How To Read O’Reilly eBooks on Your Android Device
Download Your EPUB Directly from oreilly.com
This section describes how to download EPUB files from your oreilly.com account directly to your device and import them into the Aldiko reader. The instructions assume you already own the EPUB that you'd like you read on your Android device. If you prefer an Android ereader other than Aldiko, refer to that app's documentation for EPUB loading instructions.
At the time of this writing, the method described below works only on devices running Android 2.2. If you attempt to follow these instructions on a device running an older version of Android, the download will fail. We expect this problem to be fixed in the next release of Aldiko. We apologize for the inconvenience. In the meantime, you can always import your EPUB to Aldiko via the SD card, regardless of which version of Android you are running.
- If the Aldiko ereader application is not already installed on your device, search the Android Marketplace and install it. If it is already installed, check to make sure you are using the most recent version.
- Using the browser on your device, log into your account at http://oreilly.com.
- Once you are logged in, navigate to the Electronic Media tab.
- The Electronic Media tab allows you to access ebook files for ebook bundles you have already purchased. Click on the "Download ePub" link of the book that you want to load.
Do not attempt to download and install the Android APK file directly through your mobile device. The APK files included in some ebook bundles are compatible with all versions of Android, but the method of installation may vary across devices. To learn how to install the APK file to your device, please consult your manufacturer's instructions, or try searching the Internet.
- The EPUB file will begin to download.
- Once the download is finished, click the download tab, and the EPUB file will import to your library.
- Once the import is complete, click on the tab to read your EPUB in the Aldiko reader.
- Your EPUB will open, and the file will be added to your Aldiko library.
Purchase eBooks Apps Through the Android Market
Many of our ebooks are available as apps for purchase directly through the Android Market. Each app contains the same EPUB that we sell in our ebook bundles and is powered by the Aldiko ereader. Our Android apps include the option to export the EPUB to your device's SD card, and because the EPUB includes no DRM, you can load it to the EPUB reader of your choice. The newest releases of our apps also take advantage of Android 2.2 (froyo) to give the user the option of installing directly to an SD card.
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Connecting to my O'Reilly account from Aldiko also fails on Android 2.3.4; used to work for me when on Android 2.2.
Also, the information linked about importing via SD card is outdated at least as of Aldiko 2.0.2. There is no "import" button on the home screen of Aldiko. Instead, select "SD card" and navigate to wherever you downloaded the .epub package. Tap each book and select Import. (If your fingers are feeling precise, you can tap just the checkbox to multi-select and then import a bunch in the same folder at once.) There is no *need* to move the file to the eBooks or eBooks/import folder, but it would certainly make sense to do so if you have a file manager app installed.
So, there's no need to use USB; you can go to members.oreilly.com in your favorite browser, log in and download your books, then find and import
Google Play Books
On Android phones and tablets (such as the Nexus 7), there is an application available called Google Play Books. This application functions as an ebook reader for books purchased on the Google Play Store (successor to the Android Market). The books are stored in the cloud and may be synced for offline reading to my phone and tablet. The application is also available for iPhone, iPad and iPod Touch. They are also working to support multiple eReader devices.
I would like to access my previously purchased OReilly ebooks stored in the cloud through this reader application. A perusal of the help files for the application does not seem to suggest any way to accomplish my objective of uploading my OReilly ePub files, instead focussing on how to move books purchased through the Play Store to various devices. If I cannot upload to my book storage area associated with my Google Play Books purchases, a next best choice would be to store the ePubs on my Google Drive account storage area. This would seem to require additional coding by Google, as would accessing files stored on DropBox.
OReilly already offers their ebooks for sale on the Google Play store just like any other publisher who sells there. This is the newer approach, supplanting the older approach of selling many "applications", each of which is a book bundled with the Aldiko reader application.
So I am almost there. If i go and re-purchase each ebook I already own, I can accomplish what I want to do. Preferable would be a method to set the price to zero for OReilly customers who were "buying" ebooks they had already purchased on OReilly's site. Hopefully, Google would be amenable to solving this without any transaction cost to OReilly.
If OReilly could find a solution to this, I would be grateful.
Any other suggestions of how to solve this would be appreciated.
The problem is actually what reading apps support EPUB and can be installed on android devices.
There are many free apps available such as Aldiko, Mantano and so forth.
This is a list of best android reading apps. Just download the APK file from the browser and have a try.
If you install Mantano, you can even listen to the O'Reilly EPUB books. how to
lsharpe: I looked in to this recently, and it seems that Google is pretty adamant that the Google Play book reader will only ever be for reading books bought through the Google Play bookstore. (The books that O'Reilly sells through Google Play are technically apps, not books.)
So you basically have a choice: go for the lock-in with Google and never buy from anybody else, as well as reading only on devices to which Google chooses to give you a reader app, or use another application on Android to read a more open format, such as EPUB. Personally, I'd recommend the latter: in the past four or five years I've already been through at least three different portable reader platforms, only one of which was supported by Google. (In fact, though main main reading platform these days is a Nexus 7, I still keep my Sony Reader for situations where I may need to go many hours or even days without charging a device. Both have a full copy of the same library of EPUB files.)
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