Announcing Qurika - a Beautiful 3D eBook Reader for Android and iOS!

[jacob_qurika]

You should be able to click on the chapter to open it. Are you not able to? If not, that is a bug. Do you mind telling me which device you are running Qurika on?

Noted the bug on Dresden Files Omnibus on the browser and the hidden page scroll tab. I'll work on them ASAP.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by jacob_qurika

You should be able to click on the chapter to open it. Are you not able to? If not, that is a bug. Do you mind telling me which device you are running Qurika on?

Noted the bug on Dresden Files Omnibus on the browser and the hidden page scroll tab. I'll work on them ASAP.

I suggest you simply move the scroll tab to the left side when there is not enough room. On the web view you could simply make a maximum - if the book is longer it will not show, but cannot open in web anyway. The Kindle (eink) does that as well - the dots indicating the length of book is capped to a maximum. Normal books are rarely longer than LOTR.

I am using a Galaxy S8+, unable to go to a specific chapter. On every book I tried.

[Adoby]

I suggest that you also add a "minimal" mode. A mode where the reader app is completely invisible and only the text is visible full screen. With perhaps the ability to tap margins to go to next/previous page/chapter as fast and invisibly as possible without any animations. Optional also show page number, time, charge. Perhaps drag in other controls from top/bottom as well when swiping up/down or something.

The area where I would like some advancement in e-readers is in browsing of books on the device and in integration with calibre. For instance auto collections based on some selected tag(s). Or full support for hierarchical tags. Or even the ability to connect directly to calibre over wifi to fetch/sync books/whole libraries/virtual libraries in bulk.

Really good integration with calibre would be a "killer" feature on this forum...

I have very little use for eye-candy. Fun to show/look at, but only once or twice.

[jacob_qurika]

I’ve added the option to directly upload eBooks (no drag and drop needed) on the browser (https://qurika.com/library) and mobile apps. Select “Add local eBook files” from the menu to open the file selection dialog. The update is is already live for the browser. The mobile apps will see the feature in the next update along with some of the other changes I’m working on response to the issues/suggestions brought up here.

Thanks DuckieTigger and Adoby for the thoughtful feedback, it means a lot to me. I’m working on the bugs and I’ll update you when the fixes are available. Tag based views of the library is high on my todo list. As for hierarchical tags, I’ll have to see how strong the demand for that is, but I can see that is a nice feature to have. I’m also working on a Project Gutenberg integration.

I know Calibre integration would be quite appealing (I use Calibre myself), but a deep integration will be tricky from a design and technical standpoint. Originally I was considering a plugin for Calibre that would sync to Qurika, but syncing is hard to get right and harder still when one component was not designed from the start for syncing. Also, Calibre is built on PyQt which is not a development environment I am very familiar with, so there will be a learning curve there. That said, if there is any interest, I am more than willing to open up the Qurika API (that is part of the plan eventually anyway) so a plugin can be developed externally.

Your suggestion, Adoby, to connect to the Calibre server (and other OPDS servers) can be a simple alternative. A “pull” from an OPDS server to get the books into Qurika that are not already there should not be very hard. I will explore this more in the near future.

With respect to a minimal mode, I’m planning on adding the ability to simply zoom in so the edges won’t be seen, or seen minimally. I’ll also optimize away the wasted space past the edges of the book. So eventually the 3D view will end up taking up much less screen real estate and exactly how much it takes will be customizable. That should go a long ways towards what you are asking for. I’ll also get more sophisticated about the button placements, fine tune animation speeds so it gets in the way less, etc.

I don’t foresee though that Qurika will ever completely lose its 3Dness. I understand Adoby that you see it as eye-candy, but in my view it is much more than that. I think it provides a faster and more natural way to get real and relevant information about the book (how big it is, where you are, where the chapters start), and a faster and more natural way to navigate through it (thumb through the book, turn multiple pages simultaneously). I think those are real benefits that a lot of readers will find valuable. It is the bet I am making with Qurika, and I believe strongly in this vision. The clunkiness that you see in this early version will definitely go away though, and there will be a lot more features added.

[DuckieTigger]

New feature request: use volume keys for turning pages - just one page at a time, no skimming.

Upload from mobile works now - tested on my S8+ with Chrome.

[jacob_qurika]

That is an interesting feature, I'll look into implementing that. It will most likely be an opt-in settings when it gets in since remapping volume buttons is a pretty drastic override of expected behavior.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by jacob_qurika

That is an interesting feature, I'll look into implementing that. It will most likely be an opt-in settings when it gets in since remapping volume buttons is a pretty drastic override of expected behavior.

Not really as unexpected for an ereader app as you might think. I cannot think of any out of my head that doesn't have optional remapping of volume keys.

[jacob_qurika]

Unfortunately I have not been able to reproduce the bugs you are seeing DuckieTigger. Specifically the book edge glitch in the browser, the book cutoff when reading extremely large books, and the chapters not responding to taps. None of those problems show up in any of my test devices, which makes this challenging to fix. I don't have a Galaxy S8+ to test on, but I'm going to try to get my hands on a similar device. Hopefully I can get to the bottom of these bugs then.

In the mean time I have made some updates to book thickness calculations that may actually fix some of your issues as a side effect. It is waiting on app store approval and should be live tomorrow or the day after at the latest. The update will also include the ability to open the file dialog from the app directly as promised earlier.

Also, expect to see improvements to screen real estate usage in the near future.

Thanks again for your help!

[DuckieTigger]

Maybe the glitched are specific to Oreo? I try on some other devices I have (a Note 4 and Nexus 7)

[jacob_qurika]

One of my beta users is also seeing the chapter taps not working issue, so I should be able to get a handle on that by working closely with her.

I would very much appreciate it if you can try it on your Note 4 and Nexus 7. Qurika may actually not support those devices depending on the OS version and the specific GPU, but it is worth a shot. Qurika's requirements for Android are Android 5.0 (Lollipop) and above and a GPU that supports OpenGL 3.0. Depending on which variation you have, the Nexus 7 may not have the GPU support. Both of them released with Android KitKat (4), so the OS may not have been updated as well.

Oreo devices are part of my test setup, so I don't think it is that.

[jacob_qurika]

New version released (2.3.0). Here are the release notes:

- Ability to add eBooks directly from the device.
- Better visualization of extremely large books.
- Bug fixes.

Here is a mini roadmap of features I am working on that will be released shortly (not necessarily in order):
- Improvements in screen space utilization.
- Support for Calibre server and other OPDS sources.
- Gutenberg integration.
- Highlighting.
- Volume button control.

A big "thank you" everyone that has tried the app! Especially those who have taken the time to give feedback, here and by email.

[DuckieTigger]

The new version does fix the disappearing handle towards the end of the book in my large omnibus. Did you add chapters while scrubbing through? Didn't notice before.

[jacob_qurika]

Thats great to hear!

The chapters overlay on the bottom while flipping through the book was there before. I'm glad you noticed it!

[jacob_qurika]

Version 2.4.0 is now available. It includes:

1. A fix to the chapter tap not working on some devices. DuckieTigger, I think this should solve your issue. Please let me know if it does not.

2. Better utilization of screen space while reading. There are more improvements planned, so expect this to keep getting better. Here are some screenshots of the improvements.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by jacob_qurika

Version 2.4.0 is now available. It includes:

1. A fix to the chapter tap not working on some devices. DuckieTigger, I think this should solve your issue. Please let me know if it does not.

2. Better utilization of screen space while reading. There are more improvements planned, so expect this to keep getting better. Here are some screenshots of the improvements.

Yes, works. The chapter overlay includes all hierarchies now - I think before it was just one. Nice touch to see which chapter and book you are in (in case of an omnibus). When swiping two fingered to next / previous chapter showing the overlay shortly would be nice and helpful to know where you are at, I think.