Sylvania 7" Tablet as ereader

[LandSurveyor]

So I've bought one of these, which I mentioned in the tablet forum, and I think I will use it as an ereader quite a bit. It's loaded with Laputa, which has a portal to provide quite a number of ebooks, but I want to sideload the old content I was reading from Memoware. The only book I have loaded with Laputa so far is in Epub. I don't know if it will support other formats but I will probably just download Calibre and go from there. Memoware seems to only support old formats like Palm .doc files and such.

The device has a decent screen but even though you can normally manually change the screen orientation (all four directions), the "rotate screen function" (buried in the menu) doesn't seem to work. Neither does the rotate icon. Irritating but bearable. It's still better than a PDA screen.

I'll try to plow into it some more to see what I can learn. The manual is really more of a "getting started" pamphlet.

[Hook]

You should take a look at Aldiko Reader if it works on your device.

Aldiko - eBook Reader Application for Android

You can download it from here for sideloading if you need to.

Download the Latest Version of the Aldiko Book Reader 2.0 (Aldiko 2.0) : Aldiko Customer Support

[Mi An]

Are you trying to use Laputa's menu to rotate the screen or something built into android that doesn't work while Laputa is open? Some readerware temporarily disables screen rotation as a feature, to prevent it from inadvertently switching orientations based on the sensor or something. There's a good chance there's an option (like 'lock screen orientation' or something) buried somewhere that will let you undo that.

Aldiko is the main reader I hear users talking about though.

[LandSurveyor]

There's a menu item within Laputa to rotate the screen. It clicks but doesn't respond. Neither does the rotate screen icon, which is visible when "full screen" is not selected. Odd.

Will have to check into Aldiko if Laputa won't recognize the stuff I want to load. I intend to just convert the files on my desktop and copy over to the micro sd card on the tablet.

[Hook]

There is also ereader for Android.

eReader.com: Get the Latest Software from eReader.com!

It is pretty horrible on a smartphone, have no idea what it will do on a tablet, but it will read ereader and palmdoc formats unconverted.

[LandSurveyor]

There is also ereader for Android.

eReader.com: Get the Latest Software from eReader.com!

It is pretty horrible on a smartphone, have no idea what it will do on a tablet, but it will read ereader and palmdoc formats unconverted.

Thanks, I might try that first. I will see if I can simply copy my existing files onto the ereader folder on the card.

A further note: the microSDHC card is inserted under a little shelf on the end. It's very hard to pinch the end of the card when drawing it out with just the fingers. It came out easily with tweezers. At least it won't fall out on its own even when "unclicked."

[Hook]

Thanks, I might try that first. I will see if I can simply copy my existing files onto the ereader folder on the card.

A further note: the microSDHC card is inserted under a little shelf on the end. It's very hard to pinch the end of the card when drawing it out with just the fingers. It came out easily with tweezers. At least it won't fall out on its own even when "unclicked."

Doesn't the tablet allow to mount the SD card when you connect via USB to your computer and use it as a flash drive for copying files? You shouldn't have to remove the SD card.

[NetBrakr]

Doesn't the tablet allow to mount the SD card when you connect via USB to your computer and use it as a flash drive for copying files? You shouldn't have to remove the SD card.

Yup, even I can do this with my tablet. This is a really nice feature.

[LandSurveyor]

It's got the cable but I haven't used it yet. I just pulled the card and inserted it into the computer. Seems simple enough.

I loaded Palm Reader for Android (directly, from the net). Then I sideloaded several books in .pdb format. Some will open, others will not. For those, you get an endless "waiting for page...." notification. If it lasts over 15 seconds or so, you might as well forget it. It ain't working.

I expect it will be easier to just use Laputa and convert the files, assuming Calibre is easy to use.

[Adama D. Brown]

When I was looking for a book reading app for Android, I ended up settling on FBReader. It's a little more straightforward than some of the apps which use the "bookshelf" interface, and has some of the "advanced" features like adjusting the brightness by sliding your finger along the left side of the screen.