Hi Brett,
I'm cc'ing this reply about reading eBooks in apps on the iPhone, iPod
Touch, and iPad to the macvisionaries list. You wrote:
For those who are using iBooks to read epub files, are you noticing
around a two second pause when page transitions occur in continuous
reading? I am wondering if there is a way to either completely
remove the pause or reduce it, so that say all functions more
smoothly.
If I read a book in file app, or in stanza, SayAll just reads
continuously with out pauses between pages and this is the way I
would like to read if possible in iBooks.
Any suggestions welcome.
Unfortunately there's no way to disable the fancy "page turn
simulation" at the transition in the iBooks settings options. You're
not the only one who noticed this. In a review titled "iOS 4 brings
the usual bang from Apple for mobile" in the Chicago Sun-Times, Andy
Ihnatko gave a very positive review of iBooks (and other iOS 4
features), but stated: "I do wish I could disable the fancy page-curl
animation. On an iPhone 3GS, at least, there’s a slight, but annoying,
additional pause as the app does a whole lot of math." Full article is
at:
http://www.suntimes.com/technology/ihnatko/2428780,ihnatko-apple-ios4-iphone-apple-062410.article
How are you finding the reading experience in Stanza? Are you using
this to read your own text content converted to epub, or are you
reading from either the free or commercial library selections from the
"Get Books" menu button? If you'd like to try reading some commercial
but free (and DRM-free) books, you can try using the following
directions to access books in the Baen Free Library. You must already
have downloaded the Stanza app on your iPhone, iPod Touch, or iPad,
and you must access the links I'll supply from that device -- and not
from your computer. (Quick background: Baen Books is a commercial
publisher of science fiction. They were early entrants into eBooks,
and sell their works in multiple formats -- all free of DRM. They also
maintain the Baen Free Library of books by authors who are willing to
make them available for free distribution on that basis -- often older
works or the first books in series. Because these books can also be
read in, for instance, an HTML version, it's easy to check the reading
experience and content of the eBook versions on the iPod Touch to
evaluate the eReader software. The publisher also, very early on, took
advantage of Stanza's ability to provide easy tools to link in to
Stanza's catalogs or shared library. These instructions excerpt and
paste in that link from a much longer web page description which
states that the easiest way to add access to the eBooks from Stanza is
to click on the link that I supply below.)
1. From your iPhone/iPod Touch/iPad (with Stanza among the
applications), double tap on the link to:
stanzacatalog://www.webscription.net/stanza.aspx
2. You'll be taken to an "Add Book Source" page, with text fields for
"Name" and "URL" filled in with default values, and the button for
"Catalog" (as opposed to "Web Page") selected following these
entries. Focus will be in the text field for the Book Source name,
and the virtual keyboard should be activated with insertion point at
the end. You can simply accept all the defaults by double tapping the
"Save" button in the top right corner, but I prefer to first shorten
the "Name" in the text field to "Webscriptions" so that I don't have
to listen to URL extensions announced when selecting my books source
in Stanza. You can either just use the delete key or touch the first
text field at the top center of the screen and flick right to the
"clear text" button and double tap, then type in your amended name.
3. Double tap the "Save" button at the top right corner of the "Add
Book Source" page.
4. You'll be taken to the Stanza Catalog "Get Books" page (in the
Stanza app). The "Get Books" (selected) button is the second of four
buttons on the bottom of the screen, following (in left to right
order) the "Library" button, and succeeded by the "Now Reading" and
"Info" buttons. At the top of the screen are buttons for
"Catalogs" (selected), "Shared", and "Downloads". The center of the
page contains a list view of Bookstores and Free Books sources that
are default entries for the Stanza app. To access the new Book Source
you've added, double tap the "Shared" button at the top center of the
screen.
5. The "Shared Books" page should show your Webscriptions entry in the
list view under "Book Sources". (If you accepted the default values
without editing, it will appear with the longer URL name and the .net
extension). This page is also where you can access books that you
transfer from your computer though Wi-Fi via Stanza desktop (when you
"Enable Sharing" under the Tools menu), by selecting the "Books on
<your computer name>" entry that will appear under "Computers Sharing
Books".
6. To access the Webscriptions books, double tap "Webscriptions". The
page loads three list entries: an "About" document with notes on using
Webscriptions, the "Baen Free Library", and "My Books". Unless you
have separately purchased books from Webscriptions and have a login
and password to access your account, you won't use the last "My Books"
item. Although there is a "Search" button in the top right corner of
the "Webscriptions" page, you will only be able to read descriptions
of items -- you won't be able to load from these search results
pages. To download books, you need to double tap the "Baen Free
Library" and find the book you want in the alphabetically ordered
list, then double tap to read the detailed description. This "Book
Info" page will have a "Download" button in the top right corner. To
move back up through menus, double tap the button in the top left
corner. Note that to get through the whole library list you will have
to both use three finger swipes up (to read the first 50 entries),
then double tap the "Load More Results" at the bottom of the page, and
so forth for the next 50 entries. (It's a very bad idea to use the
"Download Icon White" button at the top left corner of the "Baen Free
Library" screen, since you will be prompted whether you want to
download all 49 books on that page -- use the download buttons on the
individual book pages.)
7. To read books (once they have downloaded), navigate back up to the
"Shared" page (by double tapping the buttons in the top left corner
until you reach it), then double tap the "Library" button at the
bottom left corner. You can also check on book downloads by double
tapping the "Downloads" button at the top right.
8. Read books following the directions of the intro help information
document for Stanza.
HTH. Cheers,
Esther
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