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eBooks
Following the iOS 5 upgrade my favourite ebook reader, Stanza, has stopped working. As the company that wrote the app Lexcycle, has been bought out by Amazon it is unlikely Stanza will be fixed, so I am now looking for another reader app for my iPhone.
As a quick fix, so I could continue reading my current book, I switched to Apple’s iBook app, but to be honest it is a very weak app. It is so slow to open and start reading a book, slowed further by the auto-rotation trying to work out how to display the book. This problem could be fixed by adding a “lock screen rotation” in the app – Apple will tell you to use the system “lock screen rotation”, this is not convenient as I of course open the book before locking the screen or when I have finished reading I have to remember to unlock the screen when I am trying to use the iPhone for other tasks. Come on Apple just add an in app option – make iBooks a better app.
So I need a better reader. I am trying ShuBook and Bluefire.
ShuBook is Asian orientated but it does have English options including excellent English help pages. Bluefire is a much simpler app. Both work well as readers but It was the extras Stanza offered that I liked.
- Stanza worked seamlessly and fast with my Calibre library
- Stanza had links to online free books that liked particularly Munseys
- the app was very fast not interrupting the reading experience when turning pages
Both Bluefire and ShuBook turn the pages quickly and have links to some online book collections (although many of the ShuBook ones are in Chinese, but I can ignore these) and ShuBook has an option for adding your own download locations including Calibre on your PC.
I am going to use ShuBook first – but hope like many others that Stanza is fixed.
Things I like about iOS 5
Following the issues of actually installing iOS 5 onto my iPhone 4 the upgrade has added extra functionality to the phone. The highlights for me are:
I am off to Cornwall next week for a few days walking and camping so I will try out the upgraded Camera app then and comment on it once I have seen some results.
Things against iOS 5
Should you upgrade – yes – but look back at my post a out my upgrade experience before you do it – iOS 5 problems.
Things I like about iOS 5 Read More »
iPhone Photo Backup – A Solution
It has come too late to help me, but for the future, Apple has provided a solution to automatically transfer copies of your iPhone photos to your PC (either a Mac or Windows machine).
iCloud, which comes with iOS 5 can be configured to transfer the photos via wifi. I had to install a control panel for iCloud on my Windows 7 laptop (download it from here) and create an account on my iPhone using iCloud in the Setting app. In the same app I turned on the “Photo Stream”. In the Windows iCloud control panel I went with the default settings so the photos are stored in folders in my Pictures folder – this is convenient as this folder is included in the my Online Backup software and so they are also backed up offsite.
I tried it out, I turned the iPhone wifi on and my laptop was connected to the office network. I took a photo and it then took only a few moments for it to appear on the laptop.
Just what I needed.
iPhone Photo Backup – A Solution Read More »
iOS 5 iPhone 4 Problems
Over the past months I have had to restore several iPhones and iPads for clients and as part of my “solution” for my failed iPhone speaker (see here) I have had to restore my phone several times, all with no issues. I have also updated the iOS on my phone a number of times. So yesterday I embarked on updating my iPhone 4 to iOS 5 without much concern.
As part of the process I followed the Apple prompts – with one of them saying iTunes was backing up my iPhone before proceeding. However during the restore I got a “ding” from my PC with an announcement from iTunes that the backup was corrupt or incompatible with this iPhone and the update stopped. I then spent the next couple of hours trying to recover the iPhone but with only limited success. I got my Apps back – so I did not have to purchase them again, but all my custom settings and my photos were gone.
These were the photos from my trip last week to the West Highland Way – which I had not yet copied to my PC – I wasn’t worried iTunes said it had backed them up. On the up side, I had uploaded the best images to my blog as I went along and Richard has the photos he took. With hindsight I should have manually copied the photos from the iPhone before starting the upgrade, but when iTunes says it has backed up the iPhone what was I to think. When I checked the backup folder the file size of the backup file was only 278MB – other backups were over 10GB – I am glad the backup software I use to backup my client’s data is more reliable than iTunes. Some type of verification, by iTunes, would have been a good idea before proceeding to the upgrade.
So for anyone about to upgrade to iOS 5 copy your photos first.
Will Apple care about this – probably not.
iOS 5 iPhone 4 Problems Read More »
West Highland Way – The Train Back to Glasgow
Due to the Nevis Range being in the way the way back to Glasgow, by train, from Fort William requires us to go north to Spean Bridge and Tulloch first – a big detour. Hopefully the rain will clear from the windows so we can see the views.
in the station
More wet blurry photos to come!
the stations are quite high on this line
lunch – venison pie and tea
the West Highland Way from the moving train – near Tyndrum
We are now in a coffee bar, in Glasgow. Richard is hallucinating that the waitress looks like “Penny”. Time to go home.
West Highland Way – The Train Back to Glasgow Read More »
West Highland Way Day 8 – Fort William
Time to cross the finish line. The rain this morning is the worst we have seen all week. But we braved it and walked the last mile to the new official (commercial) finish of the West Highland Way.
West Highland Way Day 8 – Fort William Read More »