At Mantano, we definitely prefer deep blue skies and shining sun. But when it comes to securing our beloved readings and sharing our annotations with friends, clouds are welcome!
In a previous blog post, I announced with a fair amount of optimism that Mantano 1.6.0 would provide access to advanced “cloud” services such as online backup of the user’s library, data synchronization between the user’s devices as well as sharing of books and annotations between users. The 1.6.0 release was full of improvements, but it did not include them. In fact, shortly after having designed the initial cloud service, we decided to go further, see bigger and build a really more ambitious project than initially expected. We obviously needed more time to do it.
Today, I can reliably announce that the Mantano Cloud platform and the corresponding 2.0 release of Mantano Reader are close to go into private beta.
Let’s see what will be inside…
Hi,
I’m selecting my standard ebook reader and Mantano seems to be the best up to now. Before committing myself I need to understand if it is possible to share the notes I take on one device to the other (I have a 3 of them now; a 10″ TAB, a 7″ TAB and a cell Phone). Moreover: what happens if I reinstall a device (factory reset) or if I change it to a new one ? Is there a way to backup and restore my personal settings, my notes and customization for all the books I’m reading ?
Thanks, E.
Not surprisingly, we receive a lot of inquiries like this one, each day. Since day 1, Mantano Reader was designed to be a link in a complete chain of tools for reading and knowledge sharing. Being able to answer such requests required a lot of preliminary work, and we are almost there. Only six months after the first download of Mantano reader on the Android Market by “Smolch” (which has then become a great promoter for our app, by starting what became a looooong thread on MobileRead), we are putting the finishing touch of what will be a cornerstone in this product line.
The Mantano Cloud services are exactly covering the aforementioned requests:
- Data backup in the cloud – Never lose a book, a note, an annotation. Never. Easily manage the contents on your device for offline reading. Easily organize your whole library from the Mantano reader application, or through the brand-new online web interface which offers the same library management functions.
- Data synchronization between your devices – Read and annotate on your smartphone during your daily commuting, switch to your tablet in your sofa, and work with your annotations on your desktop. No matter the tool, your readings are available.
- User-to-user annotation sharing - You’ve found a great quote? Highlight and share it with your friends. You’ve highlighted a third of a tedious math book ? Be nice and share it with your mates ! You’ve reviewed a contract ? Share your comments with your colleagues and get their feedback.
- Browser-based access – Organize your books, notes and annotations through your web browser, using the same functions as in Mantano Reader.
This is the beginning of a whole new story for Mantano Reader, which embraces now his primary vocation: becoming a reference tool for the many reading use-cases such as social reading, study reading and professional reading.
While writing this post I see the team investigating the most intricate use-cases and doing some hardcore testing on Mantano reader 2.0 and the Mantano Cloud platform. But such a platform also requires pretty much real-life testing. This is why we will first open the service to a small circle of beta-testers. We already relied on a small group of beta-testers for earlier releases of Mantano Reader (1.2.0 if I remember well), and it was an amazing experience: we’ve got so much feedback and requests that we’ll never have time to handle them all! A lot of our users are looking for a real “tool”. For their daily work. Spending a few hours helping the development team is a good opportunity for them to try and get the best-in-class tool.
If you purchased the app and would really like to join the beta-testing program, simply apply by filling this form. You will shortly get an email notification as soon as your application is reviewed. Please understand that we cannot accept a lot of beta-testers since we want to be available for them.
