MapleRead SE 17+

Minor issues

I would love to give this app a 4.75. It is the BEST alternative to my previous favourite app for reading ebooks, Marvin.

The syncing feature of this app is what requires fixing. Here is an example of where the syncing fails. [As described in the very informative help pages on the website, the same book (i.e. a book with the same ID) must appear on every device for the syncing to work.]

I have a book that syncs very well when the following procedure is followed: (1) Click the sync icon on my iPad; (2) Open the same book on my iPhone and click the sync icon. Perfect. The syncing works as it should.

Go back to the iPad. Read say twenty more pages. Leave the app on the iPad or simply close the book. Go to the iPhone. Click on the sync icon. NOTHING happens. Why?

From what I have worked out, if the sync icon is not clicked when leaving the book on one device, the other device does NOT sync.

I would like the developers to ensure that when the app is closed or a switch is made to another app on a device, the sync icon does its job AUTOMATICALLY. Otherwise, the syncing becomes useless if the user forgets to play tag with the sync icon.

Marvin had this non-user intervention sync working perfectly. I would strongly recommend this application to users and I hope that the syncing feature is fixed soon.

The technical support is also excellent. Quick and detailed replies via email are extremely useful when the user needs help.

Good app, but with a few improvements would be perfect

With KyBook 3 seemingly on the outs, I’ve moved to MapleRead. It’s a good app even it lacks some of the functionality present in KyBook and Marvin.

Top of the list is that it’s not configured for an iPhone 11 Max as it doesn’t use the full screen. You also can’t sort your books manually. It would also be nice if the app indicated which books you’d finished reading. The metadata is good, but it would be great if it could collect that information from the web. Also, I’d love it if the metadata included a word count.

Overall, though, it’s a good product with plenty of potential.

Developer Response ,

(1) The app was actually designed to use the "safe area" of the full screen of every iOS device as recommended by Apple. We just chose to draw the screen area outside of the safe area always as black so as to make it look uniform for all reading views, especially the Classic Book view. With v3.3, there is now an option to override this black background outside the "safe area". (2) Custom Order sorting for user-defined book sets has been available since v1.6.1 released more than 3 years ago. (See What's New.) (3) Sorting by Reading Progress can tell you which books you have finished, or almost finished reading, by showing you how many percents you have finished reading.

Amazing, but…

I’ve had this app for about a week now, I love how customisable the UI is and all the organisation/sorting options for my ebooks. The bookshelf layout is a nice touch of skeuomorphism I’ve really missed. The only thing I find myself having an issue with (after moving away from stock iBooks) is that when using the page flip animation, the back of the page remains white. This isn’t really a problem on light mode (but it would be nice if it would match the image applied), but when reading at night I find myself going back to iBooks since I like to read in dark mode and the stark white on the page flip is too bright for me. But that’s literally the only problem I’ve had so far so I’ve rated 5 stars and will continue using and supporting this amazing app :) unfortunately not for night time reading though.