# FBReader on Android phone--Quickie Review



## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

Last week I purchased an EVO 4G "Android" smart phone from Sprint. This phone features a gigantic screen (4.3 inches diagonally), and I had the idea that it might make an acceptable portable ereader. I've always rejected the idea of a smaller device as an ereader, I always felt the small screens of devices such as the iPod would require too many page turns and be too distracting to be satisfactory for lengthy sessions of sitting and doing focused reading, even though I had loved my Palm Pre for reading shorter pieces such as forum posts and news articles while browsing the internet. But the big 4.3 inch screen on the EVO gives about half the screen area of my Kindle 2. I thought that might be enough to be useful. So I was excited to hear that an Android application to read Kindle books is on the way. I still had one concern--I have a significant collection of science fiction and fantasy books from Baen Books (webscriptions.net), and love reading them on my Kindle 2, but these books can't be read on Kindle apps, even though they work fine in mobi format on the Kindle itself. I'd love to have a way to read them on a portable device.

I thought the FBReader, an ebook reader available for many portable devices, might be the answer. It can read a variety of formats, including ePub. Books from Webscriptions are not DRM'd, and once you have purchased them you are free to "legally" download them in several different formats, including ePub. I've read that some library books offer ebooks for loan in epub format, protected by a DRM scheme. I thought perhaps the FBReader might be a way to read these as well (as most people on this board will know, the Kindle can't read ePub). So I installed FBReader on my EVO, and copied over a Fred Saberhagen novel in ePub format.

Initially, I found that FBReader does work well in a technical sense. You can adjust various things such as margins, font size, change fonts, landscape or portrait orientation, and adjusting whether pages turn by flicking up-and-down or left-to-right with ease. There's a night mode with white print on a black background, for those who like such for reading in dark environments (it still gives me a headache just thinking about it). At least in my first experiments, I found I felt most comfortable setting the pages to flick up-and-down, and reading my EVO in "landscape" format, turned on its side. I felt most comfortable with a slightly larger font than I've been using on my Kindle. I experimented and read Fred Saberhagen for about twenty minutes after spending half an hour or so fiddling with various settings and generally playing with things while watching History Channel International. Pretty much everything is controlled by menus accessed by hitting the menu button on the phone, screen space is dedicated to text, which is as it should be.

The biggest problem I encountered was turning pages. I never found a way I was totally comfortable with. You can turn pages by flicking a finger across the touch screen. I never really liked this, I felt like I had to be a bit too energetic to get the page to flick, and this broke me out of the mindset of being lost in the book. You can also turn pages by rocking the volume button on the EVO. Unfortunately, the rocker switch is set up to run the wrong way--My most natural way to hold the phone with a finger on the rocker switch was to cup my left hand in a C-shape around the EVO, and rest my index finger on the rocker switch. Unfortunately, turning to the next page means I have to click on the wrong side of the rocker switch in this position--I have to reach over the rocker switch from the left, and push on the right side of the rocker switch. This wasn't intolerable, but it wasn't easy and didn't feel natural. I didn't go on with it long enough to really give it a chance, perhaps. The inability to find a way to effortlessly turn a page was the biggest problem I found with this setup.

The short-term verdict is that this does work and is technically possible. I certainly didn't feel as comfortable reading in this way as I do reading on my Kindle, and at least initially, as I do reading on my iPad. This is awkward enough that I won't read this way when alternatives are available. It may be that when I read this way for awhile, I'll get used to it, and settle into a rhythm. I'm leaving the application and the book installed on my Android, and eventually I will be in a situation where I feel the need and desire to read for a block of time, and I'll give it the acid test. In the short term, I'd have to say that this was a technical success, but an operational failure, since I'm not willing to spend an extended time reading on it except when compelled to do so! Incidentally, at least in exploring through the menus, I didn't find a way that appeared to allow dealing with DRM, so those library ebooks are still out of reach for now. I'm going to do some more investigating to make sure that there isn't a way to handle DRM that I missed, though.

Here is a link with more info on FBReader. It is available for free download in the Android store (you'll have to find it yourself on other platforms).

http://www.fbreader.org/about.php


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## Ann in Arlington (Oct 27, 2008)

Thanks for that review Claw. . . .very complete. . . . .I, too, am awaiting the Kindle app for Android. . . .


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## Pirate (Jul 5, 2009)

I'm a big fan of Baen also and as I also have the EVO I was wondering how it would be as an ebook reader. Thanks for the review. I could see using the EVO to read while traveling and you didn't want to carry a lot of gadgets.


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## The Hooded Claw (Oct 12, 2009)

This afternoon I was in a restaurant, had finished an early dinner, and had nothing urgent to do.  The place was quiet, so I decided to pull out my EVO phone and try the reader out some more.  It went well.  I concluded that the best way to read was NOT in landscape mode as I'd been thinking, but in portrait mode.  This is sort of like reading a column of text in the newspaper.  I held the phone in my left hand, curled the fingers behind the phone, and put my index finger on the volume down button to click it and page down.  Worked fairly well, tough it is definitely tougher to click than my Kindle, and I ended up shifting to my middle finger after awhile.

I read about 1/4 of the way through Saberhagen's "An Old Friend of the Family" (good book, I've read it several times now!).

A couple of minor points about the ereader I didn't mention before:

1)  The visual effect as you page is different from the Kindle.  Instead of the slightly shocking dissolve that you get used to after awhile, you actually see the page in front of you sort of fly upward.  More natural than the way the Kindle does things.  I tried flicking the screen to page, but it took too energetic of a flick to be automatic and effortless.  Brought me out of the reading trance to do it.

2)  There are no locations, but along the right edge of the screen is a sliding pointer that indicates proportionally how far you are through the book.  The reader automatically returns you to the page you stopped reading on.


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## Pirate (Jul 5, 2009)

Yea, thanks for the review and update. I think I will try FBReader on my EVO.


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## stormmaster (Jun 12, 2010)

Check the options. There is an option named 'Flick finger to scroll' or something like that. Uncheck it, and you should be able to just tap the screen instead. Tap the bottom half to scroll down and the top half to scroll up. I've found that works pretty well in portrait mode, less so in landscape.

I've been using this app for a while now on the G1. I used to read on it all the time. Then I got my Kinde2. =)


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