New Firmware Upgrade Coming Tomorrow!!

[Robertb]

I told you the factory was listening to you! Here is the anouncement:

New Features Support Announced by Astak

• Adobe language package for Chinese, Japanese and Korean
Description:
To support Chinese, Japanese or Korean in V3 2.1X firmware, please download this language package. You can get the language files after extracting the rar file. Copy these files to the root of the SD card or built-in Internal Memory
.
• 6” EZ Reader Basic F/W Astak V2.11 2009-09-08
Description:
1. Supports Font Increases in the following percents of normal: 100%, 200%, 250%, 300%, 350%.
2.Support for Hyperlinks, Additional Bookmarking feature and a new Search Function.
3.To support Chinese, Japanese or Korean, please download the language package.

• 5” EZ Reader Pocket PRO F/W 090907 ASTAK
Description:
1. Supports Font Increases in the following percents of normal: 100%, 200%, 250%, 300%, 350%.
2.Support for Hyperlinks, Additional Bookmarking feature and a new Search Function.
3.To support Chinese, Japanese or Korean, please download the language package.



FAQ:
How to utilize Hyperlink:
Press number key “0”. If the current page supports Hyperlink, the underline will be displayed. Then you can press number keys “0” and “9” to select the link on the current page, and press “Menu” or “OK” button to skip to the linked page.

If the current page does not support hyperlink, the number keys “0” and “9” will be used for turning pages only.

Additional Information on the new Search Function will be placed onto our FAQ sheet at:
www.theEZreader.com (under “support”).


All of these Firmware Upgrades should be up on our site and available to you no later than noon PDT on September 10!

[phenomshel]

Thanks for letting us know, Robert. I hope the font percentages work and make pdf's easier to handle.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Robertb

How to utilize Hyperlink:
Press number key “0”. If the current page supports Hyperlink, the underline will be displayed. Then you can press number keys “0” and “9” to select the link on the current page, and press “Menu” or “OK” button to skip to the linked page.

How do you go back to where you linked from? This is essential for hyperlinks, e.g. footnotes, just as you need a back arrow on a web browser.

[cvkemp]

The new firmware is on the site and I am updating as I type this note.

Chuck

[wayamauro]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

The new firmware is on the site and I am updating as I type this note.

Chuck

Please cvkemp let us know how it goes

[cvkemp]

The links are working with PDfs and the fonts sizes have not changed that much. But it does look good and the EzReader seems to be a little more responsive.

Chuck

[wallcraft]

I switched to the new firmware on both my Basic and my Pocket Pro. They seem equivalent on both. The new font sizes are a big improvement for ePubs.

Hyperlinks work in PDFs (no "go back" key though) but not in ePubs, search does work. Two bugs that were fixed in the BeBook firmware but are still present here are that images get zoomed to larger than the page in ePubs and the ePub page number gets bigger with the zoom size. Overall, this is an improvement.

[jwsheets]

Robert:

Thanks for the notification. The changes are significant and appreciated. There is still one major problem. The hyperlinks function works in PDFs but still doesn't work in in EPubs. Unless I am mistaken, most of the calls for hyperlink functionality was related to EPubs. Any idea when this ongoing issue will be addressed?

[GA Russell]

Originally Posted by wallcraft

The new font sizes are a big improvement for ePubs.

Wallcraft, could you please be more specific?

I would wish for two sizes - that of the standard hardback book, and the slightly smaller standard for mass market paperback books.

Are these two common sizes now available with the firmware update?

[slm]

Originally Posted by jwsheets

Robert:

Thanks for the notification. The changes are significant and appreciated. There is still one major problem. The hyperlinks function works in PDFs but still doesn't work in in EPubs. Unless I am mistaken, most of the calls for hyperlink functionality was related to EPubs. Any idea when this ongoing issue will be addressed?

I just tested the hyperlink ability in an epub and it worked fine.
I did not find any way to go back.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by GA Russell

Wallcraft, could you please be more specific?

The range of font sizes for ePub is now similar to that for other ebook formats on the EZ Readers. I would prefer a slightly larger maximum size, but if the largest size is not too small for you one of the five sizes is now likely to be "just right". The smallest size is so tiny that I doubt many people can read it. I would prefer that size be removed in favour of one large size above what is currently provided. This is because one of the things that helps on an EInk screen in low light is to increase the font size

I don't have my EZ Reader's with me, so perhaps someone else can compare to paperback and hardback books. I think it does cover that range well though.

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by slm

I just tested the hyperlink ability in an epub and it worked fine.

Which ePub did you test? One I tried where the links did not work, is Wallace, Lane. Dreams, Hopes, Realities. This has a hyperlink TOC and many footnotes as hyperlinks. It also has clickable image hyperlinks, which are known not to work (i.e. are not a Hanlin-specific problem). I also tried, Doyle, Sir Arthur Conan: The Adventures of Sherlock Holmes which has a hyperlink in-line TOC. None of these worked.

I also suggest that Jinke change the software to use the 9 key to activate hyperlinks, rather than the 0 key, because 0 might be your primary page forward key and 9 (page back) is usually less used.

[cvkemp]

I would be nice if the 9 key could be used with links to return to where you was at.
Just a suggestion Robert

chuck

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I would be nice if the 9 key could be used with links to return to where you was at.

Even better, a long press 9 for go back. It is usually a multi-page back, which is similar.

[cvkemp]

wallcraft that sounds even better. Thanks!!


Chuck