I just flashed a newer beta firmware on my jetBook and gave it a drive around the block. Here are my thoughts, compared to the previous beta that I had tested. BTW, this beta is v0.33c Patch v13.
Compared to the previous beta, ebooks open much faster. In fact, I think this firmware opens ebooks faster than the previous, released firmware. Ebooks under 1MB take only 1-4 seconds to open. When I opened a monster, "Terro-Human Future History Omnibus", which is a 4.37MB epub, it took about 4 minutes (I hope this can be improved). Once the monster ebook was opened, jumping to any page was instantaneous. Searching took about 1 second.
The dictionary now works perfectly with all supported ebook formats. The menu items have moved a bit. The dictionary is now number 1 on the menu.
Speaking of supported formats, HTML is now supported
and the dictionary works with this format, just like all the others. Something that may have been in the previous firmware, but unnoticed - the HTML ebook had a superscript, which displayed correctly.
The previous beta did not center text that should have been centered (headings and explicitly centered text/images). This has been fixed. As with the previous beta, multiple-level indentation displays fine (the mouse tail poem from "Alice").
One new feature is a percentage figure in the titlebar, to the left of the page count. This is for the mathematically challenged
Now for the bad. This beta firmware still does not scale oversized images to fit the screen. Bold still isn't supported (this also affects headers). I don't know whether these two items will be fixed in the released firmware or not.
The Bold issue seems to be due to the limited font support. I don't think there is a bold font installed. Italics display, but it looks like a slanted normal font to me, rather than a true italic font. I think that when Ectaco adds more fonts to the device, these issues will disappear.
With the much better epub and mobi support, the addition of HTML, and the dictionary working with all formats, this firmware (when released) should be very good news to all jetBook owners and prospective owners.