* Update: Zotero Reader Web allows you to read papers on your Android tablet via your Zotero library.
I recently bought an Android tablet, specifically the Samsung Galaxy tab 10.1 2. 350$ (Canadian) for the 16GB version. I figured I would evaluate it, try and use it for reading papers, and keep it if I was satisfied.
Now I’m no Apple fanboy so there’s no way I was going to buy an iPad instead, but for the sake of argument… The equivalent iPad, with similar specs (16GB, almost identical size) is 500$, so almost 50% more pricey. Furthermore, the iPad doesn’t come with an expansion slot for additional storage, while the Android tablet has a MicroSD slot. Android is more flexible and less annoying than iOS (it gives you access to a real filesystem, for instance).
So how is the tablet? It’s pretty swell! It’s bright enough that you can read in the sunshine. The Kindle app works like a charm; in fact I think I prefer the feeling on a tablet than on an actual Kindle because highlighting and flipping pages is faster and more natural.
You’ll want a PDF reader app that allows you to make annotations. My favorite thus far is the RepliGO reader. I’ve tried a bunch of different ones though:
Adobe Reader: Pretty decent choice. Annoyances: resets zoom when you change pages; only shows page previews when you push down on the scrollbar. Annotation interface is annoying; you need three clicks to highlight a passage.
Kindle: No annotations.
ezPDF: Rendering is way slower than all the other PDF readers, which makes navigation painful.
iAnnotate PDF: Promising as of version 1.1.3. Supports annotations, tabs, rendering is fast, etc. Still somewhat buggy though.
Mantano Reader: What a missed opportunity. Fast rendering and good note taking, but forces you to use its own shitty cloud mechanism to save annotations.
Documents to Go: Can’t try it out without paying 15$.
Polaris Office: No annotations
qPDF Notes: The highlighting annotation is stupid. It doesn’t actually highlight a chunk of text, just a square. That messes up any app that tries to read the annotations in your PDF and make plain text versions of it.
RepliGO reader: highly recommended. It used to be the case that it wouldn’t autosave the highlights so that if Android wanted to free up memory and auto-close the app you would lose your highlights, which was unbelievably annoying. That problem is solved as of version 4.1.1. It supports highlighting, bookmarks, etc. When you touch the tablet, a menu bar appears with a preview of other pages and all the annotation tools (see below). Annotations are compatible with Adobe Reader.
Given the size of the tablet, you can comfortably read half a page (divided horizontally) in horizontal mode or a full column in vertical mode. Changing pages to see different figures is painless since you see all the pages in thumbnail view. It’s not quite as natural as when printed on dead trees but I feel I definitely get a more tactile feeling than reading on a standard computer screen.
Getting PDFs on the tablet
Probably the easiest way of getting PDFs in and out of the tablet is Dropbox. Dropbox was preinstalled when I got the tablet. If you haven’t heard of Dropbox, it’s a cloud storage service that works across pretty much every platform known to man (Windows, Mac, Linux, iOS and Android); it syncs a folder across multiple computers by keeping a copy in the cloud (the internets, so to speak).
Then it’s just a matter of navigating to the correct folder through the Dropbox app (above).
Working with citation managers
As I’ve mentioned before, I’m a big fan of Zotero. Originally, I thought I would access my Zotero library directly on the tablet. There’s an app called Zandy that supposedly shows your Zotero library on your tablet. Don’t buy it, it’s awful. Almost completely broken and useless. I also tried remote desktop applications. That works, but it’s annoying; it feels like working with a shittier version of your home computer.
In the end, I adopted Zotfile. Zotfile is an extension for Firefox that adds a couple of options to Zotero. For every attachment in your library (say, a PDF), it adds menu elements, including one which states “send to tablet”. What that button does is send a copy of the PDF to a Dropbox-synced folder. It renames the files with meaningful names so they’re easy to browse.
After reading and exiting RepliGO, the saved file will be synced by Dropbox automatically. Then on your PC, you choose “get from tablet” and Zotfile will fetch the commented, highlighted PDF from Dropbox. It will even extract the comments and highlights from the PDF and include them as a separate comment (below).
It’s not as streamlined as I would like it to be — a real Zotero app for Android would be best. Nevertheless, it’s less trouble than printing on paper and rewriting your comments on the computer.
If you’re about working with other citation managers (Mendeley, CiteULike, EndNote, etc.) on Android, share your experiences in the comments.