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DaleDe · 01-04-2010, 12:23 PM

A second email generated on 4/6/2009

Here are some more changes for EZ Reader. Note that both this and the previous mail was for the Jan 20, 2009 Hanlin firmware release.

The mobi format looks better, handles curly quotes etc. better than the ePUB. The text is also larger by default. But it has its own set of improvements.

1. Font face can be changed but the size only has 3 too close sizes (but it is better than the standard use) and it cannot use downloaded fonts.

2. The goto Index (should be TOC) on the menu doesn't work even when the 7 key hotkey does work. It seems that Goto ... performs this function. What is the difference?

3. TOC use is way to difficult. It should be as simple as it is on the other formats.
a. press key 7
b. select TOC
c. menu item Follow link (two key presses)
d. input the link number (very small in the text screen)
e. press ok - necessary if there are more than 10 choices.
thus 6 key presses are required. This needs to be simple. And it is not even documented.

4. Bookmarks are much harder than they should be - should also be like the standard tool. It is not documented either and difficult to guess.

5. Page back can take a long time. The location should be cached as often you need to go back just after you did next page.

6. Next page doesn't always take. Sometimes have to press again.

7. EZ Reader will work more or less with Mobipocket Reader on a pc. You can set up the DRM support. However, Mobipocket Readers assumes a eBooks directory and will only work there while EZ Reader ships with an EBOOK directory that will not be found.

8. Mobipocket DRM has a library check capability using temporary keys that expire. This does not work as there is not way to set the date and time on the unit. There needs to be a utility mode menu item that can be used to do this and a few other items (more about that later)

9. Mobipocket has a dictionary capability. This needs to be supported. It does need to be defined before it can be implemented properly. I could even be made to provide dictionary lookup for eBooks in other formats.

10. Like ePUB - Mobi needs a view image mode and probably a view table mode.

11. The About function works better in mobi than standard but it still needs to wrap on the right side if the text is too long.

The image viewer is quite good and capable of representing about 12 effect levels of gray through dithering. (When more hardware levels are available you may want to have an option to not dither to make screen display faster but for now it is good) There are however some changes needed.

1. The image always leaves the bar on the bottom. It would be nice to make this optional or perhaps a zoom would remove it.

3. There are 8 levels or brightness and 8 levels of contrast that can be set. OK will save the setting but only for that session and cancel with set the default. The default is 5 and 5. This skews the gray scale too much resulting in reduced range. The default should be 5 brightness and
4 contrast. I have test images if you need them to see what is happening. Perhaps the default should be set by the user. This controls not only the image viewer but the images in the books.

4. The upper size of an image seems to be about 4 Mega-pixel. Too big and you will get an error message but no help. What is the upper limit really?

5. An about item would be good for images as well. Should give the pixel count, name and size of file and perhaps more. (could be a hot key, there are plenty not used)

6. A full size view would be nice using arrows to pan the image. The two sets of arrows would be interpreted as up/down and left/right with pans of about 400 pixels.

7. Note that the image viewer plus zip/rar support is really enough to support cbz and cbr formats for Manga, comic book viewing and books made out of images. This is already there. The only need is to keep track of the image you are on when you leave so that you can return. Although the zoom enhancement number 6 would be needed for some images to read them.

The basic library screen has some nice features such as directory support, zip support and rar support. However, it needs a few more features.

1. The author and tile from the book should be displayed in two lines (there is plenty of room for that). The genre should be shown if available above the date size if possible.

2. although mutually exclusive with choice 1 there should be a choice to increase the font size for users that need this.

3. The zip/rar support shows up and works like a directory only there is one difference. bookmarks and the place you are in a book is not saved if you view a book inside a zip file. This should be changed so that they behave exactly like a directory with bookmark and current location works.

4. There needs to be a utility menu function It should have:
1. set/display clock and date
2. create a directory
3. move a file from one place to another. This would include moving from the SD card to internal memory or from one directory to another.
4. erase a file.
5. user preference options as needed. Similar to settings but for applications.

5. The menu option 1 music is playing... should be changed to just "Music" or "Music Controller"

Well, that is enough for now.

01-04-2010, 12:23 PM	#3
DaleDe Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,470 Karma: 13095790 Join Date: Aug 2007 Location: Grass Valley, CA Device: EB 1150, EZ Reader, Literati, iPad 2 & Air 2, iPhone 7	A second email generated on 4/6/2009 Here are some more changes for EZ Reader. Note that both this and the previous mail was for the Jan 20, 2009 Hanlin firmware release. The mobi format looks better, handles curly quotes etc. better than the ePUB. The text is also larger by default. But it has its own set of improvements. 1. Font face can be changed but the size only has 3 too close sizes (but it is better than the standard use) and it cannot use downloaded fonts. 2. The goto Index (should be TOC) on the menu doesn't work even when the 7 key hotkey does work. It seems that Goto ... performs this function. What is the difference? 3. TOC use is way to difficult. It should be as simple as it is on the other formats. a. press key 7 b. select TOC c. menu item Follow link (two key presses) d. input the link number (very small in the text screen) e. press ok - necessary if there are more than 10 choices. thus 6 key presses are required. This needs to be simple. And it is not even documented. 4. Bookmarks are much harder than they should be - should also be like the standard tool. It is not documented either and difficult to guess. 5. Page back can take a long time. The location should be cached as often you need to go back just after you did next page. 6. Next page doesn't always take. Sometimes have to press again. 7. EZ Reader will work more or less with Mobipocket Reader on a pc. You can set up the DRM support. However, Mobipocket Readers assumes a eBooks directory and will only work there while EZ Reader ships with an EBOOK directory that will not be found. 8. Mobipocket DRM has a library check capability using temporary keys that expire. This does not work as there is not way to set the date and time on the unit. There needs to be a utility mode menu item that can be used to do this and a few other items (more about that later) 9. Mobipocket has a dictionary capability. This needs to be supported. It does need to be defined before it can be implemented properly. I could even be made to provide dictionary lookup for eBooks in other formats. 10. Like ePUB - Mobi needs a view image mode and probably a view table mode. 11. The About function works better in mobi than standard but it still needs to wrap on the right side if the text is too long. The image viewer is quite good and capable of representing about 12 effect levels of gray through dithering. (When more hardware levels are available you may want to have an option to not dither to make screen display faster but for now it is good) There are however some changes needed. 1. The image always leaves the bar on the bottom. It would be nice to make this optional or perhaps a zoom would remove it. 3. There are 8 levels or brightness and 8 levels of contrast that can be set. OK will save the setting but only for that session and cancel with set the default. The default is 5 and 5. This skews the gray scale too much resulting in reduced range. The default should be 5 brightness and 4 contrast. I have test images if you need them to see what is happening. Perhaps the default should be set by the user. This controls not only the image viewer but the images in the books. 4. The upper size of an image seems to be about 4 Mega-pixel. Too big and you will get an error message but no help. What is the upper limit really? 5. An about item would be good for images as well. Should give the pixel count, name and size of file and perhaps more. (could be a hot key, there are plenty not used) 6. A full size view would be nice using arrows to pan the image. The two sets of arrows would be interpreted as up/down and left/right with pans of about 400 pixels. 7. Note that the image viewer plus zip/rar support is really enough to support cbz and cbr formats for Manga, comic book viewing and books made out of images. This is already there. The only need is to keep track of the image you are on when you leave so that you can return. Although the zoom enhancement number 6 would be needed for some images to read them. The basic library screen has some nice features such as directory support, zip support and rar support. However, it needs a few more features. 1. The author and tile from the book should be displayed in two lines (there is plenty of room for that). The genre should be shown if available above the date size if possible. 2. although mutually exclusive with choice 1 there should be a choice to increase the font size for users that need this. 3. The zip/rar support shows up and works like a directory only there is one difference. bookmarks and the place you are in a book is not saved if you view a book inside a zip file. This should be changed so that they behave exactly like a directory with bookmark and current location works. 4. There needs to be a utility menu function It should have: 1. set/display clock and date 2. create a directory 3. move a file from one place to another. This would include moving from the SD card to internal memory or from one directory to another. 4. erase a file. 5. user preference options as needed. Similar to settings but for applications. 5. The menu option 1 music is playing... should be changed to just "Music" or "Music Controller" Well, that is enough for now.