new e-reader app

[DaveMac-MS]

Originally Posted by Olley

Bugs in the Zune Reader app.

Olley - I had our guys take a look at this, and they can't seem to reproduce the problem. Are you willing to email me (aussie@zune.net) so I can add them to the thread and we can find out what is going on here?

Cheers, Dave.

[spankyistheman92]

thanks dave thatd be appreciated.

[Olley]

Originally Posted by DaveMac-MS

Olley - I had our guys take a look at this, and they can't seem to reproduce the problem. Are you willing to email me (aussie@zune.net) so I can add them to the thread and we can find out what is going on here?

Cheers, Dave.

I haven't been able to reproduce it either. It only happened with the first book I downloaded and opened, which of course will never happen again unless I can delete the app and then re-download it.

As to the paging issue, if they can't figure out how to get the text to flip pages like a book, perhaps they could tune the swipe up/down to only scroll one page/screen's worth of text no matter how hard one swipes. Leave one or two lines of the previous page with the the new page. Other wise it is difficult to keep track of where in the text I was reading when a swipe scrolls quicker/farther than expected.

And to the developer: I appreciate the effort. The Zune HD was the only touchscreen media player in my collection that couldn't even open TXT files. I'll forgive any inevitable early version bugs/errors if you'll promise to start work on an email app immediately!

[EngrPaul]

Thanks for bringing an e-reader to Zune... but it doesn't work for me.

I couldn't get a readable text size... way too small.

The screen won't tilt landscape.

When I'm away from wireless the program locks up with a light blue screen.

I look for the app under "E" but instead it's way down at the bottom of the list under "Z". Apps should avoid starting with "Zune"... extraneous noise.

[Olley]

@EngrPaul: Use two fingers on the screen to spread out the text and it will enlarge.

[FallenArms3]

Concerning scrolling vs. paging: Perhaps a progress indicator could be implemented? For instance, a simple 3-5 pixel bar down the side of the screen which stops at the top of the screen as you scroll down but doesn't roll back? In other words, you wouldn't see it if you just kept scrolling down, but if you scroll back up it will serve as a reference point to how far you have gotten.

Ok, so on account of how I'm having trouble describing this, here's a mockup: http://i.imgur.com/M04xe.png

Yes, this would be confused for a scrollbar, so probably not a bar. But perhaps you get the idea.

Edit: No, the arrows don't really make sense, as both the text and the user's finger would be moving in the opposite direction. But, again, I think you get the idea.

[EngrPaul]

Originally Posted by Olley

@EngrPaul: Use two fingers on the screen to spread out the text and it will enlarge.

I missed that, thanks!

[psd]

Has anyone else had any trouble downloading and of the books from the Original Books part of the catalog? My Zune simply refuses to download anything that isn't part of the Public Domain Books. None of the self-published novels or short stories are available.

[alexiznumber1]

yea idt its accessible. and half of the time, downloads from the Public Domain section don't work either. Dave, have you contacted the employee who made this yet so he can help us out?

[DiTeach]

I haven't been able to download any books from any other site, either. I tried via Project Gutenburg, but no success.

[VinceMoser]

I've posted on the calibre forums because someone at ZB made this discovery:
"
EDIT: found out why! turns out the software i was using to convert it put all the metadata in HTML format, but the files off of feedbooks are all in XML format. i am looking for a different converter now, and i will let you know if i find one =)
"
Hopefully someone gives me something useful over there.

[gusgus_MS]

Hey guys, I just jumped on the thread, and would love to help wherever I can! First, let me offer my apologies for any issues you've run into. I developed it completely on my spare time with no test team or other resources. I'd like to help, but since I'm not on the Zune team, my influence on bug fixes etc. is limited. Secondly, the eReader app doesn't support any form of DRM. If the book you're trying to download contains DRM, it won't load. Now, I'm going to try to address all the issue reports in this thread. Let me know if I missed something.

how do you download books? do you have to have a zune pass or microsoft points?

--You can browse the feedbooks catalog which is included or enter the url of a TXT, HTML, PDB (only the eReader format), or EBUB book. If you have books in your personal collection (without DRM), you can upload them to a cloud storage option like skydrive or dropbox and enter the url on the zune to download them.

Bugs in the Zune Reader app. I downloaded Benjamen buttons, then opened it to read. Went back to the main menu and change the setting from dark to light. Went back to the menu, then my book, then picked the book to read. Picked Last reading Position.

For some reason the dark/light setting page showed up on top of the screen, and no matter what I could do I couldn't get it off the screen. Had to close the app.

-- The dark/light settings page was added after I handed off the app to the Zune team, Dave & team will have to investigate.

The only thing that I hate is that, it has to use wifi even to read the downloaded books, I may be otg you know.

-- The books are stored locally and available offline. Can you provide exact steps to reproduce the issue? I'm able to read my books offline. I think at startup it tries to connect to the internet to get the feedbooks icon. I agree that it shouldn't prompt for WIFI access until you actually go to the catalog.

Any reason the pages have to scroll instead of flip like 99% of the ebook apps out there? Unnatural and inefficient to have to slide text up read on. There is a reason the old-fashion book analogy persists.

-- The book content is all HTML markup which like any webpage will flow vertically. The eReader then esentially becomes a simple web browser, and you run into all the difficulty of trying to turn a web page into individual pages. We hear you! I'm not saying it can't be done, but with the computational limitations of the Zune, splitting the text into pages would impact performace. The suggestion of just scrolling one page at a time is something I wanted to do, but never had time for.

However...it does not work on the Zune ://
yes, it is an OPDS catalog. Yes i tried the XML and HTML Links. it won't work. Dave, please help us out with this. The guys on Zuneboards cant find a way to do this either.

-- I have not tried setting up one of these custom OPDS catalogs. Can you send me a link to one so I can see what's not working?

you cant download books from ebook store for some reason, the only books you seem to be able to download are some original books and all of the public domain books. shame you can only have up to 10 books on it at a time though. it doesnt have a word limit or file size limit, just 10 books and thats it. so, any of you wanting lots of short stories are screwed. for now, im sticking to kafka lol. also it seems very buggy...

-- You can't download books from an ebook store because it doesn't support DRM. If there is any 10 book limit, it was added after I handed off to the Zune team.

wow. this app is seriously handicapped.
plus, none of the other OPDS sites ive used have worked

-- Can you be specific about what features you're missing?

Has anyone else had any trouble downloading and of the books from the Original Books part of the catalog? My Zune simply refuses to download anything that isn't part of the Public Domain Books. None of the self-published novels or short stories are available.

-- The few I tried worked. Can you point to a specific title?

I haven't been able to download any books from any other site, either. I tried via Project Gutenburg, but no success.

-- I did test against project gutenburg, and the books did work. Can you share which URL you entered and I can see why it's not working.

[jdmacri]

does anyone know if the zune hd ereader is capable of downloading books from the public library using overdrive

[saxmaster765]

Oh, good, you're here. I have a couple questions.

Can you give a sample url that the ebook app likes? I have tried a website like this, but it ended up with all kinds of "<P>" and "</P>"s and it is impossible to read.

Also, I try to keep from asking stupid questions, but is there any way to make this app smoother? The entire app, scrolling in particular, is rather rough.

[gusgus_MS]

Originally Posted by jdmacri

does anyone know if the zune hd ereader is capable of downloading books from the public library using overdrive

No it is not. The overdrive books contain DRM, and this app does not support any DRM.

[gusgus_MS]

Originally Posted by saxmaster765

Oh, good, you're here. I have a couple questions.

Can you give a sample url that the ebook app likes? I have tried a website like this, but it ended up with all kinds of "<P>" and "</P>"s and it is impossible to read.

Also, I try to keep from asking stupid questions, but is there any way to make this app smoother? The entire app, scrolling in particular, is rather rough.

I looked at that page, and the reason it's not working it because it's not valid XHTML. The <BR> tag after STAVRO MUELLER need to be closed. The parser requires an XML document, otherwise it's considered text. I've done all I can to make it fast, but the Zune doesn't have a lot of horsepower available, especially not through the XNA APIs

[bluecnc]

So far I have enjoyed the reader. I have downloaded many books though some take two or three tries. My main beef is I cannot delete my bookmarks. It appears that they are gone after they are deleted but when I open the bookmarks folder they are all back. Also when I delete the last bookmark the app shuts down. Grrr. Would just like to go back to reading thank you. Little niggley things aside it is a good app. Thank you.

[alexiznumber1]

Ok so that whole "type in URL and download" thing does not work. Ever :/ it worked once, but it was a feedbooks download. and even then, i have not been able to replicate it. I've tried dropbox and skydrive and it wont work.

as for the original OPDS catalogs: http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010...-opds-dropbox/

That link explains the beginning, but as it says, there is now a GUI for Calibre OPDS so its not as hard as it seems. But it makes the catalog and it looks fine on the computer but it will not show up on the app. Maybe you can try with better success?

also, any other known OPDS catalogs do not work.
There is one that does, search for lucicat OPDS and you should find a link, but you cant download anything.
and i've tried all of the gutenberg catalog URL's i could find. None work, could you show me what url you used?

Thanks, this is a great app - I've been waiting for this for a long time. It just needs the whole importing thing worked out.

[gusgus_MS]

Originally Posted by alexiznumber1

Ok so that whole "type in URL and download" thing does not work. Ever :/ it worked once, but it was a feedbooks download. and even then, i have not been able to replicate it. I've tried dropbox and skydrive and it wont work.

as for the original OPDS catalogs: http://dearauthor.com/wordpress/2010...-opds-dropbox/

That link explains the beginning, but as it says, there is now a GUI for Calibre OPDS so its not as hard as it seems. But it makes the catalog and it looks fine on the computer but it will not show up on the app. Maybe you can try with better success?

also, any other known OPDS catalogs do not work.
There is one that does, search for lucicat OPDS and you should find a link, but you cant download anything.
and i've tried all of the gutenberg catalog URL's i could find. None work, could you show me what url you used?

Thanks, this is a great app - I've been waiting for this for a long time. It just needs the whole importing thing worked out.

Can you share samples of what urls you've tried that do not work?

[jdmacri]

Originally Posted by gusgus_MS

No it is not. The overdrive books contain DRM, and this app does not support any DRM.

I really appreciate your response, thank you.