08-13-2010, 11:50 AM | #1 |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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GooReader launched, supports Google Books
A new reading app for Google Books was just announced today. It's called GooReader and it interfaces directly with the Google Books website. It comes in both paid and free versions.
I just posted an early review over on my blog. I'm not impressed. I really have to wonder what's the point. You can download these books as PDFs. I have a couple really good PDF readers and this wasn't any better. The Digital Reader Last edited by Nate the great; 08-13-2010 at 12:10 PM. |
08-13-2010, 01:07 PM | #2 |
Maratus speciosus butt
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I hate those cheesy "pretend to turn a page" animations in readers.
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08-13-2010, 01:12 PM | #3 |
Wizard
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Me too. It just seems anachronistic at this point. I just don't get it. It's not like being able to swipe to turn the page makes it feel any more like a "book". Once you get rid of the paper, that ship has sailed. People just need to deal with it.
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08-13-2010, 03:37 PM | #4 |
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Generally I think of a portable devices like smart phones, iPad, Android platforms when term "app" is used. This appears to be a Windows computer only program. And agreed, how many readers do we really need?
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08-13-2010, 04:01 PM | #5 | |||
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08-13-2010, 04:03 PM | #6 | |
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This is unrelated to my idea for the indie writer's keyboard! That keyboard has a needle in the center of the key for the exclamation mark! It teaches you to only use exclamation marks when you actually need exclamation marks! |
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08-13-2010, 05:16 PM | #7 | |
Sir Penguin of Edinburgh
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08-13-2010, 10:26 PM | #8 |
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Might be interesting if you could 'bulk download' the google pdfs.
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08-13-2010, 11:08 PM | #9 |
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This is lame. I'd expect more from Google. Page turning animation? Seriously? I don't think they understand what a digital reading experience should be. Even the 'bookshelf analogy' UI is anachronistic as well.
Digital books are not about recreating the physical book - they are about marrying the words from a book with the convenience and flexibility of a digital format. Turning a page and storing a book on a shelf are not FEATURES of books, they are limitations of a physical format. Will Google next be inventing some technology to make our reading devices smell of paper and ink? And they also seem to love PDF. PDF is a format designed to replicate a physical page (with set layout, fonts, etc.). This is not appropriate for electronic reading in most cases. And does anyone read actual magazines in digital format? With content that is already a few weeks out of date before it gets printed? Why not just browse to a website with up-to-the-second information that will generally format to the screen you're reading it on? |
08-14-2010, 02:07 AM | #10 | |
Wizard
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Shame the Search doesn't return as many hits as the Google Books site, and it's hard to read some of the titles without resorting to the Info button. Added: Just figured out I can change the number of search hits in the Options screen (deafault is 10 and max is 40 - too few!) Not sure what the "Only books with Full View" tickbox does - it changes the search results, but doesn't restrict them to only books with Full View. Last edited by Sparrow; 08-14-2010 at 02:22 AM. |
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08-14-2010, 03:52 AM | #11 |
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Sorry I'm confused. Where does it say that this is a Google product?
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08-14-2010, 08:45 AM | #12 | |
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Just searching around, I'm unable to find who the developer actually is. If you go to books.google.com, there's no mention of it. If this were developed by Google, you'd most likely see this all over their pages. For those that have installed this: In the license, does it say who develops this product? R. == |
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08-14-2010, 08:51 AM | #13 | |
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And an ad at the foot of the gooreader site mentions Alpha ereader manager .... how many more of these things do we need ? [ps - I like the page turning mimic !] |
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08-14-2010, 09:03 AM | #14 | |
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Wonder how they decided on that price point. R. == |
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08-14-2010, 10:24 AM | #15 |
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