Jolicloud was originally conceived as a web-based “operating system.” The web version of it showed the same home screen, with all the same web apps, that a user might have configured on the Ubuntu-based JoliOS operating system for computers or tablets.
The problem was that apparently the JoliOS Linux operating system never really became popular enough to support, and Joli discontinued it. Since then, it seems to have been casting about for something to keep it from being just another collection of bookmarks to web apps. It has renamed itself “Drive,” and now bills itself as a way to consolidate and manage the storage space you might have from various cloud storage services including Dropbox, Google Drive, OneDrive, and so on, for use with devices such as Chromebooks (via a plugin for the Chrome web browser) that don’t have much internal storage of their own. It has a free option that lets you use one account from each storage service, and a 5-Euro-per-month “premium” service that lets you use multiple accounts from each service.
Today I got an email from Jolicloud proudly announcing that it has incorporated an EPUB reader into its cloud navigation services. I went and checked it out, and lo and behold, it works great on DRM-free EPUBs.It offers three fonts (two serif and one sans) and four font sizes, and access to the table of contents.
I do have some minor nitpicks—the biggest font size it offers, 20px, is a bit too small for comfortable reading on my screen (though changing the browser font size with ctrl-+ or ctrl-scroll wheel works), and you have to click a link at the top of the page to turn the page, rather than being able to navigate with scroll wheel or keyboard. Those aside, it seems like a decent cloud reading solution for folks who miss Ibis Reader but don’t want to use Google Play Books, especially for folks like me who keep their Calibre libraries in Dropbox already.
