Previously, I introduced you to the Calibre Ebook management software. I would like to give you a little bit more information on how you can use this software with your smartphones. As much as Rod and I agree on technology, this is one place where we differ. I love my Sony Reader and I have the 800+ books I am working on reading there, ready to go. It is always in my bag or by the side of my bed, ready for use. Nevertheless, I constantly find myself somewhere, with 10 minutes to burn and nothing constructive to do. This is when I pull out my Droid or my iPod Touch and open up whatever book I am working on and get some reading done. Now, mind you, I can’t do this for a very long time. My old tired eyes just won’t support it. But for a few minutes, it works just fine, especially since I can boost the text size, just like I do on the Sony Reader, or Rod does on the Kindle. Here are some instructions on how you can use the calibre software to sync the books you collect to your device.
How do I use calibre with my iPhone/Touch?
- First install the Stanza reader on your iPhone using iTunes.
- Set the Preferred Output Format in Calibre to EPUB (The output format can be set under Preferences->General)
- Convert the books you want to read on your iPhone to EPUB format by selecting them and clicking the Convert button.
- Turn on the Content Server in calibre’s preferences and leave calibre running.
Now you should be able to access your books on your iPhone by opening Stanza. Go to Get Books and then click the Shared tab. Under Shared you will see an entry Books in calibre. If you don’t, make sure your iPhone is connected using the WiFi network in your house, not 3G. If the calibre catalog is still not detected in Stanza, you can add it manually in Stanza. To do this, click the Shared tab, then click the Edit button and then click Add book source to add a new book source. In the Add Book Source screen enter whatever name you like and in the URL field, enter the following:
http://192.168.1.2:8080/
Replace 192.168.1.2 with the local IP address of the computer running calibre. If you have changed the port the calibre content server is running on, you will have to change 8080 as well to the new port. The local IP address is the IP address your computer is assigned on your home network. A quick Google search will tell you how to find out your local IP address. Now click Save and you are done.
How do I use calibre with my Android phone?
- First install the WordPlayer e-book reading app from the Android Marketplace onto your phone.
- Plug your phone into the computer with a USB cable. calibre should automatically detect the phone and then you can transfer books to it by clicking the Send to Device button.
- Calibre does not have support for every single Android device out there, so if you would like to have support for your device added, follow the instructions on the calibre website for getting your device supported in calibre.(Droid is supported!).
Although not directly supported in calibre yet, you might take a look at the Aldiko EBook Reader for Android. It is available in the Android Market. It supports the epub format and you can take just about any kind of non-DRM book and convert it to epub format using calibre, and then just transfer it to the appropriate folder on your SDCard.
Give it a try, if you haven’t yet. You can purchase books online, but there are literally tens of thousands of free books available from places like the Gutenberg Project, if you are only will to do just a little bit of work. Enjoy!
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