Firmware updates, dictionaries, fonts and third-party software for M92

[PF4Mobile]

Could you guys tell me if the old PDF reader has been improved in any way?

[Mono]

The old one, I guess not. Or not visibly... (I upgraded from fw from April/May.) If there was some kind of issue, I can test if it has been corrected.

The new one has 2-column mode for reading scientific articles (or dictionaries, ...)... I guess you know, that they are A4, 2 collumns most of the time and tiny font.

2CM works in a way that displays top of left column, next page moves you in botttom of left collumn, next page moves you to the top of right collumn, and so on.

Problem is, if there is text, table, graph/picture placed across the whole page (readable in one column mode and non-readable in 2CM mode)... You see only left or right part, depending on that, if you are spanning left or right collumn.

I have not found any "advanced" annotation possibilities, like drawing rectangles, and so on.

There is no progress on the toolbar side. :-( It is not possible to switch by "one-click" between user definable or last few used tools. It seems to me, it wouldn't be difficult to add 2 or 3 icons on the toolbar and make them user definable or place there last 3-4 (including the current tool indicator) used...

I hope Onyx developers come to conclusion that it would improve the workflow by a great deal. Different users have different needs. For example I need to switch between pen, eraser, hand tool and dictionary.

[Mono]

Originally Posted by janek

The comic mode of the new reader is nice. But it would be too perfect if it just worked - in that reader the option to export notes is not available...

Scribles done in old pdf reader are visible in the new one. Also scribles to document made in a new reader are visible in old one. I didn't try it but it should be possible also to export it in the old reader.

Notes done in older reader version are visible in a new version and vice versa. Making notes in a new version may be even better because the name is automatically loaded with note text, which is probably the best thing to do instead of typing note 1 or similar...

It is not so convenient as to export it (scribles merged with pdf / notes in txt file) directly from a new version, but how often do you do the export...

So, good news is, that there is full compatibility in notes and scribles system between old and new pdf reader version. And hopefuly also for marker (I didn´t try).

[FMP]

Originally Posted by Mono

There is no progress on the toolbar side. :-(

Originally Posted by Mono

It is not possible to switch by "one-click" between user definable or last few used tools. It seems to me, it wouldn't be difficult to add 2 or 3 icons on the toolbar and make them user definable or place there last 3-4 (including the current tool indicator) used...

I hope Onyx developers come to conclusion that it would improve the workflow by a great deal.

I strongly support this ...

Originally Posted by Mono

Different users have different needs. For example I need to switch between pen, eraser, hand tool and dictionary.

... it would already be a good improvement to me if I could switch back and forth between pen an eraser in two clicks (rather than having to go through two menu selections involving four clicks).

[PF4Mobile]

Probably Onyx is concentrating on reducing costs and in order to do that they want to eliminate the old reader. Otherwise I don;t see why they did not improve the old one and put efforts in the new one.

[Mono]

Might be so.

But maybe the old reader did not allow to do things needed, was buggy, it was hard/costly/close to impossible to maintain it or develop it... Who knows?

Sometimes the SW reaches the state when it is better (from many aspects) to start from scratch. It is like with houses. To certain limit it is cost efective to repair it and maintain it, but at some point it is wise and cost effective to demolish it and build the new one...

I hope, they will make the work flow much better in the new reader than in current one. We put a lot of effort to give them the feedback and even suggested the solution. And the guys in russian forum as well. So, hopefully they will do it right way. If not they might 'kill' their bussiness...

[PF4Mobile]

Is the new one open source?
That would somehow justify their choice.

[fraylocus]

We must not forget that the M92, first of all, is a reader.
For me the benefits of writing well, but I prefer improvements in reading.

The extraction of metadata does not vanish completely with the new features.
If you choose "detailed list" displays the internal name of the author of the metadata.
Therefore, the SD memory access still slows down if there are many books copied therein.
This did not happen with older firmwares and devalued one of the most interesting features of M92: Allow saving an entire library within the SD without slowing the reader.

An engine as important as reading CoolReader still no improvement.
For example, you can not change the hyphenation for different languages​​, coming this "tied" to Russian_EnUS_hyphen_ (Alan). Pdb
Nor can it be associated with formats like the popular mobi books, or even the doc.

The beta is very alpha PDFReader. The last of the i62 runs more smoothly.
An interesting feature for the pdf, it would cut Duokan style manual for the Kindle.


regards

[janek]

Originally Posted by Mono

Scribles done in old pdf reader are visible in the new one. Also scribles to document made in a new reader are visible in old one. I didn't try it but it should be possible also to export it in the old reader.

Notes done in older reader version are visible in a new version and vice versa. Making notes in a new version may be even better because the name is automatically loaded with note text, which is probably the best thing to do instead of typing note 1 or similar...

It is not so convenient as to export it (scribles merged with pdf / notes in txt file) directly from a new version, but how often do you do the export...

Yeah, I realized this after writing previous post.

Still I'd be glad if someone could answer my question wrt overwriting the /root directory. Booxtor?

[Mono]

Originally Posted by janek

I have a question. I stored all the user space databases before updating (the whole /root/ directory, that is).

Now please tell me what happens if i simply overwrite the new /root/ directory with the old one? Beside my own case, if simply overwriting the root directory is safe, it should be trivial to write a backup script to backup all user settings to sd card and then recreate them after update.

Well, I don't know the answer, but I can imagine the cases when this aproach would not work. For example, if the database structure changes. The table is added, the content of "system" table is altered or the table columns added... It may easily happen time from time and there must be a mechanism to transfer databases from older format to newer one.

Probably only programmers would know, if and when it is possible.

But generaly it is very good idea to make backups of user databases. If something fails, there is something to allow to restore many (easily 1000+) hours of work.

So, I would also like to know the answer to your question. And mainly have the working backup solution of all user data in partition(s) not accessible for general user. The best would be if Onyx makes it. They know what and where is user data and possible structure/content changes in it.

[lolnoob]

how do i set boot splash to factory default once i changed it?

[Randy11]

In the last firmware : 1.7 (1.7.20120726), with the BETA pdfreader, the option "Hide Margin" is missing.

[janek]

Originally Posted by Mono

Well, I don't know the answer, but I can imagine the cases when this aproach would not work. For example, if the database structure changes. The table is added, the content of "system" table is altered or the table columns added... It may easily happen time from time and there must be a mechanism to transfer databases from older format to newer one.

Probably only programmers would know, if and when it is possible.

But generaly it is very good idea to make backups of user databases. If something fails, there is something to allow to restore many (easily 1000+) hours of work.

So, I would also like to know the answer to your question. A nd mainly have the working backup solution of all user data in partition(s) not accessible for general user. The best would be if Onyx makes it. They know what and where is user data and possible structure/content changes in it.

Yes, my imagination is working as well and I can see how doing this could damage the system. But in the end, damaged databases should not prevent the device from booting and possible errors can in the last resort be fixed by installing the anti-freeze firmware (if it is true that it is only it that resets user data) or by resetting system. What I don't like about all this is that either I'll have to remove dust from my sqlite editor and compare databases, by hand, or re-enter my all passwords and other stuff, by hand. So this way or another, dull and unnecessary work cannot be escaped.
(Well okay, learning database structures has the surplus of being somehow educative)

[Defenderland]

I like the new PDF-paper-reading setting, but IMO there is badly missing a solution to leave the reading zoom and zoom in on pics quickly that go beyond the column and quickly jump back with one touch (undo zoom more important than the resfresh-symbol?).

I hope the development speed will speed up now considerably now.

[Jmirko]

I just installed firmware version 1.7.(20120726), for the sole purpose of being able to display and change pdf file names instead of metadata titles. It works, and finally enables my office note-taking workflow* (although it would be even better if this setting applied also to the "recent reading" list on the home screen).

I want to thank everyone who requested this, and Booxtor for representing us toward Onyx. I can now recommend the M92 to my friends without any reservations, not only for reading, but also for handwritten notes. Since this workaround works very well, I changed the priority of my scribble-related requests in the wishlist wiki from "very important" to "nice to have".

*The "scribble" function is still missing several important features, so I use a workaround recommended by someone on this forum. I created a 10-page, blank pdf template and saved it to a new folder within "Books" on the SD card. When a meeting starts, I open the template and write my notes on it. At the end of the meeting, I use the "Merge sketch" function to save the notes (it will be saved as a new file, the original blank template will not be overwritten). I then rename the new file to contain the date and keywords of the meeting. (This was not possible with the previous firmware.) I use the search function to look for keywords within the title if I need to find notes from previous meetings.