Report on new firmware?

[Gaurnim]

Thanks for your post, Michael.

Originally Posted by Michael

5) Font size increasing and decreasing on + and -: this feature has been asked by many customers (some of them are Mobilereaders) so we added it.

Also, on the library screen, it allows to change the "zoom" level, switching from 5 books displayed to 10 to 20 and back.

Correct me if I'm wrong, Michael, bu I think that it is not available for all the Cybooks.
From what I understood, due to hardware limitations, it does not work for the 64 MB and the earlier 512 MB models.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by Ortep

Everybody uses his machine in a different way. I remember I was one of the first people asking for font increase/decrease with the +/- buttons. I find it very useful.

You only have 35 books, other people have 10-20 times as much. They will be happy with folder support.

Some people are not interested in a special button for the library. You and I are definately interested.

A lot of people are excited about ePub. For me it just another eBook format. It does not help, it makes things more complicated. And, in my opinion, adds nothing I need. Why do we need another one, for me mobi is all I need.

The bottom line is: Whatever they do it wil be 'wrong' for somebody

I agree totally with You and Emelaich. Whatever they had done it wouldn't have been enough for everybody.

For me, at the moment the old firmware suits my needs completely. There is only one thing I really would like and that's a dedicated look-up button. For the rest I'm just very happy with the the cybook as it is.

So maybe I was a little harsh in my opinion, but the things implemented just aren't the ones I'm waiting for.

And Michael welcome. Hope you'll visit this forum more often. I'm sure everybody here would really appreciate it. We're really a nice bunch of guys (and girls) when you overlook the nagging

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by Ortep

People simply do not care about 'open' People care about functionality. They don't care how a washing machine works or if it is designed as an open system so that everybody can make parts for it. The want clean laundry

I totally agree.

[Terisa de morgan]

I'm reading the thread and I think that my main need, which is "Del" button, is cover, so it's OK for me. The '+' and '-' in menu is OK too. I have to see how the button for "keeping press" works before I say anything about it. The only other thing I would like is the page number when you're reading a book. The other things don't matter for me (I'm not going to make folders because I share the card with mi PDA, lookup button is not important for me because I hardly use it).
And I agree that it's no possible everybody to be happy.

[Gaurnim]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

And Michael welcome. Hope you'll visit this forum more often. I'm sure everybody here would really appreciate it. We're really a nice bunch of guys (and girls) when you overlook the nagging

If you look carefully at Michael's profile, you will see that he in fact signed up in 2004.
Bookeen is following MobileRead closely, but they don't necessarily have the time to reply (or new things to tell us).

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Michael

I am Michael and working at Bookeen.

Hello Michael, thanks for reporting back here.

8) Reading while charging is not available. I am not sure we said it would be. But I am ready to stand the critics on this point.

Due to scarcity of "official" news, I have only indirect reports, but I refer to this post of pdurrant's:

They do say that some of the features we want "should shortly be available", specifically:

* Battery life on reading pages
* Easily read while charging
* Goto Page... for library view
* Sort by Author option
* Folder display in library
* PDF reflow

That is before ePUB support was announced, though, so probably you changed plans since then.

[AlexBell]

Originally Posted by Michael

Hello,

I am Michael and working at Bookeen.

Thanks for giving us this information, Michael, for posting on the Booken forum, and for the other work that Bookeen has done.

Having separate readers for mobi and epub is an option for me, since I broke the screen on my first Cybook and have sent it in for repair. Bookeen updated the firmware at the recent meeting; could you please please update the firmware with the Cybook I sent in recently? It should be in Paris by now.

Regards, Alex

[gerraldo]

Originally Posted by Michael

I will try to answer to some of your questions. In the "Mobi version" of the firmware:
2) PDF support has not changed. Hyperlinks are not supported. Reflow is not supported.
3) No "NON DRM" ePUB support on Mobi version.
6) There will be MOBI and ePUB firmwares available for all versions of the machines.

Thanks for the info, though it has made my worst nightmares come true...

To be honest, I don't need or want ANY of the added functionality for the Mobi version! As it is now, the "new" FW update is nothing more then a minor bug fixing (hopefully) release for me. (And no, switching to ePub version - w/o dictionary support - is no option for me...)

The no information policy has made things worse and to force us to switch to ePub for all the really nice features (added ePub support and PDF reflow) is simply unacceptable. Maybe there are very good reasons for all of this, but then they should have told us much, much earlier.

Beware - very personal statement: I hate them for keeping my hopes up so high and delivering so little...

[K-Thom]

Dear Michael, thank you for both the information and you being present in this forum. I really do appreciate your participation in this thread.

But the information given is for me a decision to make my next eBook reader NOT one from Bookeen.
Bookeen seems to be the only company worldwide which offers support for both prc and epub, but which needs two separate firmware versions to achieve that goal. Which is hard for me to accept, since other suppliers obviously seem to manage both formats in one firmware (BeBook and Pocketbook 360°, to name but two).

And as a customer I simply don't care if this is either a legal or a technical problem. I just want this issue to be solved. If not by Bookeen, I'll look around for alternatives (which are out there in 2009, even more in 2010; different from when I first noticed the Cybook back in 2007).

Next, if you do offer two separate versions I can't understand why the prc version took that long if the only existing problems are with the epub version (or Adobe's consent)?

Sorry about the nagging. The Cybook is a solid device, but it's Bookeen I lost faith and trust in.

[EowynCarter]

Which is hard for me to accept, since other suppliers obviously seem to manage both formats in one firmware (BeBook and Pocketbook 360°, to name but two).

I guess Pocketbook and Bebook can afford paying more developers. Dev time in france cost loads of money...

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by gerraldo

Thanks for the info, though it has made my worst nightmares come true...

To be honest, I don't need or want ANY of the added functionality for the Mobi version! As it is now, the "new" FW update is nothing more then a minor bug fixing (hopefully) release for me. (And no, switching to ePub version - w/o dictionary support - is no option for me...)

The no information policy has made things worse and to force us to switch to ePub for all the really nice features (added ePub support and PDF reflow) is simply unacceptable. Maybe there are very good reasons for all of this, but then they should have told us much, much earlier.

Beware - very personal statement: I hate them for keeping my hopes up so high and delivering so little...

Good news: You don't have to switch to the EPub FW for "added ePub and PDF reflow" because PDF reflow is not in that FW neither

I really appreciate the addition of folder support and I even find the font size increase buttons useful. But I agree with you 100% that it's frustrating that first the folder support was delayed for months because of ePub support and then we have to find out that they release a FW version with folder support but WITHOUT ePub... So what's the justification now for the delay?

Plus: It remains to be seen when we can finally download the FW. It's really weird that when they know that they have kept so many people waiting for so long that they don't go to the trouble of posting it in a timely fashion...

[Godzil]

Like someone say before, Bookeen is the only (with iRex) device that is able to read DRMed PRC, and for this they NEED to use the Mobipocket SDK. To use the Mobipocket SDK, you can't put OTHER DRM support, and they can't use this SDK without the DRM support the Mobipocket contract disallow them. To support ePub/PDF with Adept DRM, Bookeen need to use the Adobe SDK, and the Adobe contract does not allow them to use the SDK WITHOUT the DRM.

So if Bookeen want to support PRC withtout DRM, they will need to develop a new PRC reader, and that the same for ePub without DRM.


Until Mobipocket/Amazon forbid the use of multiple DRM on the same device, from a legal point of view Bookeen will never be able to release a firmware with both DRM, and I doubt they have time to develop something that will double their development time/debugging etc...

[Krystian Galaj]

This firmware seems to address all the major issues I personally have with the device, and I'm very happy it's close to being complete. I'm just a bit uneasy about flashing the firmware on my 64MB Cybook, but I hope once that goes well, I'll be able to fill my card to the fullest with public domain books and finally have a choice I like to have

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Michael

4) HTML, TXT support has not changed

A pity since the HTML support is extremely buggy and causes crashes regularly. If you take a text from the net and just try to use it the probability that it will reboot the Cybook is rather hight. The cause is incorrect HTML code but the read should be much more robust for HTML code that is not perfect.

And being able to follow links in HTML files would have been extremely useful.

I have in principle started to read mostly paper books since I miss page numbers very much. I hope page numbers will be available in the E-pub reader.

A dedicated button for lookup is also something a lot of people have proposed.

[Abelturd]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

I guess Pocketbook and Bebook can afford paying more developers. Dev time in france cost loads of money...

Well, here I see two options, it's either gonna be Bookeen who will outsource the development outside France or it's gonna be me, by way of buying a device from a country where development doesn't cost as much and where they can afford to give the firmware due time and effort. Because, I'm sorry, but man, the difference is SO OBVIOUS.
Provided, that you're right with the costs of development, Eowyn, and that the problem doesn't lie elsewhere.