eBookRenta

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Navigating through the app is a bit awkward/tedious, and downloading books to your bookshelf seems more complicated than needs to be. I’ve figured it out for the most part, but it’s definitely not smooth. Hell, I still can’t figure out how to exit out of reading a manga, I have to close the app completely to get back to my main screen. Can I make it work? Yep. Is it a pain? Also yep.

NOTE: This is a review purely based on what the app provides and not on Renta! as a service. I think their website is much better and as a publisher they have great releases. I only use this app to have the manga available offline. It’s tedious to get your purchased manga onto the app since you have to log in to the Renta website in a browser on your device and go to your books and select ‘download’ from there, which will open the app and download what you’ve selected. The real tedium comes in because of the fact that Renta does releases by the chapter. This means you have to go back and forth between your browser and the app and individually download each chapter to the app. Each download also auto opens when it’s downloaded which isn’t bad when your downloading one thing but is annoying when you’re just trying to load up a bunch of purchases to the app. Since other reviews were confused, to close out of a manga and go back to the bookshelf, you have to tap the middle of the screen and some options will appear at the bottom of the screen. You have to be careful not to tap too close to the edges of the screen or you’ll just turn the page.

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The user interface is horrible. It is not user friendly at all and is practically useless. The app is meant to be something convenient, used instead of the website itself. This app is worse than something I would turn in for my computer science classes. The service of Renta itself is great but this app is not. First, you have to go to the website itself to download each title one by one - defeating the purpose of this app all together. Having to go back and forth between the browser and the app is extremely inconvenient as well. Second, you cannot view the titles you own from the app unless you download them from the website. Third, once you get to the end of a title there is nothing significant indicating that such as showing an end page, returning you to the home page, or exiting the reader. Fourth, you can’t even purchase a title within the app. If this were to be an app of any true worth it should function like the website. You should be able to sign into your account, see which titles you own, easily download them from the app to read without internet, purchase new titles, etc. This app truly feels and functions like a class project. I’m very dissatisfied and disappointed.

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I would not mind purchasing tickets off of this app, however the app itself is difficult to use. You can’t rent things off of it, and it has a limited time of usage. I would like to re-read chapters or a whole series but it can be costly. It is still a bit unorganized, since you have to go to browser and then go back to app to read a book. It also does not have a direct link to open browser from the app, and to look it up on your browser you never know which website to trust.

I haven’t had any problems with the app. Just go to your bookshelf on Renta’s website in a web browser and download directly from there to the app (make sure it’s installed on your device first). My ipad mini is perfect for reading the manga I’ve purchased this way. :D