New Firmware Upgrade coming Friday-Monday

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by wpeace

Am I to read this correctly you're replacing the battery charge indicator?
I'd really like to have both

Doesn't it imply both being present when he writes that the clock will be "near where the Battery Charge icon is"? On the Lbook firmware they co-exist side by side, and also with the page count/total pages data. All three are there. An improvement that I would like to see is to have the battery charge indicator steps be in 1% or 10% increments instead of the current 25% increments.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Doesn't it imply both being present when he writes that the clock will be "near where the Battery Charge icon is"? On the Lbook firmware they co-exist side by side, and also with the page count/total pages data. All three are there. An improvement that I would like to see is to have the battery charge indicator steps be in 1% or 10% increments instead of the current 25% increments.

Yes, because when you receive the advice "charge it when it is just a bit under half full" it actually means you should charge it when it shows 2 out of 4 bars i.e. 50%, because the next step is 25%, too low.

[ThomasMcKean]

Originally Posted by diokdin

Great!

Yes. It is very good news. Now all we need is the promised ereader support. But that is something I really can't complain about. Or if I do (or if anyone else does), it should at least be to the right people.

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by ekaser

It's a matter of taste, and is better illustrated with two examples, the one above, that easily shows what's being done, and the one below that shows the actual results. The "anti-aliasing" is done to 'smooth' the edges of the characters, to get rid of the 'jaggedness' caused by discrete, individual stepping of "all on" or "all off" pixels. At REALLY small font sizes, the non-anti-aliased will actually be more readable, but at any half-way decent resolution (giving enough pixels to work with), the anti-aliased will look much better.

Attachment 40583

(Okay, I give up. You'll have to click on the image to see it full-sized, as I can't remember now WHAT you have to do to get a stupid image to show up full-sized IN the post. Sigh.)

Ah! I see what you mean! In that case the anti-aliasing does look better!

[Laura81]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Yes, I have heard all the comments about the need to read LIT better. The factory believes the problem is only with "large" LIT files. I will have the engineers go to work on trying to improve the LIT function so it works better and faster and will do larger files.

They are incorrect. The LIT file I was trying to read was only 535kb and I couldn't even get it to open. The PP just froze and I had to reset it. Only once when I tried did it open it and even then the page turns were very slow. The next time I tried with a different file 800kb, it again froze and would not open the file at all.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Doesn't it imply both being present when he writes that the clock will be "near where the Battery Charge icon is"? On the Lbook firmware they co-exist side by side, and also with the page count/total pages data. All three are there. An improvement that I would like to see is to have the battery charge indicator steps be in 1% or 10% increments instead of the current 25% increments.

Is the clock on the LBook firmware an option to have it displayed? My personal preference is not to have a clock, so being able to turn it off would be great.

[ThomasMcKean]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Is the clock on the LBook firmware an option to have it displayed? My personal preference is not to have a clock, so being able to turn it off would be great.

There is division on the forums about this. My own preference is to have one. Right now (as I await firmware to make the PP what it has the potential to be) I am using Allreader+ to read ebooks. This program has the option to have a clock in the background of the text. But yew can set the color. So I have it set very faint so I can barely see it. I have to turn the device toward the light to see the clock, but it is always there. At the same time, it doesn't distract me from the reading.

Works out quite well.

It will be interesting to see if the clock is optional or not.

[Javed]

Originally Posted by Solicitous

Is the clock on the LBook firmware an option to have it displayed? My personal preference is not to have a clock, so being able to turn it off would be great.

agree

[Javed]

I wonder if a dictionary will be in the update?

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by ThomasMcKean

That's very interesting! Yew are putting forth that the problem is not with the reader or the device, but rather with the files?

I suppose I could see that ... MAYBE ... with some .mobi files, but my understanding is no one has gotten the .lit files to work properly.

In the case of .mobi, the errors do seem to be random. Sometimes they work, sometimes they don't, sometimes they freeze half way through and sometimes it is never a problem. Under these circumstances, being as the problem is very intermittent, it will be quite difficult to track down.

In the case of .lit, I would say it is much more likely the reader than the files...

Well without use of log files I have all but concluded the issue with my fb2 files. I have loaded the LBook firmware on to my PP and all of my fb2 files open quickly and without issue (including images). Looking at the firmware the fb2 parser date V2.00.091024 and the version on the latest Astak firmware is V2.00.080531, so just over 12 months difference.

I don't know how up to date Jinke keep their source code repository but the fb2 parser available to download in the lbook version dated 20081223.

Robert, it is a bit late for this new firmware update, but can I request for the next update we have the current fb2 parser compiled in? The Coolreader source repository has not been updated in a while but with the source being GPL'd surely the latest can be requested from LBook.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by ThomasMcKean

Yes. It is very good news. Now all we need is the promised ereader support. But that is something I really can't complain about. Or if I do (or if anyone else does), it should at least be to the right people.

Dear Thomas:

Dealing with Fictionwise (owners of eReader) alone was an easy and wonderful thing. We expected and saw no problem. Then, in an instant, Fictionwise got purchased by Barnes & Noble. Nobody saw it coming.

Suddenly 2 page contracts became 60 page contracts, prices went way up, and that horrible word "EXCLUSIVITY" started appearing. Exclusivity often means you cannot have more than one format on the device. Trying to get clarification is a 9 week event going thru B&N lawyers and you really cannot understand the clarification anyway as it is not clear (no offence intended towards B&N).

Please be aware that Astak has no control over things like this. Everybody seems to be buying up the smaller players and that changes all the rules.

We are still actively pursuing eReader and if enough lawyers get out of the way and talk plain old English we may still be able to make this work. It is frustrating for you, I know... but more frustrating for us. We WANT to provide it to you.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Javed

I wonder if a dictionary will be in the update?

Dear javed:

The factory engineers are on this and Dale DePriest (moderator) is helping. The factory seems to be on the right path. Yes, I hoped it would be in this Firmware Upgrade also, but it is not. Some things take a bit longer.

I will stay on this, I have long battled for it, and the factory and I will talk eye-to-eye at CES about the need and what the schedule is.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Laura81

They are incorrect. The LIT file I was trying to read was only 535kb and I couldn't even get it to open. The PP just froze and I had to reset it. Only once when I tried did it open it and even then the page turns were very slow. The next time I tried with a different file 800kb, it again froze and would not open the file at all.

Dear Laura:

This is what I needed. Clear and succinct. I will include this in my once weekly request to the factory engineers! I want to get this LIT thing straightened out and solved!

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Doesn't it imply both being present when he writes that the clock will be "near where the Battery Charge icon is"? On the Lbook firmware they co-exist side by side, and also with the page count/total pages data. All three are there. An improvement that I would like to see is to have the battery charge indicator steps be in 1% or 10% increments instead of the current 25% increments.

Dear Dave:

No, they will not remove or cover over the Battery Charge icon. It will go just to the left of it from what they told me.

Somebody else wrote about 10% increments on the Battery Charge Life meter. Remember, it is a rough guide and not a gas gauge on a car (although they aren't too exact either lately). Please do not look at that gauge as an infallible and exact measurement. Essentially, it is to tell you: "you are fine on charge, you are fine but getting low, you have a problem coming soon if you do not recharge, and recharge or I will throw a temper tantrum".

[Javed]

Originally Posted by Robertb

Dear javed:

The factory engineers are on this and Dale DePriest (moderator) is helping. The factory seems to be on the right path. Yes, I hoped it would be in this Firmware Upgrade also, but it is not. Some things take a bit longer.

I will stay on this, I have long battled for it, and the factory and I will talk eye-to-eye at CES about the need and what the schedule is.

Robert.
I am so excited that it is in development and just to know that it is actually going to happen. I can definitely be patient and wait a bit longer, as it is worth waiting for. Thanks also to Engineers and DaleDe for working on this.