From the mail I just received:

Dear iLiad user,

Herewith we would like to inform you that a new software release is available for download from the iRex Delivery Service (iDS).

What's new in this Software Release v2.7

This software release 2.7 is part of an ongoing process to extend the functionalities of the iLiad and to improve the overall performance to ensure an even better electronic reading experience for our customers. We recommend that all users upgrade to this latest version.

Power Management

* Improved Power Management: expected 10% additional battery life. Additional power management improvements are planned in upcoming software releases

User Interface

* Key Lock: Lock and unlock hardware keys using the toolbar
* Search File: Search for a file in a folder using part of a filename as a search criteria
* Rename File: Rename files and add a description to files using the toolbar
* New and improved keyboard with handwriting support
* Automated upgrade process: Future updates will be fully automated.

PDF Viewer

* Zoom function: Zoom support in PDF using the stylus to draw a zoom area. Zoom up to approximately 200% in A4 document.
* Pan function: Pan support in PDF using the stylus
* Landscape view: Rotate to landscape view in PDF.

Network Profiles

* Set Preferred Profile: Select any existing network profile as your preferred profile.

Also known issues:

The following issues are known to us and will be fixed in an one of the upcoming software releases:

* Page indicator of PDF viewer does not always display correct page number.
* Stylus does not turn on or off after removing or inserting it.
* If you open and close the keyboard it leaves a gray image in PDF

No stylus calibration? Ack!

* Automated upgrade process: Future updates will be fully automated.
I really hope they made this optional. I *hate* automated updates! :angry:

I really hope they made this optional. I *hate* automated updates! :angry:Wouldn't you still have to push the button? I mean, how would the iLiad know there was an update if you don't push the button? Pre-scheduled checks? Maybe it means you don't have to turn it on and off to get the update to run all the way through?

Some clarification would be nice, even if it is academic for me, personally. :smile:

cool, we got Handwriting recognition! (and it works.)

Looks like the new, improved keyboard is matchbox-keyboard.

http://projects.o-hand.com/matchbox
http://svn.o-hand.com/view/matchbox/trunk/matchbox-keyboard/

I really hope they made this optional. I *hate* automated updates! :angry:


I would say "automated" means, once you start updating, the iliad installs, restarts and loads further additions all by itself. No need to press the update button several times or manually reboot the iLiad.

Wiki updated (http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/ILiad_Firmware_Releases).

Let's keep using this thread for discussing the firmware upgrade.

I'm glad the PDF zooming and panning made it in time. I will have to grab this pretty soon.

Looks like the new, improved keyboard is matchbox-keyboard.

http://projects.o-hand.com/matchbox
http://svn.o-hand.com/view/matchbox/trunk/matchbox-keyboard/

I think this is new to Matchbox though... Vision Objects partnership finally pays off.

New keyboard attached, for those that prefer keys. :)

Nice screenshots, scotty.

According to the user guide, when you drag the stylus to choose the zoom area, there's supposed to be an indication of the selected area. I'm seeing nothing.

Has anyone else had success with this?

Note that the zoom does work pretty well. It's just a bit painful running blind.

It looks like a little tag ... a la the kind of thing they stick on corpses' toes in the morgue :) ... but I've not found anything in the documentation to say what it does.

I'll experiment for myself, but if anyone else works it out, please share.

I've gotten no onscreen feedback about the zoomer.

So far I'm not too impressed with their zoom support. You can zoom, you can rotate, but when you try to flip through the PDF whilst zoomed and rotated?

There's no overlap and part of the text is missing, at least I've never been able to get it to make a clean cut.

Yes it zooms, but I thought the point was to make documents useful? Not bits of pages. Anyone else figured this out?

Sorry. I just realised it's actually greyed out in the PDF viewer. It seems to be available in the directory listing and I'm guessing it's the new rename facility, although I haven't actually tried clicking it yet.

I've gotten no onscreen feedback about the zoomer.

So far I'm not too impressed with their zoom support. You can zoom, you can rotate, but when you try to flip through the PDF whilst zoomed and rotated?

There's no overlap and part of the text is missing, at least I've never been able to get it to make a clean cut.

Yes it zooms, but I thought the point was to make documents useful? Not bits of pages. Anyone else figured this out?

It's definitely not perfect. However, I found that if I zoom in and then use the pan facility, it's quite reasonable.

One thing that would be helpful would be if they had a small replica in the status area showing you what portion of the page you were viewing (a tiny facsimile of the page would be even nicer).

That would allow for more accurate panning. I find I'm always having to do a couple of pans each time I want to move around, because I'm running blind.

All in all, though, while it can use some work, it's much better than not having the zoom function :) !!

the zoom is handled quite confusingly atm. Read here to get some clarification, what makes it so weird:
http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=548&highlight=

And panning is quite easy. Click on a point of the page, and drag it to some other place. Thats where it will end up. Thats nice.

@scotty: read the suggestion on the iRex forum, there is a description of a "page width" mode.

As I expected, PDF zoom and pan is nearly useless. Unless the eBook just has big margins, you are panning all over to read the text. Selecting the zoom area is more than a bit "hit or miss", but with a little practice, I should be able to select the area I want. The same goes for panning - no visual cue as to how much you are moving, but with a little practice, I can overcome that.

However, there's no visual cue for how much of the real page you are seeing - something may be off the top/bottom of the zoomed page, but you would have no idea that it's there.

For reading eBooks zoom and pan is useless. There may be some eBooks where zoom and pan come in handy, but I haven't seen them. All of my "too big for the iLiad" eBooks are still unreadable only now because I have to pan to get the whole page, or not zoom as much and the text is too small to read.

The landscape mode is nice. My issues of Tux Magazine are more readable. So that's a plus.

I did notice that the pages are rendering faster. So that's nice.

I tried the rename feature and that worked OK. A bit cumbersome, but I wouldn't use it often, so I don't care about that.

But now my pen sometimes doesn't work. It looks like it might be an internal switch issue (the iLiad doesn't know that the pen is out). I rarely use the pen.

I haven't tried the locking feature yet (I really don't care, and with my pen being the way it is, I'm afraid to try it for fear of not being able to unlock it).

I also notice that I have 2 black lines that run down the sides of the screen that weren't there before the upgrade. The true page size maybe? If so, I can make my eBook margins a little larger. 8-)

I can't tell for sure, but it seems that my HTML/Picture books look better - more clear. These are just HTML pages with one big JPG on it.

Handwriting recognition works nicely (which says alot seeing how bad my handwriting is).

I didn't see any features that broke. The HTML documents that I have that display the time on the iLiad and do a slideshow still work fine. Battery life seems very good (I'll give it a good test tomorrow).

So 2.7 seems to be a definite improvement over 2.6.1.

So the toe tag is incorrectly named: rename file. You can read about it in 8.2.2.1 of the User Manual.

It's actually a manifest.xml editor that lets you edit two of the tags (I guess why it has the tag icon): Title and Description.

If a "file" doesn't have a manifest.xml? You can't edit it.

If you can't get the iLiad to convert it to have a manifest.xml, you can't edit it.

Need to rename a file on a MMC/CF/USB? You won't be using this feature.

Selecting the zoom area is more than a bit "hit or miss", but with a little practice, I should be able to select the area I want.

read this to understand:
http://forum.irexnet.com/viewtopic.php?t=548&highlight=

The same goes for panning - no visual cue as to how much you are moving, but with a little practice, I can overcome that.

click on a point of the page, drag it to the place you want it, and thats where it will end up. Just like putting your finger on a piece of paper und moving the paper with the finger.

However, there's no visual cue for how much of the real page you are seeing - something may be off the top/bottom of the zoomed page, but you would have no idea that it's there.

True.

For reading eBooks zoom and pan is useless.

Not for me. the zoom gets remembered, so i can use the zoom, to remove unwanted margins and then flip through the book.

For half page reading in landscape mode, there would have to be some special mode, so you can use the flipbar to move through the pages

I did notice that the pages are rendering faster. So that's nice.
Yap, the are quite a bit faster.

I also notice that I have 2 black lines that run down the sides of the screen that weren't there before the upgrade. The true page size maybe? If so, I can make my eBook margins a little larger. 8-)
They show the page border. It would be good if they would not show in full page mode.

read this to understand:

I did, but without a visual cue, it's still hit or miss.

click on a point of the page, drag it to the place you want it, and thats where it will end up. Just like putting your finger on a piece of paper und moving the paper with the finger.

Same thing, but less hit or miss since I have a much better cue as to what's going on.

Not for me. the zoom gets remembered, so i can use the zoom, to remove unwanted margins and then flip through the book.

Again, if the eBook is not formatted for the iLiad, zoom and pan do nothing useful. Only if the content was formatted for something close to the iLiad and they padded the margins to make the page 8.5x11" does zoom offer anything useful - which doesn't apply to any PDF that I currently own.

Faster PDF rendering (still slow on my Jack Rabbit test though), less ghosting...

They appear to have changed the default font face in Minimo into something I'm finding pretty hard to read. I need to mod my RFC tool already to make the RFC's read-able again.

I did, but without a visual cue, it's still hit or miss.

Well, at the moment, you are right, butt if they change the behavior of the zoom, to maximize the bounding box of the drawn shape to fill the screen in tha largest possible way, the you will not need a visual confirmation anymore.

[quoe]Same thing, but less hit or miss since I have a much better cue as to what's going on.[/quote]

OK, i found it quite intuitive.


Again, if the eBook is not formatted for the iLiad, zoom and pan do nothing useful. Only if the content was formatted for something close to the iLiad and they padded the margins to make the page 8.5x11" does zoom offer anything useful - which doesn't apply to any PDF that I currently own.

hmm, maybe my eyes are better, but i can read most A4 pages now, when i can crop them without the need to do it on my computer.

But to make it really useful, we need that page width mode.

@scotty: read the suggestion on the iRex forum, there is a description of a "page width" mode.
For those who are not frequent visitors at the iRex forum (like myself), here is tribble's answer:


Ok, for those of you, that are wondering, why their zooms seem so random, comes a little explanation on how the zoom mechanism works:

1. you darw some shape on the screen.
2. a bounding box is calculated.
3. the length diagonal of that bounding box is compared to the diagonal of the screen, and that ratio is used as zoom ratio. If your diagonal has a significantly different angle, than that of the zoom seems quite random.
4. the bounding box center is centered on the screen and zoomed to the calculated ratio.
5. screen refresh

Also the maximum zoom level is at about 140% at the moment in respect to the papersize of the document.
So you can zoom only to 140% from page fit with a 122x149mm document, but you can zoom into more detail, if the same information is on a 244x298mm document.

I hope, i lifeted your confusion.

If you want to try for yourself:
Just dra along any of the black line and you will end up with about the grey area as zoom window.
http://www.cogitatio.de/downloads/iliad-diagonal-bigger.pdf
here youll get to see the full grey area (file size 244x298)
http://www.cogitatio.de/downloads/iliad-diagonal.pdf
here you almost get to see the full grey area(122x149)

Now try in landscape mode Smile

@tribble: has iRex hired you? It seems as if you are doing their job now (considering that it's not them but you who usually answers to customer questions in the iRex forums). :D

Hehe, no, i wish. I think i would love to work with them. I always wanted to work with eink technology. Maybe i should apply for the embedded systems developer position. Havent done anything like it yet, but i am a quick study ;)

I just answer all the questions to the best of my knowledge, so that the iRex people can keep working on improving the device :D

Software 2.7 is out and I didn't recieve a notification email...what is the world coming to...^^

I just found out after I visited the Forum for my daily breakfast-reading that it's all abuzz with excitement about the new version...:-)

Guys, as I understand so far Irex developers got this far with the zooming facility. They have released it for 2.7, but in the future there will be improvements, new features, fine tuning relevant to zooming and then it will be really usable.
Now they only showed us that they are able to do it, so that we can start waiting for the next version.

Guys, as I understand so far Irex developers got this far with the zooming facility. They have released it for 2.7, but in the future there will be improvements, new features, fine tuning relevant to zooming and then it will be really usable.
Now they only showed us that they are able to do it, so that we can start waiting for the next version.

Hehe, patience was never one of my virtues.
But it seems, that there are many good things to come ahead.
Personally, i really like the zoom option like it is already, because i can "crop" my books on the device. And i can look at some details when reading papers.

Now, if only they can get reflow to work...^^

but seriously...this time iRex did a good job. The new features may still be a bit immature, but it's a large sep foward anyway. If they manage to make a large step like that for 2.8 as well, then we'll probably have a pretty useable device by christmas. I just hope the next big step will be power management...but I guess we'll know soon enough...

Yamp! iLiad has new functions.
Wow, imho 2.7 is a great step.
I read now a large sized newspaper [German DIE ZEIT] without any cropping or splitting of pages.
zooming -> adjust to vertical height of article.
panning -> jumping between columns [panning function is very intuitive for me]

A con [already mentioned]: iLiad shows pdf's bounding box as a black bar, this is annoying for me.

haven't tried this myself -> is wpa working for wlan?
should have been in this release, right?

haven't tried this myself -> is wpa working for wlan?
should have been in this release, right?

Nope! But it wasnt planned for this release either.
It has been said, that iRex is working on it, but i do not think, that this is a high priority issue there.

damn, i'm stuck with this &%$§?%$ cable then.
well, let's hope for a 2.8 implementation.

Guys, as I understand so far Irex developers got this far with the zooming facility. They have released it for 2.7, but in the future there will be improvements, new features, fine tuning relevant to zooming and then it will be really usable.

My point is that it will never be usable on an eInk device.

PDF is a page-layout format - not an eBook format. Zooming does not work like HTML where the text only gets larger. Zooming a PDF makes the whole page larger.

Now, if the PDF was formatted so that the actual content was in an area roughly the proportions of the iLiad screen, then zoom becomes useful: you zoom in until the text fills the screen - probably making it easy to read.

However, if the content is formatted to use the whole (larger than the iLiad screen) page, then zooming is sort of like reading a book through a microscope - you can only see part of the page and have to pan to see the rest.

(And I won't get into how using the pen reduces your battery life.)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather read a pBook than an eBook that I have to pan around to see all the content - making zoom and pan a useless feature right now.

Now, supposedly tagged PDFs will work as they should, but I haven't gotten around to trying them out yet. But I don't have high hopes.

To be usable or not, it is a question of interface. It could memorize a sequence of zooms/rotations. Ej for a two column text the zoom could process to "repaginate" the book so that each page is shown in four pages. As for panning, moving, etc, you can use the keys instead of the pen.

My point is that it will never be usable on an eInk device.

PDF is a page-layout format - not an eBook format. Zooming does not work like HTML where the text only gets larger. Zooming a PDF makes the whole page larger.

Now, if the PDF was formatted so that the actual content was in an area roughly the proportions of the iLiad screen, then zoom becomes useful: you zoom in until the text fills the screen - probably making it easy to read.

However, if the content is formatted to use the whole (larger than the iLiad screen) page, then zooming is sort of like reading a book through a microscope - you can only see part of the page and have to pan to see the rest.

(And I won't get into how using the pen reduces your battery life.)

I don't know about the rest of you, but I'd rather read a pBook than an eBook that I have to pan around to see all the content - making zoom and pan a useless feature right now.

Now, supposedly tagged PDFs will work as they should, but I haven't gotten around to trying them out yet. But I don't have high hopes.

Well, as they say, never say never. The preview announcement on Adobe Reader V 8.0 seems to say that it will be easier to use for e-book formats (and presumably other docs prepared the same way). And there has also been an announcement on an 'agreement' for an open book format that is supported by iRex, Mobipocket & a large number of publishers - see the link I posted in the news section. A lot cooking - I think there will be some pleasant Christmas surprises in store.

My point is that it will never be usable on an eInk device.

iRex could add two features that would make the iLiad much more useful for PDF reading:

1. Auto margin cropping.
2. Auto rotate and crop into two pages for letter/A4 documents.

Personally I'd see them as two options in the settings panel.

If both are selected: Auto crop margins and if still too big, rotate and crop into two pages.

Neat, simple, no messing around with the stylus, no re-flow, no tags. The point is to be able to read the document not to mess about.

iRex could add two features that would make the iLiad much more useful for PDF reading:

1. Auto margin cropping.
2. Auto rotate and crop into two pages for letter/A4 documents.

Personally I'd see them as two options in the settings panel.

If both are selected: Auto crop margins and if still too big, rotate and crop into two pages.

Neat, simple, no messing around with the stylus, no re-flow, no tags. The point is to be able to read the document not to mess about.

But after all that, it's not PDF and it violates the idea of PDF: to display a document the same on every device.

While PDF is the best format for the iLiad right now, that doesn't make it a good format for eBooks.

Personally, I don't see any value in trying to make PDF's square peg try to fit into eBook's round hole.

But after all that, it's not PDF and it violates the idea of PDF: to display a document the same on every device.Oh, I don't know about that. He's not suggesting changing the actual document, just having an auto zoom level that zooms to the edges of the text, and rotates 90°. I can do that in Acrobat Reader 7.0, it's not even difficult. :beam:

... a reason for fitting that square peg in a round hole, for the likes of me, is this ... I have about 150 PDF articles outstanding that I have to read, (and about 400 filed). It is a bit of a pain having to extract the text to RTF then reprint them back to PDF in a different size, but I'm lucky enough to have Acrobat Pro, so have been able to automate this task (which makes it worth doing).

I'm not violating any laws by doing this (no DRM on my files) and for me the Iliad is great for reading these PDF's ... also with the new zoom feature, at a pinch I can read articles I haven't had time to convert ...

It's not perfect ... but it is usable and displaying PDF's is so useful because of amount of them. Of course in an ideal world everything would automatically be converted to something like oebps ... and we'd have a decent reader ... but for where we are right now this device makes existing documents more useful ...

FYI. My battery test just finished.

Full battery before I left for work. Powered on at 7am. I had to power it off to go home at 4pm. Back on at 4:30pm and I finally got a low battery warning at 6:30pm.

So that's 11 hours of on time - going in and out of eBooks and many page turns (but not 11 hours straight of page turns).

That's up from 9.5 hours in 2.6.1.

One more thing...

I just synced my books (deleting old ones and putting new ones on) from the internal memory and the transfer seemed to go significantly faster than before.

Anyone else seen this?

... a reason for fitting that square peg in a round hole, for the likes of me, is this ... I have about 150 PDF articles outstanding that I have to read, (and about 400 filed). It is a bit of a pain having to extract the text to RTF then reprint them back to PDF in a different size, but I'm lucky enough to have Acrobat Pro, so have been able to automate this task (which makes it worth doing).

My point is that why are we trying to make PDF work instead of letting content makers know that PDF is not what we want?

But if the PDF can be made to work without getting fancy with it, then doesn't it meet the criteria of what we want (something cross-platform portable that works without a lot of finagling)?

But if the PDF can be made to work without getting fancy with it, then doesn't it meet the criteria of what we want (something cross-platform portable that works without a lot of finagling)?

But it can't be made to work 100% of the time without getting fancy with it.

Again, PDF is page layout format - not an eBook format. It was designed to make the document look the same no matter where it's displayed. The moment that you want to put the same PDF on many different-sized devices, you will have to do "something fancy" with it to get it to display nicely on all those devices.

A PDF formatted for an 8x11" page will not be readable on a current eInk device (unless they make the font size huge). To make it display nicely will require alot of finagling.

The only real way to correct the problem is to go back to the "source" used to create the PDF and make a PDF that will display nicely - until you get a different-sized device, in which case that PDF may not display correctly.

Again, PDF is page layout format - not an eBook format. It was designed to make the document look the same no matter where it's displayed.
Perhaps more correctly, PDF originated as a page layout format. As it has become more of a cross-platform standard, and reflow features have been added, it may evolve into something quite suitable for eBooks.

I personally think something like HTML is much better for supporting a wide variety of reading devices, though it too has its limitations. Something in XML would be ideal. But since we have so many documents already in PDF (I too have a stack of journal articles in PDF to read), we need to find good ways to support PDF, if only as legacy content.

A PDF formatted for an 8x11" page will not be readable on a current eInk device (unless they make the font size huge). To make it display nicely will require alot of finagling.

You can argue all you want about 100% and "display nicely".

I'll simply point out that Landscape with margin's removed, rotated, cropped into two pages per? Is a whole lot more readable than Portrait.

Under the theory of "Make the most of what you've got": I'll take it.

Perhaps more correctly, PDF originated as a page layout format. As it has become more of a cross-platform standard, and reflow features have been added, it may evolve into something quite suitable for eBooks.

I personally think something like HTML is much better for supporting a wide variety of reading devices, though it too has its limitations. Something in XML would be ideal. But since we have so many documents already in PDF (I too have a stack of journal articles in PDF to read), we need to find good ways to support PDF, if only as legacy content.
For portable reader devices page layout is a good thing. A simple low power device can easily navigate the document, unambiguously grab the page to display, easily raster it onto the display and get back to sleep.

Portable devices that support annotations can easily attach those annotations and can easily insert blank pages as needed.

Marked up documents (HTML/XML) are nothing but an un-ending series of compromises to be made. After all, if the markups were unambiguous it would be a page layout language. :) What does <strong> mean? How far up the x-box do you move for a super script? Uh, what exactly does page forward mean, how forward is a "page"?

The adjustable font issue of course is where PDF is struggling.

Gemstar understood this. Their pioneering eReader document format was a page layout, but contained two ebooks inside each document. One was laid out using a small font, and the other copy was laid out using a larger font. Both could be read with no compromises forced on either by the other.

It totally disagree and aggree with rlauzon.

He is sooo wrong about PDF not beeing what we want. I really want PDF to work nice and easy. I want to read A4 documents in landscape mode, where i just have to use the flipbar to go through the pages. I want to be able to zoom in on figures and pan around to see more detail.

On the other hand he is sooooo right, because PDF is not at all suited for an ebook format per se at the moment. An ebook format should reflow nicely and have a special pagination format, so that everyone who is reading, has the same sentence on the same page number. It should allow you to choose your font face and font size on the fly. It should allow for images to be embedded and give you a way to see them in detail. Thats all stuff that doesnt work really with Acrobat, but i think they are working on it.

So to sum it up. I want both.
And to say it with iRex' words: iRex Technologies brings you the best of both worlds.
Maybe not now, but hopefully soon. (especially since there is no really good ebook standard anyway)

Perhaps more correctly, PDF originated as a page layout format. As it has become more of a cross-platform standard, and reflow features have been added, it may evolve into something quite suitable for eBooks.

It may. But it isn't there yet and from the PDFs I've pulled apart, won't be there unless there is a significant change to it.

Speaking about reflowability, I tried a tagged PDF in the reader last night. No reflowing. Other than creating a significantly larger PDF than normal, the tagged PDF did nothing different from a non-tagged PDF.

Addition: I just opened the tagged PDF in Acrobat Reader and *gasp* no reflowing when zooming. Wondering: just what does a tagged PDF do then?

Some pretty good developments in this release from iRex. Well done! Hope you can keep up the pace with future upgrades!

Addition: I just opened the tagged PDF in Acrobat Reader and *gasp* no reflowing when zooming. Wondering: just what does a tagged PDF do then?

When you have a tagged PDF, you have to go to "View -> Reflow" or press Crtl-4

Then you get a reflow.

But i dont know, how to increase the font size.

When you have a tagged PDF, you have to go to "View -> Reflow" or press Crtl-4

There is no "View -> Reflow" and Ctrl-4 does nothing. I'm using Adobe Reader 7.0.

Or is reflow only available in the paid version of Acrobat?

I have version 7.0.5 in german and it shows the reflow and does it. Its called "umfließen" in german. And Strg = Ctrl

Yes, it's even there in the free version for Mac, in English it's called "View -> Reflow".

And changing the font-size is pretty easy (though not 100% obvious :-) ): Select "Reflow" and then just use the zoom buttons in Adobe Reader to increase/decrease the font-size.

Yes, it's even there in the free version for Mac, in English it's called "View -> Reflow".

All I can say is that it's not there in the Linux version. I don't use Microsoft products at home and at work we are still on version 6.0.

But reflowability seems to be a very new feature then.

All I can say is that it's not there in the Linux version. I don't use Microsoft products at home and at work we are still on version 6.0.

Adobe is part of Microsoft...? :blink:

Adobe is part of Microsoft...? :blink:

No, but using linux you would not expect him to use a windows version of acrobat reader, do you?

No, but using linux you would not expect him to use a windows version of acrobat reader, do you?

Thats up to him... :D Though I run for Office 2003 on Ubuntu, via Crossover, so its not impossible...

Thats up to him... :D Though I run for Office 2003 on Ubuntu, via Crossover, so its not impossible...

True, but unlikely, if you have a linux version of the program you want to run ;)
Though now he'll probably try the windows version :D

True, but unlikely, if you have a linux version of the program you want to run ;)
Though now he'll probably try the windows version :D

I tried at work (where they PAY me to use Windows), but they only have version 6.

I don't really have a working Windows installation at home anymore. Everything at home is Linux.

Maybe it's time to play with VMWare again...

low battery & shutdown messages got it's own background image [new files in usr\share\contentlister].

Downloaded it, pestering the sysadmin for a wired connection. Pretty thing, I am impresed. It taks courage to modify xpdf interface so heavily.

In is amusing that on one side, the iLiad minimo have no buttons, and on other side the buttons of the taskbar are very minimo-shaped. Do they think to restore minimo buttons into the taskbar? It seems appropiate, from the point of view of Xwindows.

Yep, I also saw the new shutdown message icon... But to be honest, the older was much nicer :-) The new one looks so ugly-microsoft-installer-icons to me...

Also if you look at the different design styles the ilIad has:
- Full-screen 3d renderings (Startup, software upgrade) -> look nice
- Old status icons (with surrounding border, e.g. triangle, or rectangle) -> look nice
- Now they introduced a third scheme (this shutdown icon...) -> looks not so nice

Usually the goal is to find your own style with an device, to separate it from the other devices (e.g. if you look at Sonys, all icons, design look like they fit together)

Sorry, but as a ex-design-head I care about such stuff :-)

Perhaps iRex need some graphics designer or at least someone with some love for details for such things... :beatnik:
I mean it would be so easy, all icons are plain png's (from the captured 2.7 update package I have seen...), it would not be hard to change them...

kusmi, was the attached png file in 2.6 the shutdown icon? I already forgot it.
Yes the boot screen shows the complete spectrum of iLiad's colours. :bulb2:
I would like to change iLiad's default fonts.

I don't know anymore, but I think so! Of course this is not an "optimal" shutdown icon either :-) But if you look at most TVs etc, they have something like this:

That's the new "universal" power symbol. I really didn't like the old one (universal power symbol, I mean -- see attached image) because it was backwards from a circuitry point of view, showing a closed circle for off (when the circuit is open) and a straight line for on (when the circuit is closed).

The new symbol clearly conveys that it's a circuit and it's interruptable by that control. Not necessarily clear like that to everyone, but it's no less clear to the general populous than the other was, and it isn't backwards to those who are circuit saavy. :smile:

Of course that has nothing to do with anything. :mad:

Cool, I was wondering where this sign originally came from :-) And I agree, of corse there might be some cultural differences, so every sign might not be recognized by all cultures... But this "closing book" sign is just ugly :-) sorry...

That's the new "universal" power symbol. I really didn't like the old one (universal power symbol, I mean -- see attached image) because it was backwards from a circuitry point of view, showing a closed circle for off (when the circuit is open) and a straight line for on (when the circuit is closed).

Huh! Learn something every day. I didn't know the history of the symbol; I assumed it was 0 for off, and 1 for on.

I like the new icon, it's a lot less likely to leave ghosting than the previous one (softer colours), and less aggressive-looking too. :)

Yep, I also saw the new shutdown message icon... But to be honest, the older was much nicer :-) The new one looks so ugly-microsoft-installer-icons to me...

Usually the goal is to find your own style with an device, to separate it from the other devices (e.g. if you look at Sonys, all icons, design look like they fit together)



Tastes are different.
What is fact, that when you turn off the machine, under the old icon you had a big "I" remaining on the screen in the form of a ghosting.
The new icon forming the image of a book is rather gray and have only a thin black outline around it, therefore it does not leave a ghost image.
So all in all I am more happy with the new message icon, and I hope they keep it or something similarly gray and not black for the turning-off.

It looks kind of... sexy...in the act...kind of...well! :happy2: :happy2: :happy2:

The more it looks like a picture the better. The picture at shutdown looks better.
It conveys the message better. When you read a a pbook you CLOSE it when you're done with it, you're not SHUTTING IT DOWN.
What i dont like are the icons in the menus; They could look soo much better, not like thse sharp boxy symbols.

Hello MR community. I have been keeping up with you all and you guys are great.

Anyways, I found a shocker today while in class with my Iliad. I have had the Iliad for about a month and I always go to a routine of cleaning these pesky .DS Store files from my Iliad (I have a Mac and I sort of made a game of throwing the .DS Store file into the trashcan) and today I notice there are no .DS Store files to play with! :blink:
Has this been fixed in 2.7 or am I dreaming? :uhoh2:

The closing icon is nice but the previous one with the glaring "i" is definitely a more spectacular icon, i think. I mean the S is synonymous with Superman and "the apple with the bite mark" with Apple why not keep the "i" it sort of implies "Irex Iliad product, ...err shutting off now." You know like an insignia.

and today I notice there are no .DS Store files to play with! :blink:
Has this been fixed in 2.7 or am I dreaming? :uhoh2:

In 2.7 all files starting with a . or with an _ are considered hidden files and do not show in the content manager.

Hi
I'm thinking about buying an iliad, but one of the things I really want to do with it is to be able to read DIN A 4/ Letter size pdf documents on it. Is it possible with the landscape function to just view half a page at a time?
I know there was some discussion about it on the top, but I'm still not clear on whether that is possible or not and how well it works.
Especially turning pages from the first half of the page to the second, does that work reliably? I imagine it should work fine with the panning function, is this correct?
Thanks!

Hi
I'm thinking about buying an iliad, but one of the things I really want to do with it is to be able to read DIN A 4/ Letter size pdf documents on it. Is it possible with the landscape function to just view half a page at a time?
I know there was some discussion about it on the top, but I'm still not clear on whether that is possible or not and how well it works.
Especially turning pages from the first half of the page to the second, does that work reliably? I imagine it should work fine with the panning function, is this correct?
Thanks!

You can read A4 documents. Depending on the font size, a simple zoom, to crop the unnecessary margins, will let you read quite comfortably. Then you can flip pages just with the flipbar.

If the font size is too small for that, then you will have to zoom in further, but then you will have to pan around the documnet. That works fine, but will get quite annoying, if you want to read more than 10 pages.

There is not yet a "width mode" on the iLiad, where you switch to landscape view, scale to page width and then flip from top to bottom of the page with the flipbar and then turn to the next page when you reached the bottom.


If you have a typical document, you want to read, you can upload a page here, and ill make you a photo, on how it looks like on the iliad ind different zoom sizes.

thanks tribble, that woulde be really nice.
Can you read the equations, especially the indices? Maybe my eyes are worse than yours, but I cannot really imagine reading this on DIN A 5. I really think just looking at the thing in landscape and turning the iliad would be the best possibility.
This is not possible at all?

Hi irisevelyn!

Here are some images of page 3 of your file. please not that the readability of the document is even better in real life, than in the pictures i took.
Depends on how good your eyes are.

1. is standard view with full page zoom.
2. is a 100% crop. Actually the fonts are sharper than on the image. Just have a normal digi and bad light here.
3. is zoomed to crop margins. This way its already readable, but you might have problems with the indizes. But you can easily flip from page to page with just the flipbar.
4. is zoomed to the maximum zoom size. There you can read everything even without glasses.
5. is in landscape mode with a zoom to page width. Here you can read fine, but you will have to pann through the document with the pen, which is not comfartable for reading through the document at the moment.

I hope, an easy landscape view mode which lets you flip though pages with just the flipbar is in development already :)

Thank you very much, you've been very helpful.
That really doesn't look bad. :happy2:

isn't it time to unstick this thread?

isn't it time to unstick this thread?
Yeah, good find, thanks for the mentioning.