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GoodReader for iPad gets even better

Version 2.8 adds a wealth of PDF improvements, including side-by-side page viewing. It also supports VGA-out, a boon to business users.

Rick Broida Senior Editor
Rick Broida is the author of numerous books and thousands of reviews, features and blog posts. He writes CNET's popular Cheapskate blog and co-hosts Protocol 1: A Travelers Podcast (about the TV show Travelers). He lives in Michigan, where he previously owned two escape rooms (chronicled in the ebook "I Was a Middle-Aged Zombie").
Rick Broida
2 min read
If you prefer to view your PDFs more like book pages, GoodReader 2.8 has you covered. Rick Broida

GoodReader? They should call it GreatReader! OK, pardon the lame joke, but what is arguably the best document viewer currently available for the iPad just got better.

The app already excels at bringing all kinds of files to your iPad: Office and iWork documents, PDFs, text files, HTML pages, photos, music, and videos.

It does this using any number of connectivity options. You can set up a temporary Wi-Fi connection to your PC, browse a Web site or specific URL, or pull files from just about any online source: mail and FTP servers, Box.net, Dropbox, Google Docs, iDisk, and so on.

Version 2.8 adds a handful of minor but very desirable improvements, starting with a double-page view option for PDFs. That, coupled with the new option of horizontal page-turning, makes PDF viewing much more book-like. GoodReader also lets you manually adjust PDF crop margins to help eliminate unnecessary white space.

And if you happen to end up with a PDF that's been scanned in wrong orientation, a new page-rotate option will let you view the document as it it's supposed to be viewed.

Finally, GoodReader now supports VGA-out, meaning all your documents can be viewed on a monitor or projector--a significant update for users interested in using their iPads in business environments.

What I find amazing is that GoodReader for iPad continues to sell for just 99 cents. This is an app that's worth at least a few bucks--and it's not often I say that.

Is there a document/file viewer you like even better than GoodReader? Talk it up in the comments!