Aldiko has released a free tablet-friendly version of its eBook reader for Android. The developers actually first released a tablet-optimized version of Aldiko in December, but at the time the only way to get the version optimized for Android 3.0 and up was to pay $2.99 for the premium version of the app.
Now the free app features many of the same improvements. There’s a new dual-pane home screen that shows the Aldiko menu on the left and a bookshelf on the right when you’re using the app on a tablet in landscape mode.
You can also see dual-panel views when viewing the books in your library or browsing for books from online book stores.
When you’re reading an eBook you can also tap the screen to bring up the new Honeycomb/Ice Cream Sandwich optimized menu. And if you shrink the fonts low enough, Aldiko will automatically switch from a one-panel text view to a two-pane window.
I took Aldiko 2.1 for a spin on an HP TouchPad and a NOOK Tablet. Both are running Android 4.0, but I found that while the new user interface shows up on the TouchPad, the NOOK Tablet still shows the older UI. So it looks like you need a screen resolution higher than 1024 x 600 pixels in order to use the new tablet user interface.
Other improvements in the latest version of Aldiko include:
- The ability to open and import books directly from a web browser, email attachment or other third party apps
- Opening PDF file attachments from Gmail on tablets running Android 3.0 or later
- Higher quality book covers
- Performance enhancements
- Support for more languages
- OPDS callback features
Aldiko 2.1 is available as a free download from the Google Play Store.
Thanks for this. I installed the latest on the Kindle Fire, which is also 1024×600 and if you press Menu/Settings/Text you can choose to scale down the font size and at some point, it goes into dual-panel view. In fact, if you scale it lower (pressing the ‘-‘ choice), you get a 3-panel view! But it’s not particularly readable at that size. :-)
– Andrys
A Kindle World