Bebook January update available

[imaredr]

I was just over at mybebook.com and there is a new firmware update for the reader.

Ellen

[pox67]

Yep, I just updated.

Everything went OK and the files on the internal memory are still there.

The only change I see is that mobi formatting is much better. I think I will buy books in this format from now on.

[imaredr]

I haven't updated just yet. I have been looking for something that lists the fixes in this new update, but haven't found anything. I am hoping there is better lit file support.

Ellen

[Moe The Cat]

Ganwalf, over on the BeBooks forum, stated that page turning for LIT files was now faster (although 2 of 4 LIT files he tried would not open at all).

In the same post, ianblackburn said that Mobipocket support is improved, with proper spacing between characters now.

[pox67]

Originally Posted by imaredr

I haven't updated just yet. I have been looking for something that lists the fixes in this new update, but haven't found anything. I am hoping there is better lit file support.

Ellen

Unfortunately LIT doesn't seem to have got much of an overhaul.
The default font size is still to small and when magnifying it the pages don't reflow so you get a few lines on the next page. Words are also split over lines still with this format. For me it isn't usable.

Mobi got a great update though.
Last night I bought 6 books from BoB in mobi format and they all look great on the BeBook.

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by Moe The Cat

In the same post, ianblackburn said that Mobipocket support is improved, with proper spacing between characters now.

Yup, Mobipocket looks good now. It's very readable, it's just not yet really usable: Apart from the configurability (more fonts, configurable font size, interline spacing, etc.) I have two major complaints about the Mobipocket app, both about the navigation.

1. Using the TOC is way more involved than it has any right to be, and it seems to be unreliable, too. The standard behaviour on the V3 clones is for the "7" key to bring up a navigable TOC, and then for 1-8 to select a TOC entry and for 9 and 0 to page through the TOC, and that's what it should do for Mobipocket, too. Having to switch on Follow Link to actually use the TOC sucks.

And for some books, it doesn't bring up the TOC at all, even if one is available. But that may be an issue with those books - the Mobipocket Desktop navigates to the title page (or to whatever page is immediately before the TOC?) for those same books.

2. Bookmarks don't seem to work. At all. But at least it remembers your current position in the book.

While they're at it, I wish the BeBook people would follow the example of previous lBook releases and use crengine for txt files instead of the Jinke txt reader. That way, PG text files would be readable directly without conversion...

[leandroide]

Originally Posted by Gudy

2. Bookmarks don't seem to work. At all. But at least it remembers your current position in the book.

They do work for me. You press 6 (bookmarks button) and then press Ok. You can add or delete bookmarks.

It is not very straightforward, but it works.

L.

[Gudy]

Originally Posted by leandroide

They do work for me. You press 6 (bookmarks button) and then press Ok. You can add or delete bookmarks.

It is not very straightforward, but it works.

*checks*

That's indeed not very straightforward at all. More importantly it is also, just like with the TOC, not how this works in the other reader apps. Since I as a user should not have to care which of the supported formats a book is in (apart from things that are simply not supported by the format, like a TOC in txt files) in order to use it, the biggest, most important bug for Mobipocket on the V3 clones seems to me to be the lack of user interface integration. There is, quite simply, no good reason why the TOC and bookmarks for Mobipocket books shouldn't work the same as in all other formats.

[wiffel]

I kind of like FBReader to read most of my books. And I like to be able to read Plucker files.

So, I patched the latest firmware from BeBook to include FBReader. (thanks to the previous work from Lunohod and iStealth)

I'm not sure if somebody is interested, but you can download it at :
www.tilient.net/bebook/V3update.zip

This patched firmware opens RTF, TXT, FB2, HTM and CHM with FBReader.

If you want to read plucker files with this firware, you have to apply a small trick. Zip the plucker file and rename it to xxx.fb2.zip. That way it will be opened by FBReader. (E.g. ABook.pdb becomes ABook.fb2.zip)

I guess this will just be a temporary solution for me. OpenInkpot seems to be making huge progress. So - most likely - I will switch to OpenInkpot shortly anyhow.

Wilfried

[Hodapp87]

Originally Posted by wiffel

I kind of like FBReader to read most of my books. And I like to be able to read Plucker files.
So, I patched the latest firmware from BeBook to include FBReader. (thanks to the previous work from Lunohod and iStealth)
I'm not sure if somebody is interested, but you can download it at :
www.tilient.net/bebook/V3update.zip
This patched firmware opens RTF, TXT, FB2, HTM and CHM with FBReader.
If you want to read plucker files with this firware, you have to apply a small trick. Zip the plucker file and rename it to xxx.fb2.zip. That way it will be opened by FBReader. (E.g. ABook.pdb becomes ABook.fb2.zip)

Thank you for this! I'm running it right now and reading some Plucker files.
I made a short script to handle the conversion you mentioned; just run the script with a list of filenames, e.g. "./plucker-fbreader-convert.sh *.pdb" and each individual file will be compressed as xxx.fb2.zip.
I haven't tested this script extensively, use at your own risk, etc. It's attached to this message, I hope.

[wiffel]

If you want to change the way FBReader display things, you can change the UI.XML in the same way as mentioned in https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=22084

By the way, the trick also works for Mobipocket Files if you prefer to read them with FBReader.

The windows version of your script is a bit more involved. But - if you have the free 7-Zip program installed, the next line will do the trick (from within a .CMD file):

FOR /F "TOKENS=1* DELIMS=." %%F IN ('dir /b *.pdb') DO "C:\Program Files\7-Zip\7z" u -tzip "%%F.fb2.zip" "%%F.pdb"

Good luck,
Wiffel

[rafel2005j]

I like this firmware with FBReader, it's the best i've tried !!!
Thank you very match

[orwell2k]

Originally Posted by wiffel

I kind of like FBReader to read most of my books. And I like to be able to read Plucker files.

So, I patched the latest firmware from BeBook to include FBReader. (thanks to the previous work from Lunohod and iStealth)

I'm not sure if somebody is interested, but you can download it at :
www.tilient.net/bebook/V3update.zip

This patched firmware opens RTF, TXT, FB2, HTM and CHM with FBReader.

If you want to read plucker files with this firware, you have to apply a small trick. Zip the plucker file and rename it to xxx.fb2.zip. That way it will be opened by FBReader. (E.g. ABook.pdb becomes ABook.fb2.zip)

I guess this will just be a temporary solution for me. OpenInkpot seems to be making huge progress. So - most likely - I will switch to OpenInkpot shortly anyhow.

Wilfried

Any plans to patch the Feb2009 update, or future BeBook updates with FBReader? If not, can you explain how you did it? I know OI is making good progress, but I still like the BeBook firmware, but FBReader would be nice to have. Thanks.

[edtng2]

Some questions about BeBook that I don't think I came across reading the forum:
1) Does BeBook give you the ability to highlight and annotate files?
If so, can you do either in unlimited fashion, or does it restrict you to a certain number of time that you can do it?
2) bookmarking in BeBook -- can you do unlimited number of times as well, or is it restricted to a certain number of times, too?
3) Files that you have annotated or highlighted in BeBook -- will these show up and appear when you open the file in your PC?
I think these are the features that I needed most before I buy BeBook.
I am stongly considering either JetBook and BeBook and still hard at making a big decision due to cost.
Thanks for any input.

[wiffel]

Originally Posted by orwell2k

Any plans to patch the Feb2009 update, or future BeBook updates with FBReader? If not, can you explain how you did it? I know OI is making good progress, but I still like the BeBook firmware, but FBReader would be nice to have. Thanks.

I did make a quick patch based on the Feb2009 update.
You can find it at
http://www.tilient.com/bebook/2009_feb/V3update.bin (55MB)
or
http://www.tilient.com/bebook/2009_feb/V3update.zip (19MB)

I didn't have a lot of time to test it, but it seems to be stable.

I also uploaded the script I use to make patches and the files needed for FBReader.
If someone wants to make his/here own patch (e.g. based on other firmware), he/she can find my script at
http://www.tilient.com/bebook/patching/wiffel03.sh
The files used by the script to include FBReader can be found at
http://www.tilient.com/bebook/patchi...date_files.zip

Be warned though. It can take you quite some time to get your linux in good shape, to find the needed software and install it to get this up-and-running.