book Archives - Joe Tech

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There’s more to the Star Wars story than you’ve been told in the movies. I always thought so, too, but apparently there’s a LOT more. I didn’t know just how interesting it was behind the scenes making these movies come to life until I recently began reading The Secret History of Star Wars : The Art of Storytelling and the Making of a Modern Epic, a book by Michael Kaminski, a cameraman in the film and television industry and Star Wars fan.

The Book And Its Secrets

Years ago, Michael Kaminski didn’t set out to write a book. Instead, he wanted to show his appreciation for the Star Wars Saga by writing a lengthy essay about its history to publish online. This essay evolved into a 600 page detailed account of everything Star Wars became from its inception through to current day. Spending a ton of time and reaching out to hundreds of sources for his research, Kaminski not only pieced together an incredible story of the birth and evolution of the single most successful series of films in movie history, but he did it in a way that makes it compelling to read. Instead of just throwing some facts on paper and organizing them, this author displayed some great writing and got me hooked from the first page. The book’s introduction paints a vivid picture of a twenty-eight year old George Lucas sitting at his desk just barely beginning with a title on a rainy Tuesday night.

Kaminski keeps the reader involved as you’re watching it play out in front of you, dropping hints and shocking nuggets about the evolution of Star Wars along the way. Although I’m nowhere near the end of this book, I’ve found myself stopping to tell my wife interesting bits I’ve read. One great example is that, according to The Secret History of Star Wars, Darth Vader originally wasn’t Luke’s father. Vader and Luke’s father actually had scenes together in early drafts and it was only through time and by necessity of the rest of the tale that Darth Vader wound up as Luke’s father.

If I tell you more about what I’ve read, it will not be much of a secret, but I will say that this book intrigued me by title alone and drew me in from the beginning. It’s $39.95 price at Barnes & Noble is beaten by a price of about $27 at Amazon and would make a pretty good gift for any Star Wars fan. I’m not the biggest Star Wars fan, and I’ve been having a hard time putting the book down.

Win This Book

The book doesn’t cost much to buy, but free is even better! For the next 7 days, you can enter to win one of two copies of The Secret History of Star Wars. Just follow the entry instructions below and come back here next week to see if you’ve won a copy. Entering is as simple as clicking the â€œDo itâ€ link, following any instructions, and then clicking the â€œI did thisâ€ button. If youâ€™re already subscribed to JoeTech.com via email or you already follow me on Twitter, you can skip right to the â€œI did thisâ€ button for those entries. Good luck!

Although the following is a sponsored review, as always I strive to provide an honest opinion of the product reviewed.

One of the advantages of having an iPhone or iPad is the ability to enjoy all forms of media in one device. From videos to photos to ebooks, every base is covered. Apple’s iBooks software did a great job of bringing ebooks to the iPhone and iPad, but apparently, something was missing because FutureMedia Studio built and released an app that they’ve boldly named Perfect Reader. With a name like that, I was anxious to dive in and see just how close to perfect they got.

A PDF Reader App That Works

Before any app can be called a Perfect Reader it should at least provide all the basics I’ve come to expect in any app designed as a book reader. At the very least, I need to be able to load and delete my own files. Done. What about the navigation? Can I thumb through pages or do I need to navigate with interface buttons? Perfect Reader actually has several ways to navigate.

Not only could I thumb through pages, but there were left and right buttons and a slider for faster navigation through long documents. Orientation locking is a must and was included in this app. There’s nothing worse than lying in bed on your side, trying to read and fighting to keep your iPhone from changing the orientation. My last basic requirement is the ability to zoom in and out. This is not as important on an iPad, but it’s necessary when trying to read a book on an iPhone, as is full screen support, which Perfect Reader also delivers. So far, this app has all the basics taken care of, but what about all the bells and whistles?

A Reader With A Lot Of Features

With “Perfect” in your name, you have a lot to live up to. Although I am hesitant to call this reader perfect, it gets pretty close. The vast array of additional features is proof enough that FutureMedia Studio really is trying to deliver the perfect PDF reader for your iDevices.

Among the features I found in this app are:

Folders – Create and manage folders and move your PDFs among them
Easy Importing – Transfer your PDFs into PerfectReader in three ways: Using iTunes, Wifi Transferring and using Open In feature – Open PDFs from other applications such as Safari, DropBox, MobileMe, Box.Net, GoodReader, ReaddleDocs, etc..
Renaming – Rename your documents from within the app
Text-To-Speech – The included Text re-flow engine reads your PDF to you
Search – Search all documents or from within the one you’re reading, including highlighting
Dictionary/Wikipedia – Look up any text without leaving the reader
Encrypted PDF support – I haven’t tried this
PDF Outlines and Hyperlinks – Support for Adobe’s outlines and hyperlinks is built in, which is nice for those huge technical manuals
Bookmarks – Bookmark any page for reading later
Printing – Print to a printer on your network

A full set of screenshots showing many of the features can be found here.

With all these features, Perfect Reader is already worth the purchase price, but it could use just a bit more.

Not Quite Perfect

Loaded with features already, this reader really is perfect… almost. FutureMedia Studio didn’t really leave me a lot of room for complaints. In fact, there was only one existing feature that fell short for me and that’s the text re-flow. It did a decent job of reading the words correctly, but I doubt I could listen to more than a page of it. It’s not ready to replace actual reading for me. The good news is that FutureMedia is promising new text re-flow engine, so we’ll have to wait and see. The navigation was another space I saw room to improve, but only just slightly. The existing navigation is great, but it needs the ability to jump to a specific page number. That feature is invaluable in Adobe’s desktop reader and would be a big bonus here as well.

The last thing on my Perfect Reader wish list (and this is kind of a biggie) is epub support. I’m aware that Perfect Reader is designed as a PDF reader, but if I could have this thing read epub ebooks, too, it would eliminate my ebooks reader. For now, I can always just use ConvertFiles.com to convert my documents to PDF, though.

Conclusions

Perfect? Really, incredibly close. In the world of iPhone apps, the real question is “Is it worth the cost of the app?” If you have a lot of PDFs to read, there’s no doubt about the value of this app. At $3.99, it’s worth every penny. It’s only a couple tweaks away from perfect, as far as I’m concerned. If you’re curious, but not ready to spend a couple bucks, try out the Perfect Reader Mini first, but either way, your iPhone or iPad is incomplete without Perfect Reader.

Tag: book

The Secret History Of Star Wars