View Single Post
Old 12-04-2010, 09:53 AM   #28
mtravellerh
book creator
mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.mtravellerh ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
mtravellerh's Avatar
 
Posts: 9,657
Karma: 3856660
Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Luxembourg
Device: Kindle Scribe
Quote:
Originally Posted by fjtorres View Post
I do. And I have the same issue.

I'm looking into it.
It's looking like the built-in Pocketbook bookshelf is eating up major chunks of flash storage to index ebooks, cause it is currently using up as much as 14 MB of the very limited program installation space and I can't add more than the six currently installed.
Earlier it was using 7Mb and I had about 10 installed apps.
Plus its been chewing up CPU cycles like crazy and popping up "Pocketbook widget is not responding" alerts.

I'll have a more detailed report when I'm done, but this looks like the time and place to report that I've been testing ebook readers and browsers left and right and sadly the only reader that passes muster is... Kindle.

Not sure where the other apps get their reps because they all come with show-stopping limitations and quirks.
One, Laputa, won't even open its own sample book.
fbreader has a zillion tag-based settings but when fed a calibre-generated ePub it dropped all "character" formating; no bolds, no italics.
Aldiko can't see ebooks until you put them into a special "import" location and then it seems to copy them into the same limited space as the program installs. It looks pretty and it does use the volume buttons to page but it looks to be more interested in fronting for its online book sources than managing an SD card full of books.

And, most... bewildering... from a book reading point of view, a device with an instant redraw display is burdened with reading apps (Pocketbooks included) that *intentionally* slow page turning down with distracting slideshow paging. The only app that (when all OS animations are shut down) instantly redaws the page is... Kindle.

Now, I haven't tried Kobo or Nook yet; I wanted to try the open ePub apps first. But so far, the best use for the IQ is as a color Kindle.
Easily worth the price for me. And that was my minimal expectation for the device: a color Kindle that can surf the net. I *was* hoping for some added value from the Pocketbooks apps (the dictionary app is *exactly* what I expected. Great. Too bad the reader app doesn't let me tap on a word to feed it to the dictionary.)

I can live with this thing but I don't think it'll be doing the Bookland effort much good if the best reading experience is with the Kindle app.

Now, I suspect the Bookshelf and Pocketbook reader app issues will go away if and when the mystery update drops but I have to wonder about the internal communications and development process that *created* that Bookshelf and reading app. (It doesn't look like something the Guys in Kiev would put out, frankly. Was it contracted out?) A device with a limited pool of application-installation space does not look to me like it should be hosting an application that eats it up with housekeeping files than can easily be allocated to the 2GB storage space or the SD card. Especially when its a non-removable piece of the package.

I'm satisfied enough but I suspect there are going to be a few really ticked off folks out there with how un-Pocketbook-ish this Pocketbook is, right now.
Aldiko works quite nicely for me. Fbreader has hyphenation. Of course, if you say that Aldiko gobbles up memory .... Kindle is (looks around if nobody sees him stating that) indeed the best and fastest reading app on the IQ. But just you wait till our guys have developped their final version.
mtravellerh is offline   Reply With Quote