OPDS browser? - Nook Touch Themes and Apps

I'm looking for a simple OPDS browser for my NST. The problem is, I want it to be decoupled from any ebook reader applications. I want to stick to the stock B&N reader app that comes with the NST, so I don't want to use something like FBReader (or any other ebook reader app that tacks on an OPDS browser) to browse OPDS catalogs.
I'm essentially trying to replace the "Home" button on a stock NST with an OPDS browser, and otherwise make no changes. I'd like to do it in such a way that it does not confuse the user (someone who is non-technical) with multiple reading apps.
If no such app exists, (I can't find one in the market or google), is anyone out there interested in starting up such a project? I'm aware that FBReader for Android (github.com/geometer/FBReaderJ) is open source under the GPL , so maybe a fork that just breaks out the OPDS browser could be started up. I'm also aware that trook (code.google.com/p/nookapps/) is open source under the Apache 2.0 license, and maybe that will be easier to modify for the NST.
Again, this is all about being easy for a non-technical user who will probably be annoyed by two readers, and who would like to continue making purchases from B&N via their store on the NST.

Related

PDF Reader that Allows Making/Saving Highlights and Annotations

This has been mentioned in one or two other places I could find, but I thought rather than bury my thoughts deep in a less specific thread, I'd start a new one. Hope it isn't too redundant.
I really love the way highlighting and annotating works in the NC's native reader, but as of right now you can't export those notes/highlights in any usable format, such as an annotated pdf, or something like that. Furthermore, the two pdf's I have opened with NC Reader, while the reading experience is nice, won't allow me to highlight the same way the eBooks do.
My ideal solution would be to find a reader that handles pdf's (and maybe other formats) for me and also allows me to make and save highlights and annotations (basically something like the flash app at crocodoc.com). I would certainly be willing to pay for this if any dev's want to give it a whirl.
Currently, given the fact I have yet to find such an app, I use this solution:
I start with a given pdf. If it is not already live text (meaning it's just a set of scanned images of text), I take it into Acrobat Pro and use OCR to create a clearScan copy, which contains the live text elements separated from any charts/images. From here I take the pdf and convert it to ePub format. This can be done with a free program like Calibre or even over the cloud at a site like 2epub.com. Once you have the ePub doc, you just put it on your NC (I use Dropbox), and it looks just like any other book in your library. I use the Reader app, and I can add highlights/notes until my heart's content.
Of course I still can't save any of my highlights/annotations off the NC this way, but maybe one day B&N will allow for that functionality. There's also the hope they will get a deal worked out to allow Flash content, which would mean I could go back to using crocodoc from a browser to do collaborative highlighting/annotating.
Anybody found a better solution at this point?
I second this poster. I love having this feature in my Sony Reader, it helps a lot with reading the documentation.
I also second this request. I would pay 20 dollars for a pdf reader that used standards-based pdf annotations. It would also be nice if the app remembered where you left off reading.
Sent from my LogicPD Zoom2 using XDA App
I have been looking for something exactly like this for my Nook Color. I would be willing to pay the premium to get this feature in a native PDF reader.
madyogi, thanks for this method, I will try it now and see how it works. Just in time for my trip tomorrow

[Q] Robust PDF Reader Please

I've taken in creating PDFs of my school textbooks from the eBooks I purchase from the publisher. It simply more convenient to carry my GTab with four or five textbooks, rather than the books themselves. Unfortunately, the PDF reader supplied by Adobe really basically sucks. Specifically, there doesn't seem to be a way to go to specific pages, expect by a slider bar (rather than typing a page), and worse still, does allow the use of bookmarks and chapter labels that I put in the book.
Can anyone recommend a PDF reader that works well on the GTab, that allows me to directly reference page numbers, bookmarks, chapters, search functions, etc.? Free is better than not, but I'll don't mind paying for an actually useful app.
Please help.
hellsreach said:
I've taken in creating PDFs of my school textbooks from the eBooks I purchase from the publisher. It simply more convenient to carry my GTab with four or five textbooks, rather than the books themselves. Unfortunately, the PDF reader supplied by Adobe really basically sucks. Specifically, there doesn't seem to be a way to go to specific pages, expect by a slider bar (rather than typing a page), and worse still, does allow the use of bookmarks and chapter labels that I put in the book.
Can anyone recommend a PDF reader that works well on the GTab, that allows me to directly reference page numbers, bookmarks, chapters, search functions, etc.? Free is better than not, but I'll don't mind paying for an actually useful app.
Please help.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Try ezPDF Reader. Has bookmark, search, and slider bar. It's not perfect, but works pretty well overall.
Nathan
Ezpdf reader works great on vegan 5
Sent from my PC36100 using XDA App
I'm liking Ezpdf and Aldiko 2.0 (Aldiko Premium)
WickedStyx said:
I'm liking Ezpdf and Aldiko 2.0 (Aldiko Premium)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aldiko 2.0? That hasnt been released yet has it? They said 2.0 will have PDF support and I signed up to receive the alert, but I didnt get one yet.
You have it?
I use my g tab for the exact same purposes. Am in university and the new semester starts on Monday in this part of the globe.
Just bought repligo for 2.99. USD today. Very happy - does highlighting and bookmarks and notes for my notes and etextbooks.
(Btw I'm in Singapore (not a part of China xD ) - got a friend to bring it back for me last month, probably the first in Asia to have the g tab?)
cscotty said:
Aldiko 2.0? That hasnt been released yet has it? They said 2.0 will have PDF support and I signed up to receive the alert, but I didnt get one yet.
You have it?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Aldiko Premium on the market is version 2.0: http://www.appbrain.com/app/aldiko-book-reader-premium/com.android.aldiko
I assume the free version will be updated to 2.0 eventually.
What's wrong with Acrobat Reader X? It's Robust, does searching, supported by Adobe, available free...
Just go to Adobe.com, get Acrobat reader, pick "other operating system" and select Android. Works great on every build and kernel I've tried so far.

Suggestions for an eReader

I just got a NST which I plan on rooting. I am looking for an eReader which will allow me to sync epub books accross my NST, phone, tablet and PC. Any suggestions?
I've used Moon+ and FBReader with FBSync and I'm about to start testing Aldiko with sync soon. I liked the simplicity of FBReader but it didn't seem to play nicely with the text formatting (no italicized text) and I had to manually run FBSync to save the position. Moon+ displayed the content better and when the sync worked it was perfect. It would automatically sync the latest position no matter what device I was reading on...when it worked. Of the two books I have tried I made it through the first without a problem but the second is not syncing properly and I can't seem to get it to behave itself.
So far for me nothing seems to be 100% perfect.
Well, I seem to recall Mantano has some sort of sync feature, thought I haven't made use of it, content as I am with calibre. I'd recommend checking that one out, since Mantano itself is an excellent app.
PC Calibre+Dropbox - library is in dropbox folder (folder A)
NOOK build in reader+Dropsynch - folder A is synch with /media/books
PHONE(ANDR.) some epub reader+Dropsynch - folder A is synch with /sdcard/books (or where you need)
TABLET(ANDR.) some epub reader+Dropsynch - folder A is synch with /sdcard/books (or where you need)
I just rooted over the weekend and have tried a few programs in the hopes of being able to sync the Nook Simple Touch with my Nook Tablet and phone. Therefore I've only tried programs which contain synchronization of current place/page. Here is what I've found so far:
Moon+ Reader: Has built in synchronization which worked well with the other devices but I cannot get it to work at all with the Nook Simple Touch. I've noted comments from others saying either it isn't working at all or works intermittently.
Aldiko Reader: Worked initially but then the program stopped loading. I've subsequently read that older versions will work. The sync program is a separate program which did load. I haven't done a sync yet as the main program stopped working. As opposed to the other two programs mentioned here, it does not use the Nook's built in buttons.
Mantano Reader: Best integrated with the NST of the programs I've tried. Uses built in buttons and if you use the Nook's program to list books you are given a choice of loading with built in reader versus Mantano. It uses a cloud based system to synchronize so I have not tried it yet. There is a free trial and a few different tiers for the paid version--$2 per month looked like the one which I bet most users will wind up using.
One problem with these add on readers--page turning is slower than with the built-in reader with it taking longer for the pages to refresh. I'm going to have to try this some more to decide whether the potential of synchronizing pages is worth the decrease in performance. At this point, if I am going to go with synchronization Mantano looks like the best choice (but I do want to try installing an older version of Aldiko to see how its speed is). I might also unroot the NST and use Moon+ to synchronize my phone and tablet and go back to trying to remember my place when changing between NST and other devices.
I might as well add information on a couple of other readers which I've had to reject for my purposes but which others might find useful:
FBReader: Program available to sync but not working on my phone (Galaxy Nexus). I've heard it is working with ICS on some other phones
Cool Reader: I do not believe it has any ability to synchronize but might be worth checking out as there is a version with more control over refreshing pages made for the Nook. I have not tried it but it sounds like it does refresh as quickly as the built in reader. It also works with the Nook's buttons. Information here: http://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/20...artial-refresh-and-page-button-support-video/
It looks like there are several options but no one program which does what I want If only Cool Reader would add synchronization or if Moon+ would develop a version optimized for the Nook.
I've been playing around with this a little more. I sort of got fbsync to work. There were two issues. First, I found that there is an su.zip file which works better with the Galaxy Nexus than the file I had used. Once I flashed that I was able to get fbsync to load. I also tried changing the file format on my phone to match that of the Nook Simple Touch and Tablet--moving books to SD/My Files/Books.
It does work but on a couple of tests not perfectly. I suspect that being a third party add on program affects how it works. Being free, this is something worth trying but don't rely 100% on it. On one test it did move the current page backwards to where I left off on one device as opposed to the last actual page.
Mantano does give a ten day free trial for synching and Mantano has the advantage of using the built in buttons of the Nook ST. I think I'm going to give it a try and if it works better than synching on FBReader go with the $2/month plan. Mantano has one minor problem. Listing books by author goes in order of first name, while FBRreader does order by last name. I might use Calibre to change the order of the names to last name then first name so they will be in the correct order on Mantano and reload my library.
I've been using aldiko for months now. No crashes or problems. I would definitely recommend it!
Sent from my NookColor using xda app-developers app
Mantano
Hi, I have recently rooted my NSTG. Same need of sync exposed in previous posts across the NSTG, my TF-201 tablet and my i9100 phone. Got Mantano Premium. Good app, good integration with any of my devices. Sync relatively well (sometimes it miss but for just for one page. I recommed it.
Khonshu
dxcore35 said:
PC Calibre+Dropbox - library is in dropbox folder (folder A)
NOOK build in reader+Dropsynch - folder A is synch with /media/books
PHONE(ANDR.) some epub reader+Dropsynch - folder A is synch with /sdcard/books (or where you need)
TABLET(ANDR.) some epub reader+Dropsynch - folder A is synch with /sdcard/books (or where you need)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Instead of dropbox I am using gdrive: in PC Insync and SyncFolder in nook. Working perfectly
CoolReader rocks refresh but does not synch atm
rcchusid said:
Cool Reader: I do not believe it has any ability to synchronize but might be worth checking out as there is a version with more control over refreshing pages made for the Nook. I have not tried it but it sounds like it does refresh as quickly as the built in reader. It also works with the Nook's buttons.
It looks like there are several options but no one program which does what I want If only Cool Reader would add synchronization or if Moon+ would develop a version optimized for the Nook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I've been using CoolReader, as the refresh is handled brilliantly, and you can even set how many pages between full-screen refreshes.
Unfortunately I have not figured out synch yet, and the dev has talked about adding synch but I can't find any reference to progress.
How does Mantano do on refresh? Is it settable like CoolReader?

[APP] Tiny Tiny RSS reader

Hi,
Tiny Tiny RSS is a PHP web application that gives you similar functionality than Google maps. Tiny Tiny RSS Reader is it's official Android reader that talks directly to the server using it's API. The app is made by 'Andrew Dolgov' and hosted in GitHub. This is the app I use to read all my RSSs.
As I use it every day to read the news I wanted to spend some time trying to make it work better with the Nook Touch. So, I grabbed the sources this morning and the changes that I made so far are:
Changed API level to support Android 2.1 (Nook Touch)
Theme is light by default (black on white)
Various font sizes were changed to be bigger
Removed animations (that anyway didn't look nice in the Nook)
Added 'Page up' and 'Page down' buttons on article view (as scrolling is always a mess in the Nook)
Right now is a lot more usable, I'll do a few other changes if people over here are interested. Frankly, requiring a server (or a friends one that allows multiple users) I don't think many people will be using this but I just wanted to share this.
I also have another pending modifications for Aard Dictionary, an app that allows to have the entire Wikipedia offline (without images). That is, for me, a must. There are some problems with navigation and paging that I want to fix to be a lot mor usable on the Nook.
I would also like to take this opportunity to thank all the developers/hackers on the forum for enabling the Nook Touch to do much more than it was intended to.
Cheers!
EDIT: Added a few screenshots
Thank you for your effort, even though it's not suitable to me it's great to see more tailored apps for the Nook Touch.
I am still on the look out for the perfect offline (full content) rss reader for the Nook.
Tell me if you find it
Tiny Tiny RSS Reader also has very nice offline support (retrieving even images) but, of course, you'll need the server side somewhere...
remlap said:
Thank you for your effort, even though it's not suitable to me it's great to see more tailored apps for the Nook Touch.
I am still on the look out for the perfect offline (full content) rss reader for the Nook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
For now I am using ifttt.com to point my google reader feeds to Instapaper and read them on InstaFetch..
I tried to change some things for Nook compatibility in the current version (a trial-free repository of the app can be found here: https://f-droid.org/repository/browse/?fdfilter=tt-rss&fdid=org.fox.ttrss), but I keep getting errors I know nothing about, even when I made no changes.
This begs for an update, would be so great!
Did you fork the github repo? If so could yo share? I think we could probably move it to heroku and for a few users it would stay within the free limits.
After some trial and error I've installed TinyTiny on my raspberry pi locally, it would be great if I could get it to grab full rss but so far it seems to not want to cooperate.
Cheers
About updates
Hi Guys,
I wasn't paying attention here, I thought nobody needed/used TTRSSR app on the Nook.
I'll find the source code and move it to github. The fork I did was for a not-very-new version of the reader because it started requiring a bigger API level than the current Nook supports. I don't think is worth backporting all the new UI/features to the Nook considering there will be a lot of effort involved. However if I publish the code maybe I can get some other developers to hop in and see what happens.

[APP][NST/G] Mantano Reader [MOD]

Edit 1-8-23: I've updated the Mantano apk file. Seems there were still some issues with the aspect ratio of the default.png (book cover) image. Fixed now at 1.5!
I keep my NSTG on FW 1.2.1 because there are issues with Tasker and plugins on FW 1.2.2. The resulting apps are OK, but development is a problem unless I do it on FW 1.2.1. So that one device has B&N apps removed. AlReader has been my go-to reader app. Until now.
While working on some thorny issues with a Tasker app update I came across a book I wanted to read. Unfortunately it was only available in PDF format and AlReader can't handle that. I soon found that something like EBookDroid really couldn't deal well with a PDF file that begged for text reflow (problematic as that is). I wanted something that was at least as good as the stock reader. I could have just picked up one of my other NSTs and read the book that way, but when you abandon the B&N system you should at least break even, not lose. So I went searching through the forum for some ideas.
Mantano Reader caught my interest. Not only can it reflow PDF text (pretty much like the stock reader-don't get too excited), it can also display PDFs as a continuous scroll, with zoom. It can handle Adobe DRM books! And the TTS works (not a big deal). So I looked around and started with version 2.2.12 from Apkpure. This is the last version for Android 2.1. I found that full-screen reading was broken in this version and I couldn't see why, so I worked my way back until it wasn't broken. That was version 2.2.3.
Not for everyone
Those are some of Mantano's virtues, but it's not for everyone. I think it's chief drawback is the absence of full font support. There is only the default (admittedly not bad) and although there is provision for user fonts, there are issues. More on that later. Then there is the really tiny user interface. The colors render somewhat muddy on the NST also. Those are really tough issues to address, certainly beyond my pay grade. Also, none of the syncing, cloud, downloading of dictionaries, OPDS books, fulfilling of .acsm files, additional fonts, user manuals, etc., works. Can't be fixed. I looked. Finally, the reader options are pretty simple, about what is available for the stock reader (except for fonts). So if you like the hundreds of setting combinations in something like AlReader or FB Reader, this app is not for you. If you want something straightforward so you can just read a book without all the B&N hoopla, Mantano may be worth a look.
Mods
When I started getting serious about this I decided to try to learn by doing. My goal was to remove (or at least hide/disable) stuff that did not work. Almost all of my modifications were in the resources folder of the apk file. There was also one annoying issue with the aspect ratio of book covers that required a minor change in two smali files (thanks to @Renate). Here's a short list:
1. Removed Bookstore (OPDS) tab on home screen (formerly "My Catalogs" as described in User Guide)
2. Removed menu icons for sync and cloud
3. Disabled sections in Settings that don't work (Login, Sync, Dictionary download, Fonts, User Manual download)
4. Corrected font colors in some local dialogs so text is visible
5. Made the page number black, smaller, and with a transparent background for less visual distraction
Also, there were a few dialogs with invisible text that used the system framework to generate the window. The only way to fix this was to make a few very minor changes in framework-res.apk. This worked well and even helped with a few other apps that formerly had invisible text. A win-win. You can update your framework-res.apk using the CWM zip provided below. Despite its filename, it is not an "update" zip. You'll just be installing a zip file with CWM.
Making do
Overdrive Library epubs: No app will be able to fulfill .acsm files on the NST/G. The SSL is just not up to it. So there's no point in registering the device with Adobe. That just wastes one of your allowed devices and so I disabled that first Settings selection. However, the app can read Adobe DRM books, understands due-dates, etc. You just need to introduce your device to ADE running on your PC (ver. 3.0 works well for me on Windows) and transfer fulfilled books from there, just as you would with the stock reader.
Fonts: You can, in theory, supply your own TrueType fonts and place them in /sdcard/Mantano/fonts. When a book is opened, the lower menu options include "Themes". This odd term is for adjusting the appearance of the book (fonts, margins, justification, line spacing, colors). You can make a new theme or edit the default one. Either way, you will get to select a font. You will see the font you added in the folder (you can copy any font you like from /system/fonts or from anywhere else). The problem is that Mantano has no way to deal with font families. For example, I prefer Malabar. Of course, there is the base font, the bold instance, italic, bold italic. Mantano makes you choose one of these. Clearly you choose the base font (no need to copy over the others). If there are italics or bold type in a book, the reader uses the default font. This would not be such an issue for small sections of emphasized text, but the font scales are not the same. Malabar is larger than the default font. So any italics is obviously smaller. I tried a software package for scaling the font but it just turned it into rubbish. I am learning to like the default font. This issue was fixed in version 2.4.6, based on what I've read. But that won't run on the NST, of course.
Dictionaries: The reader has the ability to go out to find definitions on the WWW. Big pain. Although you can't download any dictionaries from within the app, Mantano does play nicely with ColorDict and there are plenty of dictionary options for that. Easy fix.
User Guide: I poked around and found a guide labeled "Version 2.1". That was the best I could do. It seems pretty close, although what was the "Bookstore" tab in this version (which I have removed) is referred to as "My Catalogs" in the manual. Either way, it's non-functional and gone. The same goes for references to cloud, accounts and sync. None of it works and all of it has either been removed from view or disabled in this mod.
Extras
Unlike AlReader and FB Reader, Mantano's main activity is the library view. That means there is no simple way to use the "reading now" status bar button to go directly to your current book.
I also like to be able to use the current book cover as a screensaver. AlReader and CoolReader both have this capability. Mantano does not, but it does create thumbnails for each book (if you let it) and one of those is screensaver size (default.png). For some unknown reason, all the thumbnails of various sizes for display in the library have the correct aspect ratio except for default.png. I fixed this in the app with a view to using it as a screensaver image.
To address these issues, I have used Tasker to create two small apps. Mantano_Extras1 enables a listener for when the reader is closed (either by two presses of the back button or simply by pressing the "n" button). When that happens, the Mantano database is queried for the last reading point/book. This is stored in a variable. Accessing Mantano_Extras1 after setup sends a command to open that file. If Mantano is your default app for epubs and/or pdfs, the book will open automatically to the right place without passing through the library. Thus assigning Mantano_Extras1 to the "reading now" button with NookTouch ModManager restores the function of that button.
Mantano_Extras2 does everything described above. During setup it also creates the folder /media/screensavers/CurrentBookCover. When the reader is exited and the database information stored in a variable, it copies the default.png for the current book to that folder. If you select that folder in your NST Settings app for the screensaver, the current cover will be displayed during sleep.
I should add that both apps check to see if the current book has changed before they do anything. If there is no change, they simply stop.
As these are Tasker-generated apps (but don't require Tasker to run), they have a dependency on two small library files. If you don't have one of my other Tasker apps already, you need to copy the two files in the zip as below:
/system/etc/permissions/com.google.android.maps.xml
/system/framework/com.google.android.maps.jar
Set permissions for both files to rw-r--r-- and reboot. Without these files resident, the app will not install.
The apps also use sqlite3 and busybox. If you rooted with NookManager you already have busybox. A few other special packages probably include it. If you have it, you will find it in /system/xbin. If it's not there, copy the file from the zip to that location and set permissions to rwx-rwx-rwx.
If you don't already have sqlite3, move the file from the zip to /system/bin and set the permissions to rwx r-x r-x.
When you have prepared the way, reboot and then install whichever of the two "Extras" apps you want. When you first tap on the app icon there will be a pause while things are set up and then a request for root access. Once that's done they are good to go. Use NTMM to assign the app to the "reading now" status bar button and set your screensaver directory to "CurrentBookCover" (if you installed Mantano_Extras2).
This is nice work. I have heard good thing about Mantano reader before. I believe it still exists although under new name I think. Its sad that you had to remove app options to make it work on NST. Still I am glad that you make some improvement that could if exploited properly make this device better than before. I believe that solving invisible text message is best of what you did and if understood properly can make number of apps that had this problem before usable again for this device. I would not dismiss even TTS working as I remember that someone tried to implement that on NST before yet I do not remember it was solved. So if it work out of box with Mantano reader it might be prudent to see what makes it work if it is fine TTS not some hardly intelligible sound generator. This options you removed how did you confirmed that they are not working? For cloud I believe it was NST lockout and now enforced TLS1.2 it can not reach that gives you hard time. Yet for syncing it is little harder to understand. For the rest like OPDS and such I guess my knowledge is not sufficient to guess how that even work so if you know more than me I am more than ready to listen.
SJT75 said:
I believe it still exists although under new name I think.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Now Bookari.
SJT75 said:
Its sad that you had to remove app options to make it work on NST.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I didn't so much remove options to make it work. It worked as-is, but not the login/download components, and they are not necessary for the reading functions.
SJT75 said:
I believe that solving invisible text message is best of what you did and if understood properly can make number of apps that had this problem before usable again for this device
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's possible. I noticed improvement in dialog boxes for ES File Explorer. But there are other types of dialog boxes and I only dealt with what was needed for this app. Spillover is a gift.
SJT75 said:
I would not dismiss even TTS working as I remember that someone tried to implement that on NST before yet I do not remember it was solved. So if it work out of box with Mantano reader it might be prudent to see what makes it work if it is fine TTS not some hardly intelligible sound generator.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Well, that could have been me. Pico TTS (if not removed) always worked on the NST if you downloaded some voices. I have a post about this somewhere with links. But the quality is really wretched. I looked at this further awhile back and found that Google TTS began with Android 2.2 (of course). There is a "bridge" system involving a custom settings app but each application must include this custom code to work. I did a MOD for AlReader to enable this, but it's not easy and would be (nearly) impossible for Mantano as very few of the smali files have descriptive names. Most are just "a.smali, b.smali", etc. So it's really difficult to track down what you want.
SJT75 said:
This options you removed how did you confirmed that they are not working? For cloud I believe it was NST lockout and now enforced TLS1.2 it can not reach that gives you hard time. Yet for syncing it is little harder to understand. For the rest like OPDS and such I guess my knowledge is not sufficient to guess how that even work so if you know more than me I am more than ready to listen.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
It's not all SSL. Or it may be that also. The URLs in the apk file don't go anywhere, even on my PC browser. So far I've gotten up to version 4.5 and still no working URLs. Perhaps when Bookari emerged as the name the old URLs were abandoned and the old Mantano apps became crippled in this way.
Thanks nmyshkin you clarified some things. I agree that change to new platform and abandoning the URL domain for cloud use could be cause for that option not functioning anymore. Yet unless the syncing have not be performed through a same route (login account on the same domain) sync should function fine from one device to another for example. About the rest you are correct I have come to a same conclusion that even slight upgrade of Android on this device would make vast improvement in options available to exploit. Sadly B&N did not go that way. I will look upon PicoTTS to see if something about the way it actually work can be understood to evaluate if it is worth the effort or it maybe can be discarded as irrelevant for this device.
Just crossed my mind... nmyshkin did you tried to hunt down inside apk file exact spot where that URL is written/coded and change it to something else like IP address of your computer/drive/*/*/sync folder ?
SJT75 said:
Just crossed my mind... nmyshkin did you tried to hunt down inside apk file exact spot where that URL is written/coded and change it to something else like IP address of your computer/drive/*/*/sync folder ?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
No, it didn't occur to me. I only read on one device so that's not the kind of thing that interests me. Also, I just transfer books over from my PC to the Nook when I get them, usually via FTP.
I did see cloud, sync, etc., URLs but I suspect that just changing them would not produce the capability you seem to be hinting at. It's likely a lot more complicated than that. It seems to me that syncing implies active communications from both ends. Teaching your PC to respond to the overtures of the Nook would be a whole other rats nest.
You are correct. Using URLs to connect to PC is not safe. Therefore some home workgroup network or SFTP access are more reasonable way. Maybe if you change cloud sink URL to Dropbox folder you get something?
SJT75 said:
You are correct. Using URLs to connect to PC is not safe. Therefore some home workgroup network or SFTP access are more reasonable way. Maybe if you change cloud sink URL to Dropbox folder you get something?
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I don't think so. The app innards were designed for negotiating with certain remote servers and expect a certain dialog. Just changing the URL doesn't address these issues. Using Dropbox as an example, there are login credentials to be supplied and other issues to be addressed before files can be freely moved in either direction.
Well yes unless dropbox folder is public shared one what I wrote will not work. What if you link sync/cloud to internal folders on device inside Dropbox application that also initiate script written to execute Dropbox synchronization? Then login credentials would come from Dropbox app I think.
SJT75 said:
Well yes unless dropbox folder is public shared one what I wrote will not work. What if you link sync/cloud to internal folders on device inside Dropbox application that also initiate script written to execute Dropbox synchronization? Then login credentials would come from Dropbox app I think.
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1. I am not a Java programmer. What you are suggesting is going to require significant changes in the app. It's not in the same league as the modifications I made.
2. I have no interest in the feature. People who must have synchronization with myriad other devices would be better served by selecting an app that currently has this feature working (like FB Reader).
3. If someone who is a Java programmer and is interested in this feature wants to take a crack at it, more power to them. I personally think it's a dead end. Just about the time you get it figured out, Dropbox will no longer work on the NST. Any modification that relies on exchange with an external commercial server has a built-in self-destruct timer, just waiting for tightening external server access rules. It's over for Android 2.1.
nmyshkin said:
Just about the time you get it figured out, Dropbox will no longer work on the NST. Any modification that relies on exchange with an external commercial server has a built-in self-destruct timer, just waiting for tightening external server access rules. It's over for Android 2.1.
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Amen to that. Making NST more cooperative with Calibre is much better option anyway. Commercial server could be also a trap. There was an outcry when Remarkable for example started charging access to their services out of blue and without warning.

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