HUGE E-Ink Tablets!

[toronado]

Originally Posted by rem736

i actually purchased the samsung galaxy tab pro 12.2 from the local costco and tried it out for just one afternoon before i finally decided that it wasn't up to par and returned it the next day.

for some reason, they have the home button programmed to bring up google search every time it's touched. and with the home button slightly raised from the main surface, i ended up touching it a lot with my thumb when holding it portrait mode for viewing. not only that, it also seems that the unit has been programmed to bring up google search every time you shake it. that's fine, but i swear i wasn't shaking it. every time i move it around, google search pops up, hindering whatever i was trying to do. putting it on a table, if i happened to bump against the table, google search would pop up. and as far as i could see, there's no way to change the behavior of the home button. and shouldn't it just go to the home screen by default? to get to the home screen, you have to touch the home button twice.

the other thing that infuriated me and had me deciding to return it was that when i was scrolling up and down the sd cards directory to open up a book via the aldiko app, it would close every time i try to open up a directory. it would also close every time my scrolling reached the bottom of the list.

i got so frustrated that i never actually opened up an ebook to see what it would look like. i just reset it, charged it overnight, and returned it the next day.

google, if you are listening (or crawling this web page), please make a 12-13 inch version of the nexus tablet.

OMG that's HORRIBLE! I would have returned it too. But I think Costco has a pretty long return policy, and it might have been worth it to keep it longer and try to figure out some software solutions to those problems. But I can understand being frustrated with a brand new product and not wanting to have to "fix" something right out of the box.

Are you thinking this problem is due to the Samsung implementation of Android, and not the "vanilla" builds like you might find on the Nexus products?

[rem736]

Originally Posted by toronado

Are you thinking this problem is due to the Samsung implementation of Android, and not the "vanilla" builds like you might find on the Nexus products?

definitely. i can't understand why samsung just doesn't use the vanilla ui. it would be less work for them. i have a nexus 7 (2013) and there has been no problem other than the gps fix (which google also fixed a while back). just wanted an e-ink 12-13 inch device for pdfs and thought that maybe this was the solution rather than spending over $1K for the sony e-ink 13.3" pdf reader.

[toronado]

Originally Posted by rem736

just wanted an e-ink 12-13 inch device for pdfs

There must be a powerful lobby against these from the publishers of paper textbooks. Otherwise I don't understand why this is taking so long to become a reality.

[j.p.s]

Originally Posted by toronado

OMG that's HORRIBLE! I would have returned it too. But I think Costco has a pretty long return policy, and it might have been worth it to keep it longer and try to figure out some software solutions to those problems. But I can understand being frustrated with a brand new product and not wanting to have to "fix" something right out of the box.

Manufacturers need strong, swift feedback in terms they understand (returns) when they do horribly wrong things.

Many products containing software have crippling (for some) bugs out the gate that are not fixed until the next major release, which will not run except on later hardware revisions. This next release makes changes which break some of the existing working functionality and introduces new features, some of which have crippling bugs. Lather, rinse, repeat.

[Sil_liS]

Originally Posted by toronado

There must be a powerful lobby against these from the publishers of paper textbooks. Otherwise I don't understand why this is taking so long to become a reality.

Do you remember the 14" Kno? It didn't make it to the market most probably because of the weight http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/k...ands-on-video/

[toronado]

Originally Posted by Sil_liS

Do you remember the 14" Kno? It didn't make it to the market most probably because of the weight http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/k...ands-on-video/

The problems is the (tablet) show is now run by Apple. They hold all the cards in the deck, and for some reason, even though they are pro-education (or at least they used to be) they are anti-stylus.

This Kno with it's awesome stylus and palm rejection is exactly the type of thing that is needed. And Apple could do this and get it right with light weight, etc., but they have some sort of "minivans and wagons are bad, and SUVs are good" complex about anything with a stylus.

[rem736]

i got via email a note from pocketbook on their planned release of the Pocketbook CAD Reader:
Thank you for your interest in Pocketbook products.
Pocketbook CAD Reader is under development; this model will come into the market in the second half of the 2014 (approximately in November-December), and the device will become available for order online on our official webpage. The price will be announced later. More information on this model can be found in this video https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J5yE...M3pyfB3CNNSM1g
Pocketbook Cad Reader will support the following formats: PDF, PDF (DRM), EPUB, EPUB(DRM), DJVU, FB2, FB2.ZIP, DOC, DOCX, RTF, PRC, TCR, TXT, CHM, HTM, HTML, DWG

this will certainly be the one most people will flock to compared to the sony 13.3" given that it is priced almost 50% cheaper. with the change to the new screen, the price may increase. but i think it will still be much cheaper than the sony. that, and the fact that it will support a lot more file formats.

[Kumabjorn]

Pen support for annotations?

[rem736]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

Pen support for annotations?

the-digital-reader.com says that it will have both wacom touchscreen and capacitive touchscreen capabilities

[rkomar]

On current PB devices, you can mark up PDF files, but the changes aren't folded into the documents. They reside on the internal filesystem in some proprietary (but readable) format. Unless they come up with a new PDF reading app, I wouldn't expect to use the device as a generic PDF annotator where you can distribute the results to other places. Maybe there's an external tool for folding in the annotations, but it would be extra work to use if it exists.

Since it's meant to be a device for viewing CAD files, I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't change the current PDF reading apps at all.

[Kumabjorn]

So, very proprietary then. Bummer!

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by Kumabjorn

So, very proprietary then. Bummer!

The "notes" are stored as HTML, PNG and SVG, so I don't doubt that they could be somehow integrated into the PDF file off the device. They don't seem to be secret in any way, but I doubt that they are in any kind of standard format (at least they didn't used to be), so would require some kind of custom application to do the integration. In any case, if the same PDF reading apps are used on the CAD Reader, then it really isn't nearly as advanced for PDF work as the Sony device (which is meant for PDF document annotating and sharing).

[Tarana]

Honestly, I could see a lot of folks with low vision wanting something like this. Not as portable, but would make reading much easier. Also, would be PERFECT for cross stitch and cooking PDFs. Particularly when it's a step-by-step that doesn't print out well.

[ManDay]

Originally Posted by Tarana

Honestly, I could see a lot of folks with low vision wanting something like this. Not as portable, but would make reading much easier. Also, would be PERFECT for cross stitch and cooking PDFs. Particularly when it's a step-by-step that doesn't print out well.

The only people not seeing the interest in large e-readers are the companies capable of manufacturing them, it appears. Take practically everyone who has to deal with a lot of documents (traditionally paper) which has sensibly to be read at full scale.

Contrary to ridiculously equipped smart-phones which, apparently every 10 year-old today must have, large e-readers are actually 100% purposeful and will, once word gets around, with even greater certainty be purchased by all those people having just the slightest need for it.

I frankly don't understand how there are a dozen established e-reader companies all of which are obsessed with 6" devices. Bluntly speaking, it strikes me as utterly ignorant.

[toronado]

Originally Posted by ManDay

The only people not seeing the interest in large e-readers are the companies capable of manufacturing them, it appears. Take practically everyone who has to deal with a lot of documents (traditionally paper) which has sensibly to be read at full scale.

Contrary to ridiculously equipped smart-phones which, apparently every 10 year-old today must have, large e-readers are actually 100% purposeful and will, once word gets around, with even greater certainty be purchased by all those people having just the slightest need for it.

I frankly don't understand how there are a dozen established e-reader companies all of which are obsessed with 6" devices. Bluntly speaking, it strikes me as utterly ignorant.

Very well put. 6" must just be a standard "book" size. I suppose the market they are going for are people who traditionally buy paper books for casual reading. They aren't interested in making something useful for professionals.

Same goes for all those smartphones.

It must be that the largest markets are non-professionals.