CC Beta V3.6.0a has been published. Better support for some e-ink devices

[chaley]

Changes:

• Support hardware page up/down buttons on devices. Tested on Onyx Afterglow 2, but should work on (at least) all Onyx e-ink readers and the Boyue T62.
• Add option to permit connecting as a wireless device over 3G. Use this option if you have set up your network to expose calibre's wireless device driver to the internet
• Add language Portuguese (Brasil)
• Update languages German, Japanese, Russian
• [BUG FIX]Fix incorrectly clearing the date read field when setting the calibre sync column
• [BUG FIX]Fix regression causing display of some custom column numbers to fail
• [BUG FIX]Fix rare crash in content server connections
• [BUG FIX]Improvements in logging

This release is going through beta to be sure that the hardware buttons work on other devices, and to be sure that supporting the hardware paging buttons didn't break anything if the buttons are not present.

FWIW: I bought an Afterglow 2. It works really well with CC and Moon+. I found that for me the best CC settings are:

• Move all items from the action bar to the menu. Eliminates some text color problems.
• Turn off the group drawer open/close animated line/buttons.
• Turn off all the scrollers.
• Don't use the Onyx launcher. I am using Nova. The Onyx launcher has some problems integrating with CC. It doesn't "see" books until the device is rebooted.
• Don't use the paging buttons. The hardware buttons work better, and work in all the views including the grouping drawer and settings.

[Purple Lady]

The wireless over 3G still requires wifi to be turned on. I am at home and wanted to try this on my Nexus 7 so I need to turn wifi off to test. Is there another way to test this?

On my T62 the page down buttons don't work until the second time I press and after that it worked. This happens every time I exit and re-enter the app. If I hit the page up and then hit page down it works - is it only recognized the second time I use the buttons somehow? The same thing happens when I go to book details and back to the book list - the buttons only work the second time I hit them. Should they also work in book details? They don't for me.

Just curious - what text color problems did moving all items from the action bar to the menu fix for you?

If you had a T62, you wouldn't need to turn off the scrollers - scrolling works great, unlike Onyx devices.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

The wireless over 3G still requires wifi to be turned on. I am at home and wanted to try this on my Nexus 7 so I need to turn wifi off to test. Is there another way to test this?

Using 3G will work only if you have configured your home router to forward the calibre wireless device port, and if you have entered your external IP address in CC's settings. If you haven't done this then CC will simply fail to connect. If it is demanding that you turn on WiFi then we have some other problem.

On my T62 the page down buttons don't work until the second time I press and after that it worked. This happens every time I exit and re-enter the app. If I hit the page up and then hit page down it works - is it only recognized the second time I use the buttons somehow? The same thing happens when I go to book details and back to the book list - the buttons only work the second time I hit them.

The first time you push the button, the top item in the underlying list view is given the "focus". The second time you press it, the focus is moved to the last item and that item is scrolled to the top. I haven't found a way to force avoiding that first press.

Should they also work in book details? They don't for me.

I am still trying to figure out whether this is possible. At the moment it doesn't work for me either. I have some ideas ...

Just curious - what text color problems did moving all items from the action bar to the menu fix for you?

The color of the text in the action bar was dark grey, hard to read against the black of the action bar. I could read it, especially as I know what it says, but I prefer seeing the black-on-white that I get in the menu.

If you had a T62, you wouldn't need to turn off the scrollers - scrolling works great, unlike Onyx devices.

The scrollers work fine, or at least as fine as one can expect on an e-ink device. I turned them off because they take up space and pulling then just creates a flashing/smearing display that must settle before I know how far I went. It is faster to use the buttons. I suppose that using the scrollers would be better if I was operating on very long book lists, but I tend to group before paging so don't encounter that situation frequently.

I considered the T62 but in the end didn't want to deal with the tax consequences of shipping from China. My Afterglow 2 has excellent battery life (with WiFi off), minimal page turn delays, runs CC and Moon+ well, is very light, and was available from an EU supplier; satisfying my requirements. Perhaps if I actually had a T62 I would prefer it.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

Using 3G will work only if you have configured your home router to forward the calibre wireless device port, and if you have entered your external IP address in CC's settings. If you haven't done this then CC will simply fail to connect. If it is demanding that you turn on WiFi then we have some other problem.

It is demanding that I turn wifi on. I have the external address in settings. I do have other problems though - I tried connecting to the content server and failed with wifi off so I need to figure that out.

The color of the text in the action bar was dark grey, hard to read against the black of the action bar. I could read it, especially as I know what it says, but I prefer seeing the black-on-white that I get in the menu.

On the T62 it gives me light grey on black and looks good to me.

The scrollers work fine, or at least as fine as one can expect on an e-ink device. I turned them off because they take up space and pulling then just creates a flashing/smearing display that must settle before I know how far I went. It is faster to use the buttons. I suppose that using the scrollers would be better if I was operating on very long book lists, but I tend to group before paging so don't encounter that situation frequently.

I considered the T62 but in the end didn't want to deal with the tax consequences of shipping from China. My Afterglow 2 has excellent battery life (with WiFi off), minimal page turn delays, runs CC and Moon+ well, is very light, and was available from an EU supplier; satisfying my requirements. Perhaps if I actually had a T62 I would prefer it.

Scrolling on an Onyx device and scrolling on the T62 is worlds apart. The T62 is basically the same as an Illumina E653. Here's a video and about 7.5 minutes in it shows scrolling on a web page working very well. www.the-ebook-reader.com/illumina-hd.html

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

It is demanding that I turn wifi on. I have the external address in settings. I do have other problems though - I tried connecting to the content server and failed with wifi off so I need to figure that out.

Be sure that the allow 3G box is checked in the wireless device settings. Allowing 3G for the content server is a separate option.

[chaley]

With the hope that no news is good news, I will release this beta to production on Saturday.

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

Be sure that the allow 3G box is checked in the wireless device settings. Allowing 3G for the content server is a separate option.

It is turned on. My tech support had a failed elevation last night so he may be busy for a while. And the failure wasn't even him, it was deployment.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

It is turned on.

Odd...

If that option is checked then CC should never ask you to turn on WiFi. It simply tries to connect. I tried it on my devices with wifi off and 3G both on and off, and it says "Couldn't find calibre". Even my afterglow that doesn't have 3G didn't ask to have wifi turned on. It instead says the same thing: "Couldn't find calibre".

If you entered an IP address than CC says it "Failed to connect". Here it does ask you to check "if your WiFi is working", where it should probably say "if your network is working", but I didn't want to change the text.

Are you seeing something different from this?

[Purple Lady]

Originally Posted by chaley

Odd...

If that option is checked then CC should never ask you to turn on WiFi. It simply tries to connect. I tried it on my devices with wifi off and 3G both on and off, and it says "Couldn't find calibre". Even my afterglow that doesn't have 3G didn't ask to have wifi turned on. It instead says the same thing: "Couldn't find calibre".

If you entered an IP address than CC says it "Failed to connect". Here it does ask you to check "if your WiFi is working", where it should probably say "if your network is working", but I didn't want to change the text.

Are you seeing something different from this?

I think we have a little dumb blonde syndrome going on here, or maybe my it's poor dyslexic brain. You specifically said 3G in wireless and I looked at content server. So I did test that part for you - if you don't have 3G checked and try to do a wireless connect, it will tell you to turn on wifi.

Since my content server isn't working atm for 3G, my test for wireless connection on 3G isn't going to work either I would think. And with 3G checked in the correct place, it does tell me that it failed to connect.

[kaufman]

I don't have an eink device, and I haven't set up calibre for remote access, but in regression testing, I have not run into any issues.