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bkelly · 01-03-2010, 01:28 PM

I recently purchased an Opus with the intention of using the 2.0 firmware for its EPUB support. But I was so disappointed by the formatting that I gave up on EPUB and went to Mobipocket on v1.5. The issue I experienced was that each page displayed only a very small amount of text because huge margins existed on each side and at the bottom. I tested 4 epub books, from two different ebook stores, and 3 had this issue. The 4th wasn't perfect but it was acceptable. While I know that there's methods for reformatting ebooks (after removing DRM), there's no way that I'm going to do this for a format that's supposed to be a standard. It's amazing to me that although I've been reading ebooks for at least 10-years now, I still feel as though I'm an early adopter!

While I'm ranting, I'll also say that I'm not impressed at all with the Opus platform. The more obvious shortcomings being:
1. The plastic case is too slippery, and having rounded edges only makes this more of an issue. A rubberized surface would be nice to have.
2. The buttons have a cheap feel and sound, are too difficult to press, and they can't be reassigned to fit the user. Also, the multi-directional navigation button is poorly designed (the same button on an Axim X51V is about the same size but is still very easy to use simply because it's designed better).
3. There's no way to simply lock the buttons while leaving the power on. I travel frequently on planes, and several times during each flight I have to set my PDA down (actually I just slip it into my shirt pocket) knowing that I'll pick it up in a few seconds/minutes. It's nice being able to simply lock the buttons instead of powering it off/on. I also use the lockout to ensure that the device doesn't accidentally get powered on when it's stored away in my bag.
4. There's no option for taking the user back to the last-read book/page when the device is powered on. It's a pain having to wait for the device to boot up and then having to re-select the book you were reading. (Man, I sure do sound lazy and spoiled...on that note I think I'll stop here.)

01-03-2010, 01:28 PM	#20
bkelly Member Posts: 13 Karma: 52 Join Date: Dec 2009 Device: Cybook Opus, Dell Axim X51V	I went with firmware v1.5 I recently purchased an Opus with the intention of using the 2.0 firmware for its EPUB support. But I was so disappointed by the formatting that I gave up on EPUB and went to Mobipocket on v1.5. The issue I experienced was that each page displayed only a very small amount of text because huge margins existed on each side and at the bottom. I tested 4 epub books, from two different ebook stores, and 3 had this issue. The 4th wasn't perfect but it was acceptable. While I know that there's methods for reformatting ebooks (after removing DRM), there's no way that I'm going to do this for a format that's supposed to be a standard. It's amazing to me that although I've been reading ebooks for at least 10-years now, I still feel as though I'm an early adopter! While I'm ranting, I'll also say that I'm not impressed at all with the Opus platform. The more obvious shortcomings being: 1. The plastic case is too slippery, and having rounded edges only makes this more of an issue. A rubberized surface would be nice to have. 2. The buttons have a cheap feel and sound, are too difficult to press, and they can't be reassigned to fit the user. Also, the multi-directional navigation button is poorly designed (the same button on an Axim X51V is about the same size but is still very easy to use simply because it's designed better). 3. There's no way to simply lock the buttons while leaving the power on. I travel frequently on planes, and several times during each flight I have to set my PDA down (actually I just slip it into my shirt pocket) knowing that I'll pick it up in a few seconds/minutes. It's nice being able to simply lock the buttons instead of powering it off/on. I also use the lockout to ensure that the device doesn't accidentally get powered on when it's stored away in my bag. 4. There's no option for taking the user back to the last-read book/page when the device is powered on. It's a pain having to wait for the device to boot up and then having to re-select the book you were reading. (Man, I sure do sound lazy and spoiled...on that note I think I'll stop here.)