Pocketbook 360 test diary

[mtravellerh]

Of course external links won't work!

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Of course external links won't work!

why not? They could work if they went to a file also stored in the same folder.

Dale

[mtravellerh]

I meant external links (internet adresses). Sorry for not making myself clear!

[Francesco]

mtravellerh,
how did you find out there are two different PDF viewers in the PB 360? How can I choose between one and the other?

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

The Ray Gun Revival Mag for example (did I mention that I love those, there are 54 freely downloadable)

I just took a look at them because of your enthusiasm. I'm going to download them all now

Thanks

-Charlie

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by Francesco

mtravellerh,
how did you find out there are two different PDF viewers in the PB 360? How can I choose between one and the other?

If you go to settings/about device you can click "more" which gives you the info

(screen shot wouldn't work for me for that page, sorry)


Long Press of the OK button allows you to choose which viewer to open a particular book.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

If you go to settings/about device you can click "more" which gives you the info

(screen shot wouldn't work for me for that page, sorry)


Long Press of the OK button allows you to choose which viewer to open a particular book.

Dulin took the words right out of my mouth, to cite Meat Loaf!

[kacir]

Originally Posted by Francesco

mtravellerh,
how did you find out there are two different PDF viewers in the PB 360? How can I choose between one and the other?

Go to book library. position cursor on a pdf book.
Press and HOLD OK button.
You get a menu. One of many, many items in the menu is "open with" and you can choose one of two applications.
Yesterday I was playing with a locked (no, not DRMed) pdf and in the reflow mode a few words at the end of the page were missing. I haven't upgraded firmware on my machine yet. The machine reads all the books I need it to read in an excellent manner. I am waiting for final firmware version from "guys in Kiev".
There is also an improved version of FBReader from a mobileread member scififan, but I haven't got to trying that out either.

[mtravellerh]

• I've got SFF's FBReader loaded. Works fine so far. The no-pic bug is solved and the ePub files now have a working TOC, too. The no-pic issue was caused by FBReader looking for the pics at the wrong place!

• Adobe Reader is acting up a bit, though, occasionally. I nearly froze MM over twice with files that would not work with the Viewer. Some books are not centered correctly and text is eaten up in reflow mode. Let's hope that the PB folks are able to iron out those things for the next FW update! pdfviewer is handling those files fine, so no biggie!
  
  Oh, I didn't have to reset MM. A simple click on the On/Off button was enough. So still waiting for my first REAL freeze here!

• MM had his first encounter with one of his (extended) family members. In the supermarket, there was a red Sony 300 exposed. There were not a lot of friendly feelings on both sides and I guess there would have been a fight, if the 300 hadn't been chained to its stand. Us humans decided to battle it out in a more "friendly" way and compared both devices. The 300 is a lot bigger, a lot heavier and tons slower! Page turning was a lost race for the 300, too, and when it came to rendering PDFs, the 300's crew gave up! Mucho astonishment ensued and a lot of questions rained down on me! Oh, and there's still no justifying ePubs on that new Sony!
  
  I had to notice that the Sony boots up faster, though!

• I created a comic for MM with Calibre's cbr-converting feature and tried it out. As an extra, I unpacked the cbr and viewed them as photos. Result: Landscape view should work pretty well with most comics. If you want to blow it up, you can use the 2 column-view. Pic view is quite okay, too, but navigation as a PDF is a lot easier. Surprisingly, Adobe Reader is faring better here, because it is easier on the colors and therefore lighter. pdfviewer tends to darken those pics more! Screenshots coming later as I am still reading that comic and not connected to my PC!
  
  Turning pages takes about 2 secs in this full graphic mode. Scrolling down the page is really fast! (my PDF is about 10 Mbs)

PS: MM is the nickname I gave to my 360. It stands, of course, for Mighty Mouse!

[mtravellerh]

• Oh my!
  I had an early morning shock today! I tried to start MM and nothing happened! Nada! Absolutely nothing! Zilch! I already thought MM had died on me! Granted, I OD'ed on reading these last days, but the little one had appeared so sturdy. PMed Forkosigan to ask him about that in my distress! He was back with an answer in about 10 seconds time (come on Fork, get a life!) with an answer. Turns out that the battery meter is not working as it should on the beta version, but that the FB guys know about the issue and that it will be taken care before the final release.
  
  The only thing I had to do was reset (slide open the battery case, push the reset button) and reload MM. She's still loading now! You can continue reading while she's loading, btw. Even when connected to the PC, you're asked if you want to communicate with your computer or just use the connection to reload. Nice! I'll check if the battery issue has been looked after in the final version, of course!

• SFFs tweaked FBReader app (to "install" that app, just put it in your system/bin/) seems to have a problem with the hyphenation of html-files. At least some of the files do not respect any rules and some words even get cut after one letter or so. Any one else with that problem?
  
  Speaking of installation: I have ten dictionaries now on MM and about ten fonts. That's enough for me. To install those, I simply do a Copy & Paste!

• Ah, fonts. Our Wiki says that the PB software features about 20 font sizes. This is of course only partially right. In fact, font size is changed by a flick of the navigational cross (an upward flick zooms in, a downward flick zooms out) in five degrees. Now for the (usual) PB extra: Using the config menu, you can finetune the font size by steps of 2 pts. The automatic resizing is changed accordingly. This doesn't work for the ADE viewers, though!

• Yesterday MM beat me in Chess three times in a row! In the easiest mode! That shows that I suck, doesn't it? Thank God I can play with myself in 2 player mode. So one of us 2 usually wins!
  
  Other games on MM are Patience, Battleship and Sudoku. Patience is pretty self-explanatory, Sudoku is really well executed, because you're able to note possibilities (like you do in a "real" game) and the interface works well.
  
  In "Battleship", I still don't know how to place your ships vertically. If all of them are horizontal, you don't stand a chance! Please help me somebody!

• Oh, if you win a PB in our contest, choose a 360! They're cute, lighter than a 301 and a lot more mobile!

• Has someone found out how to get rid of that (very small) status bar? It offers some great infos (time, for example), but sometimes I want a pure text screen

PS: Comic screen shots coming later today!

[orwell2k]

Just curious - what kind of battery life do you get with this device? My BeBook is excellent for this - I can go a week or so without thinking about a recharge (except on holidays, where I sometimes read all day in which case more page turns... ). Thanks.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Just curious - what kind of battery life do you get with this device? My BeBook is excellent for this - I can go a week or so without thinking about a recharge (except on holidays, where I sometimes read all day in which case more page turns... ). Thanks.

I pretty much was playing around all the time with MM since Thursday morning and I do not know if she was fully loaded then! It's loading now and I will be able to tell you more exactly when it's empty again!

[Forkosigan]

If you only read (3-4 hours a day) then the battery is enough for 2-3 weeks. If you play games, and a lot of scouring the menu, it is enough for a shorter period. I am not sure whether mtravellerh Pocketbook charged the full, or read on the charge to which the device has come.

[mtravellerh]

Originally Posted by Forkosigan

If you only read (3-4 hours a day) then the battery is enough for 2-3 weeks. If you play games, and a lot of scouring the menu, it is enough for a shorter period. I am not sure whether mtravellerh Pocketbook charged the full, or read on the charge to which the device has come.

I read on the charge it was coming with and I did quite a lot of playing around! I had about 3-4000 pageturns, too! I have read 3 whole books and opened a lot of books!

[kacir]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Just curious - what kind of battery life do you get with this device? My BeBook is excellent for this - I can go a week or so without thinking about a recharge

The first charge -the one done by the factory or reseller - on my PB360 lasted more than a week. I think it was almost two weeks. And that was more than a week of playing, re-starting, reading, testing, changing fonts, repaginating books ...
It was connected to a PC in the meanwhile but never more than 5 minutes. Just to load a few books, a dozen or so fonts, 30 custom "screensaver" images (**), or to tweak some settings file, quickly disconnect for trying out the

I expect that under normal operations (*) a charge should last at least three weeks.

(*) reading tvice a day for at least an hour every day, much more than that on weekends

(**) I have downloaded lots of M.C.Escher (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/M._C._Escher) images, converted them to appropriate format and now, every time my PB shuts down I have different lovely graphics on the screen. (NOT some long dead authors like E-book device I shall not name ;-) )