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faolan · 12-27-2010, 06:49 AM

Oh hai gaiz, its my first post here. I tired to contact the creators of this firmware a few weeks ago but they never got back, so I thought I'd just post here since this is where I first learned about this interesting project. So here is my little pre-review of the ebookapplications firmware.

I have to say that this firmware has a very nice UI and is very fast on my
PRS-505. Although, I've found on my epub collection the rendering is quite
odd. Thought it was just a format issue, so I tried some of the sample books
supplied (great selection, btw).

Basically, there are two things that I am seeing that are a little off putting
and a bit of an annoyance: instead of the text running right up the the edge
of the screen, there should be a little bit of margin room. This would help
make things more readable, in addition to giving it a more cleaner look. It
doesn't have to be as much space as what Sony used in the original firmware
(which was a bit too much), just enough to give it a nice border.

Secondly, formatting of ebooks seemed rather "cramped". Not sure if this is a
bug on my end but no matter what ebook I loaded the spacing and rendering just
seemed very crowded. The was especially true with epub but seemed to be an
issue with the rendering engine in general. Paragraphs and sections don't look
distinguished and everything runs together.

Also, for some other reason CHM files would not load. I tried reinstalling,
thinking it was an issue similar to that mentioned in the FAQ about PDF, but
unfortunately it was not. They just don't load.

Anyways, other than that, this looks like a great piece of firmware that
really extends the functionality of the original device. Right now these
annoyances -- particularly with the odd rendering and lack of margins -- are
keeping me from using it now as a full time reader. With a little more work
with the rendering engine, this will be some pretty boss software. Being able
to read FB2 and HTML are great additions. Thank you for your hard work.

In short, the amount of features it provides are vast, but it could be well improved upon with a little work.

12-27-2010, 06:49 AM	#151
faolan Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 27354 Join Date: Dec 2010 Device: Sony PRS-505	Oh hai gaiz, its my first post here. I tired to contact the creators of this firmware a few weeks ago but they never got back, so I thought I'd just post here since this is where I first learned about this interesting project. So here is my little pre-review of the ebookapplications firmware. I have to say that this firmware has a very nice UI and is very fast on my PRS-505. Although, I've found on my epub collection the rendering is quite odd. Thought it was just a format issue, so I tried some of the sample books supplied (great selection, btw). Basically, there are two things that I am seeing that are a little off putting and a bit of an annoyance: instead of the text running right up the the edge of the screen, there should be a little bit of margin room. This would help make things more readable, in addition to giving it a more cleaner look. It doesn't have to be as much space as what Sony used in the original firmware (which was a bit too much), just enough to give it a nice border. Secondly, formatting of ebooks seemed rather "cramped". Not sure if this is a bug on my end but no matter what ebook I loaded the spacing and rendering just seemed very crowded. The was especially true with epub but seemed to be an issue with the rendering engine in general. Paragraphs and sections don't look distinguished and everything runs together. Also, for some other reason CHM files would not load. I tried reinstalling, thinking it was an issue similar to that mentioned in the FAQ about PDF, but unfortunately it was not. They just don't load. Anyways, other than that, this looks like a great piece of firmware that really extends the functionality of the original device. Right now these annoyances -- particularly with the odd rendering and lack of margins -- are keeping me from using it now as a full time reader. With a little more work with the rendering engine, this will be some pretty boss software. Being able to read FB2 and HTML are great additions. Thank you for your hard work. In short, the amount of features it provides are vast, but it could be well improved upon with a little work.