http://www.tidbits.com/ Public libraries are hopping on the EPUB-loaning bandwagon, and, although the experience still leaves much to be desired, the ride is starting to get a little less bumpy. en-us Copyright 2011 TidBITS Publishing Inc. Wed, 18 May 2011 22:05:12 UTC Wed, 18 May 2011 22:05:12 UTC editors@tidbits.com (TidBITS Editors) editors@tidbits.com (TidBITS Editors) http://www.tidbits.com/images/tb_logo_152x55.png http://www.tidbits.com/ 55 152 TidBITS badge http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7662 Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:56:47 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7662 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7661 Thu, 03 Mar 2011 20:51:22 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7661 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7629 Wed, 02 Mar 2011 23:09:22 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7629 ]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7564 Mon, 28 Feb 2011 20:52:28 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7564
Overall, though, none of them are usable. The OverDrive PDF, "Dinosaur Summer", used pages about 20% longer than the iPad page, so I had to scroll twice per 'page'. Both NYPL & BPL OverDrive sites are broken -- the "Browse Fiction" & "Browse Nonfiction" links don't work, and the catalogs are strictly 10 titles per page, with ephemeral links.

None of the 3 library catalogs (including OL) has a significant number of ebook titles available for borrowing. Perhaps in a year, or five...

I'm going to send a note to the librarians saying this is unworkable, and hope they are able to make ebooks work someday. Back to unlocked epubs/iBooks/Kindle.app for now, alas.]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7514 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:53:09 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7514 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7513 Fri, 25 Feb 2011 19:47:26 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7513
First, this one argues that libraries can only get away with ebook lending if they do a bad job at it. OverDrive certainly helps in that area!

http://go-to-hellman.blogspot.com/2011/02/overdrive-and-library-ebook-convenience.html

And second, this post says that even OverDrive will have to limit the total number of times a book is checked out if Harper Collins gets its way.

http://librarianbyday.net/2011/02/25/publishing-industry-forces-overdrive-and-other-library-ebook-vendors-to-take-a-giant-step-back/]]> http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7507 Thu, 24 Feb 2011 02:54:47 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7507 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7498 Wed, 23 Feb 2011 19:40:03 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7498 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7472 Mon, 21 Feb 2011 02:37:34 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7472 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7469 Sun, 20 Feb 2011 16:37:51 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7469 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7468 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:28:24 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7468 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7467 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 19:23:38 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7467 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7466 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 15:54:00 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7466 http://db.tidbits.com/article/11980?rss#comments_7465 Sat, 19 Feb 2011 12:51:18 UTC http://tidbits.com/article/11980#comments_7465
I only have an iPhone so I wasn't able to compare on an iPad the previous version to the one just released, so this is really helpful! In comparison to Bluefire, OverDrive's app is still seriously lacking. Along with what you listed, the Bluefire app works with PDFs. If you are viewing OverDrive's mobile website it won't let you download them whatsoever, but PDFs do work with Bluefire.

Did you notice a time lag with the new version of OverDrive's app compared to the old on the iPad?

I have an iPhone, with the new version it sometimes takes so long to do something I begin to think my phone's frozen or about to crash. When your screen is that small with that few of words, a quick page change is necessary. Nor am I able to swipe my finger to turn a page anymore, I have to tap in a very specific location to get the page to change.

Thanks for the review!]]>