Happy April 7th Everybody!

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Not being a CyBook owner I would ask, do they have a history of releaseing updates that cause problems or are worse than the previous version?

There wasn't a real update before. This would be the first one. And to be honest, I'm in no hurry. There is nothing really wrong with my Cybook. Everything works for me as it is. A few thing could be improved, that's all. But of course I am curious

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

I guess it depends on your definiition of firmware. A system folder on the devices non-volitile RAM drive could be called firmware. I usually think of firmware as code stored in a ROM chip.

For example, in a PC, the BIOS is firmware but the OS is software... the only real difference is where it is stored. Also firmware is usually specific to a specialized piece of hardware.

BOb

Well then, except for the most insignificant boot driver burned into ROM - and I'm sure there is one somewhere on the SBC inside, quite possibly in the main chip - it would all qualify as software. But pretty much ALL of it is loaded into the static memory on board. And this is pretty much specific to this device. The OS has been stripped down to the bare essentials for the ebook reader, it has been customized to expect and scan the control buttons, I/O ports the device has and has a custom set of drivers for this specific display. And while the reader is an 'app' in every sense of the word, it too is specific to this device and this OS and is burned into the firmware storage medium.

So I feel quite comfortable calling it all 'firmware'.

Derek

[delphidb96]

Originally Posted by Ortep

There wasn't a real update before. This would be the first one. And to be honest, I'm in no hurry. There is nothing really wrong with my Cybook. Everything works for me as it is. A few thing could be improved, that's all. But of course I am curious

Exsqueeze me?!? Not a real update??? Since when? I quite distinctly remember getting major feature add-ins when updating from 0.91 to 0.95. And more upon the 0.98 update. I'm not talking about minor bug fixes, but actual app feature upgrades.

Derek

[solodoc]

It certainly describes it here
http://www.bookeen.com/specs/ebook-software.aspx

[cmbs]

Originally Posted by Ortep

Those are the first seven days

On my calender a week starts at Monday.

So the first real week in April = April 7th - April 13th

Don't you feel a little silly saying this?

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cmbs

But seriously. Save your system folder to your computer's hard drive. If the update sucks (which wouldn't surprise me at all), then you can just switch it out for your current system folder.

I know, I'm a freaking genius.

Er, no, that will certainly NOT allow you to reverse a firmware update. The firmware is "invisible" - it's not what appears in the system folder.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by pilotbob

Not being a CyBook owner I would ask, do they have a history of releaseing updates that cause problems or are worse than the previous version?

BOb

No, absolutely not. There's only been one "unofficial" firmware upgrade available so far (the upgrade to firmware v538) and that fixed all sorts of bugs which had been present in the earlier version. It worked extremely well!

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by cmbs

Don't you feel a little silly saying this?

Not really, when I read about 'the first week' the first thought I had was: What is the definition of first week. The week that includes the first? That one ended at the 6th or the 5th. That depending on your (religious) believes about the first day of the week, sunday or monday. Unless you work with a business week, that ended at the 4th. Or do you look at the first 7 days? Or at the first 'complete' week in April. That one started at the 7th (or the 6th).

You can have a similar situation in a year. Some years have 53 weeks. Example: the last week running from Dec 28 to Jan 3th. And then the first week of the year is not running from Jan 1-7 but from Jan 4-11.

There are more weird thing in calenders. Officially spring starts around March 21nd. Except when you work in meteorology, then it starts at April 1st.

Christmas is at Dec 25. Except when you are a member of the Russian Orthodox church like my mother. Then it is at Jan 7th.

That learned me to never assume anything about dates

[Ortep]

Originally Posted by delphidb96

Exsqueeze me?!? Not a real update??? Since when? I quite distinctly remember getting major feature add-ins when updating from 0.91 to 0.95. And more upon the 0.98 update. I'm not talking about minor bug fixes, but actual app feature upgrades.

Derek

Yes, but you are one of the (lucky?) beta testers . I am a 'normal' customer. I was in the first batch and are stil running build 4xx. I never had an update/upgrade.

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Ortep

There wasn't a real update before. This would be the first one. And to be honest, I'm in no hurry. There is nothing really wrong with my Cybook. Everything works for me as it is. A few thing could be improved, that's all. But of course I am curious

- - - - - Ditto - - - - - -

My Cybook does what I need it to do , so I too am just a mite curious to what new / better bits will come in the update .

[GeoffC]

Originally Posted by Ortep

There are more weird thing in calenders. Officially spring starts around March 21nd. Except when you work in meteorology, then it starts at April 1st.

Huh ?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by HarryT

No, absolutely not. There's only been one "unofficial" firmware upgrade available so far (the upgrade to firmware v538) and that fixed all sorts of bugs which had been present in the earlier version. It worked extremely well!

What do you mean with "extremely well"? The installation instruction was confusing for example. I would not call that working extremely well. Why are you using such extreme words?

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Ortep

Not really, when I read about 'the first week' the first thought I had was: What is the definition of first week.

The definition is easy. Something to be said to customers to keep them happy. They had promised release in March. So then they could not say end of April. So they said first week in April and they can later say that they are delayed.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

What do you mean with "extremely well"? The installation instruction was confusing for example. I would not call that working extremely well. Why are you using such extreme words?

What did you find confusing about the installation instructions? I found them to be entirely straightforward - put the file in the root of the SD card, then press and hold the "Select" button when you got to the start-up screen. What's unclear about that? Perhaps you didn't know what the "Select" button was?

As to the choice of words; I stand by them. It fixed lots of bugs; it worked well. It was an extremely satisfactory upgrade, in my entirely personal opinion. I have no problem with other people having different opinions of it, however!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by tompe

The definition is easy. Something to be said to customers to keep them happy. They had promised release in March. So then they could not say end of April. So they said first week in April and they can later say that they are delayed.

Alternately, one could perhaps speculate that it was intended for release last week, but testing revealed some bug which they want to fix before they release it. All we can do is guess.