I was astounded by how well and how fast it renders PDF on a 3.5 inch device. I never thought I could read PDF so well after my ordeal with past Windows Mobile.
When I got the iPAD 1G not long ago, the first app I got my hands on was GoodReader for iPAD.
Sure, there are iBook and Dropbox PDF readers but there are 2 upsides of GoodReader over these app.
Storage/Transfer via USB, Dropbox, Google Reader, SugarSync and other WEBDAV servers
I don’t really like to be constrain by Apple’s draconian way of file management. I store most of my reading materials in my 7.5 GB free dropbox (find out about DropBox here!)
With GoodReader’s USB app and these cloud storage I can access my current PDF materials from where they are and not need to bind it to iTunes.
GoodReader even allows you to sync PDF materials with Dropbox!
Annotations!
The second upside of goodreader is that it allows you to edit and add annotations to your PDF materials.
Take a look at what you can do on them. When you read your PDF on your computer these annotations will still be there. This makes it a great way to personalize your reading material.
Conclusion
As an avid reader and investor, I do have a lot of financial reports from various banks and it used to be awkward reading them on my iPod Touch, but the iPad really makes reading and keeping these reports filed properly easy.
Any professional who wants to keep a tool that will hold tons and tons of reference and reading materials should get a tablet such as an iPad.
It is really the main reason why we get a 10 inch device.
Here is a good review should readers be interested in how the Galaxy Tab measures up as a reading device.
When I went to the beach yesterday, I had to choose between my Galaxy Tab and my Kindle, both of which are roughly the same size. The Galaxy Tab was handy for blogging on WordPress – something I could theoretically have done on my smaller Galaxy S smartphone, but without the extra real estate.
I’ve spent most of today indoors finishing off Unbroken on my Galaxy Tab, simply because it was closer at hand when I wanted to start reading it, and I found the LCD screen and display size perfectly adequate. One good thing about reading Kindle eBooks on the Galaxy Tab is that you can see any graphics much better, and many of the biographies and autobiographies that I’ve been reading lately include them. The Kindle is simply ‘okay’ at it. I ended up switching to the Kindle when I put the Galaxy Tab on charge, though, and once again the difference between e-ink and LCD really came to the fore. It’s something you need to experience first-hand to understand the difference – best way I can describe it is my eyes were a lot more ‘relaxed’ when I switched to the e-ink screen.
Here is a good article at MakeUseOf detailing why the author thinks that iBooks is a great ebook reader for annotations.
Granted the only app that we have come across now on this site dealing with Annotations have been GoodReader, I urge you to read this article to see its perspective
Pagination
First off, the pagination of the iBook is the closest you will get to the paper format. While the page numbering is not exactly the same as the paper format of the book, a slider at the bottom of the page tells you what page you’re on.
It also tells you how many pages are left in a chapter. This bit of information helps me to to determine if I‘ll have enough time to finish a chapter before I need to stop and do something else.
When you drag your finger across the dotted slider, you get to see the chapter number, chapter title, and pages of the book. This is seriously great for navigating pages. I’ll go into this more later.
Now compare the pagination of the iBooks e-reader to that of the Kindle app (the screenshot below).
For some odd reason, the page numbers of a Kindle e-book can run into the thousands, although the actual length of a book may be only a few hundred pages. Its menu slider doesn’t include the pertinent information included in an iBook e-reader.
The Kindle app only tells you the percentage of pages you have read. A percentage number is not very useful especially if you‘re reading an e-book for study purposes or for book group discussions.
Navigating Pages
One of the most frustrating aspects of e-readers is getting back to a designated page. All e-readers I’ve used do open back to the last page you were on before closing the application. That’s great. But when you’re reading an e-book and decide to “flip” back and forth between pages, it’s often very difficult to get back to a designated page if you don’t make a note of the page number.
You can bookmark the page, but that means you have to open the bookmark menu and then tap on it to get back to a particular page. When you read an e-book for study purposes, you often compare information in different parts of the book. You might also frequently check references as you read. Having a way to quickly return to a designated page can a huge time saver.
Navigating pages is even more frustrating in the Kindle app because if you leave a page, the number of that page may actually change for some reason when navigating away from it.
In both the iBooks and Kindle app, there is a Resume button that when tapped takes you back to the last page you were on, but not necessarily the last page you were reading, or a specific page you want to return to. I would like to be able to stamp any page and then tap a single visible button to take me back to that page.
Highlights
I believe the iBooks app is the only one that provides multiple color markers for highlighting. iAnnotate, an e-reader app for PDFs, also includes this feature.
The default highlight color is yellow, but it can be changed to green, blue, pink, or purple. I assigned a definition to each color to make them more useful.
Now i got intrigued by the name of this application for the iPhone and iPod Touch called Fast PDF [itunes >>].
If its name is Fast PDF, you can guess that their are assuming that their edge over other PDF Readers are the speed and performance when viewing PDF documents.
How much does it cost
Its retailing at USD 2.99
What is the competition out there?
For PDF readers on the iPhone and iPad, the FREE alternative for reading have always been putting your documents in Dropbox and viewing it on your pc as well as on your iPhone.
I review a good PDF reader previously called GoodReader [Review here>>]. GoodReader was great at USD 0.99 so if this cost more than Good Reader then i would expect it to do what it does better and more.
UI and Functionality
The prevailing UI for reading application seems to be the book shelf metaphor and Fast PDF uses this as well. On this book shelf you would find PDF books and magazines and documents you have uploaded.
To upload a PDF document from your computer, touch the start server and you will find a link where you can use in your desktop browser to upload the PDF document in
You can also browse for PDF documents located on the web via the other 2 options. But really i question when i would ever face a situation when i will need this.
Perhaps when i am browsing through Safari on the iPhone and copy the PDF link, i can switch over here to let Fast PDF download for me.
Reading and Browsing
I have created a video here showing its performance. What i notice is that loading on the iOS is very fast even for large PDF files like a 40-50 MB Magazine images scanned.
Here is a video showing Fast PDF’s performance on an iPAd. Looks bloody good don’t you think?
Conclusion
Overall i feel that in terms of speed of loading definitely it is faster than Dropbox and GoodReader, although GoodReader also prides itself to be a fast reader.
The end state is that overall reading is fast on the iOS Platform compare to Android currently.
However, what i feel is lacking in Fast PDF is categorization or tagging in folders. Backup and Exporting and integration to other applications such as Dropbox, Box.net is something they can look into to improve competitiveness.
At the price they are pricing, GoodReader still looks much more attractive here.
I would like to thank the folks from FAST PDF for giving me the opportunity to test drive this application.
Given the screen size of 3.5 inch for the iPhone, the question on alot of people’s minds are: other than music and playing games, does the iPhone make a good reading device?
For that matter, it is hard to come to a conclusion. I may say that 3.5 inch is good enough for me, but the criteria of buying an iPhone and making reading a big part of how you use an iPhone must be determined most of the time by
Pleasure of reading on a 3.5 inch screen
Ability to support existing ebook formats
For (1) it comes down to how well the application in iPhone renders the eBook and intangible things such as page turning, bookmarks, last read location and search capability.
The folks who have numerous ebooks that they read on the desktop,windows mobile and palm will need to know (2)
This article will try its best to answer these questions
To read or access Amazon Kindle on your iPhone
Cost:App is FREE. Books need to purchase
There is a Kindle Application for iPhone that would allow an iPhone user to
read Kindle format books
Shop for hundreds of thousands of books at www.amazon.com/kindlestore
wireless transfer your books to the iPhone or iPod Touch
read the beginning of any Kindle books before you buy
download the Kindle books you already own for free
tap and hold to create highlight. these will be backup and synchronize through Whispersync with your other Kindle device
read in portrait or landscape
I am not a big fan of Kindle but if you have an Amazon account with tons of ebooks based on Kindle format, you can read them on the iPhone.
The advantage here is that your last read bookmark is sync via Whispersync so that wherever you read you will know where it is.
This will be great when you have access to Kindle App across iPhone, tablet and ebook readers next time (although i really am questioning why you would need so many devices)
To read or access Barnes and Noble from iPhone
Cost:Apps are FREE.Books to Purchase
There are 2 apps provided by Barnes and Noble here. The B&N Bookstore is a store front that enables you to
Search for books
Find your closest Barnes & Noble,get maps and directions and see which stores offer cafes and free AT&T wireless access
Take a picture and find out more about that book you have just taken.
The B&N eReader enables you to
Read books purchased off Barnes and Noble
Adjustable Text Sizes
Multiple Font choices
Online backup of your library of books.
You will need a Barnes and Noble account to have these service. Its a free sign up but this i feel is more for US users.
the thing i like about Barnes and Noble is that at least their format is ePub format which is quite open and universal.
So if you have an IPhone and a Nook, which is Barnes and Noble ebook reader, then you are pretty much covered here.
To Read Portable Format or PDF books on your iPhone
This is the most prevalent format and many of you have
Work documents
Books
Magazines
Financial Reports
Brochures
In this format. This is a very inefficient format and it is more for printing rather than reading. Nevertheless many people can find full books in PDF format.
One of the best softwares out there that enables reading large PDF books is GoodReader
Cost:App cost 99 cents. books are your own PDF,TXT books.
It enables you to read TXT,DOC,HTML and PDF format well on it. It is not free but cost 99cents (the best 99 cents you will ever spend on the App Store)
You can wirelessly transfer your books from your computer over to the iPhone or iPod Touch.
Amazingly it supports EPUB, Kindle DRM free, Microsoft LIT, Mobipocket and PDF formats!
it is such a good reader that Amazon bought over Lexcycle, the company behind STANZA. I dunno what they plan to do with it but they better not destroy this great app.
Basically with this you will be able to read any books you find on the internet. Well most of them
Take a look at this video how STANZA works:
How do you transfer your book?
You need to download and install a desktop application. [Download here >>]
Once you have installed the desktop application, you can open your book on the desktop. Go to the options to enable sharing. This will make your desktop stanza searchable to the iPhone
Go to your iPhone Stanza app and go to Get Books.There you will see a section called Computers Sharing Books you would see the name of your Desktop computer.
You can then download the book. its that easy. Watch the video above for further detail.
Conclusion
On a 3.5 inch device with awesome reading apps like STANZA and GoodReader, you are able to cover all format of books and be able to get them to your iPhone and start reading easily.
This week on RSS feed world, gadgets take an important precedence snice CES is happening this week.
And just like i said previously, the iTablet news is spawning off alot of challengers for apples latest potential game changer.
We have the JooJoo and HP tablet slate to Lenovo’s Hybrid Ideapad. But not much have been said about the price.
As far as ebook readers are concern, if they are unable to reach 150 USD then alot of normal folks won’t bite. Lets hope throughout the year some of these folks hit that pricing range
Then Spring Design comes up with a concept about an ebook reader some what like what Barnes and Noble is coming up with but they are also throwing in android capability and wifi, 3g and bluetooth!
It features a 6-inch E-ink EPD (electronic paper display) and 3.5-inch LCD running Google’s Android OS for browsing the web or viewing video, audio, photos, and notes. It also packs a removeable SD card, speaker, headphone jack, and WiFi or 3G EVDO/CDMA and GSM radios. An interesting Duet Navigator feature even lets you toggle content captured on the LCD and present it back to the EPD to save on battery life. The device is planned for release sometime this year without any details on who might be involved in that exercise.
I am really torn by this.
I like the android 3.5 inch option. that smartphone OS platform could grow and you could have alot of good future productivity apps on it.
It doesn’t have a camera! Swell! can bring to secure sites!
At 6 inch it presents a good reading area.
It looks a serously good all in one device
Negatives
This could cost a bomb
Its not gonna do everything well. Meaning you might not have a good overall user experience
The productive organizer is one who is in control of himself as well as his surroundings.He studies how others define their system and works to improve on it and in turn, educate others how to change their lives.
Here, we hope to bring you the necessary widgets to effectively organize how you work or play. Whether you are at work, on the move, or at home, we will find the right solution for you to get things done.
Read More...
