Ebook readers, Specifically PDF and PDB

[JohnLynch]

About 5 years ago I bought a Palm PDA that eventually broke after three years. In that time I bought 95 PDB books that I've been unable to read. In addition I also have 111 PDF files (most of which I've bought).

Will I be able to read these on an iPad? More specifically, are PDFs handled straight out of the box? If so how does it handle landscape and portrait and scrolling from page to page? If I need to get a 3rd party app for PDF, which app would you recommend? My needs are the ability to read this PDF (free download) and also traditional PDFs.

Is there confirmation of an iPad specific app for PDB files? If not, is there an app for them on the iPhone and if so how does it work on the increased screen size of the iPad?

I realise the iPad might not be out right this second. But its the 3rd of April in Australia so I'm guessing people are merely hours away from getting their hands on it. I've never been interested in an Apple product before. This has me excited. Since my PDA died, I've been eagerly awaiting a new e-book reader and ALMOST got a Kindle last year.

 

[bobtomay]

We should have several apps that can handle PDFs.

As for the PDB books you already have, that's really going to depend on the DRM of those books.

There is already the B&N eReader along with the eReader app (eReader.com is now also owned by Barnes & Noble) that can handle PDB files for the iPhone & Touch. You can even upload your files to Fictionwise and then import to eReader. Whether it will handle the DRM on your books - ???

Might pay to do a little digging into eReader.com.

Of course, don't even know if the same apps for books will be available to you down under as we have up here.

And yeah, I think a bunch of folks are counting down the hours now.

 

[JohnLynch]

As for the PDB books you already have, that's really going to depend on the DRM of those books.

There is already the B&N eReader along with the eReader app (eReader.com is now also owned by Barnes & Noble) that can handle PDB files for the iPhone & Touch. You can even upload your files to Fictionwise and then import to eReader. Whether it will handle the DRM on your books - ???

Oh that's great news. I just logged into my eReader account from 2 years ago and it seems to be alive and well. Everything seems to indicate that the books I bought through that website will copy over to the iPad just fine (I've got all my purchases in my Bookshelf). The sticking point may be the DRM'd fictionwise PDB books, but I was able to use their "Personal Content for iPhone and iPod touch" to upload a Secure PDB file and it made no complaints.

Of course, don't even know if the same apps for books will be available to you down under as we have up here.

Now that's annoying. I'll have to borrow my brothers iPhone to see if I can find the eReader application.

Thanks for the help Bobtomay. This looks to be my very first Apple product I'll buy

 

[bobtomay]

If you purchased through eReader, I'd think you'll be ready to go with the iPad.

Says the app is iPad "compatible", but I don't think they've released a version optimized for the iPad screen size yet.

 

[JohnLynch]

Says the app is iPad "compatible", but I don't think they've released a version optimized for the iPad screen size yet.

That's good to hear. I'll be intrigued to hear how well it displays. If it displays the same content as it does on an iPhone, simply increasing the size of the font I'll be careful to wait until after they've released an iPad version ;D If however the text is the same size and its just not optimised for the iPad then I'll be happy to get it immediately.

Unfortunately either way I have to wait until the end of the month before I can buy it.

 

[bobtomay]

Well, so far:

I don't have Pages '09, still using Pages '08.
It will let me import the pdf in iTunes, but Pages on the iPad won't even acknowledge the file exists in your library there.

Stanza is no good as it changes the whole thing to text only - no page numbers, so it'd be pretty hard to find what you wanted in a 85 page pdf.

iPDF, the free iPad pdf reader does not see there is a pdf at that link and won't download it.

Mailed it to myself. Problem is it only opens in Quick Look - it looks great, but there is no scroll bar. So, if you need some bit of info on page 83, you'll have to scroll a page at a time from the beginning - pitr.

 

[bobtomay]

Thanks to Doc750, I went ahead and sprung the $0.99 for GoodReader - Tablet Edition. Did a direct wifi file transfer from my Mac direct into the app on the iPad. Lots of other ways to get your files into it also.

This is one slick app at several times the price. More features than I can tell without writing a review on it.

Hopefully, ereader will have an iPad version for your pdb files by the time ya'll get the device.

 

[JohnLynch]

Thanks again Doc. I was hoping the GoodReader would be sufficient. And at that price no-one can complain As for eReader, something should come along even if it isn't straight away. For future books Kindle seems to have a better licensing deals. Books that are only available in the US on eReader can sometimes be available on the Kindle.

Although I'm hoping the iPad will be such a huge success that Apple be able to encourage companies to sort out the licensing issue on a massive scale so it becomes a moot point for us foreigners

 

[Fat Abe]

This is one slick app at several times the price. More features than I can tell without writing a review on it.

Slick but not perfect. I have been playing around with it for the past half day. First, since it uses the Safari parsing engine, it leaves out math symbols every now and then. Example: cosmological constant on page 9 of

http://www.higgs-boson.org/files/mass.pdf

Same file renders perfectly on a Mac Pro, using latest version of Safari.

Second, on one art book, Nude Photography, by Pascal Baetens, the photograph by André Kertész on page 17 (labeled) or 19 (actual) is MISSING. I also found another missing photo later.

Lots of teething pains so far, but the folks who publish Goodreader will probably figure out the cause of the bugs.

One feature I have not figured out yet is a clean form of page advance. Let's suppose you have a page which does not render fully (due to user zooming). When you hit the tapzone on the lower right corner, the reader just fills the bottom of the screen with whatever was missing on a page. Thus your eyes have to catch where the transition is, deciphering the old from the new. This is annoying, and does not happen with the Sony 300 - 900 readers. Viewing 1:1 is painful due to font rendering. To be genuinely considered an ereader, the pdf software should behave like epub software, with a nice clean transition in the reading line. It doesn't look like this version of goodreader allows this option, afaik.

There is a second 99 cent app which handles the page transitioning somewhat cleanly. The name of the app is PDFReader. In the rush to get it to market, the maker just scaled up a version that works on the iPhone/iPod screen. It doesn't use the full real estate of the screen, but the page segments jump correctly. A little more white space would have been appreciated.

 

[the8thark]

Just remember ibooks will not be present on the Australian ipad when it launches in late april. So you will have to download a 3rd party application to read your ibooks. I know I'll have to do the same thing. (I'm also an Aussie). So yes I'll be on the lookout for a nice 3rd party ebook reading applciation till ibooks comes the ol' island down under.