Switching From Sony

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by PRS-T2

hm German users reported 2-3 days with light on 10 and Wifi on. Some got a week.

I've had my Voyage for a week now, and have just finished my fourth book on it. The battery meter is showing half charge, which I'd consider reasonable. That's with WiFi turned off, and the light set to around 10.

[PRS-T2]

That's with WiFi turned off

Cool, but I'm used to leave WiFi on. I love to have a quick look at wikipedia depending on the book I'm reading. Going into the settings, activate, back to home, back to book, look it up, go to settings, deactivate, go to home, go back to book would be too irritating while reading...

Ah btw anyone, since my PW arrived today: unbelievable that they forgot to add a "Back to book" button in the menue

If I'm in a dictionary (more... etc.), in the browser or anywhere else, I always have to go to home and pick up my current book again

Light is pretty blue on mine btw, however it's not as bad as the PW1 is, which is the only one allowed to see outside the box at the stores here. When the light is turned way down, it becomes warmer, since the background is indeed slightly amber toned grey.

There are a lot of small dust particles between the display layers, but visible only with the light maxed. Looks like a cheap paper fake haha, can live with that. PRS-T2 is sharper and brighter unless PW's light is turned on.

What I love about the PW:
Very small fonts are still readable whereas on the Sony, they would look broken due to it's lack of resolution.
The light is very evenly distributed, slightly colder towards the bottom though.
DICTIONARIES!!! Oxford and Duden, I bought Pons for EN->DE translation and they all work like a charm. In the dictionary, I can also mark and lookup words and - yay - can switch dics while doing that. No other system in the ereader market can do that.
Wikipedia access is VERY snappy, though it's always HOME->back to book unless you don't follow links on wikipedia. For short text from wikipedia, there's a very fast overlay which can be closed -> even better than my Sony :-)
The original AZWs I bought from Amazon, look way better otb than any epub I bought: no silly publisher's formatting it seems (e.g. excessive use of blank lines, fonts that look worse than even Amazons Caecilia)...
The GUI is as snappy as my Sony's - yay!

What pisses me off: Amazon knows how stupid their widest margin setting is. That's why they use the SMALLEST margins for STANDARD setting. Come on! Why not drop the left setting (80%margin, 5 characters/line for text or so), leave the smallest for standard and add a NO margins or 5px to the right: no change in GUI, and standard would be the value in the middle, just like with line spacing That's so incredibly stupid.
Caecilia is the worst typographical accident I've ever seen. Comic Sans looks more harmonic. At least they gave it a standard looking sister named Caecilia Condensed LOL, which doesn't look condensed at all, but quite ok for what it is.

The rest of the fonts is to worthless on that reader to even mention their names, except for Baskerville, which I've seen on other occasions where it looked nice, but not after Kindle devs raped and tortured it.

I will now test it for a few days to make sure it's intact, then JB. After some more reading this wonderful place here about that topic.

Overall I'm glad I have the PW2 and the chance to make it useable for me, thanks to so many dedicated guys here at MR.

[eschwartz]

Two things.

First, you can probably just hit the back arrow in the uper left corner, to go back from the Wikipeda page to the book.

Also, make sure you don't forget to look at both JBPatch for the margins and the Fonts hack (for fonts obviously), once you jailbreak.

Oh, and third --congratulations on your new Kindle, and it is good to hear you are happy with it.

[PRS-T2]

Hey Eschwartz, my fellow dark agent

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Two things.

First, you can probably just hit the back arrow in the uper left corner, to go back from the Wikipeda page to the book.

OF COURSE I tried this and it works like a charm on all occasions, unless you either:

• open the dictionary to fullscreen, follow words in the dic (which - yay! - works) and enjoy your lingual adventure AND THEN decide to go back to the book (Tom Wolfe and T.C.Boyle tend to hijack me like this sometimes and I love it). Then you find yourself going ALL the way back or hit HOME, find your book and open it again...
• open wikipedia in full view and FOLLOW LINKS (html is based around that feature, so is wikipedia, people outside amazon know that since the 90s) or view some of the images... same lame route to get back to the book.

Both pains could be fixed with a back-to-the-book button in the context menue. Why won't it be fixed? In dics, because they are books like the book I read and opened the dic from. If I lookup dics inside dics and switch dics while doing this, how could the little bugger know which one is the book I read to begin with? I can live with that one, the functions I pay for with this hazzle are worth it
In wikipedia, because the browser is far from an "experimental browser" but utter crap. There's no Interface to the Kindle itself besides light settings, when you are caught in that stinkhole. But then again, browsers and the internet are not the main focus for e-bookreader devs outside mobileread.com, so... nevertheless: Sony did it way better half a decade ago.

Also, make sure you don't forget to look at both JBPatch for the margins and the Fonts hack (for fonts obviously), once you jailbreak.

Oh I read you and a lot of the engaged people here very carefully, especially about that.
Without the JB option, I would have canceled my quest already and decided to stick with my Sony for a couple of years longer, would have bought another T2 or a T3 just in case mine died.

Oh, and third --congratulations on your new Kindle, and it is good to hear you are happy with it.

Thanks man and indeed I am! I know there's nights of mobileread to explore to make it a Sony replacement, but with what NiLuJe and others including you give to the ereading community here, it might even become an upgrade!

A hell of an upgrade! The bitter pill however will stick in my throat: Amazon is definately paying the very wrong software devs!

Jeez, 3 hrs to alarm clock again, see you later over at kindle sections

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by PRS-T2

Hey Eschwartz, my fellow dark agent



OF COURSE I tried this and it works like a charm on all occasions, unless you either:

• open the dictionary to fullscreen, follow words in the dic (which - yay! - works) and enjoy your lingual adventure AND THEN decide to go back to the book (Tom Wolfe and T.C.Boyle tend to hijack me like this sometimes and I love it). Then you find yourself going ALL the way back or hit HOME, find your book and open it again...
• open wikipedia in full view and FOLLOW LINKS (html is based around that feature, so is wikipedia, people outside amazon know that since the 90s) or view some of the images... same lame route to get back to the book.

Both pains could be fixed with a back-to-the-book button in the context menue. Why won't it be fixed? In dics, because they are books like the book I read and opened the dic from. If I lookup dics inside dics and switch dics while doing this, how could the little bugger know which one is the book I read to begin with? I can live with that one, the functions I pay for with this hazzle are worth it
In wikipedia, because the browser is far from an "experimental browser" but utter crap. There's no Interface to the Kindle itself besides light settings, when you are caught in that stinkhole. But then again, browsers and the internet are not the main focus for e-bookreader devs outside mobileread.com, so... nevertheless: Sony did it way better half a decade ago.

I definitely hear where you are coming from. Personally, I don't bother exploring much in the browser, and when I do, I use the skipstone hack. It doesn't integrate with the Wikipedia ACX (though I bet someone could write one which does ) but it can be launched with Aeris's Kindle Menu (pulldown, smartphone-style, also the Guake terminal emulator, which I have fallen in love with ) and then when you X out the browser overlay, you go back to wherever you were before.

It is a superior browsing experience in general (tabbed, bookmarks bar, better rendering, landscape mode for full desktop rendering) and of course being a hack has a better way of quitting.

[PRS-T2]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

I definitely hear where you are coming from. Personally, I don't bother exploring much in the browser, and when I do, I use the skipstone hack. It doesn't integrate with the Wikipedia ACX (though I bet someone could write one which does ) but it can be launched with Aeris's Kindle Menu (pulldown, smartphone-style, also the Guake terminal emulator, which I have fallen in love with ) and then when you X out the browser overlay, you go back to wherever you were before.

It is a superior browsing experience in general (tabbed, bookmarks bar, better rendering, landscape mode for full desktop rendering) and of course being a hack has a better way of quitting.

Heya, just added skipstone to my bookmarks, didn't know about it, so again

Doesn't solve my prob with switching from book to wiki and back, but is a very welcome addition anyway. The kindle browser is pretty much useless for anything else than wikipedia hehe. If everything will work out as planned, I'll take a few days off coming week and take my time to JB and explore. Until then I pick up all your great advice and bookmark the links you provide.

So far I have:

• JB, old FW to intall before
• K5 JBPatch
• K5 Collections Manager
• Librarian (still have to decide)
• All I need for Calibre (I think)
• Snapshots of NiLuJe's Hacks (mighty stuff, still have to explore that all)
• Skipstone browser

And an idea for the frontlight warmtoning. However, I'll test it for a while before opening, to see if the yellowish background does the trick and to make sure the kindle I have is stable before I definitely kill my warranty.

Anything useful I forgot besides NiLuJe's awesome and inspiring images and thoughts on how to make the typography on the PW much better? Please keep it coming.

[eschwartz]

Sure thing, and thanks for the karma!

I'll tell you if I think of anything, but mostly I just think of things when a tangential issue comes up.

You may want to add Aeris's Native Kindle Menu, as I mentioned above, to your list.

[PRS-T2]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Sure thing, and thanks for the karma!

No need to thank ME for something YOU earned, Eschwartz. I've read you so many times across this forum, not just after we met. You and a couple of other guys I read or talked to, have my highest respect. If you are not only humorous, you're so helpful, mostly you are both. When Moloko, being a fellow left-in-nothingness-Sonyiac, opened this thread, you where here to help. When I started bashing e-readers for not being up to par with Sony, you taught. You never seemed a fanboy nor acted like one. Instead, with your experience and out-of-the-box thinking, you empathize with users, who ignorantly fall off other systems, and understand their user behaviour. It's the difference of a teacher from a priest that makes you so valuable in this forum. You really really helped me when I was losing hope, after Sony abandoned a ship I thought would sail forever. Reading really means that much to me.

I'll tell you if I think of anything, but mostly I just think of things when a tangential issue comes up.

Hehe you stepped outta that already as far as thinking of things goes
And now, thanks to you and NiLuJe, there's so much to discover, that I'm pumped up with optimism: there is a life after Sony PRS, Yay!
Btw, the PW doesn't feel so alien anymore, some things suck but I know now how to fix them. Thanks for your charming and inspiring relocation assistance

You may want to add Aeris's Native Kindle Menu, as I mentioned above, to your list.

Damn I did to the bookmarks but forgot it on the list. It was late at night over here... Anyhow, I'll try it out.

May your tin be always foil!

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by PRS-T2

No need to thank ME for something YOU earned, Eschwartz. I've read you so many times across this forum, not just after we met. You and a couple of other guys I read or talked to, have my highest respect. If you are not only humorous, you're so helpful, mostly you are both. When Moloko, being a fellow left-in-nothingness-Sonyiac, opened this thread, you where here to help. When I started bashing e-readers for not being up to par with Sony, you taught. You never seemed a fanboy nor acted like one. Instead, with your experience and out-of-the-box thinking, you empathize with users, who ignorantly fall off other systems, and understand their user behaviour. It's the difference of a teacher from a priest that makes you so valuable in this forum. You really really helped me when I was losing hope, after Sony abandoned a ship I thought would sail forever. Reading really means that much to me.

Thanks for the compliment -- I do try to be helpful, just passing on the love, I got a lot of help myself here.
I still have a lot to learn about calibre, and I am eternally grateful to the hacks provided by NiLuJe and the gang...

Compared to that, I just do a lot of talking...

[PRS-T2]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Thanks for the compliment -- I do try to be helpful, just passing on the love, I got a lot of help myself here.
I still have a lot to learn about calibre, and I am eternally grateful to the hacks provided by NiLuJe and the gang...

Compared to that, I just do a lot of talking...

All hails to the mighty code wizards

Hm I think helpers like you, Eschwartz, do alot of good here by keeping the dev threads cleaner. And you might have saved the code wizards sanity and alot of their time hehe... since I've seen (read) how much time they actually spend on doing the same you do: help noobs like me to get safe and sound through the process of finding and applying the hacks they need.

Speaking of, yeehaw: It all went smooth thanks to stunning structural and documentational work done by NiLuJe and your help.
Downgraded, jailbroken, upgraded back to 5.4.5.1, applied BDL and the folder trick to be safe from the evil SIX, KUAL is running and the temporare JBpatch by Kaznelson. No more silly margins and way better font-sizing...

Aunt EDIT(H) says: NiLuJe's latest Python snapshot and cover hack are up and running now, too :-) I use book cover for screensaver, always wanted that on my Sony hehe
Also the Helper and MR Package Installer are running - MRPI is really really awesome!
The big surprise to me was the Battery Status (also running fine) for two reasons:
1) it shows °Celsius next to Fahrenheit
2) it allows for tweaking the battery symbol to show percentage inside

Coming week, if my workmates let me go for 2-3 days, I hope I'll figure how to...

1. Exchange the fonts except for the condensed one
2. Try to gain back some of the top (bezel shadow) and bottom (frontlight clouding) margins while keeping the horizontal margin settings Kaznelson applied. Awesome would be to have those verticals margins resize with the horizontal margins using the 3 gui settings
3. Hyphenation - Calibre plugin HyphenateThis I guess?
4. Collections: figure what to use: CM or Librarian for the 5.4.5.1

Thanks again for helping me get this far by pointing me in the right directions. Thanks to you it's been a reading and dloading only experience in the dev threads

[eschwartz]

Hmm, well I would just stick with LS, since it is much faster at importing collections from calibre. CM is nice, but chiefly for doing things in bulk from the Kindle UI itself -- oh, and for making things invisible on fw<5.4.2.

Hyphenation is the one big pain in the neck. The calibre plugin can maybe help. I believe there was also a JBPatch, but it hasn't been updated?

As far as custom margins, it will probably require another patch. Ask in the thread there, kaznelson can probably make one, or help you modify the patches yourself.

Sorry, not a fonts user.

[eschwartz]

I have to agree, screensavers is truly awesome!

And MR Package Installer is something we should've had a long time ago .

[PRS-T2]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Hmm, well I would just stick with LS, since it is much faster at importing collections from calibre. CM is nice, but chiefly for doing things in bulk from the Kindle UI itself -- oh, and for making things invisible on fw<5.4.2.

LS->LibrarianSync or so? I've seen it around here somewhere, but my focus got pulled toward CM again and again

Thanks for the hint: indeed I'd never touch collections on the device itself, just need collections import from calibre that's fairly customizable. And options to filter the view on the device would be cool. Anyway, I will have a closer look at LS

Hyphenation is the one big pain in the neck. The calibre plugin can maybe help. I believe there was also a JBPatch, but it hasn't been updated?

Nope, hasn't. Kaznelson just took what he could and packed it into something the newer PW2 FWs can eat, and I'm really thankful for that: gives better margins and font size handling. The original JBPatch by Ixtab was a brilliant piece of work, it's a very sad story.

As far as custom margins, it will probably require another patch. Ask in the thread there, Kaznelson can probably make one, or help you modify the patches yourself.

Sorry, not a fonts user.

No prob, you helped me so much already. Heck, If you hadn't pointed out all things neccessary to know, I'd still stick with my Sony haha. Having fun with you here helped me make that decision and look at the right places for filling the blanks. Now I can also use Google Translate instead of the rather crappy Bing
I know I've seen something about patching the jar files for margin changes, but couldn't rediscover grrr. I will after I took care of collections around Wednesday/Thursday I guess, or Tuesday night

All in all I become more and more happy with the PW2, hope it will last, since no one knows whether the new FW they started shipping now will allow for downgrade/JB...

[eschwartz]

Cool.

...

That reminds me, make sure you are using these instructions: Kindle_Touch_Hacking#Blocking_Official_Updates

[PRS-T2]

Yes I did right after JB, thanks!

applied BDL and the folder trick to be safe from the evil SIX,

THAT would be real horror if I got struck by that pure evil