Onyx Boox M92 sample has arrived. First imression - I love it!

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by a.a.k

I am not sure if i am right, I kind noticed the 903 is much clear for the Arabic text , although the M92 is supposed to be better with its Pearl display. i am really confused but maybe I should not judge from the video.
if you are able to buy both, and your mine use is for PDF, what you personally will pick?
one last question, what about the support of RRS?
thanks again .

The comparison of the screens is a bit hard for me. I have the feeling that if you have the same good screen font on both devices, the difference is not as big as one would think - probably negligable in the end. However the software issue of sometimes rendering (especially pdfs) to light/grey on the 903 makes the m92 more readable - this however could be fixed with a firmware upgrade on the 903. Also I learned that selecting a really good font for fbreader makes a ton of a difference (for epubs). And its also a question of taste: my gf seems to like the font rendering on the 903 better then on the m92 (again epub).

I tried to take a higher resolution image:

http://baach.de/Members/jhb/arabic_epub.jpg/view

Please also note the different page count at the bottom of the screens. The m92 is jumping 2 or 3 page numbers at a time, so somehow it seems to get a bit confused by the file.

Judging everyday pdf use between 903 and m92 is too early for me, to be honest. the m92 just arrived yesterday, I don't even know how to handle it properly, and haven't really used it in real life for reading and annotating. I am still collecting notes and thoughts (ongoing process, visible on the website above). Both devices have their pro and cons. In two or three weeks I can give a qualified statement.

Having said that: right here and now I am leaning towards the m92 as the better pdf handler. Mostly because of the the rendering of text is more black (and can be adjusted via glyph embolden) and the selection of zoom area with stylus (the 903 really depends on the 'briss' software which sometimes swallows the table of contents). Maybe also because the scribbles can be merged into a new pdf (not 100% sure about that).

On RSS reading: I haven't seen anything in the m92 so far, while the 903 has a basic reader. I have to test the one on the 903. It looked a bit basic, but maybe its enough. One can of course always use a web based service and visit that with the build in browser (I use http://www.planetplanet.org/ for that).

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

jbaach. i was just watching your arabic video. you showed using the volume rocker of the 903 to change the font size. The same should be available on the M92 using the 4way by pushing "up" or "down". the function should also rotate if you rotate the device so that "up" etc is now the landscape "up"

also in the "djvu files, arabic pdf, searching in pdfs, annotating," when showing the arabic pdf i believe the pdf itself has a shaded background , which is what you are seeing when you mention "a kind of darkish grey grid" in the display. The pocketbook is not displaying the image as a background but it can be seen for a moment in between the page changes as a sort of "horizon" image.

i took a screen shot as an example

On the zoom: thanks for the advice on the 4way on the m92 to change the zoom. Actually works very nice (and fast).

The arabic pdf: well spoted, thanks. Looking at the file on the desktop there seems to some background shading. The 903 seems to render it as white, and the m92 goes for some form of grey. I guess I prefer the 903 here. :-)

[maindoor]

While I am testing things - please tell me what you (other members of this forum) would be interested in. Put up / link your files on https://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/TestFiles, and ask the related question here.[/QUOTE]

@Jbaach: Can you please try out the chm file that I just linked in "TestFiles"
above ? There are hyperlinks throughout the chm file. Can you see if you
can move around easily ? Thanks.

[maindoor]

Originally Posted by jbaach

Thanks a lot. I'll text you once we take http://opencoin.org a bit further :-P

Just to make life a bit harder for you: there is the feature of multitasking on the 903, which the m92 is lacking.

Also, to clarify: I think that the m92 would look even better with a dark bezel, but the display itself has not less contrast then the one of the 903. Its just a question of overall perception (and illusion).

Amazing feature...u can the same topic on 2 books. and don't need a bookmark. M92 developers pls try to incorporate this feature.

[measure]

Originally Posted by jbaach

I tried to take a higher resolution image:

http://baach.de/Members/jhb/arabic_epub.jpg/view

jbaach:

Do you think you could take a similar quality photo of the Folland book I uploaded, where it is zoomed out just enough to see the entire page (so that no scrolling would be required to view any content on it)? Page 10 would be perfect as it has a small inline matrix (well, page 10 according to the labeling in the book, which is actually page 18 of the file). I am mostly just curious how readable the font is in this situation. This is not so much a question of the M92 as it is a 9.7" diagonal screen, but I thought it would be nice to see it on the device I am most seriously considering.

The 903 does seem to be an excellent multitasker. For me, actually, part of the reason I want such a device is to focus on reading. When it's so easy to multitask, it's also quite easy to get distracted.


Thanks again,
Ryan

[Dulin's Books]

also please try zooming in, then scribbling a word or arrow etc the same size as the text, then zooming back out. it should work on the M92 but i dont believe that works in the 903

[jbaach]

For comparison of the greyscale rendering I made a testfile, and took pictures of two pages:

http://baach.de/Members/jhb/greys_times.jpg/view
http://baach.de/Members/jhb/greys_fontin.jpg/view

The greys that you see reflect reality quite good. The focus in the middle and bluryness on the outside is only in the pictures.
I assume that the difference you see could be compensated by software, but I am not 100% sure - could be the actual vizplex/pearl difference as well. Does anybody know?

[Booxtor]

JBAACH: First of all thanks a lot for your great work!

I was just looking for a RSS reader and found out that Onyx Boox (with stylus) supports saved html pages with java scripts.
In this forum people are discussing about additional applications for Boox.

Here also you can download following apps:

Apps:
-- Calculator;
-- Picture manager for screensaver;
-- Unit converter (weights, lengths, and so on);
-- Kitchen unit converter;
-- Chemical Period Table

Games:
-- Reversi;
-- Sudoku;
-- Tictactoe;
-- Minesweeper;
-- Hangman;
-- Chess;
-- Battleship

I hope it could be usefull to try out those apps.

[maindoor]

Also can you please try using the in-built joystick more ?

[a.a.k]

thanks again .. your help is highly appreciated.
i made up my mind, I pre ordered M92 from this shop: http://www.ereader-store.de
they say Delivery date is approx. 26th December and I am hoping to get before.
903 is still expensive comparing to M92 , and this was an important factor in my consideration.
i noticed from the new pic posted for Arabic book, that some of the letters are not connected as it should in both devises. I wonder if its possible to change or add fonts to the M92?
Thanks in advance.

[Booxtor]

About scribbled annotations and not appearing them in the table of contents register.
To be honest I am quite happy about it. I am using this scribble function mostly to do my “home works” by practicing grammar and vocabulary by studying foreign languages (e.g. writing answers, complete sentences etc. in pdf exercise books). For this purpose is the M92 ideal. And I don’t want to see all those scribbling as annotations in table of contents register. Also merging of handwritten notes with original document is also very useful if you get some exercise folios from your teacher (as pdf docs) and then pass it back as “work done” pdf.

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

The color will be quite expensive so it depends how much you might need/want the color.

Thx for sharing your professional expertise.
Most users probably read b/w 95% of the time. This raises the question sharpness/contrast of b/w on a color screen. What was your impression as far as that is concerned?

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by a.a.k

not connected as it should in both devises. I wonder if its possible to change or add fonts to the M92?

You can add fonts by just copying them to the fonts directory on the m92. You can use them in some (not all) epubs using fbreader - there is no text highlighting / notes with fbreader/m92 though. adobe/m92 does notetaking, but no font family changing. (the 903 supports font changing and notetaking in fbreader).

Originally Posted by a.a.k

IS IT capable of reading RSS (subscribe to RSS feeds)

Originally Posted by Booxtor

I was just looking for a RSS reader and found out that Onyx Boox (with stylus) supports saved html pages with java scripts.

Nice idea booxtor. A quick and easy try showed that could use html+javascript to have a 'local' rss-reader: http://youtu.be/OmTwEyvWW1U . This however pulls live from the web. One could probably use the built in wget to pull pages from an online rss reader (google etc.) into offline storage and read there.

The 903 has a simple rss reader: http://youtu.be/vX1pUQI0wqg (again, this is using 2.1.2 rc6 firmware).

[jbaach]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Also merging of handwritten notes with original document is also very useful if you get some exercise folios from your teacher (as pdf docs) and then pass it back as “work done” pdf.

This leads to the idea of using the pdf merge for filling out / signing pdf forms (I think more of 'official' forms)... nice.

[initx]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Also merging of handwritten notes with original document is also very useful if you get some exercise folios from your teacher (as pdf docs) and then pass it back as “work done” pdf.

Booxtor, does it mean that with M92 you can merge your annotations with the PDF doc??? I would love it. My annotations are sometimes nearly as valuable as the doc itself...

[Booxtor]

Originally Posted by initx

Booxtor, does it mean that with M92 you can merge your annotations with the PDF doc??? I would love it. My annotations are sometimes nearly as valuable as the doc itself...

Yes, it works with PDF docs.
Click here