I carved out a little time this afternoon to explore the several posts I'd bookmarked about the new Bluefire ebook reader, which is notable for being able to support ebooks containing Adobe DRM. Here are the links to follow:
- How To Get Library Ebooks on the iPad/iPhone, No Sync Required – Josh Hadro, LJ Insider
- Reading Library Ebooks on iPad with Bluefire, the Easy Way – Liz Castro – this one includes a bookmarklet that may prove very useful to you
- Two quick ways to read library e-books on your iPhone or iPad with Bluefire – Jay Hathaway, Download Squad
I got it all to work with Calgary Public Library's Overdrive subscription, though not quite as seamlessly as I'd hoped. Looking at a couple of the screen shots in the posts above leads me to believe CPL's instance of Overdrive isn't showing me the full meal deal; I can browse the mp3 audiobooks, but can't view the eBooks from Safari on my iPhone. So I ended up finding a book on my laptop, saving the file do DropBox, and then picking it up with Bluefire from DropBox on my iPhone. Not onerous at all, but I'd prefer to be able to do the whole operation from my phone. I'll contact CPL to see if there are any tweaks they can make to allow me (us) to do this.
Would love to hear if you have the same success, and if your library's mobile interface for Overdrive lets you browse the ebook collection.
Comments
6 Responses to “Using Bluefire Reader to read Overdrive ebooks on your iOS device”
Paul –
There’s a way to tweak the URL so that it forces Overdrive to show you the non-mobile version of their site on your iOS device. It took me a few tries to figure it out, but I finally got it to work and download an eBook directly to my iPod.
What you need to do:
1. Visit the regular version of your Overdrive implementation. For Calgary, you’ll see this URL:
http://calgary.lib.overdrive.com/4D19EDEE-0C32-4772-93AC-2F02789DD5FD/10/377/en/Default.htm
2. Note the numbers preceding “en/Default.htm” on the address. This identifier seems to be different for each library. As you can see above, Calgary’s is 10/377.
3. When Overdrive forces you over to the mobile site, pull up the URL and replace whatever numbers they show with that 10/377.
4. When I entered the URL, it took me to a “Page Not Foud” page, albeit one within the regular site template. I could click on any of the links in the menu bar and it would stay within the full site.
5. Don’t forget to bookmark the new URL, so you don’t have to repeat this process in the future.
I hope this helps. Let me know if it works for you.
Toby Greenwalt
Skokie Public Library
That worked perfectly, thanks Toby!
FYI, I’ve written a newer version of my bookmarklet script Liz featured on her site. http://bit.ly/9XYWL6
There’s an Overdrive iPad app now, so you don’t have to use this workaround. Get it at http://calgary.lib.overdrive.com at the bottom left. Free app and free e-books with your Calgary Public Library card.
Thanks Kari, I have indeed been using it 🙂
This helps a lot, thanks!!!
Karen Knox
Rochester Hills Public Library, MI