Question: Widgets in eInk reader

[Terisa de morgan]

Hi,

I've just got an Energy Pro+ and I've installed calibre companion and mantano. It works quite well but I would like to know if there's a way to add a widget to the home screen. I already have calibre companion but I would like to add the books.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Hi,

I've just got an Energy Pro+ and I've installed calibre companion and mantano. It works quite well but I would like to know if there's a way to add a widget to the home screen. I already have calibre companion but I would like to add the books.

What launcher are you using? If you are using the stock launcher than I don't think there is any hope. If you are using something like Nova than it works fine. With Nova you can long-press on a blank area of the screen and it will ask you what you want to do. An alternate approach is to tap the "Apps" button, choose "Widgets", then choose the CC widget you want.

I have a T62+ bought from Energy Sistems. The first thing I did was to root the device. This post describes how to do it. I had to use the second option (Root Master) because the first one didn't work. I then installed Nova Free along with Minimal Wallpapers. I also installed SetCPU (paid) but I am not sure that it does a better job than the various free versions.

Once you have a different launcher installed then you can install CC's widgets.

Am I answering your question?

[Terisa de morgan]

Yes, I was afraid I would have to root it. I think I'll wait for a bit and I'll keep launching calibre companion, as now (I'll wait at least till the weekend, when I can get an SD-Card).

[chaley]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Yes, I was afraid I would have to root it. I think I'll wait for a bit and I'll keep launching calibre companion, as now (I'll wait at least till the weekend, when I can get an SD-Card).

In my experience, rooting was easy and getting rid of the built-in launcher's auto-scan of books was for me a great thing. I don't want to use their store and I don't want to use their equivalent to the Kindle carousel. FBReader comes pre-installed, which I also don't want to use (not that it is bad, is simply isn't what I want).

If you are using the CC beta, be sure to check the e-ink color corrections checkbox in CC settings. The T62+ really needs it, much more than the Onyx Afterglow 2.

[Terisa de morgan]

Thank you by the tip, root is not necessary, I've already installed Nova Launcher. I'm not using beta yet, I wasn't used CC so much time (my phone) for being included in it. But I'm going to think about it (and I'll keep this in mind for the end release).

And no, I don't use FBReader either, Mantano is my choice at this moment.

Thank you again for the tip and for a wonderful app.

[jjansen]

Chaley, I just received my T62D. I had a real problem getting Google Play Store installed originally so I found an APK for CC and installed it. I now have Google Play installed and it won't reinstall CC. Since I have now loaded 2500 books into it I guess everything was updated OK. This is all a preface (sorry, long winded) to my actual question. You mentioned in this thread "installing CC widgets". I have installed, like you, the Nova launcher. I cannot find the widget screen and it may be because I don't have any. How, on your device, did you point to the widgets and were the CC widgets installed automatically with the product download? Is there a chance that, by using the APK directly I didn't get the widgets? If I had to uninstall CC would I lose my existing library? Thanks for your help. Super product.

[jjansen]

Found the widgets on my new device. Thanks.

[chaley]

Originally Posted by jjansen

Chaley, I just received my T62D. I had a real problem getting Google Play Store installed originally so I found an APK for CC and installed it. I now have Google Play installed and it won't reinstall CC. Since I have now loaded 2500 books into it I guess everything was updated OK. This is all a preface (sorry, long winded) to my actual question. You mentioned in this thread "installing CC widgets". I have installed, like you, the Nova launcher. I cannot find the widget screen and it may be because I don't have any. How, on your device, did you point to the widgets and were the CC widgets installed automatically with the product download? Is there a chance that, by using the APK directly I didn't get the widgets? If I had to uninstall CC would I lose my existing library? Thanks for your help. Super product.

Originally Posted by jjansen

Found the widgets on my new device. Thanks.

Hmmm... I answered the first post around 5 hours ago. At least I thought I did.

Glad you found the widgets. However, I am a bit concerned about the APK you "found". If it worked without Google Play installed then it is probably one of the pirated APKs. Google Play will refuse to install over it because it knows it isn't the real thing, which is further evidence that the APK isn't legit. One major problem: you will never receive updates even though you purchased CC. And in addition, who knows what the pirate stuck into the APK?

Unfortunately uninstalling the bogus APK and installing the official one will erase the book database. The best way to deal with this is to resend the books. The steps:

1. Using the bogus CC, connect to calibre.
2. Select all books with On-device true.
3. Add a unique tag to each book, something like MUST_RESEND
4. Disconnect CC
5. Backup CC's settings (CC Settings, scroll to near the bottom)
6. Uninstall CC
7. Using a file manager, delete the contents of the CC storage folder, Calibre_Companion unless you changed it.
8. Install CC from google play
9. Restore CC's settings.
10. Connect to Calibre
11. Select all books with the tag MUST_RESEND
12. Send the found books to the device.
13. Delete the tag

The only significant problem that can arise is if you have books on the device that are no longer in calibre's library. If this is the case then you can add them back to calibre's library during the first connect.