Confused about firmware

[alehel]

This is straight from their blog;

"The Bookeen products will be compatible with Adobe Digital Edition Desktop application (compatible both on PCs and Macs) enabling users to acquire and download their content from a variety of sources.
Both the PDF and EPUB support will become available through a software release scheduled in quarter 1 2009, more details will follow later."

If they are going to add support for this in the cybook in the 1st quarter of 2009, surely they need to update the firmware.

[Pulp]

It's a bit ambiguous and I'm not sure that it's not on purpose...
As the artikle is mainly about the new software engine from Adobe it could mean both, though I really hope they will present us with a firmwareupdate as soon as March.

[alehel]

I would be impressed if they managed to get this done by March. But I'm hoping that they have suddenly become extremely effective in a hope to beat everyone else to becomming the first dedicated ebook reader to support both mobi drm and epub drm. Hey I can always dream.

[Pulp]

It would be a great start if they supported the non-drm formats, I would be perfectly happy with that!

[tompe]

Originally Posted by Pulp

It's a bit ambiguous and I'm not sure that it's not on purpose...
As the artikle is mainly about the new software engine from Adobe it could mean both, though I really hope they will present us with a firmwareupdate as soon as March.

Soon? I want folder support and page numbers now and really do not care so much for getting ePub support directly.

[emellaich]

Its not just Cybook. Amazon doesn't seem to roll out new features that quickly either.

I really wish I understood the ebook development environment. From the stuff that I'm familiar with, I'd predict that folders could be put together in a few days. Similarly with other features. I'd expect just one or two programmers could turn out a steady stream of enhancements.

A rolling stream of features would create ongoing buz. Since no one seems to take this approach, I assume that there is more than meets the eye here. I wonder what it is.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Its not just Cybook. Amazon doesn't seem to roll out new features that quickly either.

I really wish I understood the ebook development environment. From the stuff that I'm familiar with, I'd predict that folders could be put together in a few days. Similarly with other features. I'd expect just one or two programmers could turn out a steady stream of enhancements.

A rolling stream of features would create ongoing buz. Since no one seems to take this approach, I assume that there is more than meets the eye here. I wonder what it is.

It seems to me that Bebook takes this approach a bit.

A big part of the problem is that people would complain if the firmware broke often. I am hoping that .txtr will take the approach you describe. If they have an open platform then user can add new functionality and they get the buzz. The official firmware can be updated when needed. But this requires an open platform and Cybook does not have that.

[brudigia]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Its not just Cybook. Amazon doesn't seem to roll out new features that quickly either.

I really wish I understood the ebook development environment. From the stuff that I'm familiar with, I'd predict that folders could be put together in a few days. Similarly with other features. I'd expect just one or two programmers could turn out a steady stream of enhancements.

A rolling stream of features would create ongoing buz. Since no one seems to take this approach, I assume that there is more than meets the eye here. I wonder what it is.

I share the wish with you, although I do not believe that the a few days ould be sufficient to roll out any enhancement. It depends of course on the development platform and the willingness also to document what you have produced. That last thing may take a while.

Having said that, we have to take into account the fact that Bookeen, like the others, seem to have a remarkably pretty stable platform; with a few exception, I do not hear or read of spectacular crashes while you are reading ebooks. Thus the incentive to add new feature has to be weighed carefully, in order not to compromise the features they already have working. Look at the bug on the Bebook, (you can read about it in the proper forum) at the beginning of the year, if I recollect, where the upgrade, once installed, cancelled preciuos data.

I believe that what galls most of the Gen 3 customer is their silence, it would be appreciated a little dialog with the customer, attendance to the forums etc. Not, again, that the other companies do it, mind you.

They are certainly working on something, there are at least two new firmware releases in the newer machines, the build 820 and 834, compared to the 796 we have. But nobody knows anything about them. And it is now 5 months after the 796.

That fact that probably the Gen 3 is actually a family of at least 3 machines, with different processor speeds (200 MHz and 400 Mhz) and memory size (older machines with 64Mb and newer with 512), does not help; it surely makes consistent development across the range more complicated, as you have to make sure that what you do works on all machines.

I would also appreciate some openness, like the iRex community is developing, I believe it would help in the sales, knowing that a flourishing community is behind it. Sufficient opennnes for me would mean that every week / two weeks, something appears on their blog, like we' re working on this and that.

Let us wait for the promised firmware upgrade promised in the 1st quarter 2009 and then we'll see. Like you say, there is more than meets the eye, maybe one day we'll understand it.

[bwaldron]

Originally Posted by emellaich

Its not just Cybook. Amazon doesn't seem to roll out new features that quickly either.

No kidding. And a lot of features that they implemented on the K2 (e.g., variable line spacing) could (and should, IMHO) have been provided to K1 users as well.

[tompe]

Originally Posted by brudigia

Having said that, we have to take into account the fact that Bookeen, like the others, seem to have a remarkably pretty stable platform; with a few exception, I do not hear or read of spectacular crashes while you are reading ebooks. Thus the incentive to add new feature has to be weighed carefully, in order not to compromise the features they already have working. Look at the bug on the Bebook, (you can read about it in the proper forum) at the beginning of the year, if I recollect, where the upgrade, once installed, cancelled preciuos data.

If you to read HTML files you download from the net (price nominated short stories for example) you often get error in the rendering and a lot of crashes. Adding new features like folder should not affect the stability of the rest of the system if it has been written by competent programmers.

[HarryT]

Yes - Mobi support is pretty solid on the Gen3 (there were some major bugs in the initial firmware, but they all got fixed fairly quickly), but HTML and PDF support is pretty "ropy" to say the least.

[Over]

It seems Bookeen's french blog says ePub will be supported and the update will be released in April this year (although the english version just says 1st quarter).

[Jellby]

Originally Posted by Over

It seems Bookeen's french blog says ePub will be supported and the update will be released in April this year (although the english version just says 1st quarter).

Either they cannot count, or they plan to release it on April 1st, and that's scary

[HarryT]

Probably just means it's slipped a bit. That's no surprise.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by tompe

Soon? I want folder support and page numbers now and really do not care so much for getting ePub support directly.

Give it up on page numbers. Unless Mobipocket fixes the page numbers, you'll never ever get working page numbers in Mobipocket. And I highly doubt Mobipocket will ever fix them.