Report on new firmware?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Snuffi

Next thing I am curious about is the UMTS/GPRS modem. No indication of whether you can actually use it with your own provider or if it's same thing as Kindle and just connects to the txtr portal.

GSM has to have a SIM card, doesn't it? Not that that necessarily implies that it can be used with arbitrary telecoms providers, but it at least gives it the potential to be flexible.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by CyGuy

Well, it's Monday. The new firmware with folder support is supposed to be available today. Link?

It has to be Monday in Bookeenland. Monday outside Bookeenland doesn't matter.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by marcinJ13

I was thinking about buying Opus for my girlfriend. However there will be released another ebook Reader in Poland (www.eclicto.pl) which seems to use the same hardware as Gen3. It is more likely to have firmware updates more often than once a century.

Don't buy any reader based on what might be available in the future. Buy a reader based on what it can do at the time of purchase. That way, you won't be disappointed if nothing gets updated.

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Don't buy any reader based on what might be available in the future. Buy a reader based on what it can do at the time of purchase. That way, you won't be disappointed if nothing gets updated.

A truer word isn't spoken on this forum. I bought my cybook on what it could do a year ago and I'm still enjoying every minute of it..

[emellaich]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

there is nothing really "wrong" with the Cybook Gen3 ....

GeoffC, I am curious about the current status of the Gen3. I certainly don't mean to be inflamatory (but I'm afraid I will sound so). I haven't had my Gen3 for most of a year now, so can you tell me how it stands with:

1) Button presses. It seemed to me that it took multiple button presses to advance the page sometimes -- not always. It was also a bit stiff. Of course, some of this was the fault of the first generation case that made the button hard to get to.
2) Resets. It seemed it would reset every day or two. I must admit on this one, that I sent my original unit back in because of a faulty SD card and the replacement was better. However, I still believe it had semi-regular resets.
3) Navigating through a large library. Between the button presses and the slow page turns and the lack of folders it would take me quite a while to get to the back of the library. The cover view with 20 (?) per page wasn't too useful because the covers were too small to see the title and the titles were truncated to be just a few characters. On the other hand the five (?) per page version meant that I had even more pages to go through.
4) About once per book it would loose its place in the book. This meant I had to page through it looking for my place. Again, this may have been related to the bad SD card in the first unit.
5) Ergonomically, I didn't like that the page turn button was only on the lower right. This also meant a bit awkward grip. You had to pinch it by the lower right to turn pages and it also meant that your grasp was not that firm -- this may be why I eventually dropped mine and had its screen smashed.

It may be that the newer case design and better navigation button in the newer units have solved some of these problems? And maybe the software with a good SD reader is more stable than I remember it? If folders ever come out it will certainly help with the long page advance time in the library.

The one thing that won't be helped, however is the use of only one page advance button.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by emellaich

GeoffC, I am curious about the current status of the Gen3. I certainly don't mean to be inflamatory (but I'm afraid I will sound so). I haven't had my Gen3 for most of a year now, so can you tell me how it stands with:

1) Button presses. It seemed to me that it took multiple button presses to advance the page sometimes -- not always. It was also a bit stiff. Of course, some of this was the fault of the first generation case that made the button hard to get to.
2) Resets. It seemed it would reset every day or two. I must admit on this one, that I sent my original unit back in because of a faulty SD card and the replacement was better. However, I still believe it had semi-regular resets.
3) Navigating through a large library. Between the button presses and the slow page turns and the lack of folders it would take me quite a while to get to the back of the library. The cover view with 20 (?) per page wasn't too useful because the covers were too small to see the title and the titles were truncated to be just a few characters. On the other hand the five (?) per page version meant that I had even more pages to go through.
4) About once per book it would loose its place in the book. This meant I had to page through it looking for my place. Again, this may have been related to the bad SD card in the first unit.
5) Ergonomically, I didn't like that the page turn button was only on the lower right. This also meant a bit awkward grip. You had to pinch it by the lower right to turn pages and it also meant that your grasp was not that firm -- this may be why I eventually dropped mine and had its screen smashed.

It may be that the newer case design and better navigation button in the newer units have solved some of these problems? And maybe the software with a good SD reader is more stable than I remember it? If folders ever come out it will certainly help with the long page advance time in the library.

The one thing that won't be helped, however is the use of only one page advance button.

1) Yes, it happens but not to everyone apparently. For me, it seems to happen much less often since I've had the upgrade (sorry, don't mean to gloat guys)

2) Do you mean reset on its own? This happened to me at the beginning, the Cybook just went crazy restarting on its own. I read it's, or was, a bit unreliable before completing a couple of battery recharge cycles. Since then I don't think it's happened to me again, but it does freeze once in a while so I have to reset it. This has been happening a lot lately and it worries me.

3) Yes, navigating is rather slow. Again, the upgrade brought a marked improvement. I'm not too crazy about the folders personally because you have less pages to go through, but then you need to navigate to the folder you want and open it. I created forlders by type of books, but at the moment I am reading two novels and a history book, and it's not a very practical organization. I guess I'll just go back to reducing the number of books I have loaded, and maybe just create a folder for books I want to have around
but am not reading very often.

4) This only happens to me when I had to reset following a freeze, so I guess it would be connected to your problem in 2. I don't think it's typical.

5) I agree. From what I saw of the Opus the ergonomy is much better, and also since it's smaller and lighter it fits better in one hand.

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by HarryT

GSM has to have a SIM card, doesn't it? Not that that necessarily implies that it can be used with arbitrary telecoms providers, but it at least gives it the potential to be flexible.

True in theory but as the Kindle shows that flexibility resides entirely on the theoretical side.
1) You cannot change to any provider you fancy there because Amazon has a special contract with certain providers.
2) On the Kindle the use of your mobile connection is limited severely by Amazon. You can basically only do what they allow you to.
Although I think the latter is not a serious restriction because I doubt that you can productively surf the web/download/etc. on an eInk device anyway.

With the txtr it'll be interesting to see how they are going to use the GSM connection. As they are nowhere near the size of Amazon I doubt that they can get special contracts from providers which means their portal should be optional.

On their homepage they promise the ability to run 3rd party "applications" (though I assume they would really be more like plugins than full-blown applications) on the device. If those applications can use the GSM connection that would really have the potential for some very useful mobile apps.

[EowynCarter]

3) Yes, navigating is rather slow. Again, the upgrade brought a marked improvement. I'm not too crazy about the folders personally because you have less pages to go through, but then you need to navigate to the folder you want and open it. I created forlders by type of books, but at the moment I am reading two novels and a history book, and it's not a very practical organization. I guess I'll just go back to reducing the number of books I have loaded, and maybe just create a folder for books I want to have around
but am not reading very often.

There is an option not to use folders if you don't want them.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

There is an option not to use folders if you don't want them.

Well of course, I don't have to use them if I don't want to, I think that's rather obvious I was just saying I don't think they are a great improvement. But it's all a question of personal preferences. I was not especially waiting for them, or for an upgrade in general. I am happy on the whole with the way my Cybook works, and I'm happy that the speed has improved with the upgrade but I don't see what all the fuss is about. Again, just my personal view.

[GeoffC]

emellaich, FlorenceArt
Okay :
I have a Gen3, 512mb, running f/w 681.
I've had it over a year as it was a replacement for a 64mb that was problematical. I don't use a card, nor do I use bookmarks, but use dictionary lookup - with one dictionary and one thesaurus loaded.

I use it daily, charging once a week...

I have never had to reset it.

Library navigation is lousy, even with as few as 113 books. Dictionary lookup is slow.

Otherwise it does what I expected of it when I bought the original.

Only one other comment - don't switch off whilst browsing Terry Pratchett footnotes, that really confuses it ! ....

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by emellaich

The one thing that won't be helped, however is the use of only one page advance button.

Hey, I missed that bit the first time. Actually that's not exactly true, with the new upgrade you can keep the advance button pressed and page through. Maybe not exactly what you wanted? But it's a nice improvement.

[FlorenceArt]

Originally Posted by GeoffC

Only one other comment - don't switch off whilst browsing Terry Pratchett footnotes, that really confuses it ! ....

Ouch, yes, it must be rather confusing

[tompe]

Originally Posted by FlorenceArt

1) Yes, it happens but not to everyone apparently. For me, it seems to happen much less often since I've had the upgrade (sorry, don't mean to gloat guys)

It happens very seldom for me but the fix for this probably caused the bad battery time. I am still waiting to get the battery time that was in the Cybook when I bought it. This is a serious bug for me.

2) Do you mean reset on its own? This happened to me at the beginning, the Cybook just went crazy restarting on its own. I read it's, or was, a bit unreliable before completing a couple of battery recharge cycles. Since then I don't think it's happened to me again, but it does freeze once in a while so I have to reset it. This has been happening a lot lately and it worries me.

This happens quite often if you read HTML or PDF.

[emellaich]

It sounds like it still has some of the same problems I experienced, but that I may have had even more of them because I had a first generation (64MB) device. At the time I bought it, the Bookeen was the only generally available e-ink device. Sony's reader at the time was Japan only. As an early adopter, I lived with a lot of early adopter issues.

However, I was (and am) satisfied with my purchase after years of reading on smaller and less comfortable devices. I knew that as an early adopter there would be some quirks. If Bookeen was the only game in town I'd still be on their side because of the improvements over PDA's and other similar devices. However, most of their advantages are from the eink screen and the technology is available from others now. For me (I live in the U.S.) the best thing about my Kindle is that it works reliably. Page turns are easy and it only rarely needs a restart. All the buttons work and do what they are supposed to do.

Amazon isn't any better at software updates than Bookeen, but they appear to have taken a bit more care in their initial design. For example, although it doesn't have folders they aren't as necessary. I can type in an "R" and go directly to titles or authors that start with R. It also has a useful search function.

There are two different models for software creation. An iterative model that builds through multiple releases. You release early and often and work to continually improve. And a plan-driven model where you take longer, but you build it once and build it right the first time. I am OK with either approach, but I actually prefer the iterative approach. The problem, is that Bookeen didn't follow through on their initial rough release. They acted like they were done.

So, I was quite fine with Bookeen's generally unfinished software because it allowed me to be an early purchaser. If they would have continued to update their software, I might have faced growing pains, but I would have been comfortable with it. Instead, what was the best solution (because it was the only solution) has become eclipsed by others.

p.s. I know that I started out by mentioning my 'first generation' device. However, these generations have been because of changes at Netronix. The software itself has been relatively static.

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by emellaich

All the buttons work and do what they are supposed to do.

It's pretty mean to say that in a Cybook forum. Why do you tease us so?