Aldiko, the fbreader, the Android browser and a little hurdle
Both readers cooperate the with the browser of the T-Mobile G2 touch: if one clicks on the correct epub link in the browser the epub is automatically downloaded and presented in the epub reader. That's cool.
Less cool is, that some readers are not only registered by / for the mimetype / extension of the downloaded file (*.epub), but also by the protocol part of the url (epub://). [ And yes, urls following the pattern epub://*.*.*/*.epub are not correct urls. ] But anyway - some eBook shops offer there books with such urls. And only eBook readers with "epub//"-capability are able to handle such "urls".
Unfortenuately aldiko is only able to handle epub//***.*.epub-links. In case of normal links like http:/***.*.epub-links the browser can't hand over the files to aldiko. On the other side fbreader can only handle http//***.*.epub-links. In case of abnormal links like epub:/***.*.epub-links the browser can't hand over the files to fbreader.
Well then? Hmmm. If I installed both readers only that reader could cooperate with browser which I had installed firstly. As fan of open source I finally decided to install the fbreader at firstl and then aldiko. Therefore I now have to download and import the targets of epub://*.*.*/*.epub urls manually if I want to read them. And in this case I have additionally to reset the extension to epub: my clever Android browser saves these files as *.txt.
And why aldiko at all? It offers his own integrated download book catalogues - including the o'Reilly-catalogue and its book on open source ;-)
Can I read eBooks on my Android smartphone? And can directly evoke the eBook reader via the Android browser?
ePub, pdf, txt, and eBooks
Well, let us firstly talk about eBook formats. Some people say that txt files and pdf files are eBooks in the same sense like epub files. But txt files can't manage artwork. And pdf files have a fix page size which can't be adopted at our smartphone screen. The ePub format on the other hand fulfills such requirements of mobile devices. It will become the epublishing standard - no doubt: many companies and publishers already offer such encoded electronical books.
Hence speaking about eBooks should be a talk on ePub reader. And I'm now considering two alternatives:
The ePub Reader Aldiko
A very comfortable eBook reader is Aldiko: it has a very nice intuitive user interface, includes already large catalogues for buying eBooks - namely those of O'Reilly. Positive reviews itemize these facts . Additionally the program allows to import locally stored epub files. But unfortenuately this app seems not to be free open source software, it's only free in the meaning of freebeer. For installing the application use the standard way:
- search aldiko or epub in the market application,
- click the entry
- let the app being installed automatically.
The ePub Reader fbreader
On the other hand the fbreader is a really free open source application: it fulfills all requirements and can easily be used although its user interface isn't as nicely filed as that of Aldiko. But there is another advantage: the fbreader is additionally offered as Linux desktop application. And so I can read my books on my mobile phone and on my destop computer. For installing the Android application you can use the same the standard method like that for aldiko.
At least one alternative should be mentioned which is developed to handle other formats than ePub: the iReader for Android "... is an e-book reader application for txt, chm, umd, palm pdb format"