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Old 02-04-2013, 06:54 AM   #50
MikeB1972
Gnu
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Posts: 1,222
Karma: 15625359
Join Date: Jul 2009
Location: UK
Device: BeBook,JetBook Lite,PRS-300-350-505-650,+ran out of space to type
Well the Pyrus just arrived this morning - So much for amazon estimated delivery dates

Turned up in one of those hard plastic see through display case thingys so shouln't be any problems with getting one damaged in the post.

It's a handy little size, screen looks as good as the PVI Screens.

Page forward and back buttons on the right side of the device.
Home, Menu, D-Pad (Also works for page turns), Back and Search buttons running along the bottom front.
Charge Light, Micro USB Slot, Micro SD Slot and power button are on the bottom with the reset hole on the back.
The screen can be rotated 90 degrees in any direction so you can use the device in left/right landscape or upside down if you want. The buttons seem to all work and the device trundles along at a reasonable speed.

Feels sturdy enough & made from the rubberised plasticy stuff that gives you a good grip and no reflections from the bezel, I got the one in "Mattel Blue" (seemed fitting somehow)

The Windows Software didn't install but it has a newer firmware on it already than the one on the site, so no biggie (Could be my firewall stopping it at the moment to be fair, I'll have a play on another network when I get the chance).

It came with an actual instruction manual, some floppy thing that looked like it was made out of wood pulp

Multiple languages, asked me which one I wanted when I turned the machine on (German, English, Italien, French, Polish, Spanish, Portugese, Dutch, Swedesh and some other language that could be Greek, Russian or any number of languages without a latin alphabet that I can't read)

Power on from cold boot took a little under a minute, then another bit of time to read the books from the Micro SD card I had stuck in it.
It has Auto Standby and Shutdown (So I've disabled the Auto Shutdown)

The home screen has a thumbnail and basic info of the book you are currently reading at the top, a list of the 3 most recently read books in the middle and thumbnails of the 2 most recently added books underneath these and a button to take you to the library at the bottom of the screen, navigation by D-Pad, pressing the menu will take you to the main menu where you can find the system settings, library, Search, bookmark list, picture browser and file explorer (The file explorer seems to be the only place you can delete books from, which seemed a bit strange but nevermind.)
The search only seems to search book titles (Not filenames or authors) and always displays the results as a list (and for some reason a count of {Page Number}/86829 - Why always 86829 I have no idea, too big for a Short Int to small for anything else, not the most annoying bug I've ever seen and with folder browsing and lack of author search I doubt I will use the search anyway)

When you open a book it has a title bar at the top with Book Title, {Page Number}/{Total Pages}, Time, Battery, and a Bookmark indicator. (A little cursor arrow appears next to the battery if there is a clickable-link on the page as well).
No options to change anything on the bar but they have actually picked the items I'd stick there anyway, although your mileage may vary

You can chose to have a full screen refresh every 1, 3 or 5 pages.

Six font sizes (5 fairly good choices for the screen size and 1 where you should have got something with a bigger screen)
There is also a Font Type greyed out on the menu, so I guess you have to stick the font's somewhere on the device,

3 Margin sizes small (None), medium and large (The large is a bit pointless on something with this screen size but the other 2 are both OK.
For some reason it ignores indents - I can only assume it was a conscious decision based on the size of the screen (Or maybe German books don't have indents?)
ADE Books open with the same software as none ADE so it's not some homegrown software with no support for indents.

Page turns are nippy, TOC and goto page work as you would expect there is also a search for inside the book.

Font size seems to be per book with no global setting for a default.

Links are usable once again, links/footnote indicators are highlighted in grey (With the currently selected one being a bit darker) - selection is by D-Pad up and down and pressing the center button to follow the link. Although if there is no return link where you end up then you have had it because the back button takes you out of the book and there is no page history.

All in all, quite good, the software is actually better than I expected and I've not managed to crash it while playing with the settings at high speed.
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