This is basically an observation of something I saw today on a Nook Color recently updated to v1.2. I noticed that in reading an ePub book, the only viewing mode that is possible is to read in portrait mode. Landscape mode does not work, meaning the device would not even rotate the screen to allow reading 'widescreen'. I checked the sensor to auto-detect screen orientation, and it rotates fine on websites, but for some reason you can't hold it in landscape mode and have the page orient itself that way. This is very bad news imho and make me reluctant now to recommend the Nook--unless you're going to root it so you can load other apps.
I have a hacked Nook running the HC4 eMMc version and have tested most of the available eReader apps out there, and every one of them will rotate the screen automatically, or at least give an option to change the orientation. So why would B&N lock the screen orientation in ePub books when other readers do it easily? I don't know if first version(s) of the Nook Color software let you rotate the screen when reading...maybe this is a bug in v1.2...but it's incredible to me that on a great little Android tablet with an eReader based on ADE (or maybe that explains it) you would not be able to turn the screen and have the book page just rotate to suit. The problem really becomes a pain when you have full-screen landscape mode images in a ePub book, and try to view them. You only get the middle section and can never turn the Nook sideways to see the full picture because on v1.2 all ebook pages are locked in portrait mode -only-!
That is royally jacked up imho and B&N and ADE need to patch this immediately.
-JTT
The Nook app in CM7 can change orientation for reading, but has other shortcommings, most menu items don't work.
Jim
It appears that B&N doesn't believe in reading books in landscape. The new Touch reader does not do it either. Funny they included it in the Nook app for Android. It's a feature on many readers & the Nook can read PDFs in landscape. Wonder what the deal is????
Cheers,
kv
Related
How do you fix Apps and Games that don't stretch full screen in Landscape Mode on Nook Color? I installed Mini Squadron and Shoot U and when I try to view them in Landscape Mode, they don't stretch full screen like for instance, Angry Birds. Is there a setting I have to change on the Nook Color? Do I have to do the Spare Parts trick like the Samsung Galaxy Tab? Just curious if anyone found the solution to this. Kinda sucks because I like that game Shoot U
UPDATE: I fixed the issue. I researched the Fullscreen Compatibility Mode fix for the Samsung Galaxy Tab on YouTube using Spare Parts and followed the steps to fix my landscape issues for some apps/games. Here is the link to the YouTube video:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zasSIA7sexM
Be sure to follow the steps completely which include the 2 reboots. Do not skip any steps in the video because it won't work if you do. List of games that I got fix:
- Robo Defense - Before fix, the screen would stay in 4:3 aspect ratio mode and I couldn't see my robots to drag on the screen. After fix, the screen loads full screen with robots accessible.
- Shoot U - Before fix, the screen would stay 4:3 aspect ratio. After fix, the screen utilizes the whole screen.
- etc.
Apps can set whether they do automatic stretching or not in the manifest file of the apk.
You could try to use APK manager (http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?t=695701) play around with the manifest file and repackage.
Fixed the issue
Full Screen Compatibility Mode fix with Spare Parts
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zasSIA7sexM
Fixed the issue. Folllow the steps in the YouTube video. Now, I just need to get the button re-mapping configuration setup and the Nook Color will be COMPLETE =)
This fix does not seem to fix the remote control on the xbmc app. Anybody get that to work?
Nevermind -- found it:
I can't seem to find a spare parts with the compatibility tick box. If it's copacetic, would someone post the apk here?
quietglow said:
I can't seem to find a spare parts with the compatibility tick box. If it's copacetic, would someone post the apk here?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/app/spare-parts
jerrygon,
I haven't used the XBMC app yet. I'll try to install it and see if I get the same issues like you. Again, follow the directions in the YouTube video step-by-step. Don't skip on any of the steps. It won't work if you skip steps. That is what I did first and it did not work until I followed the instructions completely.
califrag said:
http://www.freewarelovers.com/android/app/spare-parts
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
DOH! I wish I would have read this full thread for a link
I ended up pulling the spareparts apk from the 2.1 system image that's included with the Android SDK (2.2 version wouldn't install).
Oh well, whatever works.
still buggy
i did this on my nc but brickbreaker still is a smaill screen not sure what i've done wrong. i followed the procedures correctly, still no go i'll try your apps when i get home maybe its just a doomed app
I've also tried this and still have many games run in a small screen and it doesn't stretch to the edges. Any ideas?
Same here
go0nie said:
I've also tried this and still have many games run in a small screen and it doesn't stretch to the edges. Any ideas?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I did this too and my apps (read: games) are stretch, but instead of taking 50% of the screen, they take up 70% of the screen...
Thanks for the tips everyone, seems to do the trick for a few apps.
Worked great for robo defense, thanks!
Did anyone encounter this problem with Droid Comic Viewer (AVZ)? I am not with the nook now to try this solution but it seems like some people say AVZ works great and they didn't mention having to fix it to expand to full screen.
My mint.com app is also tiny.
I'm wondering if I can't get AVZ to work what method of viewing comics as either CBR or EPUB (by way of calibre) is best - I tried aldiko but I can't zoom in on any pages to read the small text.
What about the home screen in portrait mode? The widget icons on the sides are cut off? Is there a thread for resolution?
Just want to say the method in this video fixed the issue! At least for the comic book reader and for mint.com app which were very small. Much better. Well the comic book reader isn't exactly thrilling me, but at least I can try it out now.
So I've read up and tried out a bunch of different comic viewers on the Nook Color, but was wondering what everyone else is using on XDA.
I'm also curious how you read your comics. Do you keep it zoomed in and scroll across and down to read the panels, or do you fit to the page and read the tiny text? Anyone have any solutions to make reading comics easier?
That's one thing I really enjoyed about my iPad....full screen comics with no small text. I would love to replicate that experience on my nook.
Thanks ahead of time, guys!
Perfect viewer, full page unless its a two page layout, then its zoomed by height
Do you have any issues reading the text when it's full page? Maybe I'm just getting old. hahah
i have used acv and perfect viewer. not sure which one i like more. i dont read comics that much.
I typically read em full screen with no issue, 7 inches seems huge after getting used to my 4 inch phone screen. If something is double screen I just rotate my nook and continue.
I use perfect viewer, It has quick page loads, smooth transitions (if you enable them) and around 11 hotspots on the screen that can be customized to make navigation quick and easy. I used to use ACV but when i rotated to landscape the app confined the image to a frame of 600 px wide. They may have fixed it now but it is too late.
The only thing that is not ideal is that the nook screen is widescreen, better for tv shows movies and other video, and comic pages are typically fatter than that so they require black bars at the top and bottom.
I've used ACV - it works very well for me.
For other apps, I'm not fond of the Ave!Comics viewer - but Comixology works pretty well and Graphic.ly isn't bad.
while i dont read comics, there's two apps i have installed that work great. Comics and Vintage Comics.
dcontrol said:
Perfect viewer, full page unless its a two page layout, then its zoomed by height
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Click to collapse
I 2nd perfect viewer app. I've had compatibility issues with acv and other comic readers reading cbr format, perfect viewer has worked best for me. the controls feel good and you can zoom in/out and fit page to screen etc.
Running Honeycomb off the SDcard and I had problems with ACV being slow and having Force-Closes.
I found Perfect viewer, and it's name is spot on! It is FAST and clear. I changed the default settings so two page layouts auto-split and I just toggle back and forth between the pages as needed. The zoned touch locations threw me off at first, but as with anything, once you learn the interface, it becomes second nature.
+1 for Perfect Viewer
danootz said:
+1 for Perfect Viewer
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Click to collapse
What he said!
I use manga watcher and am very satisfied. On a nook size screen I prefer landscape mode and just scroll down the page as I read the panels. Manga watcher does everything I need and has big free libraries that come with it. Of course you can side load comics off the SD also if you want to.
Sent from my Xoom using XDA Premium App
Perfect Viewer +1
I've always used ACV, not too many problems anymore. It used to have the memory issues so I switched to Perfect Viewer, but I hate having to touch one point on the screen instead of flipping through like pages. (I dunno if this has changed.)
I would also recommend Manga Watcher, haven't tried comics on it, but for easily downloadable (free!) mangas, it's awesome.
I've installed Perfect Viewer on my rooted NC (cm7 on sd-card) but can't access the menu! What button should I hit to get to the menu?
Please help!)
and where do buy the comics from or where do you download them.>?
I love perfect viewer. Works well for me. I like the option to use the volume buttons to turn pages. The full screen view is perfectly fine for me. Text doesn't seem small to me.
I use ACV, but most of my cbr would crash and get error. jjcomics viewer seems to do better. The size is readable unless it is a two page, then I have to zoom in. I think jjcomics viewer you can set it to automatically cut it in half to only show one page each.
But the best thing to prevent the crashing and errors is just convert all of your files to cbz format. I use Jomic to batch convert on my mac. I don't know which program works best for PC but I know there are a lot of them
carlosraf20 said:
and where do buy the comics from or where do you download them.>?
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i dont know where you would legally get comics in cbr/cbz format as I doubt any comics distribution would want to sell it in this format. CBR /CBZ are essentially just rar or zip files of pictures. They probably want some kind of protection on it or have some proprietary software to view them. But I know Marvel has an app on the iphone/ipad and chrome browser that you can use to buy comics and read them. Other than that, the usual suspects for cbr/cbz- torrents, rapidshare, megaupload, etc.
Jarek_s said:
I've installed Perfect Viewer on my rooted NC (cm7 on sd-card) but can't access the menu! What button should I hit to get to the menu?
Please help!)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I don't have this app, but as with all apps on nook color - make sure softkey is running to be able to access the back and menu buttons. If you press the softkey circle (somewhere on your screen) the soft menu button should show up on the screen. This should bring up a menu if the app has one. If you are running CM7, you might not need to run softkey as it might be integrated already in there? If you dont have it, I think it's in the app store
I use perfect viewer also. But one problem I have is when I finish one comic and go to open another for some reason it just keeps returning to the one I just read. Anyone have any idea why it would do that?
Sent from my MB860
jj comic viewer works great for me, I zip all the pics together and it reads the zip
I'm running Nookie Froyo. I've noticed that any time I try to raise the DPI setting above 160 to make the UI easier on the eyes, it completely screws up all my book apps (Nook, Overdrive, Kobo, Amazon). I end up getting pages that are misaligned with the screen, or have text cut off. Is there maybe another setting that I've missed out on changing, that would prevent these alignment problems? I'd really like to be able to run my device at 180 DPI but it's annoying to have to keep switching back to 160 when I want to use it as an actual e-reader.
i changed mine all the way up to 200, and Aldiko still looks the same in all settings.
barrist said:
i changed mine all the way up to 200, and Aldiko still looks the same in all settings.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hmm, Aldiko is one I haven't tried. But at the moment I own one Kobo book and I've taken one ebook out of the library that requires Overdrive. So I need those apps to be usable.
Aldiko supports adobe drm so it can handle BN books, as well as library books. It should open Kobo as well.
I tried this app and it works smoothly
You can edit and highlight words make notes and use free hands writing
However the screen is not fully optimized for xoom
Any other suggestions for editing pdf files?
RepliGo Reader is pretty good, using it right now on the Xoom and it looks great! https://market.android.com/details?id=com.cerience.reader.app
It doesn't edit pdfs ... Please correct me if I am wrong :0) I don't think there is any pdf app currently that does editing.
Thank you
I meant annotation more then editing .. if this would answer your question
Alfahmad said:
Thank you
I meant annotation more then editing .. if this would answer your question
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I prefer ez PDF Reader over all the others out there. Best we got so far in my opinion.
For those interested in ezPDF I have a video below going over it.
Thanks sleeplessninja
I love the video
+1 on EzPDF, the other PDF viewers still feel a bit buggy to me. By that I mean they don't utilize the entire screen, for some reason scroll up/down instead of left/right and the worst issue, long page loads. When I say long, I don't mean a loooonnngg time, but long enough that you actually see it render from blurry to sharp. EzPDF doesn't do this, perhaps it pre-caches the next page and preempts the need to render in your face.
I've tested quite a few of the PDF viewers, and quite frankly I'm surprised Google didn't have it built into the Chrome browser like on the PC. Adobe has yet to release a HC version of the PDF Viewer, but I saw a thread earlier today that mentioned they were able to load the apk manually and get it to work. If you try to d/l it direct from Adobe, you'll get a flag stating your platform isn't supported.
I don't need annotations so much as would like a dedicated reader that utilizes the FULL screen, left/right page-flip, remembers where you left off in multiple documents and I do not want to see the page rendering before my eyes. For now, EzPDF fits the bill. If only they'd add a "night mode" to invert the colors so I don't burn out my retinas with the lights out.
Danger_Dan said:
+1 on EzPDF, the other PDF viewers still feel a bit buggy to me. By that I mean they don't utilize the entire screen, for some reason scroll up/down instead of left/right and the worst issue, long page loads. When I say long, I don't mean a loooonnngg time, but long enough that you actually see it render from blurry to sharp. EzPDF doesn't do this, perhaps it pre-caches the next page and preempts the need to render in your face.
I've tested quite a few of the PDF viewers, and quite frankly I'm surprised Google didn't have it built into the Chrome browser like on the PC. Adobe has yet to release a HC version of the PDF Viewer, but I saw a thread earlier today that mentioned they were able to load the apk manually and get it to work. If you try to d/l it direct from Adobe, you'll get a flag stating your platform isn't supported.
I don't need annotations so much as would like a dedicated reader that utilizes the FULL screen, left/right page-flip, remembers where you left off in multiple documents and I do not want to see the page rendering before my eyes. For now, EzPDF fits the bill. If only they'd add a "night mode" to invert the colors so I don't burn out my retinas with the lights out.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
There is a night mode on ezpdf and from what I can see so far it does remember where you left off with multiple pdfs. ezpdf has gotten better so I have switch back to it for now.
I ended up purchasing the ezPDF reader and it's great,much better than Adobe reader.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
alex2792 said:
I ended up purchasing the ezPDF reader and it's great,much better than Adobe reader.
Sent from my Xoom using Tapatalk
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I agree, and for $0.99 it is super awesome.
I have a large number of my photographs prepared for web viewing and copied to my Nook HD+ micro SD card. These are scaled to a maximum of 900 pixels high or 1350 pixels wide for portability. When using the Quickpic app there is really no problem. In Quickpic, in horizontal screen mode, double taps cycle through three magnifications; 100% viewing (a necessity for me), and fit to height or fit to width. The last two are nice features but most likely one or the other will force the image off the screen. There is no ‘best fit’, which I don’t understand. Any minor inconvenience this poses pales compared to my web browsing experience, which is really where I want to use these and other similar size images.
...To the heart of the problem:
The images I mentioned above are a subset of my 'misterpixel' photos up on Pbase and (almost) all are scaled to this same 900 or 1350 pixel (original) size. The ‘original’ images should easily fit in the Nook HD+ in horizontal mode where the screen is 1280 high and 1920 wide….but that isn’t remotely the case using any of the Android internet browsers I have tried so far. With the Nook HD+ sideways the images typically switch between two different sizes upon double taps and neither of these two sizes fit to the screen in any usable fashion. To be honest, I can’t figure out what the images are scaling to as nothing fits to screen even though most normal web pages behave as expected . My suspicions are that the problem isn’t the browsers but some configuration in the Nook itself or perhaps the Nook’s version of Android. Or perhaps it is that in conjunction with the way the PBase pages are set up. Worst case, do I need to root my Nook to fix this issue?
I should say at this point I expected that when using any of these Android browsers and using ‘desktop mode’ that they would in fact mimic my desktop. On my actual desktop screen these PBase images appear in a proper 1 to 1 (100%) manner. I even tried downloading Android browser add-ons to more closely mimic various desktop browsers and it was no help.
As high resolution tablets and photography mix this will increasingly become a major problem. but for right now I’m at a loss as to how to fix this.
Bruce
bruce164 said:
...As high resolution tablets and photography mix this will increasingly become a major problem. but for right now I’m at a loss as to how to fix this.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I'm no expert on displays, but maybe it has something to do with the pixel density that we use on the Nook. It may affect the way the browsers render the image. Are you using the stock rom?
There are some really easy HTML/CSS tricks that you could use to scale the pictures for easy viewing on the web, but you would need to create HTML page(s) and show your images there. Would creating an html page work for your needs? Im happy to show an example if so. Share a link to sample image and I will show you what I mean.
Thanks
srgibbs99 said:
I'm no expert on displays, but maybe it has something to do with the pixel density that we use on the Nook. It may affect the way the browsers render the image. Are you using the stock rom?
There are some really easy HTML/CSS tricks that you could use to scale the pictures for easy viewing on the web, but you would need to create HTML page(s) and show your images there. Would creating an html page work for your needs? Im happy to show an example if so. Share a link to sample image and I will show you what I mean.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Thanks for the offer but I have almost 2000 images up on PBase and I like some of the amenities the web site provides. OK…I’m lazy.
The difference between a desktop web viewing experience and the tablet viewing experience is profound. As a photographer I want my images to be seen in their entirety and in critical instances it is nice if they are seen at 100% where one pixel in the image displays as one pixel on the screen. Clearly the Nook HD+ is capable of doing this and clearly PBase is providing the ‘original’ image so that this can be done…I just can’t seem to do it. From my frame of reference as a photographer this is beyond bizarre and very frustrating.
I’m a newbie here so I am not allowed to post URLs but you are welcome to go to PBase and check out my ‘misterpixel’ photos and see if this is happening on your tablet. Its the 'original' images that give me issues even though they are realtivly small.
Bruce