Astak Mentor eBook readers with WiFi and Touchscreen (read-only)

[netseeker]

Originally Posted by moz

It occurred to me that the reason I don't want 27 different font sizes is that on the Sony it takes a few seconds to repaginate a 1000 page novel every time I switch size, and there's only one button so you have to cycle through all of the sizes to go one size smaller.

Even when using ePub rather than LRF? (From my experience only LRF does behave that slowly when changing the font size)

[moz]

Originally Posted by netseeker

Even when using ePub rather than LRF?

I wish you hadn't asked that. To repaginate the lrf of Eric Flint's "1634: the Bavarian Crisis" (1300 pages) as lrf took ages. Ow! So a quick test with "years of rice and salt" because I have it handy... loading the 759 page lrf took ~20 seconds, change font size in lrf took 58 seconds, now it's 1020 pages. The epub loaded almost instantly and repaginated in about 2-3 seconds.

So yes, epub is much, much better than lrf. But it still takes 5 seconds to change down one font size with only 3 sizes to choose from. If there were 10 sizes that would be ~25 seconds for the change, and I'd have to sit there paying attention and pressing the button the whole time.

[snipenekkid]

why would it take longer to change one font size or 1000? It is just a change to the style sheet and a new calculation of the new number of pages for that font size. It's not like the system has to step through each font size and reformat the book for each until the desired font is reached. Even better would be if page numbers were done away, as they should be for ebooks, in favor of paragraph numbers and a percentage of the total file read, then the change would be almost instantaneous. What am I missing here?

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

why would it take longer to change one font size or 1000?

This depends on the interface, i.e. how the font selection is made. Perhaps you have to select font sizes 4 and 5 to go from 3 to 6 for example. There are some devices that do this (e.g. MOBI on the iLiad only has increase font and decrease font icons), and others that don't (e.g. Kindle selects from a menu of 6 font sizes). I use these two as examples because they are using the same reader engine under different interfaces.

[snipenekkid]

OK, so it is a combined UI and system/reader software issue? It is not like you pick the size from a list and poof that is the new font size? You have to scroll through the whole pick list in order to get what you want? I suppose given the limited inputs for these devices there is not much way around something as slow as scrolling through the menu then the list of font sizes.

Just to be clear so I understand, you are not saying the software must run the numbers for each font in sequential order if for example I am using font size 5 and want to use font size 20? The on the screen the software does not first change to 6, then 7, then 8 then...and so on? It just resizes once to the selected font size, do I at least have that part understood?

[Justy]

For Font Sizes I prefer to have more sizes to choose from, if I can choose from a menu to get the one I want. I currently have the Cybook which lets me go to the menu, pick Font Size, and choose which one I want from there. The BeBook only has 3 font choices for Mobipocket eBooks, my format of choice. While I would love to have up to 5 sizes to pick from, I wouldn't want more than that on the BeBook. The BeBook only has 1 button to push to select my font size, each button push increases the font 1 size and then I can push it again. If I get button happy and miss the size I want, I have to start over again, this can take time.

If at all possible, my choice for Font Size selection would be from a menu option so that the eBook is "rendered" only once for the size I actually want and not over and over again for the sizes I'm "going past."

[moz]

Originally Posted by snipenekkid

OK, so it is a combined UI and system/reader software issue? It is not like you pick the size from a list and poof that is the new font size?

Yes.

Why there would be any restriction on the number of sizes if you have a list or menu I cannot imagine. At worst you'd have 33 menu items in order to give three significant figures of font sizes, covering the range from 1 letter per page down to one letter per pixel. In that situation saying "but you can only choose from 5 fixed sizes" is just bad manners on the part of the designers. Even a "here's a grid of samples, pick the one you like" would be better than a list of five, or seven, or even twenty numbers. But that's probably too Mac-like for the liseuse world.

With the "how few buttons can we get away with" UIs it's a different game altogether. Sony, for instance, apparently decided that fewer buttons at the expense of appalling library management and a generally limited UI is a reasonable trade-off. But then they went and put ten extra buttons down the side to make their menu system work faster... I do not know what they were thinking. For instance, the exact same system that lets you jump to page 123 could let you go "font size button, 07.4 point font" in four or five button presses. But that's not what they did. It reinforces all the reasons I've never bought Sony products before and hopefully never will again - they're usually early to market with something that kinda works (and at a significant price premium) but is eventually overtaken by much better products. I can't wait

[moz]

OK, my design thoughts for the day:

I like the Sony having page turn buttons on both sides of the screen. The single 5-way controller on the Cybook does not thrill me - I'd rather have two extra buttons for page turning on the other side of the device, just so I can read left handed.

The Sony numeric keyboard with 10 buttons down the side for numbers is kinda useful, it beats scrolling with a half-second display refresh. But either more buttons or a better system is needed to get around the "30 lines of text but only 10 buttons" problem with menus. This is the one area where a low-res touch screen has advantages. I would need to play with options to come up with a better system but I am convinced it can be done. Once that is designed a decent library management system can be designed as well as stuff like dictionary lookup and font selection.

My inclination is to scrap the extra buttons and go with a 5-way plus extra page buttons. Use those as part of the menu system as jump/page buttons, allowing the user to scroll (say) 10 lines at a time or single lines using the 5-way. That lets you put a decent amount of detail on the screen for the library but keep it so any option is less than ten key presses away. It might even be useful to let the user choose between a couple of font sizes for the menus so that people like me can have two or three pages of menu on the screen, and others can flip to landscape and have half a page of really, really big menu text.

The goal overall is to add functionality for people who've had the device for a while without making the initial experience too complex. Or do the DSLR trick and have a configuration utility on the computer so people can hack it a bit - use XML config files so the community can build configurators for other operating systems.

[jpt]

A few questions (sorry if they're repeats):
- Will it support using user-loaded .ttf fonts?
- Will it have directory/file browser (I don't use ebook libraries, and have over a gig of ebooks...)

Thanks.

-- J.P.

[aleks]

Regarding the font size. It is interesting to see the opinions on why we should have one font size versus several. Consider this, On efont size limits the reader to a specific group. Those that do not require reading glasses. Multiple Font sizes allow the flexibilty of broadening the sales base to more people. As an engineer I always look at flexibility of the product so that it does not become a niche product.

[wallcraft]

I agree that, since TTF fonts are scalable, limiting font sizes is not necessary or desirable. There is a largest practical font size for any given screen size -- however "practical" may have a very low threshold if this is your only way to continue to read. Rotating to landscape increases the largest practical font size (since it is related to letters per line).

As an example, the Kindle only allows the selection of 6 font sizes but it actually fully supports 7 font sizes (at least for AZW/MOBI). It does not allow the user to select its largest size. This is perhaps to allow at least one size above the current default for headings etcetera, but I think it is a mistake on Amazon's part not to add it to the menu. See Extra Large Print Kindle ebooks for screenshots of the Kindle's font sizes 6 and 7 (and the 8" iLiad's largest MOBI size). These Extra Large Print Kindle books are unfortunately no longer available from Amazon.

[Robertb]

Originally Posted by JicMic

So the Mentor Lite which is coming out soon will have a touchscreen and the ability to write notes on it?

Dear JicMic:

Although it has the soft keyboard on it, the Mentor Lite will not have note-taking. I finally got confirmation last night from the factory. ALL other upcoming Mentor will make use of that soft keyboard and will have note-taking. The next model out is the Mentor Intrigue, slated for release in May or June. That will have 8 levels of grey scale and get double the charge life of anything now on the market.

By the way, the font size selection on the Mentor Lite is pretty nice. You have eight choices, the choices come up with one push of the button, and it not only shows the number of the font size; but a picture next to the number so you can see it before you make the choice.

Robert B

[Skyblue]

Hi Robert

Will the Mentor Intrique have folder support, something like the Irex Iliad or the Bebook?

Thanks

[moz]

Originally Posted by aleks

Regarding the font size. It is interesting to see the opinions on why we should have one font size versus several.

I hope you're not putting me in the "one font size" group. If so, I've seriously miscommunicated.

[DG25]

At what price will it be? Is there an option for black color?