Icarus Illumina XL 8-inch E Ink eReader with Android 4.2

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by 404 Not found

Hi Purple Lady, tried the Master Root 1.3.6. Not working unfortunately :

==> Check ! I'm proposed the 4.2.2.

==> fail...: there is a pop up, it's about three chinese lines, but the right button is for "cancel" ("batal"). Once I got that "batal" meant "cancel", I tried again and hit the left button, and got a notification of failure. And that is the end of it...

I may try the Xda method, but I've got to study the forum first : it appears they got quite a lot of troubleshooting... Anyone managing Gdrive ? Thanks again

From what I remember seeing, most of the troubleshooting wasn't for the long method. A lot of people also didn't execute the command in adb.

[pdurrant]

Originally Posted by Dan23

Can someone who has this evaluate the frontlight? Thanks.

It's OK. Not as even as my Paperwhite 3 - it's a bit brighter down the left hand edge and bottom, than across the central part of the display, and a little bit uneven across the top. If you're picky about front lights, you'll hate it.

[Dan23]

Originally Posted by pdurrant

It's OK. Not as even as my Paperwhite 3 - it's a bit brighter down the left hand edge and bottom, than across the central part of the display, and a little bit uneven across the top. If you're picky about front lights, you'll hate it.

Thanks. Can you turn it off entirely or is it always somewhat on?

[John Hopper]

I find the light quite nice. It's not as uniform as the Voyage or PW light but gives a pleasing glow across the screen with a bit more light at one edge. Yes, the light can be turned off completely.

[ernieh]

I am showing the contents of a mail I sent to Icarus below. I can't believe that others have not had these problems but looking at the comments it seems very few have actually tried reading using the built in book reader software and are more interested in fiddling with the android features. I have also put a copy of this mail on the reader specific sub forum.


The Book (the built in ereader software/app) app on my recently received Illumina XL has quite a few serious problems, in fact so serious that if I was not able to download Aldiko on it and use that for reading books it would have been un-useable.
I will list the problems as far as I can assess them but please keep in mind that these problems only exist while using the built in Books firmware. So far when using the other features such as menus and other apps like Aldiko the reader works reasonably well.
1 When attempting to change pages often the font changes to its maximum or minimum size and the page does not turn.
2 When attempting to use the screen touch to do anything from going to menus or turn pages the touch is often completely unresponsive.
3 After fixing the font size the book is often not on the page I was reading but is a few pages forward on back.
4 Pinch gestures on the screen sometimes work, sometime don’t and sometimes have unintended results like menus opening or font going to biggest or smallest.
5 The power off button works to put the reader into sleep mode but almost never gives the shutdown message no matter how long or short the press is.
I do not suspect the hardware or the android portion of the software as these seem to work fine but as you can see the rest of the system urgently requires upgrading or replacing. It certainly looks like you rushed this product to market with insufficient software testing.
I cannot be the only person experiencing these problems so Please rush a fix as quickly as possible.
Regards
Graham Ernest Hardwick.
PS The ticket system on your site seems to be down, but this is probably not that sort of query anyway.
PPS I intend to post a copy of this mail on the eread forum.

Sent from Mail for Windows 10

[404 Not found]

So I eventually managed the Amazon Fire (Xda) method...partly... I can now access the Playstore "sign in", but it will stay forever at the "signing in...this can take a few minutes" screen.

It may be related to the third app installed, GoogleServicesFramework.apk , which gave back "Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK]" I can see the app in the file manager, it's version 6.6.03. I suppose I should find an older version adapted to 4.4.2. but I'm not sure where to find it or if I should use ADB to downgrade GSF.apk..

I regularly get at each boot "GplayServices has stopped", and I get "com.google.process.gapps has stopped" when I enter PlayStore's Sign in portal. Anyone's got a clue ? Thanks...

[John Hopper]

I've been reading on this for 2-3 days now and overall I like the reading experience. I've been reading almost exclusively from the Kindle app, which works fairly well on this e-reader (and the limitations of the app are intrinsic to the Kindle android app itself, not this e-reader's software). I enjoy reading from the 8" screen, which feels much more like a proper book size. The text is fainter than on my Kindle Voyage, but when I am reading old classic ghost stories as I have been over Christmas, that seems more appropriate () and, in any case, the text is perfectly acceptable.

I am reconciled to not being able to use Google apps (Drive/Play Books) on it, though this is disappointing.

On the plus side on apps, Evernote works very well on it, and means I can write notes/a review as I am reading if I want.

The battery life is also very good. When I got it out the box on Wednesday, it was on 77%. It got down to 23% ish last night (so after three days plus) and I put it on charge overnight. Today I've been reading from it for a couple of hours, downloaded an app or two and fiddled around with a few things, and the battery is STILL showing 100% (with Wifi off except when I was downloading the apps, and with the light on a middling level).

So after four days, for me, screen size and battery life are the big pluses, along with a pleasurable reading experience, with inaccessibility of Google apps being the big minus (though I can live it with it as I can move any Drive files I need to Dropbox and only have a couple of books on Play Books anyway).

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by 404 Not found

So I eventually managed the Amazon Fire (Xda) method...partly... I can now access the Playstore "sign in", but it will stay forever at the "signing in...this can take a few minutes" screen.

It may be related to the third app installed, GoogleServicesFramework.apk , which gave back "Failure [INSTALL_FAILED_OLDER_SDK]" I can see the app in the file manager, it's version 6.6.03. I suppose I should find an older version adapted to 4.4.2. but I'm not sure where to find it or if I should use ADB to downgrade GSF.apk..

I regularly get at each boot "GplayServices has stopped", and I get "com.google.process.gapps has stopped" when I enter PlayStore's Sign in portal. Anyone's got a clue ? Thanks...

You can find older versions in this thread in the first post. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=245888 If you download and unzip the toolkit the apks are in there. I think the phonesky.apk is the play store. The contact and calendar sync can cause problems with T62 Boyue devices and since this seems to be Boyue firmware you might want to skip those.

[404 Not found]

It seems that these apk won't install.. I get "app not installed" with package installer ; tried with ADB but not too sure I use it well or can't seem to specify the right path ("invalid APK file" is what I get). I got several other error message such as "install parse failed inconsistent certificate" (at that point, I tried so many ready made forum solutions which I do not understand, that I can't even remember what I did...) Anyway, didn't work.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by 404 Not found

Hi Purple Lady, tried the Master Root 1.3.6. Not working unfortunately :

==> Check ! I'm proposed the 4.2.2.

==> fail...: there is a pop up, it's about three chinese lines, but the right button is for "cancel" ("batal"). Once I got that "batal" meant "cancel", I tried again and hit the left button, and got a notification of failure. And that is the end of it...

I may try the Xda method, but I've got to study the forum first : it appears they got quite a lot of troubleshooting... Anyone managing Gdrive ? Thanks again

Are you sure Master Root didn't work? If you don't have a launcher like Nova launcher installed you won't see that SuperSu was installed. You don't need the Play store to install, you can get it from their website.

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like if it worked. The video is https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ke8UuyQBQME

[404 Not found]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

Are you sure Master Root didn't work? If you don't have a launcher like Nova launcher installed you won't see that SuperSu was installed.

Here's a screenshot of what it looks like if it worked.

Yes, that was the screen : it's rooted. Now I can see SuperSu in the NovaLauncher. Root Checker confirmed, and I can browse system files. I'm not too sure what I'm supposed to do with this though.. Still can't sign in any Google apps

[takaya]

Any chances that someone of XL's owners will post a video showcasing Moon Reader Pro and pdf reading?

Thank you, bye.

M

[404 Not found]

Some news of Google apps : thanks to prebuiltgmscore.apk, I can now access Gdrive, can see my files, but... I get a blank popup with a button "update". Hit it or beside it, Drive crashes and I'm back to app launcher. Gmail still gives "There was a problem communicating with Google servers" and Play Store : "Check your connection and try again." (and the three options : "Redeem" / "Settings" / "Help&Feedback")

I'm getting closer ! Am I though...?

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by 404 Not found

Some news of Google apps : thanks to prebuiltgmscore.apk, I can now access Gdrive, can see my files, but... I get a blank popup with a button "update". Hit it or beside it, Drive crashes and I'm back to app launcher. Gmail still gives "There was a problem communicating with Google servers" and Play Store : "Check your connection and try again." (and the three options : "Redeem" / "Settings" / "Help&Feedback")

I'm getting closer ! Am I though...?

Since this appears to be a Boyue rom, you can try what I did with my T62+. I am going to include the normal disclaimer for root stuff - Please install at your own risk as I am not responsible for the damage you may cause to your own device.

First remove all the Google stuff you installed. It would probably be easier(and cleaner) to just do a factory reset. A factory reset won't remove root.

Download and unzip the toolkit from the first post here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=245888

Install ES File Explorer and turn on Root Explorer under tools. Use ES to copy the following three from the unzip to the \system\app directory on the tablet.
GoogleServicesFramework.apk
GoogleLoginService.apk
Phonesky.apk

Change the permissions on these three to be as shown in this ES screenshot.



After that, all you should need to do is reboot. After rebooting it will probably take a few for the Play Store to work while GoogleServicesFramework updates itself.

Good luck!

[Onemack]

OK here goes,
My unit arrived today 30 Dec, it was ordered on the 23rd Dec, that is impressive, I noted that it had travelled from the Netherlands to France, to India to China (where it probably originated) to Singapore thence finally to Australia (Sydney then Canberra). In other words my little new Icarus Bookreader is a far better travelled unit than I.

It was extremely well packaged, the notifications of its progress were prompt and accurate.

I have already downloaded my current ebooks via dropbox, and commenced to read on it.

However I have two criticisms, albeit minor, firstly nowhere in any instruction, either enclosed with it, or on the website were there any instructions on how to download, open and commence to read a book. I know! I know! There will be many of you cognescenti out there who will postulate "how stupid, didn't he know how to do that!, why that is basic." Nevertheless it took me three hours working it out when clear concise instructions would have been useful.

The second problem was the Kindle app, it kept reverting to the .au website when my account is with the US site; (there is s difference in availability and pricing between sites). I gave up on this in the end because I would rather read than stuff around with computers and their idiosyncrasies.

But on the whole I am impressed with the unit, it's speed and functions. In the words of the iconic Paul Newman "so far so good"

John