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Old 12-04-2009, 08:54 AM   #1
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PDF Reflow and PDF speed

My DR is off for repair under my home insurance.

In the meantime I've gotten an Astak Pocket Pro. A little baby 5" reader for my novels.

Out of sheer curiosity I threw one of my PDF textbooks at it.

Not only does the Pocket Pro flip through the book faster than the DR1000 did in full screen mode. I can zoom into the document and it'll reflow the PDF and the textbook is actually very readable on the 5" screen as a result. OK, that's just one text book, but I'll check more!

I'm stunned. The Pocket Pro was really cheap by comparison to the DR.

Was PDF reflow on the DR and I missed it or what?
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Old 12-04-2009, 01:57 PM   #2
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The DR1000 doesn't reflow, it just zooms. You can then scroll around with the stylus.
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Old 12-04-2009, 02:40 PM   #3
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Yeah, I know it does that ;-)

However reflow would be a very nice alternative, I was just wondering if that was an option I'd missed.
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Old 12-04-2009, 03:22 PM   #4
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Maybe with the upcoming Adobe DE based PDF viewer. We probably won't know until it's available though.

What is the PDF reader on the Pocket Pro based off of?
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Old 12-04-2009, 05:25 PM   #5
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How does the Pocket Pro deal with images in your PDF when it's re-flowing everything around?
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Old 12-04-2009, 06:44 PM   #6
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The image takes up the width of the screen and if there's room for text above or below, then it's displayed.

I actually don't know who provides the pdf viewing software on the Astak, their forum might know.

I hope my insurance will fix my DR though, but it's bizarre that this much smaller device is allowing me to do alot of the stuff I could do on my DR and quicker. Bizarre and a little depressing.
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Old 12-04-2009, 07:44 PM   #7
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this much smaller device is allowing me to do alot of the stuff I could do on my DR and quicker. Bizarre and a little depressing.
Now that I know there are faster devices I don't even want to look at my dr I'm selling it tomorrow
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Old 12-04-2009, 10:44 PM   #8
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Selling your DR for a faster device??? I love the fact that I can hit the on button and then get in a power nap before the device fully loads up. It keeps me energized for my long reading sessions.
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Old 12-05-2009, 01:10 AM   #9
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You guys picked up on my two pet peeves with Iliad gear - slow boot-up time and lack of PDF reflow.
I don't know what iRex boffins are thinking. It's very nice to have all these spiffy features, but to be beaten by a device that is an order of magnitude cheaper on basic functionality speaks volumes ...
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Old 12-05-2009, 05:49 AM   #10
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The display of the DR1000 is about four times larger than the Astak's so it's not surprising that the rendering and updating takes longer. Reflowing PDF might seem straightforward but reformatting a paged based layout of such a complex file format is not exactly trivial. As far as I know, only the Adobe engine can do that, so I presume Astak uses it (as does DR800). It 's also a whole lot faster than the open source PDF renderer used by DR1000.
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Old 12-05-2009, 07:46 AM   #11
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Originally Posted by Gertjan View Post
The display of the DR1000 is about four times larger than the Astak's so it's not surprising that the rendering and updating takes longer. Reflowing PDF might seem straightforward but reformatting a paged based layout of such a complex file format is not exactly trivial. As far as I know, only the Adobe engine can do that, so I presume Astak uses it (as does DR800). It 's also a whole lot faster than the open source PDF renderer used by DR1000.
Hi Gertjan - I don't mean to criticise, but if Irex people had put as much effort in delivering functionality that matters to users as much as they have to providing "optional extras", this problem could have been solved ages ago.
Do you have an theory as to the boot up time on Iliad devices? Why isn't there a sleep option?

Unfortunatelly for Irex at the end of the day the marketplace will judge the success of their strategy. I for one don't think I'll be buying another Irex device ...
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Old 12-05-2009, 10:03 AM   #12
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When the DR1000 was introduced, the Adobe Mobile SDK didn't even exist. When Adobe anounced their SDK (February this year), IREX was among the first companies to license the technology. Unfortunately there is no firmware release for DR1000 yet, but the forthcoming DR800 is said to use it.

As for the Iliad, as far as I know there are hardware limitations which prevent decent sleep or hibernate functionality. I agree this could have been solved but it's no suprise that IREX does not actively develop for this device anymore. Given the form factor, DR800 is its obvious successor of the Illiad, and it does feature semi-instant resume from standby.

Last edited by Gertjan; 12-05-2009 at 12:02 PM. Reason: fixed typo
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Old 12-05-2009, 11:18 AM   #13
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Originally Posted by junkyardwillie View Post
Selling your DR for a faster device??? I love the fact that I can hit the on button and then get in a power nap before the device fully loads up. It keeps me energized for my long reading sessions.
My remark was ment to be ironic I love my dr
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Old 12-05-2009, 01:11 PM   #14
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I still love my DR, however after having had it for almost a year and having broken it and now having to buy the new one from Astak.

I have the DR to read Microsoft text books. I have to commute to and from work on the bus. On a crowded bus, I couldn't bring out the DR and when I could, by the time it had booted up and I'd clicked into the book I was reading, I'd have enough time to read 2/3 pages before I arrived at work.

This last couple of days using the Pocket Pro, I am able to pull it out on a crowded bus. I just press the power button to release it from its barely power draining keys locked state (yes REAL keys). I was able to consistently and clearly read 10 or more pages in PDF reflowed mode, with readble diagrams, on the bus.

Plus I could put it back into its key locked mode and pick it up throughout the day in ways that the DR's slow boot up time, lack of suspend and inability to reopen into the document you were reading last made just casual reading unfeasible a lot of the time. I'm actually powering through my current textbook in a way that I have never been able to do with the DR thanks to its various power and feature related limitations.

Also the lack of the PP's ability to open and keep open 4 documents is rendered irrelevant by the PP's main 8 long recently opened document list and lightning fast open times to the last page and state each document was open with.

It's great to be able to open one document and view that in landscape and close that and open another and view it in portrait and then close that and reopen the landscape document. No need to rotate the entire device!

Just saying that I'm shocked that this £150 device is proving incredibly more usable than I was expecting compared to my £400+ (forgot how much I paid) device.

The larger screen, better resolution and greyscale remains main reasons to buy the DR, but one of the reasons I bought it for, the writing ability, never proved a viable replacement for paper.

I still want my DR back from insurance replacement. I just am surprised that how little I'm missing it now I have the Astak.

Last edited by omro; 12-05-2009 at 01:14 PM.
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Old 12-06-2009, 12:09 AM   #15
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Gertjan View Post
When the DR1000 was introduced, the Adobe Mobile SDK didn't even exist. When Adobe anounced their SDK (February this year), IREX was among the first companies to license the technology. Unfortunately there is no firmware release for DR1000 yet, but the forthcoming DR800 is said to use it.

As for the Iliad, as far as I know there are hardware limitations which prevent decent sleep or hibernate functionality. I agree this could have been solved but it's no suprise that IREX does not actively develop for this device anymore. Given the form factor, DR800 is its obvious successor of the Illiad, and it does feature semi-instant resume from standby.
Thanks for your answer Gertjan, I appreciate the thoroughness.
However, your point on hardware limitation just reinforces what I said earlier - Irex paid attention to all the wrong details of their product.
I think the KISS principle is lost to Irex design team and management.
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