PRS+: Enhanced firmware for Sony Reader, Folders, Games & more

[kartu]

klawong

Since you have both the 505 and 600 could you tell me please, which one is best readable...are there differences between the displays?

It's off-topic, but: I hate the 600. When you hold it next to 505 the screen looks terrible to my taste (I guess I am too picky in this regard, there are a lot of people who are OK with 600's screen). Lower contrast, more reflections. On the bright side, it has touchscreen and it has faster page transitions (I suspect mostly due to not refreshing entire screen with black/white, might also be doable in 505), but I need neither nor. In the end I touch it only to let my kid play with it (paint with a stylus) or to check PRS+ project related stuff.

If the 600 is best of all Sony ebook-readers and if there is no restriction in using PRS+, what about concentrating on this one first?

The most expensive Sony is PRS 900. People say it's screen is not as great as on 505 (300), but it's much better than 600's.

I will try to port PRS+ to it, at least some features (Browse Folders), after I'm done with localization for 505. But:
a) unlike 300, 600 is very different from 505
b) if you brick 600, you practically kiss it goodbye, ouch. (check how "unbricking" works with 600)

And raising funds for 300 will probably take a while.

[Mark Nord]

A quick note to translators:
You have to make sure, that your code-editor saves in UTF-8!
Mine used "Windows 1252: Western European", leading me (and others?) to the solution of escaping symbols to +String.fromCharCode(###)+, to get it displayed right on the PRS 505 screen.
With a correct configured editor, you can simply type in the symbols.

You can quick-check with a hex-editor. If e.g "ä" is coded as C3 A4 you are using UTF-8 and all is fine, if you see any other code (eg a single E4 -this is Win 1252) you have to change the character encoding.

[Mark Nord]

Originally Posted by kartu

Mark Nord
I haven't looked into it myself (besides checking DE/FR image size, which was roughly 30% bigger than US), but porkupan (aka boroda) reported that there was little to no additional value in FR/DE versions and that adding more languages just didn't work. At that time PRS+ was quite far into US firmware (and quite a lot of stuff just doesn't work if you try it with DE/FR) so that in the end it would take less time (and much less space) to "localize" US image than make PRS+ to work with FR/DE anyway.

Don't want to sound bossy, but there is no technical reason, why adding more localization to 1.3 and 1.4, shouldn't be possible.
I did it allready with Spanish. (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=79329).
The change in the SONY UI, not in PRS+!, is done instant without a restart of the reader.

[kartu]

Mark Nord
Mark, but what are the advantages of such method? (provided code that does that through PRS+ is already developed)

Disadvantages are:
1) eats 2Mb of valuable flash space
2) there is no official flasher that could flash to image other than US

[elcreative]

If you can get Browse Folders on 600 then I would be delighted... this feature now works beautifully with the 505 now that you've put the experimental mount addition (which may be experimental but works great) and I currently have just on 25K of titles installed on a 16GB card (with nearly 10GB free)... I love having a library in my pocket and I would use my 600 much more with the same facility. Regardles, your work is much appreciated

Originally Posted by kartu

klawong


I will try to port PRS+ to it, at least some features (Browse Folders), after I'm done with localization for 505. But:
a) unlike 300, 600 is very different from 505
b) if you brick 600, you practically kiss it goodbye, ouch. (check how "unbricking" works with 600)

[kartu]

elcreative
Thanks for your feedback. I was worrying it didn't work and nobody was reporting it.

klawong
Thanks for your donation!
I wonder why it didn't show up here, did you do it using chipin?

[Mark Nord]

Originally Posted by kartu

Mark Nord
Mark, but what are the advantages of such method? (provided code that does that through PRS+ is already developed)

Disadvantages are:
1) eats 2Mb of valuable flash space
2) there is no official flasher that could flash to image other than US

Ok, it's obsolete now, as you reinvented the wheel, which had been done already by the Sony-, Kionoma-Developers for fw v1.3 ff. Including Date-Support via the system-var "STR_FORMAT_DATE" value="DD.MM.YY", your are still working on.

2 Mb of internal memory is IMHO not the point, as we are with this project to use SD-Cards or MemorySticks with GB's of space, and we are "wasting" some 400kB with games.

A v 1.4 new_opt.img build with "mkcramfs" comes to 6,17 MB (6.471.680 Bytes), the overhead in the dumped ones are only 00's.

And unbricking with the offical Sony-Udater and flashing a new fsk-image with Igorsk-Flasher or your superb Installer (which is flashing a whole fsk-image, too) - even based on another version - is done in a instant.
(I had to do, because of a bad-formated xml-file)

OK lets end this, I just wanted to let you know about it. As I think this is the idea behind open-source projects.

One question to your way of localization, especially the localization of the PRS+ UI:
As far as I can see, the localization is done after a connect/deconnect to USB thus restarting the main-app.
Will there be a instant way without a restart?

[Mike_73]

Yeah, PRS+ for the 600 would be awesome. Right now I'm ok with the russification. I would love to put my files into collections right on the reader.

[kartu]

Mike_73

I would love to put my files into collections right on the reader.

Afaik this:
https://dev.mobileread.com/trac/sonyfmngr

works for all models of the reader.

Mark Nord

Including Date-Support via the system-var "STR_FORMAT_DATE" value="DD.MM.YY", your are still working on.

No, it's not about setting date to something (which is already implemented) it's about conveniently changing it later to whatever format one prefers, without changing locale. (not to have en_UK, en_US, etc among other things)

As far as I can see, the localization is done after a connect/deconnect to USB thus restarting the main-app. Will there be a instant way without a restart?

Probably no. The problem is not translation itself, but books by title/author, that might need to be resorted. I wonder how standard app does it.

and we are "wasting" some 400kB with games.

The point is, you can drop games any time, but you can't as easily strip some stuff from the standard firmware.

I just wanted to let you know about it. As I think this is the idea behind open-source projects.

Yes, and thanks a lot for finding it out.

2 Mb of internal memory is IMHO not the point,

It's not about IM, it's about flashable Fsk partition, which is quite small (around 8mbs afaik)

A v 1.4 new_opt.img build with "mkcramfs" comes to 6,17 MB (6.471.680 Bytes), the overhead in the dumped ones are only 00's.

Strange, I think the one I've got was french, and it was 8Mbs.

If it's only 6Mbs and installs np over US firmware, I'll give it a try!

[Mike_73]

Kartu thanks for the link. It quite looks like what I want, but I would love to see this right on the reader. As for the functionality, creating and sorting collections works well enough with the Sony software. I would just love to set up collections (can be done in the Sony soft) but then just drag and drop all books/files on the reader and put them there into the appropriate collections.

But thanks anyways I'll probably give it a try and see if it works better/easier than the Sony soft.

[elcreative]

Let us know how the file manager works if you try it... looks like it might stop the rescan when adding books as it appears to rewrite the relevant file whilst connected to computer...

Originally Posted by Mike_73

Kartu thanks for the link. It quite looks like what I want, but I would love to see this right on the reader. As for the functionality, creating and sorting collections works well enough with the Sony software. I would just love to set up collections (can be done in the Sony soft) but then just drag and drop all books/files on the reader and put them there into the appropriate collections.

But thanks anyways I'll probably give it a try and see if it works better/easier than the Sony soft.

[klawong]

Originally Posted by kartu

klawong
Thanks for your donation!
I wonder why it didn't show up here, did you do it using chipin?

Yes, I did it with the ChipIn-Button and got this confirmation:

[Mike_73]

Ok, I just tried installing the program, but it doesn't want to run. First I downloaded mingwm10.dll and qtcore4.dll. After this, it now tells me that it cannot find the procedure entry point in qtcore4.dll. I'm running Win7 64bit. Any ideas?

[kartu]

klawong
It was my fault. I had to explicitly accept it via paypal. Now it's shown on chipin.

Mike
I've just tried it on my Win7 64bit. Just put all exe/dll files in the same folder (there were 4 dlls) and it works just fine.

PS
https://dev.mobileread.com/dist/Urob...utable_win.zip

[Mike_73]

Kartu, thanks for the download link. The program works, but I don't get to play with it right now. The family wants to get out of the house for a little walk as the sky cleared up a little now