(Unofficial) Yet another Windows Store app for J-Novel Club
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Hey there!!
I just finished submitting my J-Novel Club reader app to the Windows Store, yay! I started working on it almost half a year ago and it would've been published much sooner if not for some issues I've had. Still, better late then never.
Just a few months ago, we didn't have any J-NC apps for Windows Store and now we have two to pick from. How awesome is that?
Windows 10 Mobile might be officially dead, but since I'm still using it, I decided to finish the app anyway. The reader can be found on this Store page, along with a few screenshots and a list of features. The app should work on all W10 devices except for Xbox One.
Here is a quick summary of the most important features:
- Browse Events - You can read the latest announcements and news posted by the staff directly from the app;
- Upcoming/Recent Releases - You can browse upcoming and recent releases directly from the app;
- Light Novels Catalog - The most important part of the app: You can access the full catalog of translated Light Novels;
- Premium Member Access - Premium parts are highlighted in yellow. When you're logged in as a Premium Member, you should be able to read them. [Not tested yet, since I haven't gotten the subscription yet];
- Basic Reader Customization - Personalize the font family; font size and the color scheme;
- Experimental Text-To-Speech Support - Read chapters aloud using the default system voice;
As I mentioned above, the app still needs some work. Especially the TTS feature and the Premium Members content. I'm also not sure how to go about requesting the LNs' data. Right now it's loading everything at once, so it can currently take up to 5 seconds to load all novels.
I've also been thinking about adding an option to download chapters for offline reading, but in the end I didn't do that because I wasn't sure if that is such a good idea.
If you have any questions, suggestions or any other sort of feedback, let me know in this thread or by using the in-app Feedback System.
Thank you for reading the post. I hope you'll enjoy the app. Have a great day!
Cheers!
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@reyth Works great on the PC. Will be using it, thank you :thumbsup:
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@Hakomari that's great :D Enjoy!
Again, let me know if you have any suggestions or questions.
Cheers!
Edit: Are the subscriber-only parts working correctly for you?
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@reyth said in (Unofficial) Yet another Windows Store app for J-Novel Club:
Hey there!!
- Experimental Text-To-Speech Support - Read chapters aloud using the default system voice
Nice. I'd love this on Android too (there's workarounds by using the "shake to start text to speech" functionality with the site in browser view). =]
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Yeah they worked fine for me. I can check again tomorrow.
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@reyth since my laptop screen can turn 360º and became since sort of a tablet, this app works me very good. Recently j-novel club page doesn't work very well in my laptop when is in tablet mode, especially when the tablet is vertical (not all words can be seen). So this app fix that problem for me.
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@eduardo-straub I see :D Glad to hear that!
If you have any questions or suggestions just let me know :D
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@terrence good idea with the workaround. You might want to try contact the JNC team and see if they can implement it at some point.
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I used the app on PC last night. Only disappointment was my Windows PC has awful default voices (I'm actually using the most robotic sounding female voice because it's the clearest).
It'd be nice if when you go back after going into a chapter it saved your previous spot on the chapter list (as it is now, you have to click Chapters, then scroll down the list, then click again). Again, very small issue, the app is very usable for me. =]
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@terrence Glad you're enjoying the app :D Unfortunately, I can't do much about the voices, as it's not directly releated to the app itself :D I could add support for some TTS service that processes the text over the web and sends the audio back to the app, but that would be an overkill. Not to mention, it'd only work with decent internet connections and would quickly drain mobile transfer.
I see what you mean with the chapters. I got used to it after testing the app for so long and in the end forgot to change it. I'll fix it in the next update :D
Cheers!
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@reyth
Well I have 2 suggestions. The first one is that in novel updates, by clicking the chapter it should direct you to the chapter to read it. And the second should be able to pass to next or the previous chapter, when reading a chapter.
