Wow Esther. Thanks so much for this awesome information. This app will be very usable for us outside the US, where it will take a lot of time before we get books in IBooks in our languages. I'll check out this app when I got the time Best regards Søren Jensen Mail & MSN: s...@coolfortheblind.dk Website: http://www.coolfortheblind.dk/
Den May 10, 2010 kl. 8:47 PM skrev Esther: > Hi All, > > Here's an alternative, promising eBook reader for books in ePub format > without DRM: Ibis Reader. It works with VoiceOver on the iPhone, iPod Touch, > and iPad, and allows bookmarking but has some odd features in terms of > navigation. You can read DRM-free ePub books either on your computer or > mobile device, and keep them in sync. I'll excerpt the description from > Wired's Gadget Lab article by Charlie Sorrel, "Ibis Reader for iPhone: A Web > App That Thinks It's a Native App": > <http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/02/ibis-reader-for-iphone-a-web-app-that-thinks-its-a-native-app/> > <begin excerpt> > > Ibis reader is an e-book reading application that does everything that you’d > expect an iPhone e-reader to do, with one big difference: It doesn’t come > from the App Store. The app runs on any iPhone or iPod Touch and offers full > offline access to your library of books, and is as fast and responsive as a > native iPhone application. It manages this through the magic of HTML5, which > is supported by Mobile Safari and - crucially - offers offline storage for > web-sites. > > To install Ibis you navigate to the page in Safari. You will be asked if you > will grant the site 50MB of storage space. After agreeing, you hit the “+” > button and add the app to the home-screen. Now, when you hit that button, you > are launched directly into Ibis, not just a tab in Safari, and because it > stores both itself and your downloaded books locally, it’ll even work with an > iPod Touch out of Wi-Fi range. > > The controls are similar to Stanza or Kindle for iPhone: tap either side of > the screen to flip pages and touch the center to access more settings. You > can browse for public domain books from Feedbooks from within the app, and > even add books from the URL of your choice. Anything downloaded is stored for > you in a local library, and if you opt to sign up for an Ibis account, you > can read, fully synced, across multiple platforms. > > Like Stanza and Apple’s upcoming iPad app, iBooks, Ibis uses the ePub > standard format, and you can even upload these files to your account from > your desktop web browser, from where they will automatically appear on your > mobile device. And because Android uses Webkit for its browser, it too can > install and use the app offline. > > I have been playing around with Ibis for a little while and it really does > behave like a local application, although sometimes it is not quite as fast > when flipping between different sections. In fact, there’s only one thing > that really gives it away: scrolling is a lot slower. Whereas in a native app > you can “throw” a page and it speedily scrolls up or down, the “elastic” > holding the pages of web apps is a lot stronger. It’s not just Ibis. This is > a problem with all non-native applications on the iPhone. > > As a full-featured e-reader, Ibis is surprisingly good. As a proof-of-concept > for non-approved, non-App Store applications, it is straight-up amazing. > > <end excerpt> > > Additional Information and Some VoiceOver-Specific comments: > 1. The web site to visit is: > <ibisreader.com> > If you visit this site from an iPhone or iPod Touch, the link to install > comes up immediately. On an iPad, there will be a link to a version that is > optimized for the iPad. In both cases, the "+" button is what VoiceOver reads > out as the "Utilities" button in Safari. This is at the bottom center of the > screen on the iPhone, and along the top menu bar on the iPad. The > iPad-specific installation is a bit confusing because there is a graphic that > is an arrow pointing to the button (that you won't be able to use), as well > as the fact that VoiceOver announces the button as "Utilities" instead of > "+". Just ignore this part of the instructions, find the "Utilities" button, > and double tap the "Add to Home Screen" button. I actually found it easier > to navigate the iPhone/iPod Touch version of the app, since the links and > buttons are laid out out to be close to each other. > > 2. When you reach the account page you can create your account by simply > typing in an email address and password into the text fields. There are > buttons just above the virtual keyboard for "previous", "next", "autofill", > and "done" that you can use to move focus to the next text field (e.g., type > in your email address, then double tap the "next" button above the virtual > keyboard to move to the password field, and either double tap the "done" > button to dismiss the keyboard and access the page to double tap the "OK" > button, or double tap the "Go" button at the bottom right of the keyboard). > Alternatively, you can just double tap the text field for password and input > -- the "next", "previous", and "done" buttons are easier to use on the iPad > to move focus to fields. Using the "Go" button saves you having to double tap > the "OK" button on the field -- login is immediate. > > 3. The top buttons on the home page are "My Books", "Get Books", and "Sign > In/Out". At present "Get Books" points to various feedbooks links. There's > also an "Add book (download from URL)" button that I haven't successfully > used yet. However, some eBook publishers, like O'Reilly, have links on their > pages that allow you to download your eBook into an Ibis Reader account. If > you access the "O'Reilly Ebooks" link in the Stanza app under "Bookstores", > and go to "My oreilly.com Bookshelf", and select your book, if ePub is one of > the available formats, there will be both a "Download to Stanza" link and a > "Read in Ibis Reader" link at the bottom of the page. Double tapping the > "Read in Ibis Reader" link will download the book to your Ibis Reader account > in the "Cloud". > > 4. The process of actually downloading the book into your local reader (i.e., > when you double tap the "Ibis Reader" app on your screen, double tap "My > Books", double tap the "My Online Bookshelf" link, then double tap one of the > listed books listed and double tap "My Books" again) seems to take a while > under wireless transfer (a couple of minutes), and there aren't progress > indicators. > > 5. The easy way to access the book is through the "Book Info" link, which > takes you to a page that gives a brief description of the book, then lists > the table of contents links. (This way you don't have to start reading at a > graphic cover that is unresponsive.) There are also controls to let you > delete the book if you swipe to the bottom of the page. > > 6. You can use a two finger flick down to start reading. Similarly, you can > use a two-finger tap to stop reading, and a two-finger tap to resume reading > from that point again. If you need to bring up the controls to navigate back > to the table of contents, double tap the center of the screen. You'll get a > summary of your location in the book, with the title and page number, e.g > "The Geek Atlas Page 2 of 5 into "49. Greenwich, London, England" 37% into > the book." The top buttons should also appear: "Home", "Book Info", and > "Settings". You'll also hear the links for "Bookmark" at the upper right, > just below "Settings", "Previous" at the center left edge, and "Next" at the > center right edge. If you have difficulty bringing up this screen, toggle > VoiceOver off, touch the center of the screen, and toggle it on again. > > 7. What's weird: when you do your two finger flick down, VoiceOver will keep > reading through the chapter, but the first page won't update. I can get the > page to advance by double tapping the center of the screen to bring up the > menu with "Previous" and "Next" at the left and right. If I double tap and > hold on the "Next" button or the "Previous" button so that you hear the > burbly noise for the pass through gesture, or simply double tap hard on the > button, I can then double tap any where on the screen and get the previous or > next page, and each double tap advances or reverses the page by one step. > However, as soon as I touch a section of the screen to read the text (and > verify that I've moved ahead or back however many pages I've tapped), the > focus is removed from the previous or next button. Also, if you do a two > finger flick down, you'll continue to read from the present page onward, but > if you do a two finger flick up, your reading will start at the beginning of > the chapter. > > 8. To bookmark a page, toggle VoiceOver off and touch the upper right corner > of the page, then toggle VoiceOver on again. To remove a bookmark from a > page, toggle VoiceOver off and touch the upper right corner, then toggle > VoiceOver on again. Bookmarks are stored as links on the "Book Info" page, > just after the Table of Contents link entries and above the "Continue > Reading" link that lets you resume where you left off, and above the "Delete" > option. Just swipe to get down to it. > > Final thoughts. Ibis Reader only works for DRM-free eBooks, but there are an > increasing number of sites that provide books in this format. You can also > use tools such as Stanza Desktop and Calibre to convert other DRM-free book > formats into ePub (with different degrees of success). The main present > advantage of Ibis Reader over using iBooks is that it's possible to easily > upload from other sources instead of adding files to the iTunes library and > syncing through USB. However, this is still less flexible than Stanza -- > which is perfectly accessible in its catalog and upload sources, just not > entirely accessible in terms of the actually reader navigation as of yet. > This will probably get better, and there are entries in the designer's blog > about easy ways for publishers to formulate links to easily download the book > to Ibis Reader. You can also access the books through a web browser, but the > nice feature is that once downloaded onto your iPhone or iPod Touch, you can > read the book without requiring an internet connection. It's also superior to > O'Reilly's Bookworm in allowing you to set bookmarks, as well as not > requiring that active internet connection to read on your iPhone or iPod > Touch. On an iPad, using iBooks to read and navigate is still the superior > reading experience with VoiceOver. Incidentally, I don't understand who > recommend Stanza as an accessible solution for the iPhone, iPad, or iPod > Touch are managing to navigate and read continuously -- i.e. without > continuously having to touch the screen to read out each section. Stanza > Desktop on a Mac is accessible, but doesn't provide a solution for people > with mobile devices. It also doesn't bookmark eBooks. There are other > solutions for PDFs, but not so many accessible solutions for the mobile eBook > readers. > > HTH > > Cheers, > > Esther > > -- > You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups > "MacVisionaries" group. > To post to this group, send email to macvisionar...@googlegroups.com. > To unsubscribe from this group, send email to > macvisionaries+unsubscr...@googlegroups.com. > For more options, visit this group at > http://groups.google.com/group/macvisionaries?hl=en. -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. 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