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iOS Apps | Hello flatness, my old friend

X-Frame

Member
The only thing I would recommend be added is Marvin the ePub reader (Universal).

It blows away iBooks in everything, syncs with Calibre and Dropbox, has tons more features and options and even an F.lux type setting to adjust the warmth of the screen. The developer is very active on Twitter and seems to push updates frequently. I only wish I discovered this app a year ago.

I already deleted all my books from iBooks and moved them to Marvin. I'd link to it but I am on my phone.
 

Heel

Member
The only thing I would recommend be added is Marvin the ePub reader (Universal).

It blows away iBooks in everything, syncs with Calibre and Dropbox, has tons more features and options and even an F.lux type setting to adjust the warmth of the screen. The developer is very active on Twitter and seems to push updates frequently. I only wish I discovered this app a year ago.

I already deleted all my books from iBooks and moved them to Marvin. I'd link to it but I am on my phone.

Ahhh, thanks for the recommendation! Migrating books from Calibre to iTunes to my iPad is definitely the most tedious part of iOS for me.

You can open epubs from the Dropbox app into iBooks, but it doesn't seem to save the metadata for sorting. It looks like Marvin has an option to edit Metadata directly from the app.
 

X-Frame

Member
Ahhh, thanks for the recommendation! Migrating books from Calibre to iTunes to my iPad is definitely the most tedious part of iOS for me.

You can open epubs from the Dropbox app into iBooks, but it doesn't seem to save the metadata for sorting. It looks like Marvin has an option to edit Metadata directly from the app.

Yup! You can edit it right from the app if you want. Also the Marvin XD plugin for Calibre is really well done too, which you'll need in order to sync with Calibre. The Marvinapp.com website has a ton of tips and tutorials too, I'm still learning things.
 

Z..

Member
Is there a single video player on iOS that can handle 1080p and mkv properly?
Even AVPlayerHD and CineXPlayer HD fall short on that regard... they do play the files, but far from ideally.
 

Eklesp

Member
Is there a single video player on iOS that can handle 1080p and mkv properly?
Even AVPlayerHD and CineXPlayer HD fall short on that regard... they do play the files, but far from ideally.

Try Infuse. I don't have any 1080p videos to test but it plays 720p perfectly. The free version should let you play videos from your device. Payed allows streaming from network.
 

God Enel

Member
any good .pdf reader recommendations? i have to be able to write notes in the pdf and highlight some stuff in the documents. any ideas?
 

God Enel

Member
PDF Expert is the only answer.

thanks dude (?). need a good pdf reader for my master thesis as i have to read a lot of papers. there wasn't a cheaper alternative equally as good, was it? bought it for 9€ anyway as I think most free apps are missing out on features. :)

EDIT: HOLY SHIT. You can let a voice read the paper. best 9€ ever spent :D
 
thanks dude (?). need a good pdf reader for my master thesis as i have to read a lot of papers. there wasn't a cheaper alternative equally as good, was it? bought it for 9€ anyway as I think most free apps are missing out on features. :)

EDIT: HOLY SHIT. You can let a voice read the paper. best 9€ ever spent :D
There is none better, correct.

Packed to the gills with features, but unlike the increasingly god-awful GoodReader, the UI actually makes those features easy and enjoyable to use.
 

Deku Tree

Member
I actually like good reader. Not sure why it is getting so much negativity. It works well as a PDF reader especially for long files.
 
I actually like good reader. Not sure why it is getting so much negativity. It works well as a PDF reader especially for long files.
Yeah, it's fine as a reader after the recent iOS 7 compatibility update.

But I'm someone who does more than just read PDFs - I also need to edit them, annotate, add signatures, crop, stitch together, etc. And doing any of those things in GoodReader is a masochistic exercise in frustration compared to PDF Expert, which actually feels like it was designed by a human being for human beings.
 

Deku Tree

Member
Yeah, it's fine as a reader after the recent iOS 7 compatibility update.

But I'm someone who does more than just read PDFs - I also need to edit them, annotate, add signatures, crop, stitch together, etc. And doing any of those things in GoodReader is a masochistic exercise in frustration compared to PDF Expert, which actually feels like it was designed by a human being for human beings.

Anything better than PDF expert for editing and annotating? Is it good for connecting to Dropbox and Box?
 

Quick

Banned
GIFwrapped is a cool new app that lets you search and archive gifs. App is free with ads, but you can get rid of the ads by making a $1.99 in-app purchase to remove them.

Handy for NeoGAF browsing, since it's not always ideal to look through either the Google Search app or Safari/Chrome for gifs.
 

DarkJC

Member
I feel like Google's app quality is slowly declining on iOS. The new Translate update sucks, prompting me to look for a different translate app. I get more and more frustrated with how crappy Hangouts compared to other iOS-native messaging apps is every time I use it.
 

Talon

Member
Yeah, I stopped using the Gmail app and moved back to Mailbox a few weeks ago. I miss the label support, but at least I don't have to wait 10 seconds for the app to finish loading.
 
Hangouts is garbage and the gmail app is all sorts of fucked up. The notifications don't even go away when you view an email.

My notifications we all sorts of messed up, and I noticed that the Gmail app somehow didn't show up in my list of apps in Notification Center. I deleted the app, hard reset my iPad, and reinstalled and everything has been working fine since. The notifications sync the way they should again, and it's back to showing up in Notification Center.
 

God Enel

Member
My bet is always on Runtastic (though I don't know if there is still a free version). Another good one (paid) is Run Zombies.
 
My notifications we all sorts of messed up, and I noticed that the Gmail app somehow didn't show up in my list of apps in Notification Center. I deleted the app, hard reset my iPad, and reinstalled and everything has been working fine since. The notifications sync the way they should again, and it's back to showing up in Notification Center.

Well I guess I spoke too soon. It looks like my Gmail notifications are all sorts of borked again. Sucks, because I actually like the Gmail app when it works properly. Any have any suggestions to replace it besides Mailbox? I've used it a few times, and I'm not that big of a fan. I just want something that will sent me notifications promptly and will sync notifications of unread mail with the Gmail website and Mail.app on my iPhone (before anyone asks, my phone still allows me to have Gmail use ActiveSync through the Mail.app since it's almost 2 years old, my iPad Air however won't since Google discontinued ActiveSync support on new devices).
 
I just use Mail.app. Apples main apps usually work much better than anything else on their own devices IMO.

I use Mail.app on my iPhone because I can still setup Gmail as an exchange account and get push email that way. I no longer can on my iPad Air though. I guess I can just live with the time it takes to fetch mail on my iPad.
 

Deku Tree

Member
I use Mail.app on my iPhone because I can still setup Gmail as an exchange account and get push email that way. I no longer can on my iPad Air though. I guess I can just live with the time it takes to fetch mail on my iPad.

That sounds weird. Sounds like a software problem on your Air.
 
That sounds weird. Sounds like a software problem on your Air.

No, it's because Google discontinued ActiveSync support for new iDevices. So my iPhone 5 works fine because it's grandfathered in, but my iPad Air can't do push Gmail via Exchange because it was purchased after Google discontinued support. When I replace my iPhone 5 with an iPhone 6, I will also lose push Gmail through the Mail.app on that device. It's because they want to push people to use the Gmail app to get push mail instead of there being a way to do it through the naitve Mail.app.
 
No, it's because Google discontinued ActiveSync support for new iDevices. So my iPhone 5 works fine because it's grandfathered in, but my iPad Air can't do push Gmail via Exchange because it was purchased after Google discontinued support. When I replace my iPhone 5 with an iPhone 6, I will also lose push Gmail through the Mail.app on that device. It's because they want to push people to use the Gmail app to get push mail instead of there being a way to do it through the naitve Mail.app.
Yep. When I got my Retina mini, this realization was an unwelcome surprise.

What would fix all of these issues, though, would be if Apple allowed us to set the default client for things like mail, calendar, etc. I suspect that's the source of much of Google's salty attitude.
 
New Hangouts app doesn't suck anymore & finally uses the iOS7 keyboard.

All I can say is that it's about time.

Also, I really like the newly revamped accuweather app. It's great.
 

Vyer

Member
Yep. When I got my Retina mini, this realization was an unwelcome surprise.

What would fix all of these issues, though, would be if Apple allowed us to set the default client for things like mail, calendar, etc. I suspect that's the source of much of Google's salty attitude.

Google dropped consumer support for Activesync altogether, IIRC
 

Malajax

Member
does anyone know a good MahJong game for iPad?

We talking real mahjong or mahjong solitaire? There are a billion Mahjong solitaire games and I haven't played any of them, so I can't help you on that. For Japanese rule mahjong, Mahjong Police is pretty good, but it's iphone only and totally in japanese. With some fiddling around, it's easy to play, however. $7 on the app store. Googled and found a webpage about ios mahjong games. Hasn't been updated in 2 years, but seems to be a decent directory on what's out there. http://www.dipching.com/iOSmj.html
 
GMail got updated to 3.0 with background app refresh.

My GMail notifications still don't seem to clear even when I press on them and view/delete the e-mail. Does this even work for anyone?
 

Furyous

Member
I downloaded soundmarks to help with presentation skills. EasilyDo is a good personal assistant. Documents 5 is a better Files App with a prettier interface and more cloud support.

What email apps do you use?

I'm juggling mail, yahoo mail, molto, boxer, mymail, hop, squareone, and sparrow. I'm having a hard time choosing a new client so any assistance would be greatly appreciated.
 

mitheor

Member
I´ve just bought an iPad Air this week and i´ll probably use it to enter into the comic universe.

What app do you recommend in that area? I know about comiXology but maybe there are another better options.

And any recommendations regarding what series should i read first? My background is almost null (Walking Dead, Watchmen, The preacher, etc) ... so, yeah, that´s it.
 
I´ve just bought an iPad Air this week and i´ll probably use it to enter into the comic universe.

What app do you recommend in that area? I know about comiXology but maybe there are another better options.

And any recommendations regarding what series should i read first? My background is almost null (Walking Dead, Watchmen, The preacher, etc) ... so, yeah, that´s it.

Someone in this thread told me about Chunky Comic Reader and I really like it. It's really nice looking, organizes your comics well, and has tons of options for downloading your comics from different cloud services such as Dropbox.
 
I´ve just bought an iPad Air this week and i´ll probably use it to enter into the comic universe.

What app do you recommend in that area? I know about comiXology but maybe there are another better options.

And any recommendations regarding what series should i read first? My background is almost null (Walking Dead, Watchmen, The preacher, etc) ... so, yeah, that´s it.

Comic Zeal
 

HUELEN10

Member
Comic Zeal
Be warned though that anything you put into the app is destroyed. What do I mean? If you put in say copyofscannedsonic252thatipersonallyscanned.cbz into the app, you don't get to look at the files on the devices and pull copyofscannedsonic252thatipersonallyscanned.cbz back out. Instead, you will have a folder with the images in copyofscannedsonic252thatipersonallyscanned.cbz and not the actual copyofscannedsonic252thatipersonallyscanned.cbz archive. So known that, make sure you keep all your archives backed up on your computer, in case there is ever any trouble, or you wanna switch reading applications.
 

Fuu

Formerly Alaluef (not Aladuf)
I'll throw ComicGlass into the app suggestions, it's less known but it's pretty great and keeps getting features and support.
 

mitheor

Member
Thanks guys.

I ended up downloading Comic Zeal because i´ve already bought it a few years ago in my 4S so it was in my library.

Now let´s discover the "best of" in comics.
 

DarkJC

Member
GMail got updated to 3.0 with background app refresh.

My GMail notifications still don't seem to clear even when I press on them and view/delete the e-mail. Does this even work for anyone?

This used to work for me when I was using the Gmail app. It also worked with Mailbox and works with Gmail Exchange as well.
 
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