Just wondering -- what do you guys read on your NC's? what's news apps? magazines? books? Have Calibre set up?
I've been using NY Times for tablet mainly..
I mostly use Pulse for news, Reader's Digest, some comics (Sandman), and academic articles in PDF.
I spend a fair ammount of time killing pigs with birds tbh. I read my Instapaper that I put together. I sideloaded a ton of books with Calibre and I read those. I also have ACV on it and read way too many comic books. Gotta rot the brain somehow.
I love the magazines. Good selection and growing. You can get a trial subscription and just cancel before 14 days and no charge.
I've been using both Pulse and Moregood News HD. Haven't quite decided which one I like best yet.
For books, I found that the Kindle app and amazon store offered lots of free classics. I've been considering a subscription to Nat Geo through the nook app since it's like $1.50 an issue. But, it looks like I can get a real print subscription for about the same price.
Try the World Newpapers app.
I like PressReader from the market. It offers the Chicago Tribune among many others.
I use ezPDFreader for magazines, and Pulse for news and stuff. Newsrob is better for feeds though only because it can do more than 25.
ACV is great for comics too.
Sithben24 said:
I use ezPDFreader for magazines, and Pulse for news and stuff. Newsrob is better for feeds though only because it can do more than 25.
ACV is great for comics too.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use the same 3. EzPDF, ACV & Pulse.. I tried JJ Comics also. Not bad
i use pulse for reading, so far i love it
Pulse and Huffington Post for me.
I just downloaded a magazine from the B&N store to see how magazines would read. So far I'm not really happy with it. Text is too small. The article view is a thoughtful addition for our smaller screen size but it takes away from the overall "feel" of a magazine. Images are crisp as can be though, which is a real stunner. I was hoping for a better coffee table magazine-like experience. But it'll still be useful when traveling.
Now I know why in-store demo units have National Geographic loaded on them. Pictures looks really really great.
Moregood News HD seconded. It's a lovely app. If it just did Google Reader sync...
Related
So I'm sure there are similar threads out there dealing with general android devices, but I thought since I spent a good majority of my day yesterday looking through some ebook apps specifically for my nook, I'll post my findings.
First off, I'm going to talk about my top finds. Trust me, there are a lot out there and I didn't download them all, but I probably went through a good 15-20 apps. If you have an app that isn't listed that you like for whatever reason, post about it and I'll look into it! Make sure if you post an app below, that you give as much info as possible about it (and you've tried it on your nook)
App: Nook
Pros: Has a wide variety of books from major publishers, store sync's well with app, many options for viewing, allows you to import epub and pdf books.
Cons: Kinda basic, changing pages via the scroll bar doesn't work well, don't seem to be able to export books easily.
Bottom Line: Although it's a solid app, it doesn't have nearly as many books as the Kindle nor does it have as good a reading experience as other apps. With that said, it does offer some books that the Kindle store doesn't. I recommend this if you're loyal to B&N.
App: Kindle
Pros: Nice interface, huge store with major publishers (more than the Nook), good viewing options, allows import of epub and pdf books.
Cons: The app redirects to a webpage for the store, which doesn't work as flawlessly as other apps, Like the NOOK app, changing pages via the scroll bar doesn't work well. The mobi format isn't that common and doesn't add for easy exporting.
Bottom Line: The Kindle app offers more choice in books than any other app, but the reading experience still lacks somewhat. It has just as much options as the Nook, but being able to customize it more would have been nice. It is very similar to the Nook in terms of usage. If you are loyal to Amazon, it's great.
App: Overdrive
Pros: Free books rented from local library, also offers audiobooks.
Cons: Selection varies depending on your area, Library account needed, there is a wait on most books, the app itself sends you to a webpage.
Bottom Line: This is a good complimentary app IF they offer anything for you in your area. Out of the three area's I have tried, only one had support for it. Free is always nice!
App: Laputa (free version)
Pros: Free books from both major publishers and independent writers, many Public Domain books, support for Chinese books, allows for easy import/export (due to epub and pdf file types), Multiple sources from which to get books from, Virtual shelf interface.
Cons: Reading experience lacks, most books are bootleg (therefor illegal), small buttons make it almost impossible to touch, many links in the stores are broken, misspelled/missing text within downloaded books.
Bottom Line: If you don't mind getting books illegally, it has a lot of major series (Lord of the Rings, Harry Potter, Sword of Truth series, Holmes, and many more). Most (if not all) of the downloaded books are in epub format so importing them into another reader is easy. Right now (apparently with the last app update), book covers is broken, so to utilize that feature in any reader, you have to manually download and add them. Not many reading options don't help the reader at all. Good way to get free books, but not to read them.
App: Aldiko
Pros: Best reading experience, many many options (from font size to margins), multiple library views, categories, and tags, Store works OK with a lot of public domain and creative common books, along with paid books, importing books is really easy, as is setting up cover art (if the book doesn't already come with it), Support for Catalogs and easy "Last Read" button, also support for Adobe DRM (which I have not tried out)
Cons: The paid section of the store doesn't offer as many books as Nook or Kindle, but still has a good amount, plain Home interface and store.
Bottom Line: Although the store lacks compared to a big company such as Amazon or B&N, you can find many books with this app. There is no reading experience as good as this one, with options to change text, brightness, orientation settings, day/night colors, margins, and even advanced formatting to override the books initial formatting to suit your style. The library offers both "bookshelf" view and "list" views, which can be sorted to your desire independently. List view also offers tabs to view by Author, tags, and Collections (some books come preset with tags, others don't. Either way you can add your own, and your own tag types) By far the best way to view epub and pdf books, I just wish they had support for mobi and other formats so that I could import my kindle and nook books that I have.
Each of these offer different reasons to use them, but if you can find your ebook in epub or pdf format, Aldiko gives you the best reading experience by far. The fact that it makes it so easy to import, download, and use ebooks is refreshing compared to the Kindle and Nook. Although I do not fully understand Adobe DRM, because Aldiko supports it, it seems to only enhance it. On a final note, I downloaded the first book from Harry Potter from Laputa and imported it into Aldiko and read the first 4 chapters. The file was OK, with some spacing, spelling, and formatting errors that I KNOW and official release of the Harry Potter book would NOT have.
I will be updating this with further information and maybe other apps when I can. Let me know what you think and if you have different experiences than me (or I got something wrong)
PLEASE NOTE: I'd like to say that I do not condone getting ebooks illegally, however one of the apps I talk about above (Laputa) does allow you to do so (at the cost of spelling errors, formatting errors, etc.). I also believe (not 100% sure, but it makes sense) that the law on ebooks would be similar to the law on video game ROM's, that is if I won the book I can technically download a free version of the ebook if I can find it, such as the case with the Harry Potter book I mention.
I don't know about your legal interpretation of that. It's a different platform/format. If I buy a movie on DVD, I'm not entitled to download and burn a blu-ray copy of that same movie.
I prefer Nook from Android Market combined with Calibre ebook manager on the PC. You can pretty much feed Calibre any ebook format and it will not only convert it to which ever device you wish to read it on but it will load it onto the device in the directory that the device expects to find ebooks. (unless you tell it otherwise) Killer ebook combo.
Hi,
I have been using FBReader for my eBook reader and find it works very well. It
handles epub and a variety of other formats. (but not PDF). It has a good 'night
mode' and the ability to dim the backlight in the app.
There is a third party called FBSync in the market that will use the web to sync
book mark progress in books and/or the books to Dropbox. Particularly useful when
changing ROMs too often on the Nook Color!
I use Repligo for pdf reading, the reflow works reasonably well.
I know you are looking mainly at eBook readers, but you haven't mentioned Calibre
an opensource PC/MAC ebook library management program:
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Calibre will also download and manage covers, reviews and do format conversions.
Calibre works well with an Android app 'Calibre library' (paid) and FBReader.
I like your writeup and plan to try some of the other apps you suggested.
Thanks,
Peter
I'll put another vote here for FBReader.
I used Aldiko since I first got an Android phone in 2009. It was awesome, the absolute best reader software on Android. And then they lost their damn minds.
It is now 10 times bigger. And has one third of the options it used to have. I still haven't figured out what they did to accomplish that. When that happened I went looking for another option.
I had already given up on the Nook reader software because I keep a lot of books on my phone (and now on my Nook). The Nook reader software just couldn't handle it and basically self destructs when I try to load up my library. Laputa sucks in so many ways it isn't even worth mentioning.
I had tried FBReader way way back and it just wasn't good enough, but to my surprise when I tried it again all of the original issues were gone. It is easy to use, easy to configure to your liking, and can handle my 500+ book portable library with ease.
A. Nonymous said:
I don't know about your legal interpretation of that. It's a different platform/format. If I buy a movie on DVD, I'm not entitled to download and burn a blu-ray copy of that same movie.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Actually I just looked this up and you're right. I guess because I was thinking about digital rights and not literature rights, I thought that way. I'll update my post to reflect this.
Atahachi said:
I prefer Nook from Android Market combined with Calibre ebook manager on the PC. You can pretty much feed Calibre any ebook format and it will not only convert it to which ever device you wish to read it on but it will load it onto the device in the directory that the device expects to find ebooks. (unless you tell it otherwise) Killer ebook combo.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The nook app, IMO, lacks both features and usability. I'll have to check out Calibre, sounds like something i was looking for, thanks!
pmilford said:
Hi,
I have been using FBReader for my eBook reader and find it works very well. It
handles epub and a variety of other formats. (but not PDF). It has a good 'night
mode' and the ability to dim the backlight in the app.
I saw FBReader but decided not to download it after reading all the negative reviews of it. However, after seeing what you guys have said, I'll check it out and probably post my thoughts on here maybe tomorrow.
JMMusic said:
I'll put another vote here for FBReader.
I used Aldiko since I first got an Android phone in 2009. It was awesome, the absolute best reader software on Android. And then they lost their damn minds.
It is now 10 times bigger. And has one third of the options it used to have. I still haven't figured out what they did to accomplish that. When that happened I went looking for another option.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What more options could they have? It has more than any of the others I've seen.
JMMusic said:
Laputa sucks in so many ways it isn't even worth mentioning.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only reason I mentioned it was because of it's store. Also, the app used to work pretty well when it first came out, but basically has not been updated since then.
Thanks guys for your input, I'll check out FBReader!
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the write up.
I'd like to note that Aldiko's PDF viewer is quite limited (no zooming or panning whatsoever) unless the device is running Android 2.2 (Froyo) and up, which spoils it for me running the stock ROM (Eclair). Not finding any free alternatives, I purchased ezPDFreader, the least expensive option, and am quite happy with it so far.
For compiled HTML files (chm), iReader is a good option. It's very customizable and handles zooming and re-flow pretty well... and it's free
I'm on stock ROM and using Moon+ reader, lovin' it so far.
that moon reader seems pretty good. nice tip.
I also read (and documented somewhere) that you can set up Calibre in a server mode to serve up your own library of books. It seems that Aldiko will interact with it remotely in this manner. I read about it and intend to do it when I have a chance but haven't tried yet so that's about the extent of my knowledge on it
The three best reviewed Ereader Apps are Aldiko, Moon+ and FBReader.
FBReader was one of the original apps, from something like 15 years ago.
Of course, all of these are designed to read DRM-free books, so the "store" references in your review are not really relevant.
pmilford said:
Hi,
I have been using FBReader for my eBook reader and find it works very well. It
handles epub and a variety of other formats. (but not PDF). It has a good 'night
mode' and the ability to dim the backlight in the app.
There is a third party called FBSync in the market that will use the web to sync
book mark progress in books and/or the books to Dropbox. Particularly useful when
changing ROMs too often on the Nook Color!
I use Repligo for pdf reading, the reflow works reasonably well.
I know you are looking mainly at eBook readers, but you haven't mentioned Calibre
an opensource PC/MAC ebook library management program:
http://calibre-ebook.com/
Calibre will also download and manage covers, reviews and do format conversions.
Calibre works well with an Android app 'Calibre library' (paid) and FBReader.
I like your writeup and plan to try some of the other apps you suggested.
Thanks,
Peter
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Totally support. Been using the FBReader for ages now and with FBSync app there's absolutely no fuss now with different gadgets I read on.
Been using Aldiko here. Though it is a little big size wise, I like the feature set as well as visibility. Looks and performs really well, and allows you to import any other online catalogs you favor.
Combining that with Calibre, got a pretty nice pair.
Also, theres a portable test version of calibre incase you wanna throw it on a stick, or even your phone:
portableapps.com/node/20518
Cool Reader
Seems to work well on Rooted 1.1 - lots of options and very little bloat.
Another vote for Moon+ reader here! Been using it since day one and it's awesome.!
Sorry it's taking me so long to update my post guys, I'll be doing it soon, I promise! It's been a busy week on my end and I haven't had much nook time. Thanks for everyone who has replied!
Still waiting lol
Since this thread has popped up again, I would just put out there that Mantano has replaced both aldiko and any other PDF reader out there for me. The PDF reading experience is the most complete I've found to date, and with its new support for OPDS catalogs, should now be able to interact directly with calibre in server mode (although I haven't tested this yet... been too busy to read anything in the last month).
I've been using Kobo for epubs, it's pretty cool it gives you stats on your reading. It works great with the default dpi, unlike the nook app. Also, there's no need to move your files around in the sdcard since the app searches for all supported files in the card.
Another vote for Kobo! Lighter than Aldiko and with similar options.
So I use nook to read magazines but they don't have Fortune yet. So I saw that Next Issue did have it.
Boy, I wish all my other mags were formatted the way Next Issue does it. Live links and video are embedded into articles to provide additional info as well as behind the scenes interview of the subject.
Plus, even though the magazine is specifically designed to be viewed in portrait mode, everything is readable without having to zoom because the text in each page is scrolling.
I'm not trying to advertise, I just hope if the word gets out the app will expand its titles and other magazines start to format their titles this way.
I'm in no way shape or form employed or paid by the Next Issue. I'm just surprised to find a great app in Samsung apps lol.
saltychino said:
So I use nook to read magazines but they don't have Fortune yet. So I saw that Next Issue did have it.
Boy, I wish all my other mags were formatted the way Next Issue does it. Live links and video are embedded into articles to provide additional info as well as behind the scenes interview of the subject.
Plus, even though the magazine is specifically designed to be viewed in portrait mode, everything is readable without having to zoom because the text in each page is scrolling.
I'm not trying to advertise, I just hope if the word gets out the app will expand its titles and other magazines start to format their titles this way.
I'm in no way shape or form employed or paid by the Next Issue. I'm just surprised to find a great app in Samsung apps lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Agree. Next is a great way to read your favorite magazine.
Is this a download or was it pre-installed?
I wasn't familiar with Next Issue but after seeing the preview on their website it looks interesting... Can I get my hands on this?
EDIT: found it on Samsung Apps!
saltychino said:
So I use nook to read magazines but they don't have Fortune yet. So I saw that Next Issue did have it.
Boy, I wish all my other mags were formatted the way Next Issue does it. Live links and video are embedded into articles to provide additional info as well as behind the scenes interview of the subject.
Plus, even though the magazine is specifically designed to be viewed in portrait mode, everything is readable without having to zoom because the text in each page is scrolling.
I'm not trying to advertise, I just hope if the word gets out the app will expand its titles and other magazines start to format their titles this way.
I'm in no way shape or form employed or paid by the Next Issue. I'm just surprised to find a great app in Samsung apps lol.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for this......just what i was looking for
Sent from my GT-P7510 using XDA Premium App
How much are the issues on this app?
I notice that ebooks and magazines tend to be more money than buying a copy in the store. I'm using no paper, no ink, etc. Seems like they are taking advantage of digital users. For that, i cannot patron those publishers just by ethics. Thank allah for the invention of bit torrent.
to me it's worth the subscription price because its more convenient than print AND it has the added embedded media with it. I can also now use the touchwiz screenshot function to share an infographic to people i think might find that info useful.
And it helps me make up for the trees i kill when having to print other things for work.
I have been repeatedly peeved by publishers putting their magazines on iPad and neglecting Android tablets.
I noticed recently that the New Yorker is offering their mag on the Galaxy Tab through a application called Next Issue - you can download it directly at nextissue.com The app itself seems to have a fair number of other magazines, and have been adding more.
I installed the app, entered my existing subscriber # and it works great! Great interface that is perfect for my Flyer!
I cant find any good magazine apps that offer magazines I want to read.. and the few that do.. their apps suck/have crappy interfaces..
I really like the kindle app but there are no magazines that I want to read on it..
Scuba Diving, and video game magazines and toy magazines interest me.. yet I have never found one on any of the good readers.. nothing from amazon, nothing from kindle, nook.. etc..
I know what you mean - it is a real pain to search through different publishers that create their own crappy platforms.
According to their website, Nextssue.com is a joint venture between Condé Nast, Hearst, Meredith, News Corporation and Time, Inc. so this might be _the_ simplified platform that makes it easier for publishers to put their content on tablets.
The NYer app is pretty slick, the interface is a little unintuitive, but is easy to pick up. Graphics heavy magazines might be more of an issue reformatting/reflowing to a tablet. One thing that sucks on that platform is that some of the content is designed for larger screens and is not backwards compatible - like Car & Driver is only for 1280x800 tablets
How do I get the APK?
Go to nextissue .com on your tablet, and select Get App (it is not available in Google Market)
http://www.nextissue.com/install-brief.php
Sent from my HTC_Flyer_P512_NA using xda premium
Thanks guys, didn't see it at first on the web page. Can't wait to try it out. Been dissappinted that Barnes & Noble never added the New Yorker to their list of magazines readable on the Nook App.
Try Zinio for magazines also.
+1 for Zinio.
I also use Zinio. Highly recommended!
Sent from my HTC Flyer P510e using XDA App
Just downloaded an issue of the New Yorker to test it out. Really, really like the format. I could se myself re-subscribing... especially since a subscription to the magazine apparently entitles me to the digital editions for free! Yeah!
kcchen said:
Try Zinio for magazines also.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Add me to the list of those using Zinio. Love it.
Sent from GrandAdmiral's phone using Tapatalk.
Can anybody tell me if the Kindle App is any good for the Flyer?
Idealy i would love to work with paypal but i know amazon is not a big fan of it
I have tried a few out but can't seem to find one that does what I need.
The problem of course is that the NT screen is just too small to read a comic in actual size. I imagine tablets like the iPad would be perfect for this. So I am left either zooming manually which is just an absolute pain and breaks immersion every few seconds, or squinting at a page that has been fit to my screen. The pics are fine but the text is, oftentimes too small. I cannot imagine how people read comics on phones yet I hear them talk about doing so all the time.
Anyone got a preferred app that solves some of these issues?
I dont know what comics you are reading but if you are interesting in Japanese manga(like me) i have some recommendations.
Pocketmanga,i dont know what's going on with this because it were in market as mango then they removed it and it was available in their site,then they named pocketmanga and put it back to market and now they removed it again. So search it in Google. Its probably the best.
Mangawhat, you can find it in the market
Sent from my E15i using xda premium
Sw339 said:
I have tried a few out but can't seem to find one that does what I need.
The problem of course is that the NT screen is just too small to read a comic in actual size. I imagine tablets like the iPad would be perfect for this. So I am left either zooming manually which is just an absolute pain and breaks immersion every few seconds, or squinting at a page that has been fit to my screen. The pics are fine but the text is, oftentimes too small. I cannot imagine how people read comics on phones yet I hear them talk about doing so all the time.
Anyone got a preferred app that solves some of these issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Have you tried Perfect Viewer? I personally use it myself as an image viewer but it is advertised as a comic viewer by the author.
Sw339 said:
I have tried a few out but can't seem to find one that does what I need.
The problem of course is that the NT screen is just too small to read a comic in actual size. I imagine tablets like the iPad would be perfect for this. So I am left either zooming manually which is just an absolute pain and breaks immersion every few seconds, or squinting at a page that has been fit to my screen. The pics are fine but the text is, oftentimes too small. I cannot imagine how people read comics on phones yet I hear them talk about doing so all the time.
Anyone got a preferred app that solves some of these issues?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The first thing I'd recommend is trying to read in horizontal/landscape mode. I've got a PDF version of Batman: The Killing Joke and it works just fine reading like that. You only have to scroll vertical, but you don't have to squint to read the text.
If you need a good comic reading app though, everyone seems to be in love with Comic Rack. There's a free version that has ads (But only in the menus; they don't intrude on whatever you're reading.)
So give Comic Rack a try. I haven't used it since I'm not a heavy comic reader, but most people I know who have 7-inch tablets like the Nook Tab say it's just right.
I use Comis Reader Mobi, its not free, but i find it the best. I use it one my phone and tablet, the magnifier function is great for the text.
On my tablet i can read a page in portrait, using the magnifier to read the small stuff.
My opinion...
Your friendly Moderator
I have tried a good 5 or so manga(comic) viewers for the NT, and the best I've come across is the 'Droid Comic Viewer'. It doesn't connect to any manga sites for you to download and view right there, but speaking in just being a viewer, its one of the best. Should definitely give it a try.
+1 for ComicRack
IMHO the best is Manga Watcher ...
Bakumatsu said:
IMHO the best is Manga Watcher ...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
no it isn't...pocketmanga (or other name: mango) is. search it on internet.
+1 for ComicRack.
Also, the Marvel Comics app performs well on the Nook Tablet. It has a zoom feature that pretty much does a frame by frame zoom. Of course the Marvel Comics app only works with comics downloaded from the app, but there are frequent free comics available.
You will need to search and download an APK file as its "not supported" on the Nook Tablet, but works well.
Sent from my BNTV250 using XDA
ComicRack is the way to go.
I use it on my tablet. The only small issue I have with it is the gestures to flip pages and for returning to comic listing.
Comixology and/or Dark Horse.
Sent from my Nook Tablet
I use perfect viewer and have been plenty happy with it. I read way too many comics every week so it gets a lot of use. You can zoom on it as well as reading in landscape
Sent from my BNTV250 using Tapatalk
I'm the developper of "Challenger comics viewer".
The application is available on market : https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=org.kill.geek.bdviewer
Don't hesitate to try it ! (there is a video on the market).
Pages are streamed and so, there are no wasted time to load pages.
theartofbone said:
Have you tried Perfect Viewer? I personally use it myself as an image viewer but it is advertised as a comic viewer by the author.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
+1
Perfect Viewer is the best app which I used to watch comic off line
ComicRack is bad for 'right to left' comics ( like japanese... ).
in my opinion, 'komik' is best to read in NT.
It is very smooth than others and simple to use.
Manga Watcher is the best online manga reader ever (you can download to read offline of coz).
For ZIP, RAR, CBR, I think Perfect Viewer will be the best choice.
Sent from my Nook Tablet using xda premium
I prefer ACV (https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=net.androidcomics.acv&hl=ru)
It's simple and customizable.
I use myComics
Hello,
I've been using myComics app for Android to read my comics on my phone, on my way to work!
It works great with small screen devices, because the speech balloon's pop up zoom!
Give it a try.
Thanks,
Direz Gunstad
Comic Rack is the best out of all the ones I've tried
Sent from my NookTablet using Tapatalk 2
Does anyone know of a Comic app that I can download new comics for a fee or for free? Like an automatic thing. I have a Manga reader which does that for me already on my EVO View. So I figured I look around for a Comic version of that....I've searched high and low for the past couple of days and nothing. I have a Comic Reader (Komik) which is an awesome app, but that's just to read. I want something that has reading and downloads at the same time. So when I turn my tablet on....it's there for my viewing pleasure. Thanks in advanced
The Comixology "Comics" app works well, and a decent amount of free content. Appears to be the app that the big US publishers (DC, Marvel) are going to for digital comics. Not sure if it has an automated "subscription" service like you are asking for.
redpoint73 said:
The Comixology "Comics" app works well, and a decent amount of free content. Appears to be the app that the big US publishers (DC, Marvel) are going to for digital comics. Not sure if it has an automated "subscription" service like you are asking for.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the information. I've tried this one before but it doesn't have what I'm looking for. IDK if they implemented the feature yet but they were talking about have an automated service...but it was just a reminder type of thing to tell you that there was a new comic. The Manga one that I have has a feature where it downloads it as well as alerts you. It downloads it straight to internal storage or SD. Which allows for offline viewing.