Google Play Books has a little known feature that allows users to upload their own PDF and EPUB books from their PC or Android device to their Play account. This makes Play Books a fairly good little e-reader app, because you can load in your own books you downloaded from the internet or eTextbooks. Today, Google has announced that they have increased the file upload limits to 100 MB.
When it comes to PDF files, they are often large in size. This is due to lots of images and documents that can range between 500 and 100 pages. When we have reviewed various tablets over the years, we tend to always throw large files with a complex layout. We can really get a sense on how an e-reader or tablet can perform when we do things like this, such as the Kindle Paperwhite actually crashing when you load these in.
Google Play Books first launched an app to basically just sell users eBooks that Google had scanned themselves or resell from the publishers. It has matured into one of the premier reading apps with the ability to load in your own content. One of the most notable things people do is load in their digital textbooks from school or Role-Playing books or just books they pirated from the internet. Instead of relying on the thousands of indie apps out there like Moon+ or Aldiko, Google is seeking to be the definitive goto reader.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.