MapleRead - eBook Reader and Server for iOS

[romad]

Originally Posted by rfog

Does MapleRead sync books positions automatically on exit from the book or is still needed to do it manually?

The only thing that prevents me to using this is you must manually sync the book position and normally I use to forget do it...

By "position" do you mean the page you were on? If so, yes. When I next launch MR-SE, the book opens to that page that was open when I closed it. Note, I DON'T shut down MR, so it is running in the back ground (though it takes longer to come up and get to the page if I've opened other apps before returning to MR.

[svenlind]

Originally Posted by romad

By "position" do you mean the page you were on? If so, yes. When I next launch MR-SE, the book opens to that page that was open when I closed it. Note, I DON'T shut down MR, so it is running in the back ground (though it takes longer to come up and get to the page if I've opened other apps before returning to MR.

I think rfog means syncing between devices. I often use both my iPad pro and my iPad mini when reading. And AFAIK you still have to remember to sync manually. I almost always remember to do so .

But automatic syncing would certainly be nice.

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by svenlind

I think rfog means syncing between devices. I often use both my iPad pro and my iPad mini when reading. And AFAIK you still have to remember to sync manually. I almost always remember to do so .

But automatic syncing would certainly be nice.

Auto-sync may be nice in theory, but no existing implementation of other reading apps that I have tried is reliable enough, in the sense that when I switch reading from my iPad to my iPhone, it does not pick up from where I left off every time. Moreover, when I turn off Wifi on my iPad, auto sync on those apps simply (reasonably) fail to sync silently, giving me a false sense of "security". Well, why not make life simpler for everyone, including the developer, by simply adding a sync reminder alert just before a book is closed? This way, you'll never forget to sync, unless you don't want to.

[rfog]

Yes, sorry, I was meant at least automatically sync reading position across devices.

In my experience, as cedhax says is not very reliable in any reading app but... well, at least for me is better auto that could fail than forget it and surely be not synced.

As svenlid says, perhaps a reminder should be enough.

In my experience with iBooks, if you go to the library before closing the app or before switching iPad screen off, normally position is synchronized. More chances to be successful if you wait about two or three seconds.

The way Marvin does is (was) perfect for me. Instead of sync on close, you sync on opening, and normally Marvin does not use to fail in that.

And of course, if you have switched off WiFi is your problem, not app problem.

And now some technicalities.

On app close, you have some time to do some stuff. If you have time to do it, it will be synced. But let's assume wifi connection is not good and you don't have time to sync. Using a proprietary cloud you've lost all your chances. However, if you are using iCloud, iThings periodically wakes up to sync the cloud, and if your info is pending to be synced, it will be.

Because a normal sync scenario is you finish to read in the night, close your iPad and on next morning, perhaps you have some minutes to continue your reading while waiting a taxi, or in underground or in whatever other circumstance... and you find your iPhone has not been synced... You normally don't left your 11" iPad and take your 12.9" iPad to continue reading because you are worth to (only in battery exhaustion)... I don't know if I've explained well or not.

More. What about 3 columns? 11" iPad is getting wider and wider... I will be the happiest of the men if your application will sync book position on close and had 3 column option...

[brad382]

Mr. Baylor, thank you for fixing the iPad Pro display issue in 3.01.

I submitted the following review in the AppStore for MapleRead SE and plan to post the same review soon at other app sites:

We’ve been waiting ages for a competent and well-designed iPad e-reader which handles both epubs AND PDFs. MapleRead SE finally ended this wait. By far the best and most elegant e-reading app available. Developer is active on the app’s mobileread forum thread and responds to bugs and feature requests promptly. He added “instant” page turns and two-page PDF viewing in Landscape, both of which are huge for us. I have NO affiliation with MapleRead whatsoever, just appreciate a great app when I see it (which isn’t very often). Worth $20 easy in my opinion.

We do have one small feature request. Could you enable MapleRead SE to retain the user’s viewing preference for PDF’s, as it does for epubs?

Each of us has a 12.9” iPad Pro, which is well-suited for double page viewing when in Landscape.

MapleRead SE allows this by choosing “Double Page Landscape,” but it does not retain this user selection. When I open any new PDF, it always opens in Single Page Landscape.

Furthermore, every time I select Double Page Landscape, the app shows the “Note that highlighting is not supported in Double Page Landscape View” warning, and the warning box must be tapped to close.

Could you allow the user to turn this warning off, or, perhaps, only show the warning once?


Thanks again for this magnificent app, Mr. Baylor. Gratuity sent, with more to follow.

[peaceridge]

I’m coming to Ipad from Android and trying to match my favorite android ereader. I am really impressed with MapleRead SE. Almost everything I could want has been implemented – thanks to the quick responses of the creator. I am learning to live with the lack of a stroke to enlarge the font – I can’t get the hang of the pinch and zoom, but there is a setting so it’s ok, I don’t need to change it all that often.

There is one final thing that I really need and it is probably there, but I can’t find it. I like to read several (sometimes as many as 10) books at a time. Depending on the time of day (or night!) I usually choose which one by which book is the newest, then by how many pages I have left and then by author. I can’t find an easy way to see this on the main screen. The only way I have thus far found is to sort over and over to see the info (and there appears to be no way to see pages read/total pages (that tiny, tiny round thing does nothing to help). I don’t need to sort on all this, just sort by Date Added, and be able to see the author under the title and pages read and total pages beside the author. The data is all there, so I must be missing what to do to see it in the list.

Any help would be most appreciated.

[Sprocket89]

I'm in the market for alternative to Apple Books to read epubs. I'm happy to spend a little $ to get something the fits my needs. Currently using Calibre to manage my library and MapleRead seems like a good reader.

I've been playing with MapleRead CX for a little bit, but I can't seem to find (and haven't found any info on the developers site or here) whether or not Mapleread has an auto-switch day/night theme feature based on the screen brightness setting. That is about the only feature I really like with Apple Books that I can't seem to find on other iOS ereader apps. Does anyone know if Mapleread or any of the other iOS readers have this feature?

Thanks in advance for any info!

[sbaylor]

Originally Posted by brad382

Mr. Baylor, thank you for fixing the iPad Pro display issue in 3.01.

I submitted the following review in the AppStore for MapleRead SE and plan to post the same review soon at other app sites:

We’ve been waiting ages for a competent and well-designed iPad e-reader which handles both epubs AND PDFs. MapleRead SE finally ended this wait. By far the best and most elegant e-reading app available. Developer is active on the app’s mobileread forum thread and responds to bugs and feature requests promptly. He added “instant” page turns and two-page PDF viewing in Landscape, both of which are huge for us. I have NO affiliation with MapleRead whatsoever, just appreciate a great app when I see it (which isn’t very often). Worth $20 easy in my opinion.

We do have one small feature request. Could you enable MapleRead SE to retain the user’s viewing preference for PDF’s, as it does for epubs?

Each of us has a 12.9” iPad Pro, which is well-suited for double page viewing when in Landscape.

MapleRead SE allows this by choosing “Double Page Landscape,” but it does not retain this user selection. When I open any new PDF, it always opens in Single Page Landscape.

Furthermore, every time I select Double Page Landscape, the app shows the “Note that highlighting is not supported in Double Page Landscape View” warning, and the warning box must be tapped to close.

Could you allow the user to turn this warning off, or, perhaps, only show the warning once?


Thanks again for this magnificent app, Mr. Baylor. Gratuity sent, with more to follow.

Thanks for your nice review here and on the App Store!
Thanks for your gratuity too!

Your request about "Double Page Landscape" will be honored in the next release of MapleRead. Whenever the option "Double Page Landscape" is selected, this setting will be remembered, and the "highlighting not supported" info message will be displayed only once. If you de-select the option, and re-select it again, you'll see the message one more time.

[violent23]

Why is there a visible loading icon every time a book changes to a new chapter? It is very unsightly and there is a clear delay each time it pops up. Other ebook readers do not have this issue. Is there a plan to make the reading experience more seamless in MapleRead, because as is the constant loading screens are pretty disruptive.

[Syror]

Hi, I am a new Ipad User coming from Android having just purchased MapleRead SE. I have some questions and wishes!

First, the epub reader is extremely good, love the inline translation via google translate! I also love the connection of the developers with customers in a forum like this!

There is only a small cosmetic option I'd like to see: The notes get a note to which chapter they belong (which does make sense) but it should be there only one time for the chapter maybe in bigger letters above (like in my pocketbook reader)

Another small thing: As I'm always exporting all my notes, it would be fine if I wouldn't have to check all everytime.

And one more: Like in moon reader I'd like to turn pages via tap and be able to scroll up and down through the pages without having to switch options. I use the first option as standard and the second one when I want to highlight text which stretches over 2 pages.

Pdf Zoom: I'd like to set my zoom with two fingers on the fly and the zoom level should stay there and not jump back for every new page (like e.g. in Pdf Reader, Xodo android etc.). Is there an option?

Pdf rendering: It is slow for big files: I have many pdf documents 50 to 200 MB in size and the (blockwise) page rendering takes 1-2 seconds on an Ipad Pro 2017. It seems to take 1/10 second in PDF Expert.

[peaceridge]

MapleRead appears to be the best available on Ipad, however, I've been disappointed that there is nothing comparable to moon reader or bookari (beware the paid version of Bookari on ipad is no different than the free version on ipad). I was hoping to use my Ipad for all my reading, but I guess I'll have to stick with Android for my epubs.

Originally Posted by Syror

Hi, I am a new Ipad User coming from Android having just purchased MapleRead SE. I have some questions and wishes!

First, the epub reader is extremely good, love the inline translation via google translate! I also love the connection of the developers with customers in a forum like this!

There is only a small cosmetic option I'd like to see: The notes get a note to which chapter they belong (which does make sense) but it should be there only one time for the chapter maybe in bigger letters above (like in my pocketbook reader)

Another small thing: As I'm always exporting all my notes, it would be fine if I wouldn't have to check all everytime.

And one more: Like in moon reader I'd like to turn pages via tap and be able to scroll up and down through the pages without having to switch options. I use the first option as standard and the second one when I want to highlight text which stretches over 2 pages.

Pdf Zoom: I'd like to set my zoom with two fingers on the fly and the zoom level should stay there and not jump back for every new page (like e.g. in Pdf Reader, Xodo android etc.). Is there an option?

Pdf rendering: It is slow for big files: I have many pdf documents 50 to 200 MB in size and the (blockwise) page rendering takes 1-2 seconds on an Ipad Pro 2017. It seems to take 1/10 second in PDF Expert.

[rfog]

Originally Posted by violent23

Why is there a visible loading icon every time a book changes to a new chapter? It is very unsightly and there is a clear delay each time it pops up. Other ebook readers do not have this issue. Is there a plan to make the reading experience more seamless in MapleRead, because as is the constant loading screens are pretty disruptive.

ePub is a bunch of some kind of HTML + CSS files, normally (but not always) separated by chapters (that is, one file, one chapter).

It seems they are reading and parsing each HTML file after passing the last page of the previous one. Other readers a) load the entire book or b) caches the previous and next html file.

[violent23]

Originally Posted by rfog

ePub is a bunch of some kind of HTML + CSS files, normally (but not always) separated by chapters (that is, one file, one chapter).

It seems they are reading and parsing each HTML file after passing the last page of the previous one. Other readers a) load the entire book or b) caches the previous and next html file.

Sure, I get that, but there are plenty of ePub eReaders out there that don't have long loading screens in between chapters, so it's not like this is an issue inherent to the design of ePubs.

I guess what I'm asking is if this is something the dev will address, since it looks bad and adds in a delay that is not present in other eReaders. This app has plenty of useful features to help make an eBook display however you want, and I'd love to use it (especially since I've paid for it already), but the delay and loading icon are unsightly and pretty much negate setting up a custom look for your eBooks.

It would also appear another user is asking about something similar with the long loading times of PDFs. It would seem the rendering engine for this app needs some serious work and it's not just ePubs that suffer. For how powerful our devices are, delay and visible loading icons is the last thing I expect when doing something as untaxing as using an eReader.

[gabaldini]

Could you add a random sort of books in the library? I think this is a way of finding new books in a long library, I would appreciate that very much, thank you!

[cedhax]

Originally Posted by peaceridge

MapleRead appears to be the best available on Ipad, however, I've been disappointed that there is nothing comparable to moon reader or bookari (beware the paid version of Bookari on ipad is no different than the free version on ipad). I was hoping to use my Ipad for all my reading, but I guess I'll have to stick with Android for my epubs.

That's strange! As you mentioned, Bookari is available on both iOS and Android, but you still somehow feel that Bookari on iOS is nothing comparable to its Android edition. Does this imply that you just prefer or feel comfortable with Android more than iOS?