book set names, but they don't need to see the book set contents.

4. All Exchange views as a unit can be blocked from access.
Since your app allows unrestricted Web Access, which is fine for its intended functionalities, App Store rates it as 17+. I'd like to see an option (under password control of course) to restrict access to Exchange views so that kids can't use the built-in browsers and can't download books. Otherwise, they may figure out how to download the very same books I block them from reading in the Library.

5. Use fingerprint authentication as an alternative to password for supported iOS devices.
This is more convenient sometimes. I can wait.

6. Come up with a design that somehow implements the above features and is still easy to use.
Take the time and don't rush.

Hope this is helpful!

[xoanohn]

Apple pencil support like liquid paper would be perfect

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by cedhax

First of all, I love your app--BookMaster SE. It's already the best reader app by far among the two dozen reader apps I've tried since I acquired my first generation iPad. As you are openly soliciting feedback, I'll give my 2 cents.
....
6. Come up with a design that somehow implements the above features and is still easy to use.
Take the time and don't rush.

Hope this is helpful!

Thank you very much for your very thoughtful and helpful suggestions!

We really appreciate that you have offered us your suggestions together with your detailed usage scenarios.

We plan to take care of this feature after the iPhone version.

[sbaylor]

Hi, I have some good news for our users.

As the iPhone version will enter beta soon, and the expanded code base is now stable, we don't want to hold off improvement to the iPad version for any longer than necessary.

The next release v1.4.1 is now pending App Store approval.

For a preview of the new changes (with illustrations) of v1.4.1, please visit our webpage.

Thanks for the users who have made suggestions or reported bugs in this forum or by email.

[sbaylor]

Version 1.4.1 of both the SE and CE editions are now available on the App Store.

[Cesca]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

Version 1.4.1 of both the SE and CE editions are now available on the App Store.

Just updated both of my iPads. The new option to sort by author and series is so useful! I love seeing my library organized this way. You made my day.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by Cesca

Just updated both of my iPads. The new option to sort by author and series is so useful! I love seeing my library organized this way. You made my day.

Thank you!

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

Version 1.4.1 of both the SE and CE editions are now available on the App Store.

I really like the new option of sorting books by Author+Series too. I didn't know what I had missed until I tried it out with my own books today. Cool!

Thanks to the following new feature, I impressed my friend who used an Android reader app (without OPDS support) to download books when sorted by Author+Series from my iPad mini.
- Enhanced built-in HTML Book Server to serve webpages that look more like enhanced Library Booklist views

Your website mentions another new feature:
- Enhanced book download support from more HTML websites, such as wiki.mobileread.com and freefullpdf.com
May I suggest adding links to these sites as built-in sites inside the app?

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by cedhax

I really like the new option of sorting books by Author+Series too. I didn't know what I had missed until I tried it out with my own books today. Cool!

Thanks to the following new feature, I impressed my friend who used an Android reader app (without OPDS support) to download books when sorted by Author+Series from my iPad mini.
- Enhanced built-in HTML Book Server to serve webpages that look more like enhanced Library Booklist views

Thanks for your compliment!

Originally Posted by cedhax

Your website mentions another new feature:
- Enhanced book download support from more HTML websites, such as wiki.mobileread.com and freefullpdf.com
May I suggest adding links to these sites as built-in sites inside the app?

A great suggestion. The Websites View's HTML built-in links have just been updated: two links for downloading EPUB files at wiki.mobilread.com, and one link for downloading PDF files at freefullpdf.com (BMSE only).

Enjoy!


REMINDER: you may need to tap the Refresh/Reload button (at the upper right corner) in order to see the new links.

[jerrya]

Thanks for adding the these download links. I have just downloaded a few Harvard Classics EPUB files from one of the links. Very convenient indeed. I also like the app feature that allows me to save webpage links, so that I can jump directly to the saved page next time in one step instead of doing a multi-step navigation again. Very nice.

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by sbaylor

Thanks for your compliment!

A great suggestion. The Websites View's HTML built-in links have just been updated: two links for downloading EPUB files at wiki.mobilread.com, and one link for downloading PDF files at freefullpdf.com (BMSE only).

Enjoy!


REMINDER: you may need to tap the Refresh/Reload button (at the upper right corner) in order to see the new links.

Thanks for your quick response!

[ArthurianLegends]

I truly love all the thought and detail that went into this app, but I feel kind of stupid that I am not able to synch this app to calibre. I have tried following the directions, but have found an easier way to go to my dropbox where my Calibre library is stored and to import books from the dropbox. Yet, there has to be an easier way.

To the developers, I would love it if the book covers could be similar in size to those of the ibooks and kindle apps for ios.

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by ArthurianLegends

I truly love all the thought and detail that went into this app, but I feel kind of stupid that I am not able to synch this app to calibre. I have tried following the directions, but have found an easier way to go to my dropbox where my Calibre library is stored and to import books from the dropbox. Yet, there has to be an easier way.

Thank your for your compliment.

As for the calibre question, are you following the FAQ "How to import books from calibre?" As you can see, most of the steps are about establishing the connection to the calibre server. If you have assigned a fixed IP address (directly or indirectly via router/name server) to the PC running calibre, then you may skip to Step 8 (Tap Add OPDS site). Perhaps that's what you consider as an easier way?

To the developers, I would love it if the book covers could be similar in size to those of the ibooks and kindle apps for ios.

Are you talking about the Booklist view, or the Bookshelf view, or both? (Note that Book Info view shows a very large book cover image, larger than what can find in iBooks and Kindle apps.)

It seems that you would rather see fewer books displayed per page in exchange of larger book cover images for both list view and shelf view, right? Actually, the book cover image size of BookMaster was modelled after the original iBooks, the one Steve Jobs first introduced to the world.

[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 have used (and still use to varying degrees) the kindle app to synch with my e-ink reader, i-books (for the manual organization of books), and Marvin (for the plethora of options and dropbox integration), but I believe this app is well on the way to becoming my goto e-reading experience.

All of the above mentioned apps have never quite achieved the aesthetics of the "sepia" with the font contrast intact. So I echo the excitement of others on how pleasing this truly is! 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! Most apps do not have the way to manually order the books on your shelf, you have offered quite a few options by author, date, etc.., I was wondering if there was a way to manually arrange the books by dragging which ones I'd like to sit on the shelf first that are not based on that criteria.

Sorry I was not clear about the book cover size: I was referencing the bookshelf view (which I think is a mere difference of 1cm in height and allows for four fully loaded rows of books). Yes,now that I've seen Book Info view, Im truly impressed. I am also quite impressed with how I am able to send these books and documents across ios apps from this very app.

I am happy to have discovered this app's existence here on the forum, on another thread about Marvin that mentioned this app.