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App advice needed - Ebook Reader

chanchan05

chanchan05

The Doctor
So basically I am looking for an eBook reader with the following functions:

1) Sort books according to series
2) Create "collections"
3) Reads ePub, and preferably PDF as well
4) Adobe DRM bypass/allows login
5) Syncs via cloud


I'm using Mantano Reader Premium currently (managed to snag it for $1 on a sale last year), which has all of the features except that cloud sync is a subscription service. It's not too bad, $1/month or $10/year for the basic bundle. However considering the plethora of free cloud service nowadays, was wondering if there was a free option.

Before anyone suggests, I already tried Fabrik and it's horrible. I have a lot of ebooks I manage with Calibre, and Fabrik doesn't have a concept of "organization". It's just throw all your books on a white interface. Kinda like Play Books. I put up with Play Books because of the free classics and other books I find there, but there's no reason to put up with Fabrik. At least with Mantano I can select to view only a specific collection of books, not have them intermingled.
 
i cannot remember the older versions of aldiko, but i'm thinking they met my needs...i've always been an aldiko fan, and have found it to be superior than all the others i've tried. why not simply downgrade aldiko to a version that doesn't require root...to see if it works well enough for you?

the apk is available here:

xda-developers - View Single Post - [APP][2.1+] Aldiko Sync

and of course if you give this a try, turn off auto updating of aldiko in the play store.
 
Why not use old aldiko?

Because I've used old Aldiko and found Mantano Reader Premium as a way more robust and capable replacement than even new Aldiko. I absolutely hate the fact that Aldiko copies all my ebooks into system memory instead of reading from the external SD card, which hasn't changed in new Aldiko, which sucks considering I have over 12GB of ebooks to manage. Plus Aldiko has a problem with Adobe DRM, which Mantano doesn't. It's imperative that I get Adobe DRM capability, otherwise I won't be able to read my pdf textbooks.
 
just trying to help dude.

as you well know, it seems each ereader has one limitation or another. i use aldiko for epub. mantano for pdf. play books for syncing. i can't keep track sometimes.
 
I know, and none seems to meet my needs. Oh well. Might as well have to cough up that sync payment. At least it's not crazy expensive as others *cough*Evernote*cough*

Although I don't get why not jusy dump your epub in Mantano considering it handles that well.
 
Nope. I don't think I can get it here (Philippines), but I'll try.

Edit:
Interestingly, Amazon is available here, and I get the free app. I remember before I was trying to get it and it kept asking for a US address. Although I recently got an Amazon account via Kindle for Samsung, so that may have had something to do with it.

The free app for today looks like a good pdf reader, but I wanted something like Mantano that also worked epub and let me sync progress across epub novels I have.

Thanks anyway, at least I found another source for legit free paid apps. 😊
 
i personally prefer mantano's cropping for pdf....i've tried pdf max, maybe i didn't give it enough of a good faith try.

as far as using mantano for my epubs...i don't know. not a fan of its organization and user interface. or maybe it is simply that i'm so used to aldiko, and i don't like change.:)

i do find myself using playbooks most these days. its organization is non-existent, but i just sideload a few books at a time, and have those synced through my devices. then i delete.

so what is the verdict for pdf textbooks? my son is off to university soon, and i'd like to be able to steer him the correct way. my own experience is that at least a 10" tab is necessary for pdf rendering, but what else?

edit: i recall readmill being able to sync. not sure about any of your other requirements, can't remember. and i can't remember why i uninstalled it.:)
 
I'm checking out ezpdf's Drive plugin. For pdf readers, I really like ezpdf, more than Mantano, which I mainly use for epub. I am just checking out the extent of the Drive plugin's capabilities.

Edit: so far, I've decided it's best to keep using Mantano for textbooks, while I'll be using ezpdf for our class lecture notes. While Mantano has good organization features, ezpdf has none, but is a better pdf reader and annotation features.
 
Hello. I have nexus 7 2013 and I'm planning to use it to read ebooks for school (Chunky big books. Medical books mind you haha) and take down notes with it.
Do you have recommendations for a good program for reading ebooks that matches pdfnotes on iPad? I'm looking for one that you can highlight and turn the pages of the book intuitively just like you're turning/highlighting one in real life. Tried moonreader pro, aldiko, goodreader, foxitpdf reader..I'm not really as happy with them as I am with pdfnotes.

Do you also have recommendations on what stylus I can buy that provides the same writing quality with S-pen of Galaxy note? I tried buying stylus with rubberized tip... and it's pretty useless haha. I'm hoping for one that can write just like I am writing on a pad/tickler notebook.

thanks in advance for the replies!
 
Songra said:
Hello. I have nexus 7 2013 and I'm planning to use it to read ebooks for school (Chunky big books. Medical books mind you haha) and take down notes with it.
Do you have recommendations for a good program for reading ebooks that matches pdfnotes on iPad? I'm looking for one that you can highlight and turn the pages of the book intuitively just like you're turning/highlighting one in real life. Tried moonreader pro, aldiko, goodreader, foxitpdf reader..I'm not really as happy with them as I am with pdfnotes.

Do you also have recommendations on what stylus I can buy that provides the same writing quality with S-pen of Galaxy note? I tried buying stylus with rubberized tip... and it's pretty useless haha. I'm hoping for one that can write just like I am writing on a pad/tickler notebook.

thanks in advance for the replies!
Click to expand...

Well we're in the same boat. Med books. Currently I'm reading Young and Young's Neurology (again lol) on a 7in Tab Plus using Mantano Reader. I just use the crop feature to remove the crazy huge borders my books usually have. It has all you ask for.

As for the stylus, nope, none exists. The SPen is able to achieve it's accuracy and and quality because it uses a WACOM digitizer and the Stylus is WACOM as well. The SPen won't even work on non-Note devices because they lack that digitizer. So basically, it's not the SPen that makes it accurate, it's the screen of the Note tablets themselves.
 
Bummer!! So I'll need to buy a phone that has stylus built in then :(

I'm an incoming resident and I'm planning to go paperless haha.

I'll try Mantano Reader. Thanks! Are you using the pro version?
 
Yup. Got it for 99c at the last sale. I think it was Black Friday. You also may want to check out ezpdf. I use Mantano only for books and simple highlighting. Our lecture transcriptions and class made book summaries are the ones I annotate a lot on and I use ezpdf for that. I hardly write on books.
 
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