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I just picked up a refurbed NC to add to my Android stable. Haven't done anything with it yet. I kind of like the stock ereader app in comparison with the Nook app that is on the Android Market. However, I do plan on rooting it and adding apps at a minimum.
My questions are:
1. Has anyone figured out how to get the stock ereader working on any of the custom ROMs?
2. If I want to retain the stock ereader and add capabilities to the device, do I only have two options (1. root stock, 2. dual boot)?
3. What are you guys doing for your ereading? How do you like the stock ereader in comparison with the alternatives? Has that influenced what you've done with the device? What are the best ereading apps?
I'd appreciate any feedback.
1. No; probably won't ever happen from what I've read.
2. Yes
3. I'm using FBReader and liking it. Never tried the stock reader. There are two or three other readers that are popular around here.
I may not fully understand the question...
My Nook Color is rooted with manual nooter, followed by an overclocked kernel.
The stock reader app works just fine, just like stock. All the stock features work just fine including B&N shopping and purchasing.
I did have some issue with program space, but once I moved all the android apps (Not the B&N apps!) to SD, space was freed up and all B&N apps installed and update just fine.
I have no reason to install any other reading application. The built in stock reader works great.
framitz said:
I may not fully understand the question...
My Nook Color is rooted with manual nooter, followed by an overclocked kernel.
The stock reader app works just fine, just like stock. All the stock features work just fine including B&N shopping and purchasing.
I did have some issue with program space, but once I moved all the android apps (Not the B&N apps!) to SD, space was freed up and all B&N apps installed and update just fine.
I have no reason to install any other reading application. The built in stock reader works great.
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He is asking about if you use a different rom the stock reader is only available on BN roms
I use either kindle app, nook app for magazines, and generic ones for epub and other such types. the stock one is nice but if you want to really expand the tablet it is a loss i was fine with.
Currently use FBreader for non-DRM'ed, Kindle for any Amazon purchases. Nook app is too buggy to use at the moment. Bluefire reader, which I really like on the iPad and iPod Touch, is only out for iOS atm but is supposed to be released for android in June -- I'm hoping it can read all DRM'ed books the way the iOS app can.
I'm using Moon+ reader
I am using the Moon+ reader and really like it. Biggest problem is lack of documentation (which I'm thinking of writing). Still needs some improvements, with book indexing, but has lots of nice features - automatic & locked screen orientation, finger slide for bright/dim settings, standard "squeeze" to change font size - tap & swipe & scroll paging - audio reading of books (like amazon, but voice not quite as good). It is very configurable - including fonts, backgrounds, margins, line spacing.
I already had all my books on the emmc card (sorry, I am running CM7 root off of my SD card) from my standard nook book and had no problems pointing Moon+ to look in the right location for my library.
Thanks for the feedback so far.
I've found Aldiko superior to NC stock both for reading and browsing my epub titles. It also handles pdf, but not as well as ezPDF. For me, it strikes the best balance between ease of use and customization. Call me nuts, but I find cinnamon-on-mustard with the barest margin the most readable arrangement in any light.
I rooted and overclocked a new NC with 1.2 pre-installed, with no change in ROM so far. Rooting broke the ereader as well as the preloaded 'shop' app. Fortunately, books downloaded before the rooting procedure can still be read on the ereader, but nothing else. A couple side-loaded versions of the nook ereader app also do not work, and I haven't found any posts where anybody has gotten theirs working after root.
I use primarily the kindle app, but need an ereader that allows you to borrow ebooks from the public library.
mjf0000000 said:
I use primarily the kindle app, but need an ereader that allows you to borrow ebooks from the public library.
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Overdrive is generally the library-borrowing app of choice, though I haven't used it myself.
Thanks taosaur, i'll try it
As taosaur mentioned, Ezpdf reader is the best pdf ebook reader. I generally only use it due to my heavy pdf collection (sorry epub fans). However, for certain books that have been "scanned" in or are heavy on pictures, I find that Adobe Reader is best for those; it's hardware accelerated.
Another vote for moon reader, very good program. The kindle app works pretty good too. Ezpdf reader is about the best pdf reader out there.
This is a question about if there is a library/reading application for android that is as good as the library and epub support of the stock nook color application (i find the android market nook application lacking in a lot of areas). This is the only thing holding me back to stock 1.2 instead of CM7...
numus said:
This is a question about if there is a library/reading application for android that is as good as the library and epub support of the stock nook color application (i find the android market nook application lacking in a lot of areas). This is the only thing holding me back to stock 1.2 instead of CM7...
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Search the threads. This has been discussed many times. You can start here:
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=1169284&highlight=reader
I find Aldiko to be even better than the stock app. The library system is easier to manage, it's incredibly easy to import books, and the brightness is controlled by sliding your finger up or down the left side of the screen. Also has a convenient night mode if you're like me and read often in the dark.
I've been holding off installing CM7 on the internal flash of my Nook for just this reason. The stock library/reader apps are quite nice, and none of the apps available on the market really match it. There are several decent ones, but none are as slick and simple as the stock Nook software.
Lately, though, I've been using CM7 on SD card more often, and using FBReader for my reading app. It's a very nice reader, but is a bit lacking in the library management area. But it's got some nice features (can use any TrueType font, brightness adjustment returns to normal when you leave the app, it automatically returns to the place you were in the book like the status bar icon on the stock firmware).
Someone linked above the thread I started about this as I'm in the same boat. I had two problems with Aldiko - it won't "library" in place, leaving two copies of every book on your sd card and I had a book that was cutting off sentences and not displaying right. I know it's only one book, but it was the only reader that had an issue.
For me, I think I've mostly settled on Moon Reader. Nothing's perfect, but this one seems to be the best balance.
Been using Aldiko (the latest version) and seems to be working very well.. Don't like the fact that it wont autoscan and update from my library storied ont he EMMC (that is were calibre likes to put my books it seems)... Otherwise it is a pain to navigate to the emmc library and update from it but it is possible. Only downside is there is no way to create a shelf of books you want to display.. it is either display everything, or recently opened. Also liked in moon+ that it gave the brief book description in list display...
doncaruana said:
Someone linked above the thread I started about this as I'm in the same boat. I had two problems with Aldiko - it won't "library" in place, leaving two copies of every book on your sd card and I had a book that was cutting off sentences and not displaying right. I know it's only one book, but it was the only reader that had an issue.
For me, I think I've mostly settled on Moon Reader. Nothing's perfect, but this one seems to be the best balance.
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I prefer the Nook app because of the way the text is formatted, but I agree with dc, Moon Reader is a good alternative.
Can Nook HD or HD+ read CBR or CBZ files natively?
The only app I want outside of stock is Comic Rack to read those. But if these can read those files OOB, then I don't even need it.
Thanks!!
I very don't think it will natively. And BTW, I very like to use Perfect Viewer better than Comic Rack. And I think it support CBR also. Although I never tried it. I perfer the customization UI and the way it works.
Thanks a lot I didn't think that it would. Unless perfect viewer has made some drastic changes I'm going to stick with ComicRack I enjoy using that much more over the perfect viewer.
The stock reader handles CBZ just fine but not CBR (.rar requires licensing), and there are also piles of comics available via the B&N store and/or stock apps. I was pretty impressed with the OOBE on the HD+. I never would have bought it if I didn't know I could get Google Play on there, but once I had it I realized I could have gotten along pretty well unrooted.
Do you have any input on why you prefer ComicRack to Perfect Viewer, btw? My experience w/ CR on the PC is pretty similar to Calibre; it feels like using a front-end loader to plant a flower, or often enough like piloting "the entity" from South Park. All of the 'features' get in the way of actually using the thing, and CR more than Calibre is prone to hanging and just takes ages to do anything with my big collection. Pretty much its only advantage over CDisplay + folders is the web comics templates.
Nevertheless, I'm contemplating giving the Android app another go just for the syncing and library management aspect, because there's no way I can keep even a significant fraction of my collection on the device.
Taosaur said:
The stock reader handles CBZ just fine but not CBR (.rar requires licensing), and there are also piles of comics available via the B&N store and/or stock apps. I was pretty impressed with the OOBE on the HD+. I never would have bought it if I didn't know I could get Google Play on there, but once I had it I realized I could have gotten along pretty well unrooted.
Do you have any input on why you prefer ComicRack to Perfect Viewer, btw? My experience w/ CR on the PC is pretty similar to Calibre; it feels like using a front-end loader to plant a flower, or often enough like piloting "the entity" from South Park. All of the 'features' get in the way of actually using the thing, and CR more than Calibre is prone to hanging and just takes ages to do anything with my big collection. Pretty much its only advantage over CDisplay + folders is the web comics templates.
Nevertheless, I'm contemplating giving the Android app another go just for the syncing and library management aspect, because there's no way I can keep even a significant fraction of my collection on the device.
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Well that's awesome then, because I can just rename the cbr to cbz and be just fine!
I like Comic Rack because of the front end interface and how it handles the individual comics, it also seems faster than PV alot of the time for me.
I use Comic Rack on my PC as well, but I tend to read them on my Nook Color more than my PC.
Taosaur said:
Nevertheless, I'm contemplating giving the Android app another go just for the syncing and library management aspect, because there's no way I can keep even a significant fraction of my collection on the device.
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Sound like you need help putting your collection to other ppl HDD.
You can get multiple 64GB microSD card and just keep swaping them?
someone0 said:
Sound like you need help putting your collection to other ppl HDD.
You can get multiple 64GB microSD card and just keep swaping them?
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Nah, it's more a matter of not having to plug in and move folders around all the time or, alternately, taking up a big chunk of my SD w/ comics. But again, I'm still conflicted on whether CR on the PC is 'smart' enough and performs well enough to be a better solution than just keeping stuff organized in folders. One argument in CR's favor is that MTP is godawful slow on my machine--in fact, I'd probably be better off moving files over WiFi.
All this is fresh in my mind because I'm simultaneously reinstalling everything in Windows on a new SSD and loading up a new 64GB microSD for the HD+ (which is also still being set up to some extent) AND trying to figure out how I'll set up the old NC for my sister and with what card and data. Oh yeah, and I'm setting up a new PC I just built for my mom
It's awesome--I do like all these tech projects, but it has me re-evaluating a lot of my apps and methods, trying to make everything play nice together.
How about something like Seagate Satellite external HDD? You could have like a mobile wifi HDD sharing. I think it come w/500GB HDD but I think there is a hack to put bigger HDD in there.
More likely I'll return to the status quo of keeping around 8GB of comics on a card and adding new stuff manually, though I do want to give CR a try. Calibre seemed like more trouble than it was worth for a long time, too, but now that I've got the hang of it and have done most of the grunt work to get my collection organized, it's a powerful tool. Enough people are crazy about ComicRack that it must be good for something.
ETA: Calibre can also handle CBR/Z files, so that's also a possibility if I want to get some chocolate in my peanut butter, but I think I'm better off keeping ebooks and ecomics separate.
Perfect viewer works awesome for me, but I'll have to give comic rack a try. I was only keeping maybe half a gig of comics on my 8gb card in the nook color. This bigger screen and higher res is much nicer so far for some of the small text. Heck its most of the reason I upgraded. Man CM10 is nice on the nook color. LOL I threadjacked myself.
joehempel said:
I like Comic Rack because of the front end interface and how it handles the individual comics, it also seems faster than PV alot of the time for me.
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Do you mean page turns are faster? I'm testing them side by side on both the Nook Color and the Nook HD+, and there is a noticeable pause between touch and pageturn in Comic Rack, whereas in Perfect Viewer it's basically instantaneous. From fresh installs on a (currently) CM7 Nook Color, Comic Rack did have my library loaded pretty much instantly and automatically whereas PV had to be pointed to the folder and then did a lengthy scan. From then on, though, PV just beats the pants off CR for loading times and page turns.
It's all moot if you're planning to use the stock reader, but I figured I'd do the side-by-side since both devices were handy.
I just played around with the HD+ stock reader some more, and it's a little weird; the first CBZ I tried last week originally appeared under My Files in the Library app, but ended up shelved under Magazines after I'd opened it. I just tried loading several issues from a series to see if they'd be listed as a series under Magazines, but they didn't get added to the Magazine shelf. They show up in the Recent carousel, but to get at them via the Library I'd still have to go through My Files. The only change I've made was to change the folder name from /ext_sdcard/Books to /ext_sdcard/Comics. I'll mess around some more and report back.
ETA: Somehow the comic I opened last week ended up in /sdcard/My Files/Magazines, and as such shows up under Magazines in the Library. Some CBZs do have some odd artifacting at the bottom of the page, like the bottom few pixels were smeared down the page.
excellent!
Thank you for testing this all out!
I like the fact that it puts in under magazines and separates them from books, so that's good.
I think maybe I'm going to sideload Comic Rack though if possible to use it.
I'll look at PV again, but I kind of like the animations between the pages lol. I dunno, I like the fine coat of polish and extras away from reading I guess.
Is the Comic Rack support SMB? Because Perfect Viewer does, I like to have all my media app support networking.
I also like how I could either use PV looking at stuff on the Nook as Bookshelf, or just browse the file like an image viewer off anywhere.
CBZ Double spread problem on nook hd+
Have you encountered compressed cbz page (when using nook hd+'s native reader)? Most common on my comics where a splash action scene occupies 2 pages. Once I convert it to cbz, nook hd+ shows the combined page into one screen. Twisting the nook to landscape does not fix the compressed image.
Any (verified) solutions out there besides physically splitting the splash scene (via photo editor) into two images (two pages)?
I'm gonna get a Nook ST (root it right away) in the next few days and I currently use Mantano Reader on my phone. Just wondered if the Nook works ok when you scroll through your library of books ?. I have around 800 books so just wondered if it was a tedious process to scroll through your list of books due to the nature of the e-ink tech ?.
mug2k said:
I'm gonna get a Nook ST (root it right away) in the next few days and I currently use Mantano Reader on my phone. Just wondered if the Nook works ok when you scroll through your library of books ?. I have around 800 books so just wondered if it was a tedious process to scroll through your list of books due to the nature of the e-ink tech ?.
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Scrolling works fine. A flick up or down seems to paginate just fine, at least in the limited testing I've done. No whizzing by too fast to see or similar. There is a bit of flicker as Mantano draws the book covers. I use the large icon view, so it's not terribly distracting, but using other modes with more icons will make this more noticeable.
I only keep about 50 books on my NST. I do subscribe to Mantano's cloud service. One problem I have noticed is that a sync operation will cause the NST to download every book cover again from their cloud service. This doesn't happen on my other Mantano devices (Droid 2, NOOK Color/CM10 and Samsung Galaxy Tab), so I assume it's an Android 2.1 eclair issue.
Do be aware that Mantano recently updated their reader app. The latest versions are not compatible with 2.1. The version of Mantano Reader Premium that I'm running is 2.2.12, and it hasn't updated in a while. This is the old "green" version. Out of curiousity, I tried Mantano Reader Essentials. While it is compatible with Android 2.1, it's not very usable, as they've updated that program with the new red screen and very pale interface elements.
Overall, Mantano Reader Premium 2.2.12 works very well on my NST. I've completely converted away from B&N's software for library and reading functions, and use Mantano exclusively.
bobstro said:
Scrolling works fine. A flick up or down seems to paginate just fine, at least in the limited testing I've done. No whizzing by too fast to see or similar. There is a bit of flicker as Mantano draws the book covers. I use the large icon view, so it's not terribly distracting, but using other modes with more icons will make this more noticeable.
I only keep about 50 books on my NST. I do subscribe to Mantano's cloud service. One problem I have noticed is that a sync operation will cause the NST to download every book cover again from their cloud service. This doesn't happen on my other Mantano devices (Droid 2, NOOK Color/CM10 and Samsung Galaxy Tab), so I assume it's an Android 2.1 eclair issue.
Do be aware that Mantano recently updated their reader app. The latest versions are not compatible with 2.1. The version of Mantano Reader Premium that I'm running is 2.2.12, and it hasn't updated in a while. This is the old "green" version. Out of curiousity, I tried Mantano Reader Essentials. While it is compatible with Android 2.1, it's not very usable, as they've updated that program with the new red screen and very pale interface elements.
Overall, Mantano Reader Premium 2.2.12 works very well on my NST. I've completely converted away from B&N's software for library and reading functions, and use Mantano exclusively.
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Thanks mate got hold 2.2.12 and it works great, ditched aldiko and using this now. I like how when you swipe down the list it just moves down a page rather than how much you've swiped. I just use the small covers view, a bit smaller than I like but I can easily live with it.
mug2k said:
Thanks mate got hold 2.2.12 and it works great, ditched aldiko and using this now. I like how when you swipe down the list it just moves down a page rather than how much you've swiped. I just use the small covers view, a bit smaller than I like but I can easily live with it.
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Is there a method to download an older version of an app from Google Play? I don't see any obvious way to do it.
If there isn't, where can I go to to buy and download and apk of version 2.2.12?
thanks,
Jeff
repoocaj said:
Is there a method to download an older version of an app from Google Play? I don't see any obvious way to do it.
If there isn't, where can I go to to buy and download and apk of version 2.2.12?
thanks,
Jeff
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I got it via 'other' means, I've already paid for the full version so I don't see why I can't grab older versions through share sites.
mug2k said:
I got it via 'other' means, I've already paid for the full version so I don't see why I can't grab older versions through share sites.
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OK, I just wanted to make sure I wasn't missing something obvious on Google Play.
thanks,
Jeff
What free version of Mantano Reader will work on Nook? I have 1.2.0 rooted with NookManager.
The title says it all:
I'm looking for an app that a user can use to browse to a desired book which will show that book covers of epubs and possibly even pdfs WITHOUT B&N apps like afiledownloadersvc.apk.
I'm so loving not having any B&N stuff going on with my NST, and I love gifting rooted NSTs to friends. This would make it more user friendly.
I'm thinking along the lines of a file explorer app or library app.
Anyone have any ideas or solution?
I have found a solution on mobileread.com.
It doesn't at all display the covers, but it is clean enough and organizable enough to be satisfactory for me. Also, it's designed for e-ink.
Everybody knows the good old Relaunch app (which is not my launcher; I use LauncherPro), well this is a really new version of it.
Enter RelaunchX. It can omit the launcher functions of Relaunch entirely and can be exclusively used for a library app. You can even get rid of the app drawer in this new permutation.
Here it is if you want to check it out:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284418
Hope this helps someone who may have this question.
ALinkToTao said:
I have found a solution on mobileread.com
Here it is if you want to check it out:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=284418
Hope this helps someone who may have this question.
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So were you looking for basically epubs only? I've been thinking about this issue for awhile since going B&N free on one device. The reader that seems to deliver the best display has a horrible library that requires you to go through pages of nonsense before you get to the covers. Actualy I think all my big three contenders do the same thing or similar.
So epubs seem to be easy to deal with. In principle I think I can do that with Tasker. Mobis are difficult. There I could probably get everything except the cover without going online to fetch it. Most of the popular general readers do not do pdfs so perhaps I shouldn' t even worry about those. I dunno. It's not been done before and seems so obvious. I wonder...
nmyshkin said:
So were you looking for basically epubs only? I've been thinking about this issue for awhile since going B&N free on one device. The reader that seems to deliver the best display has a horrible library that requires you to go through pages of nonsense before you get to the covers. Actualy I think all my big three contenders do the same thing or similar.
So epubs seem to be easy to deal with. In principle I think I can do that with Tasker. Mobis are difficult. There I could probably get everything except the cover without going online to fetch it. Most of the popular general readers do not do pdfs so perhaps I shouldn' t even worry about those. I dunno. It's not been done before and seems so obvious. I wonder...
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Yes, I was looking for epubs mostly. I have some pdfs I would use it for too, but that's not absolutely necessary.
ALinkToTao said:
Yes, I was looking for epubs mostly. I have some pdfs I would use it for too, but that's not absolutely necessary.
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Long time since you posted, but I just rediscovered this: https://forum.xda-developers.com/nook-touch/themes-apps/library-app-t2823169
I haven't tested it fully, but it looks promising.