Review of the Prestigio eReader 2.0 book reader app for Android
The overwhelming majority of umbrella brands represented in Russia are engaged exclusively in the supply of hardware solutions (smartphones, tablet computers, readers, music players, etc.), whereas they are not particularly interested in the field of software. But there are exceptions to this rule: for example, Prestigio’s portfolio has an eReader application that is pre-installed on all Android devices of this international brand and is available for free download in the Google Play Market app directory. With Prestigio hardware solutions, things are going great (the brand takes the first place in the segment of satellite navigators with a share of 27.2%, fourth place in the tablet segment after Apple, Samsung and Acer, the ninth place in the segment of electronic readers), but what is the situation with software? Let's take a closer look at the eReader Prestigio 2.0 application for the Android platform, which supports the formats EPUB, PDF, FB2 (including ZIP), RTF, HTML and plain text.
')
The application is divided into three tabs: "Shelf", "Library" and "Store".
On the "Shelf" displays the books in the Books / directory on the memory card - it is installed in the application by default. However, if you are used to storing books in a different directory, then you can specify its location in the settings.
The “Shelf” itself, made, by the way, in the form of a bookcase, consists of two parts: recently opened books are displayed at the top (they are called “Last Read” in the program), at the bottom are all works from the Books / directory or any other catalog designated as your default repository.
Books on the shelves can be broken into “Collections”; let's say, if you have several works of Pushkin, then it is logical to create a separate section-collection for them, whereas in another one, for example, books on programming can be placed. By default, the program created one collection - "Books". To add a loaded book to this or that collection, you must click on the “Edit” button in the lower right corner of the display, select a book with a tap and specify the collection in the list.
Between the “Last Readings” and the shelves with works there is a service line, in which you can organize books by author and title, call up lists of favorites and recently added books, search for a specific book, and move along the “Shelf” using arrows or specifying a specific its “pages”; The fact is that on the device screen in the vertical mode only 12 books can be displayed (in the horizontal mode - up to 20), and if there are more of them in the memory (we have, for example, there were 16 books), then the movement between the “pages” with books is in the horizontal plane, either by using the arrows, or by swiping your finger across the display from left to right and vice versa.
With the books in the “Last Readings” the situation is exactly the same: they are displayed in the amount of four pieces, but if you run your finger from right to left, the tape of the latest open e-books will scroll. In principle, everything is clear and convenient.
With the covers, the situation is as follows: Prestigio downloaded from the company store (located on the third tab, and we will return to it below) free books are displayed with standard covers, while works offered for money come with colorful covers. It looks like this:
The “My Library” tab partially duplicates the “Shelf”, but at the same time it is in the form of a list and adds the ability to search through the file system (in fact, the built-in file manager is integrated into Prestigio eReader), and also splits the files into “categories” and “series ". Probably, the “series” and “categories” should be written in the e-book files themselves, since, for example, in the “series” we only displayed the Bible, although the books in the device’s memory, we recall, were 16. In principle, if you store books in the Books / directory, as suggested by the developers of the application, you can easily do without “My Library” (if the files of the books are “scattered” in different folders in the gadget's memory, then the file manager is useful).
The “Store” tab, which is quite logical, opens up access to the Prestigio brand bookstore, which today has more than 260,000 literary works (of which about 25,000 are free) in two dozen languages.
Everything is quite simple here: first choose the language, and then browse by the proposed categories, the number of which for different languages ​​may be different. For example, for Russian there are 6, for Ukrainian - 4.
Each of the categories can be divided into several subcategories - in short, the possibilities for manually searching for books are maximum, and if you don’t want to spend time on it, then at your service - search the entire directory.
As for buying books, you can replenish your account in several ways (by the way, you need to create an account to work with the store, this can be done directly from the Prestigio eReader 2.0 application):
Let us turn, however, to the immediate purpose of the program - reading electronic books. Fortunately, Prestigio eReader 2.0 has plenty of settings.
To begin with, the pages can be turned either by lightly clicking on the left and right sides of the screen, either by swiping horizontally or using the volume rocker on the device (it works exactly on Google Nexus 7). It's nice that the pages turn over with a beautiful effect - like in a paper book. The orientation of both the reading and the main menu (which has three tabs) changes automatically depending on the position of the device in space.
There is also a context menu in the text that allows you to select a fragment, translate a word, send a quote, etc. If you drag your finger along the left edge of the page, the screen backlight will be reduced or increased. This is convenient when the user moves between the light sources at night.
The menu in the book allows you to do the following: go to the beginning of the book, add a bookmark, switch between day and night modes (night mode involves displaying white text on a black background), search for a word in a particular book, go to the text and interface settings. In addition, there is a “More” item in which you can increase and decrease the font, view information about the book and go to a specific page using the slider.
Night mode:
Of greatest interest are the "Settings".
Here's what you can do with the text and application while reading e-books:
"Appearance":
"Font". The program has three built-in fonts, but you can add your own - they need to be put on the memory card in one of the subdirectories.
"Colors and wallpapers."
As a result, the text may look like this ...
... and, for example, like this. In general, the display options settings in Prestigio eReader 2.0 are maximum and will certainly satisfy the most demanding users.
"Indents":
"Scroll bar":
"Screen":
"Turning pages":
"Vocabulary":
It is possible to install third-party dictionaries (for example, Prestigio offers to install ColorDict 3 directly from eReader 2.0), which will allow you to translate and learn the meaning of words from the text in a pop-up window in the application.
"Pictures":
"Tips":
In general, despite a number of not very pleasant features (such as a problem with book covers and a glitch with a dictionary installation), Prestigio eReader 2.0 leaves a pleasant impression - it is clear that the application was made with love.
And the output was a fairly high-quality reader with a lot of settings, and even with a built-in bookstore. Try Prestigio eReader 2.0 is definitely worth it - it is quite possible that this free program will remain in your Android device for a long time. As they say, he does not ask for food, but brings benefits.
')
The application is divided into three tabs: "Shelf", "Library" and "Store".
On the "Shelf" displays the books in the Books / directory on the memory card - it is installed in the application by default. However, if you are used to storing books in a different directory, then you can specify its location in the settings.
The “Shelf” itself, made, by the way, in the form of a bookcase, consists of two parts: recently opened books are displayed at the top (they are called “Last Read” in the program), at the bottom are all works from the Books / directory or any other catalog designated as your default repository.
Books on the shelves can be broken into “Collections”; let's say, if you have several works of Pushkin, then it is logical to create a separate section-collection for them, whereas in another one, for example, books on programming can be placed. By default, the program created one collection - "Books". To add a loaded book to this or that collection, you must click on the “Edit” button in the lower right corner of the display, select a book with a tap and specify the collection in the list.
Between the “Last Readings” and the shelves with works there is a service line, in which you can organize books by author and title, call up lists of favorites and recently added books, search for a specific book, and move along the “Shelf” using arrows or specifying a specific its “pages”; The fact is that on the device screen in the vertical mode only 12 books can be displayed (in the horizontal mode - up to 20), and if there are more of them in the memory (we have, for example, there were 16 books), then the movement between the “pages” with books is in the horizontal plane, either by using the arrows, or by swiping your finger across the display from left to right and vice versa.
With the books in the “Last Readings” the situation is exactly the same: they are displayed in the amount of four pieces, but if you run your finger from right to left, the tape of the latest open e-books will scroll. In principle, everything is clear and convenient.
With the covers, the situation is as follows: Prestigio downloaded from the company store (located on the third tab, and we will return to it below) free books are displayed with standard covers, while works offered for money come with colorful covers. It looks like this:
The “My Library” tab partially duplicates the “Shelf”, but at the same time it is in the form of a list and adds the ability to search through the file system (in fact, the built-in file manager is integrated into Prestigio eReader), and also splits the files into “categories” and “series ". Probably, the “series” and “categories” should be written in the e-book files themselves, since, for example, in the “series” we only displayed the Bible, although the books in the device’s memory, we recall, were 16. In principle, if you store books in the Books / directory, as suggested by the developers of the application, you can easily do without “My Library” (if the files of the books are “scattered” in different folders in the gadget's memory, then the file manager is useful).
The “Store” tab, which is quite logical, opens up access to the Prestigio brand bookstore, which today has more than 260,000 literary works (of which about 25,000 are free) in two dozen languages.
Everything is quite simple here: first choose the language, and then browse by the proposed categories, the number of which for different languages ​​may be different. For example, for Russian there are 6, for Ukrainian - 4.
Each of the categories can be divided into several subcategories - in short, the possibilities for manually searching for books are maximum, and if you don’t want to spend time on it, then at your service - search the entire directory.
As for buying books, you can replenish your account in several ways (by the way, you need to create an account to work with the store, this can be done directly from the Prestigio eReader 2.0 application):
Let us turn, however, to the immediate purpose of the program - reading electronic books. Fortunately, Prestigio eReader 2.0 has plenty of settings.
To begin with, the pages can be turned either by lightly clicking on the left and right sides of the screen, either by swiping horizontally or using the volume rocker on the device (it works exactly on Google Nexus 7). It's nice that the pages turn over with a beautiful effect - like in a paper book. The orientation of both the reading and the main menu (which has three tabs) changes automatically depending on the position of the device in space.
There is also a context menu in the text that allows you to select a fragment, translate a word, send a quote, etc. If you drag your finger along the left edge of the page, the screen backlight will be reduced or increased. This is convenient when the user moves between the light sources at night.
The menu in the book allows you to do the following: go to the beginning of the book, add a bookmark, switch between day and night modes (night mode involves displaying white text on a black background), search for a word in a particular book, go to the text and interface settings. In addition, there is a “More” item in which you can increase and decrease the font, view information about the book and go to a specific page using the slider.
Night mode:
Of greatest interest are the "Settings".
Here's what you can do with the text and application while reading e-books:
"Appearance":
"Font". The program has three built-in fonts, but you can add your own - they need to be put on the memory card in one of the subdirectories.
"Colors and wallpapers."
As a result, the text may look like this ...
... and, for example, like this. In general, the display options settings in Prestigio eReader 2.0 are maximum and will certainly satisfy the most demanding users.
"Indents":
"Scroll bar":
"Screen":
"Turning pages":
"Vocabulary":
It is possible to install third-party dictionaries (for example, Prestigio offers to install ColorDict 3 directly from eReader 2.0), which will allow you to translate and learn the meaning of words from the text in a pop-up window in the application.
"Pictures":
"Tips":
In general, despite a number of not very pleasant features (such as a problem with book covers and a glitch with a dictionary installation), Prestigio eReader 2.0 leaves a pleasant impression - it is clear that the application was made with love.
And the output was a fairly high-quality reader with a lot of settings, and even with a built-in bookstore. Try Prestigio eReader 2.0 is definitely worth it - it is quite possible that this free program will remain in your Android device for a long time. As they say, he does not ask for food, but brings benefits.
Source: https://habr.com/ru/post/154475/
All Articles