Friday, December 28, 2012

Widget! Widget!

Hi guys,

A new version has been uploaded today, and now two widgets are available! The first one is for android > 3.0 users, which according to flurry is the majority of Fabrik Reader users. And it looks like this:




Personally I would like to stack it in another direction, but I didn't find any way to do that so... 

And this little 1x1 book cover widget here, is for everybody:




So basically now you can create kind of "a short cut" for any of your books in your "desktop". Hope you like them :)

I think I'll create more widgets in the future, but right now I really want to focus on the new render engine (btw in this update I also fixed a major bug in the current render engine which will cause missing paragraph). It's definitely what's coming next, but it'll take some time. It's like writing a tiny web browser, you don't need to know anything about programming to understand that it's not an easy job to do. So please be patient, and I'll move as fast as I can!

Thank you for your support, and enjoy!

Tuesday, December 18, 2012

Brand new Icon, and translation!

Hi guys,

Today I've also done some re-designed of the icon, and here it is:


So what do you think? Better or worse than the one we're using now? Let me know!

Also I've finally put together all the texts that needed to be translated in order to get Fabrik Reader localized. And this is the part that I'm going to need your help! I've already got Fabrik Reader translated into Chinese, and it shouldn't take you more than 30 minutes. So if you want to help translate Fabrik into your own language(THANKS!!!), please keep reading.

This is the link of the market description: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20743875/market.txt I'm sure you know how to translate that :)

This is the link to the resource file to be translated: https://dl.dropbox.com/u/20743875/strings.txt

You can open it with any text editor. And when you do, just translate what's between the <string> tags, like:

<string ....>THIS IS THE PART THAT NEED TO BE TRANSLATED</string>

For example, the 4th line in the file is:

<string name="menu_recent">Recent</string>

If you're translating it into Chinese, you should get:

<string name="menu_recent">最近</string>

Just one more thing that you should know, sometimes you'll see this: %1$s, that's just a place holder for the actual value, and you should put it in the right position. For example, in the following line:

<string name="dialog_opening_book">Opening book \'%1$s\'...</string>

It means that Opening book 'the-actual-book-name'...

And that's all! After you're done, just put the file in your Dropbox public folder and comment the link below. Thank you again!!!

Oh, just one more thing, you could try to come up with a name for Fabrik Reader in your own language if you like! Just comment and explain the name to me. Let me explain the name Fabrik Reader here first. It's really simple actually: I wanted you to have the feeling that you're reading a book made of Fabric, just like what the Chinese people are doing in the old times, well, at least the rich ones are :) So what do you have in mind? Let me know!

BTW, bookmark/widgets are also under way. So stay tuned! An update should hit the market very soon!


Sunday, December 16, 2012

Back with a Poll! What do you want most in the next version?

Hi guys, long time no see!

I know it's been a while since the last update, and I'm sorry about that. I've been caught up by another project that will finally come to end very soon. So I'll be back to my favorite project ASAP!

In the meantime, I'm been doing some thinking about what to bring to you guys next. There is so much to do(I really want to make a GREAT product here!), but I'm developing this all by myself, so...

I want to make sure that I always deliver what matters most. And that's why I created a little poll on the Fabrik Reader facebook page (please please like it first!). But before you go there and cast your holy vote, please allow me to explain the options in detail here:

(If you want bookmark, or widgets, consider it's done! They will be the first to be delivered in the next version!)

1. Fabrik Reader Social Network:
    This is my personal favorite! I've always wanted to have a socialized ebook reading experience. That means while you're reading something cool, you can leave some comments and talk about it with other people who also enjoy it. You can also share what you're reading, what you plan to read. You can see what other people have read, or is reading right now. You can follow the people that have sharp opinions, or have the same taste of books as you do, and talk to them, get book recommendations from them. You can find out trending books and what others are saying about them. You can... Isn't that fantastic? Like a book club in your pocket (I know it's a cheesy line...).

2. OPDS support.
    Not much to say about this one.

3. Google Drive Support.
    I know I've been promising this for a long time... It's just that the Google Drive SDK is really hard to use compare to Dropbox...

4. Better Render Engine.
    For now Fabrik Reader doesn't really support things like html tag format or css. So I think a better render engine would be good. After all, it's an ebook reader, is it not?

5. iOS Fabrik Reader.
    I know most of you are probably hard core Android guys, but the Dropbox sync feature will be more shiny with multiple platform support. So how many of you guys want to see Fabrik Reader on iOS?

6. Other
    Please comment if you have any other thoughts!