Productive Organizer

When I had my iPod Touch, the best application that I got my hands on was GoodReader.

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.

I get this question a lot what is a PDF reader on the Android that works like GoodReader on the iOS platform.

I think there is not one that is close to what GoodReader has achieved.

However I feel ezPDF is the best out there. Take a look at it

ezPDF is SGD1.22 or USD 1. But its worth to pay for it.

You can find it on the Android Market here >

Kyith Says:

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.

[Read the rest of this article here >>]

I first reviewed GoodReader when I first purchase this app about 1 and a half years ago. [Review here >>]

Back then GoodReader is the most cost effective, fast PDF reader on the iPod Touch or iPhone at USD99 cents.

I thought that there will be many competitors that can come up with a competitive product. Turns out there were many, but great apps stand the test of time. What are the main reason?

Good Apps like GoodReader always tries to improve, even though they might not be comprehensive initially.

Today, Good Reader, is the most used app on the App Store on the iPhone and also on the iPAD.

In fact, the latest version got really great on the GoodReader, so much so that I can really load up all my PDF documents, books, references on the iPAD and read it.

Major update introducing major new feature – PDF Annotations, including notes, highlights, markups and drawings:

• all annotations that you create or edit in GoodReader – notes, highlights, markups, and drawings >- are saved in a PDF file, so you will be able to see them later on a computer or in another copy of GoodReader on your colleague’s device
• all notes, highlights, markups, and drawings created outside GoodReader, and properly stored in a PDF file, can be viewed or edited in GoodReader
• types of annotations that you can create and edit in GoodReader: comments (“sticky notes”) with 7 different icons, text highlights, freehand drawings, lines, arrows, rectangles, ovals, text underlines, text deletion marks (strikeouts), text insertion marks, text replacement marks. You can freely adjust color of all of the above.
• other types of annotations that you can view in GoodReader: text boxes with callouts, polygons and polylines, squiggly underlines, cloudy shapes, rubber stamps, file attachments. All annotations that can be viewed, can also be deleted. In addition, some of them can be edited in a limited fashion (color, placement, scale).

• you can now extract files from PDF file attachments

• two main gestures that you should use to work with annotations – single tap, and “tap & hold”. Depending on where you tap (on a text, on an existing annotation, or on a free space on a page), different menus will be presented to you.

Other important improvements and new features:

• now you can select text directly on a PDF page. Tap on a text and hold your finger for a while. You can then copy it to the clipboard, or create markups for it (highlights, underlines, strikeouts, etc.)
• certain not very large files were known to consistently crash GoodReader (as well as other PDF reader apps) for no apparent reason. This was the issue with iOS 3.x. We have resolved this issue. It shouldn’t be a problem now, even if you’re still on iOS 3.x (this one is for you, Linux Journal readers
• now we can hide PDF watermarks (adjustable option in settings) -> certain button images in place of PDF links that were not shown before, are now shown correctly

And some other nice things:

• you can now choose which minimum zoom ratio you prefer for PDF pages – “fit to screen” or “fit to width” (an option in settings)
• we have lifted the limitation for a size of files being extracted from PDF Portfolios. Now we’re able to extract files of any size. Just make sure that you have enough of free disk space!
• now when you copy a file to the same location as the original, a copy is created. Very handy if you want to annotate a PDF file, but also want to leave the original file unchanged.
• a workaround for the issue when WiFi was conflicting with Bluetooth (slow WiFi connection, occasional WiFi signal drops when Bluetooth switch is on, etc.) was finally found. Now there should be no conflict between WiFi and Bluetooth when working in GoodReader.

No Equivalent Android APP

What is the significance of this? I have my Android Desire for some time, and of all the PDF Apps that I come across, I haven’t encounter one that can be equivalent to GoodReader in terms of speed, ease of reading and price.

Android Marketplace have been around for some time yet we haven’t have a viable PDF reader is disappointing. Why is it a platform that aims to be a portable all-in-on whatever you want it to be not encourage developers to come up with something every office workers would have come across.

Now a lot of people are evaluating whether to get an Android tablet like a Galaxy Tab or Dell Streak, but if you ask me what good is it on a 7 inch to 10 inch device when you don’t have an adequate app to read PDF documents.

You are better off sticking to an iPad for reading.

One of my top reviews at productive organizer have been how you can read PDF books or magazines on your iPhone or iPod Touch via good reader.

The medium of transfer have always been through WEBDAV WIFI transfer, where your iPhone becomes a webserver temprory and provides a url that you can assess via your desktop browser to transfer your books:

Key in the address in (1) in the picture in your browser:

The new USB Manager

What I like about the new USB manager is that it’s a portable application that does not require installation.

Once you plug in your iPhone or iPod touch into your USB, it should detect it!

[Download the Windows App here >>]

[Download the Mac App here >>]