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Originally Posted by rachangua
There is so much customisation available that I am curious as to what extent it is 'plug and play'? I am by no means a technophobe however I would not be comfortable messing with system files as I would be guaranteed to do something wrong and render a very expensive (to me) gadget useless!
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PocketBook is very user friendly.
You do not have to move your finger and yet, it comes out of the box configured to very reasonable defaults.
There are many levels of configuration.
- settings accessible from menu. Easy to do, easy to return to defaults.
- settings achieved by copying a single file into /system/something/ directory on the reader. You do not like the result, you delete the file. If you really screw up, you simply reformat the memory to the default empty state by pressing a combination of buttons during startup of device. You can install fonts, User Interface Themes, games, applications (including fantastic third-party FBReader by granym), even dictionaries by copying a single file or a small number of files.
- settings done by editing a config file. You do something wrong, (and you forgot to make backup) - you simply delete the config file and during the next start of the application the application creates a new, default config file with reasonable defaults.
- settings achieved by messing with internal files not visible when you connect the reader. For this to work you need to install Linux Terminal Emulator on the reader, starting emulator and messing with files. Unless you get something terribly, horribly, hopelessly wrong, you can always reflash the original firmware. Even in this stage of hacking you typically just copy out a file or two, make modification and put modified file in /system/config directory on the accessible partition (back to level 2), so you can easily revert to the original state.
So far, I haven't heard of anybody messing their PocketBook beyond the state where deleting a few files or reflash or clearing the main memory wouldn't help. PocketBook is very [power user | geek | tinkerer | hacker] friendly. It does not only mean that you can change something. It ALSO means that if you make a mistake there is usually an easy way to revert to the original state.
Even using level 1 or level 2 of configuration you can achieve results that are not doable on other devices even using hard-core hacking and messing with the device firmware.
You still have to be a little bit technically savvy. You can, for example, activate note taking form a book, or start a dictionary (if you configure buttons to do so) and you have to find your "way back". Again, there are *very* few situations where you can not "escape" by switching the device off and on again.
If you can learn to send SMS from you mobile, or register yourself to this site and navigate it, or reply to an email, you are most probably technically savvy enough to grasp even the most arcane settings on PocketBook.