Beta release 0.6.93 is now available at
http://calibre-ebook.com/downloads/betas/. Please read post #1 on this thread before installing this beta.
This release includes significant improvements. The three most visible are:
1) gui changes where you can hide, show, move, resize, and align (center, etc) columns directly in the GUI.
2) a large performance improvement when connecting devices, and
3) the ability to connect to any folder as a device.
1) Regarding the GUI changes: you can now right-click on the column header to get the options available. Move columns by dragging. Please note that the 'On Device' column advertised earlier is now assumed to be column 1 and will appear automatically. You can, of course, move it to where you want it.
Other GUI enhancements include remembering sizes of columns across column reorganizations and improvements in metadata display for device libraries.
2) Regarding performance improvement: calibre now stores on the device metadata for books on the device, including Sonys. Why? If the metadata information is available, calibre can open devices in a small number of seconds. In testing, we have seen performance improvements in excess of 100 times when connecting to devices.
This good news is leavened with a bit of bad news. That bad news is that to get the most benefit, you must permit calibre to *one time* scan all the books on your reader. This process can take a long time, but we recommend you let it happen. The second time you connect, it will be fast. We promise. Your check is in the mail!
Please be sure that the check box 'read metadata from files on device', found in many items in 'preferences/device plugins', is checked.
For those of you with a Sony device, the first connect will be much slower than normal. Please let it finish.
The job manager will show progress, book by book.
3) Regarding folder devices: calibre can now treat an arbitrary folder hierarchy as a device. You connect to a folder by going to the send_to_device menu and choosing 'connect to folder'.
This feature has two uses. The first is to support reader devices that present their memory as a disk drive but are otherwise unknown to calibre. You can plug in the device, then ask calibre to open the ebook folder on the device. Once you do this, you will have all calibre features to help you manage your device.
The second, an accidental benefit, is to analyze folders on your hard disc to see if books in that folder are in your library. As above, if this is the first time you have connected to that folder, it can take a while.
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There are many other less obvious changes, too numerous to list here.
Please try the beta, if you can deal with what is becoming a smaller risk. It has been stable for me for some time. I have a Sony Pocket, an HTC that I treat as a folder, and hard disc folders. Kovid has tested it on a Sony 505, a Kindle, and other devices.
We want to stabilize it asap, and your testing helps immeasurably.
What remains is to permit custom columns to be used as collections, and (of course) bug fixes. Custom column collections might wait until some developer has a kindle upgrade -- not sure yet. Bug fixes must wait for bug reports.
FYI: the beta release includes all the bug fixes in the 0.5* trunk releases.
PS: ccayer, your jetbook problems should be fixed, and Starson17, I hope we haven't introduced regressions from what you helped make work.
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