Tablet companies often prematurely deprecate and abandon software updates for their tablets making it impossible to use a newer browser despite the hardware remaining viable. Companies often put up roadblocks to developing any new applications compatible with the older browsers and hardware despite it not being that difficult. Instead of purchasing new expensive hardware and creating additional e-waste I've written an ebook reader that can work on older devices. Parsing and reading epub files does not require the latest processor, the highest pixel count screens or other expensive hardware and accessories.
Often contemporary web sites and web apps simply refuse to render on older browsers, presenting the user with a blank page and no indication of a problem. This application began when I attempted to use an ebook reader web app on an older iPad and the site will not render despite the hardware being more than sufficient to handle this simple task. Users only option is to use outdated apps that have been abandoned or older versions of current applications that will never be updated, maintained or made compatible with anything but the newest, and most expensive, devices.
Current web development often concentrates on only the latest, greatest, newest thing and sacrifices compatibility. This has the effect of continually encouraging users to purchase new devices simply to do the same thing their old device was perfectly capable of doing. Speifically this application aims to bring a fresh contemporary interface and capabilities to slightly older hardware.
Lit Reader is designed for use on broswers as old as Safari 12 (2018), Firefox 62 (2018) and Chrome 69 (2018). This is currently a work in progress and has not yet been tested extensively.
Lit Reader uses React 19 with polyfills for compatibility. It can parse epub formats.