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

[Defenderland]

What i don't like at all: The auto-crop feature works very well, but if i switch e.g. to the paper-reading mode, the crop is lost and the full page seems to be divided very unintelligently into four quarters. And this takes that long to implement?! What a joke.

Shouldn't it work that way, that THE USER defines the portion of the original page (with or without margin, or a certain portion of the page) and then can decide, how he wants to read the zoomed/cropped pages?

Do the programmers use the devices themselfes for everyday reading? I don't have the impression.

[Mono]

Originally Posted by Defenderland

Do the programmers use the devices themselfes for everyday reading? I don't have the impression.

Neither me. There might be another explanation. Maybe they use it, but with Chinese texts. Maybe, we should prepare for them the set of test texts, so that they may see what is to be expected to be read by users.

I sort of like the paper mode (2 collumn). But I strongly agree with you that it should be applied within crop settings. There is no need to show sometimes large white margins of original document. More important is to see as much as possible of the text. Paper mode should just make it easier=faster to move from bottom of left column to top of right one.

There is also problem with scribling. I may draw the thick line and it is drawn as thick, but later on it becomes tiny line. Also changing the page sometimes does not work. The page counter changes, but the old one is shown. Sometimes overlayed with scribling from another page...

OK, it is beta... Or more precisely early alpha, to my opinion.

[Defenderland]

It's been some time ago since i learned OOP, but all this ridiculous bugs of lost settings/parameters indicate me, that they are not capable of object oriented proigramming, correct use of methods/functions and encapsulation of data.
And there seems to be no professional planning of the features and the interrelations they cause because of the bad programming style. Just guessing.

[Booxtor]

Originally Posted by Mono

.. Maybe, we should prepare for them the set of test texts, so that they may see what is to be expected to be read by users.

I guess it is a very good idea. The more suggestions (doc samples, snapshots, explanations etc) the better.

Originally Posted by Mono

..
I sort of like the paper mode (2 collumn). But I strongly agree with you that it should be applied within crop settings. There is no need to show sometimes large white margins of original document. More important is to see as much as possible of the text. Paper mode should just make it easier=faster to move from bottom of left column to top of right one.

I think the idea to use the paper mode (comics mode) within crop settings is fantastic. I will push that idea to developers immediately.
Additionaly I am going to suggest them to extend the two column (paper) mode to a user defined amount of columns. Very often there are more than two columns in documents. Same also for comics mode.

Originally Posted by Mono

..

OK, it is beta... Or more precisely early alpha, to my opinion.

I agree

[Mono]

Originally Posted by Defenderland

It's been some time ago since i learned OOP, but all this ridiculous bugs of lost settings/parameters indicate me, that they are not capable of object oriented proigramming, correct use of methods/functions and encapsulation of data.
And there seems to be no professional planning of the features and the interrelations they cause because of the bad programming style. Just guessing.

It seems to me that they do not have a person with the "vision" and analytic mind. And ergonomy is alien word for them...

For example. To put headphones socket and volume buttons to the bottom edge is not comfortable. And so I use M92 upside down. Placement of menu icon in lower left corner is also suboptimal, it requires long hand moves, the hand often hides the icon and the move often might be to unnatural angle - against body. The whole status bar should be at top and the menu icon as close to center as possible, maybe a bit to the right from centre (the hand has space to move and the angle is more natural). There must be one click to switch main tools (now 2 or 3). I do not use many features just because it is difficult to access them. I know that those are little things and they will not appear in feature list, but make the "experience" much better.

So, they may have good or not so good programmers, who knows. But for sure they do not have a good sw analytic (designer), if they have any...

Why do I have to use 3rd party sw (OTFM - file manager!!!) to setup sleep and switch-off times to values that suit me. The Onyx setup dialog for this feature is a bad joke...

But anyway, I like M92. I am satisfied customer. I just see that with not that much effort and understanding what is important and what not so much, it could be much better.

Originally Posted by Booxtor

I guess it is a very good idea. The more suggestions (doc samples, snapshots, explanations etc) the better.

I will send some document samples.

And concerning comics/paper mode. Maybe it might be handy to add possibility switch between left to right and right to left movement. People from countries where right to left direction of writing should confirm, if it is needed. That is if they start in right column or not. And if comics "stripes" also go from right to left.

[kevin.pugh]

Hi "Booxtor",
I have downloaded the 1.7 firmware upgrade - it is a great improvement.

As an English user, I would like to change the web links so that they are for English UK sites rather than of Germany - that is, www.google.co.uk rather than www,google.de.

Also for the Onx web page from the Chinese one to the English equivalent.

How can I do that?
I saw that the firmware zip file is encrpted so I would be unable to change the website links. Is there another way?

Also, it would be nice to have a editbox enabled for web address. Is that possible?
Kevin

[Booxtor]

Originally Posted by kevin.pugh

Hi "Booxtor",
I have downloaded the 1.7 firmware upgrade - it is a great improvement.

As an English user, I would like to change the web links so that they are for English UK sites rather than of Germany - that is, www.google.co.uk rather than www,google.de.

Also for the Onx web page from the Chinese one to the English equivalent.

How can I do that?
I saw that the firmware zip file is encrpted so I would be unable to change the website links. Is there another way?

Also, it would be nice to have a editbox enabled for web address. Is that possible?
Kevin

The easiest way - modifiy the update file before installation. You don't need the archive password for it.

Go to \usr\share\gui_shell\sites

you can remove onyx folder, since the webpage is not changing since months

Now you can go to the folder google.
There is a file manifest.xml in it.
It can be replaced by that file:https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23593310/manifest.xml
(with google.com instead of google.de inside).

The manifest.xml can be also modified.
Just edit the content between <url> </url> tags.
f.e. write <url>http://www.google.co.uk</url> instead of <url>http://www.google.com</url>

You can also install otfm (tiny file manager... recomendation!)) and just copy the modified manifest.xml into the \usr\share\gui_shell\sites\google folder

[Domdodom]

Booxtor,
Thanks for the implementation of the file name / title switch in the 07/26 update.
However the implementation is not problem free, filenames of pdf files are not sorted in alphabetic order, when I select "Name" and the new toggles are set to turn off metadata fetch and show filenames. Folder names are sorted, but not the pdfs.
Best,
Domdodom

[CJY]

I have just updated to the latest f/w (1.7.20120726), and I find that the issues with sound volume has yet not been addressed!
(Refer. wishlist Music Player section.)

I bought this unit partly because I wish to be able to listen to music while reading in bed at night, and apart from the first week after purchase (using supplied f/w 1.6) whereafter I upgraded to f/w 1.7, this has not been possible and still is not.
I have had to purchase a separate mp3 player to fulfil this need, and this should not have been needed!

At this stage, I simply have to consider the unit faulty and not delivering on the promised specifications; It is very unprofessional of Onyx.

As way of reference, this was posted on 21 Feb:

Originally Posted by Booxtor

@since I never tried the music player functionality of m92 I did not notice the problem in the past.
The problem was forwarded to ONYX.

The issue is still here after five (!) months.

For those requesting more maturity and professionalism from Onyx, I beg of you to consider that such a (seemingly) trite issue cannot be sorted satisfactorily, then what can?


I do apologise for the curt and impatient post - I am not normally given to such negativity - but this whole process is getting very tiresome!

Cheers!
CJ

[kevin.pugh]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

The easiest way - modifiy the update file before installation. You don't need the archive password for it.

Go to \usr\share\gui_shell\sites

you can remove onyx folder, since the webpage is not changing since months

Now you can go to the folder google.
There is a file manifest.xml in it.
It can be replaced by that file:https://dl.dropbox.com/u/23593310/manifest.xml
(with google.com instead of google.de inside).

The manifest.xml can be also modified.
Just edit the content between <url> </url> tags.
f.e. write <url>http://www.google.co.uk</url> instead of <url>http://www.google.com</url>

You can also install otfm (tiny file manager... recomendation!)) and just copy the modified manifest.xml into the \usr\share\gui_shell\sites\google folder

Thanks for that I did try and use WinRAR before asking but it kept asking for the password. I will try once more.

<Update>
Hi "Booxtor"
Yep, tried what you proposed using winrar and Windows Archive and the manifest.xml files are all password protected. Unfortunately.
KevinPugh

[Booxtor]

Originally Posted by kevin.pugh

Thanks for that I did try and use WinRAR before asking but it kept asking for the password. I will try once more.

<Update>
Hi "Booxtor"
Yep, tried what you proposed using winrar and Windows Archive and the manifest.xml files are all password protected. Unfortunately.
KevinPugh

You definitely don't need the password. Just replace the available manifest.xml with the downloaded one(it can be modified) manifest.xml
I have just tested - it works (using WinRar).

[kevin.pugh]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

You definitely don't need the password. Just replace the available manifest.xml with the downloaded one(it can be modified) manifest.xml
I have just tested - it works (using WinRar).

Hi there,
sorry to be so slow ...

I understand I can replace the manifest.xml file by dragging the manifest file that I have set up already and dropping into winrar or winzip, but i am not familar what exactly is in this file. So I was expecting to first read the file in the RAR file, change the content and then put the modified manifest.xml file back into the RAR file.

As I cannot read the XML file, it would be very helpful if you could post an example of the content of this manifest XML file.

Also, is the format of this example XML file, the same for all the Web Page links in \usr\share\gui_shell\sites ?

thanking you in advance
Kevin

[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...

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).

Update/bug report/warning: This is not true. Annotations made in the new reader are not saved - they can be added and are visible but only until the document is closed, after which all newly added ones are lost! At least this happened with the file I'm currently working with.

Standard reader works fine. When I started reading the document in the new reader I already had some annotations from the old reader one - perhaps this is the cause? Obviously I will not test the new reader any further...

[Mono]

I will test it again, but I did test it and it worked fine for me.

I took a file, made notes in old pdf reader, closed document, changed setting to a new pdf reader. The notes were visible. I added new notes, closed document, changed setting to an old pdf reader. Opened pdf, notes made in both - old and new pdf reader were visible and it was possible to export them.

Maybe, that the problem you hit is sort of bug in a new pdf reader (alpha release) that occures here and there, but not always. I also experienced random problems - reader did not show the page it should and probably because of that shoved scribles from 'correst' page on wrong page...

It is alpha, more a concept than finished and almost bug-free version. It is intended for testing purposes for those who are courious, not for work.

[janek]

Originally Posted by Mono

I will test it again, but I did test it and it worked fine for me.

I took a file, made notes in old pdf reader, closed document, changed setting to a new pdf reader. The notes were visible. I added new notes, closed document, changed setting to an old pdf reader. Opened pdf, notes made in both - old and new pdf reader were visible and it was possible to export them.

Now i tried this again and it worked. Perhaps this is related to viewing mode, file type or some other factor.

Originally Posted by Mono

Maybe, that the problem you hit is sort of bug in a new pdf reader (alpha release)

I'm sure this is not intentional