902 Pocketbook 902: first impressions and questions

[Roos]

Originally Posted by dpayment

I received an email advising me that my PB902 shipped yesterday, but I have a question for anyone who already has a PB902. In your library listing, do you see what series a book might belong to? I have a ton of books that belong to different series, and I want to be able to order them so that when I finish one book, I can just click on the next title to start the next book in the series.

Thanks in advance,
Dan

Not in library view, but in file view yes just tell Calibre to create a nice tree, lots of options if you look at the preference > output to device or safe to disk..
Works pretty good.

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by lukas

May I ask which pdf file it was? I'd like to try it on PB.

Ad CHM speed, yes, it is quite long, but to compare different file formats is a bit unfair. (size/speed/indexing/content optimization)

Dungeon&Dragon Players Strategy Guide; you need to buy it.
But i'm going to find a free big PDF file.

[EricLandes]

Originally Posted by SkyDream

Sounds like a nightmare to me....51 seconds....that's ages.

Opening a 43MB PDF on my Sony 650 takes about 4sec.

(I know CHM is not PDF ....)

In my profession as technical writer, I've created a lot of CHM files over the years. One 6MB one in particular took over five minutes to open. On a state-of-the-art Windows machine. (Please don't get me started on the oxymoron there...)

I believe CHM readers have to enumerate the presence of every file within the CHM before it can be used. So, it's not the size of the CHM, but the number of topics within it that's the issue.

There's a reason why MSFT abandoned the format.

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by lukas

May I ask which pdf file it was? I'd like to try it on PB.

Ad CHM speed, yes, it is quite long, but to compare different file formats is a bit unfair. (size/speed/indexing/content optimization)

Try this freely available iPod touch documentation (iPod touch Benutzerhandbuch (Für iOS 4.2 Software)).
It's 26 MB and took 2-3 seconds to open on PRS-650.

[EricLandes]

BTW, picked up my Pocketbook 902 this morning from Charlie Dulin. He was just about to take a whole bunch of them to the post office.

I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen on my 902 so far, but I've been unsuccessful getting it to recognize my microSD card. Does it really need to be inserted upside down? Any trick to activating it?

Also, there's a link in the quickstart guide to the full manual on the pocketbook-int.com website, but there's nothing for the 902 up there yet. The manual is on the device itself, however.

The UI is very different from the Kindles/Kobos I've used in the past, so its taking me a while to adjust. I do like the file browsing mechanism.

More thoughts coming as I get to play with it more.

[lukas]

SkyDream:
Thanks.
First load of that pdf took about 24sec. (notification 'file too large' was also shown)
Later it took about 5 sec. to open.
After 'Clear mark' it took again 24sec.
There is no difference in microSD / device location.
(reported time = time between pressing OK button and showing first page)

EricLandes:
microSD - contacts (golden wires) up, push until it is completely inside (invisible from side view).

[SkyDream]

Originally Posted by lukas

First load of that pdf took about 24sec. (notification 'file too large' was also shown)
Later it took about 5 sec. to open.
After 'Clear mark' it took again 24sec.

Thanks.
I wonder what they did during the first open request.
Do they scan and build an index for faster re-open
At least there's a little hope it won't take that long each time.

[Dulin's Books]

Originally Posted by EricLandes

I'm pretty impressed with what I've seen on my 902 so far, but I've been unsuccessful getting it to recognize my microSD card. Does it really need to be inserted upside down? Any trick to activating it?

Is that the card you got from me?

Skydream it does index the pdf on first opening so that from then on it opens quicker.

[EricLandes]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Is that the card you got from me?

It is, but I got it working. You have to push it in there a lot further than I expected. It almost felt like there were two other places that "fit" but it wouldn't recognize the card. The third spot where it "fit" is where it worked.

First minor feature I'm really liking is the ability to mark books as read.

[Dulin's Books]

Hey I just transferred a file from my phone to the 902 i hadnt tried the bluetooth at all even on the 602. it was just a "name card" from the contacts but it went without a hitch

mind you my phone is a 2 + year old samsung juke dumbphone/mp3 player so it there isnt much else to send

[0utis]

Originally Posted by Roos

My Ubuntu sees the pocketbook fine, just not always.. i plug in, choose PC-Link on the reader (it then goes to a screen with a circle with arrows) and most of the times he sees it fine, sometimes he does not, then i un-plug, wait till reader drops back to menu, then re-plug it, and repeat the pc-link step.. never failed yet.
setting the configuration>USB to PC-Link maybe fixes things.. Strange thing is, even then he asks if you want pc-link or charge even on pc-link it charges btw, at least the blinking orange led makes me believe so.

Lets hope the new firmware fixes that

Same here. My SO is Debian. I I have noticed that if I connect the cable first to the reader, then to the computer, it doesn't detect it. But if I do it the other way round, it does Weird. Maybe the cable is faulty? I don't have any other to try...

I received my reader yesterday and I didn't have much time to play with it. But I want to say that the screen looks the same as the sony prs-505's. Maybe even a tad whiter - but that's a subjective appreciation, of course. My sony is silver and the 902 is black, so there is that.

I had several problems with the wireless. I don't have a dhcp server on the network and choosing a static ip is not working at all. The reader says that it is connected to my network but it isn't resolving even if the dns are right. Does anyone know a thread to troubleshoot the network settings on the pocketbooks?

[Roos]

Originally Posted by 0utis

Same here. My SO is Debian. I I have noticed that if I connect the cable first to the reader, then to the computer, it doesn't detect it. But if I do it the other way round, it does Weird. Maybe the cable is faulty? I don't have any other to try...

Same here, with 3 different cables so that's not it

I received my reader yesterday and I didn't have much time to play with it. But I want to say that the screen looks the same as the sony prs-505's. Maybe even a tad whiter - but that's a subjective appreciation, of course. My sony is silver and the 902 is black, so there is that.

My Sony 300 is silver, the 902 white, still the 902 seems a little 'brighter' (lighter grey?) then the 300, maybe the larger surface does that, maybe it just is a bit 'whiter'
No idea how to fix your network problems..

[mkaluza]

Originally Posted by 0utis

I received my reader yesterday and I didn't have much time to play with it. But I want to say that the screen looks the same as the sony prs-505's. Maybe even a tad whiter - but that's a subjective appreciation, of course. My sony is silver and the 902 is black, so there is that.

Could you post a picture of prs 505 and 902 side by side(equal lighting conditions are important), on some uniform backgroud(preferably white sheet of paper), displaying the same content(text/pdf/whatever)? And another one with readers displaying a black image (to see, how black is black )

I also have 505 and I'm thinking hard whether I should upgrade to 902/3, or wait till next generation with pearl screens. Seeing the difference (if any) in image quality would be helpful.

Martin

[0utis]

@mkluza, I am sorry but I just found out my camera is not working . Hopefully someone other will step on.

[Cid]

@EricLandes I would like to get a bit more info on the perceived speed of the devices interface in relation to the Kindles. I'm looking at getting a new 5/6" reader for traveling and a 9" reader for home use, and while I prefer the 902 for its reflow capability, reading 20+ seconds to open files is a SCARE. Also the interface from the videos that I have seen so far seems very sluggish.

How does the interface experience compare between the PB and the Kindle (aside from the speed aspect)?

Do you have any experience with alternative firmware for the Kindle (specifically Doukan which adds epub and PDF reflow support?)?