Boox Nova Pro?

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by Kyriel

A thought just occurred.. Has anyone tried a case for the Kobo Aura One?

Just tried it. They are just slightly different in terms of dimension.

The Nova Pro will sit inside a KA1 case, but will not be held there. So you would need to use something like double sided tape to hold it in place were you to use a KA1 cover. Or at least the KA1 cover that I have.

However, there are also a couple of other problems:

The power button on the Nova Pro is at the top of the device so trying to press it into the KA1 case turns it on. Because of that, you would need to cut out a hole for the power button.

There is nowhere to attach the stylus on the KA1 cover which would probably increase the likelihood of it getting lost. Either that or you would somehow have to securely attach some kind of loop for the stylus.

The magnets in the KA1 case do not seem to be aligned sufficiently to act as a sleep cover for the Nova Pro.

Personally, I don't really mind the Nova Pro cover. It is very utilitarian in nature, but, for me, it is a very utilitarian device so it makes for a good marriage. Perhaps if it proves to sell in sufficient quantities, some third party cover maker will decide to make something more stylish for it, but I wouldn't hold my breath waiting... So if you're looking for an alternative, it will likely have to be one of the generic kind of covers that uses tape, elastic or velcro to hole the reader in place.

[david724]

How does the nova pro handle audiobook playback? I haven't heard any feedback on what playback experience is. Does it play music, or an audiobook, when the device is asleep? How would audio playback affect the battery life?

Thanks!

[mrpotts]

How is the experience highlighting and writing notes on PDF's?
When you export to your computer, are the notes there?
If you comment and highlight a PDf on your computer and then transfer to the Nova pro, does it show up correctly?

Thanks,
Phil

[jscris]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

Just tried it. They are just slightly different in terms of dimension.

I imagine that may be the case with most. I wish it would fit an ipad mini 5 case. I really like the pencil holder rather than the loop.

https://www.amazon.com/Infiland-Ligh...ateway&sr=8-37

[MrE]

Originally Posted by mrpotts

How is the experience highlighting and writing notes on PDF's?
When you export to your computer, are the notes there?
If you comment and highlight a PDf on your computer and then transfer to the Nova pro, does it show up correctly?

Thanks,
Phil

Speaking for the Boox Note Pro, which I've used for little over a week: working with PDFs is fine, but not as seamless as I'd hoped.

Highlighting is easy enough in most PDFs (simply long press and drag). Scribbling notes and circling things works good as well. But for these to show up back on your computer, you need to export to a new PDF. Then the notes and scribbles are embedded in the PDF and you can continue working on the computer. But this also means that you cant "go back": the notes are now part of the PDF, and no longer editable with the Boox app. But they are displayed correctly.

That said, you can install other software for PDF management on Android.

EDIT: Also note that scribbles really increase the size of the PDF. A 10 page document with annotations on each page was suddenly some 20 MBs bigger. Not a very big issue, but a little pity since I hoped to store it in an archive.

[mrpotts]

Originally Posted by MrE

Speaking for the Boox Note Pro, which I've used for little over a week: working with PDFs is fine, but not as seamless as I'd hoped.

Highlighting is easy enough in most PDFs (simply long press and drag). Scribbling notes and circling things works good as well. But for these to show up back on your computer, you need to export to a new PDF. Then the notes and scribbles are embedded in the PDF and you can continue working on the computer. But this also means that you cant "go back": the notes are now part of the PDF, and no longer editable with the Boox app. But they are displayed correctly.

That said, you can install other software for PDF management on Android.

EDIT: Also note that scribbles really increase the size of the PDF. A 10 page document with annotations on each page was suddenly some 20 MBs bigger. Not a very big issue, but a little pity since I hoped to store it in an archive.

Thanks for the details. Honestly though, doesn't sound good. At least not compared to the 1st Ed. Sony I had for a few years. Edit a PDF on the Sony, then transfer and on the PDF on a PC, those Sony-made annotations show up individually in the PDF's comments list, easily editable individually. That's how it should work.

Embedding won't work (for me) because when I'm reading a PDF, I often mark it up, correlate points, and then on the PC type out my handwritten comments for long term storage and sharing with co workers. Sounds like the Nova would make this process very messy.

Thanks,
Phil

[MrE]

Originally Posted by mrpotts

Thanks for the details. Honestly though, doesn't sound good. At least not compared to the 1st Ed. Sony I had for a few years. Edit a PDF on the Sony, then transfer and on the PDF on a PC, those Sony-made annotations show up individually in the PDF's comments list, easily editable individually. That's how it should work.

Embedding won't work (for me) because when I'm reading a PDF, I often mark it up, correlate points, and then on the PC type out my handwritten comments for long term storage and sharing with co workers. Sounds like the Nova would make this process very messy.

Thanks,
Phil

Just to be clear: the annotations do show up individually and are still editable. That's what I meant with "embedded" (maybe not the best choice of words). They are not "flattened into" the PDF.

What I meant is that once you've exported your annotations (what I meant with "embedded"), it creates a second PDF. It is only this PDF that shows the annotations on a PC. And you can no longer edit the annotations in this second PDF on the Boox (but you can edit them on the PC).

All in all, it just hampers the workflow a very little bit, since it's one directional.

[mrpotts]

Okay, understood. Thanks for clearing that up.
phil

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by MrE

Just to be clear: the annotations do show up individually and are still editable. That's what I meant with "embedded" (maybe not the best choice of words). They are not "flattened into" the PDF.

What I meant is that once you've exported your annotations (what I meant with "embedded"), it creates a second PDF. It is only this PDF that shows the annotations on a PC. And you can no longer edit the annotations in this second PDF on the Boox (but you can edit them on the PC).

All in all, it just hampers the workflow a very little bit, since it's one directional.

Thank you for this description! Sounds like a lot of trouble.
What happens when you read externally annotated PDFs on the Book? I assume (from your description) that standard PDF annotations will not be visible on the Boox. Are they at least still present after export.

[VitOne]

Hello, I am a NovaPro user. I got mine from ereader.store around the 5th of March. I would like to share with you my experience and ask some questions.

I was using software version 2018-12-25_22-04_2.0.1_0d1b2fc (I think this should be version 2.0 of the firmware and not the 2.1). As suggested in the forum (thank to isaact33) I was able to updated changing language to Chinese (the first language that appears in the list). Now software version is 2019-03-18_17-23_2.1_4c8ffe0.

I was able to install GooglePlay with the older version of the firmware and it works also now. I didn’t have any particular problems with the firmware update and all my files (epub, PDF, etc) and apps (OneDrive, OneNote) work like before.

OneNote experience is terrible, I find it not usable with the Wacom Pen.

I have the following problems that I would like to discuss with you.

1) DICTIONARY: I tried to decompress many dictionary from the page http://download.huzheng.org, in particular JP and ITA ones. I decompressed the dicts folder of my NovaPro. For example I now have a folder named "stardict-jmdict-ja-en-2.4.2" that has 5 files inside it (.INDEX, .DZ, .ifo, etc). If I try to use this dictionary (and the other ones that I can see in the dictionary settings) the device will start "Searching" without results (I waited several minutes). I tried to restart the device but it still doesn't work. I have also checked and changed the “Preferred dictionary Setting” in the dict options menu (trying to mark/unmark the dictionaries). Could you please suggest me an install procedure and a dictionary that works? I am looking for Italian and/or Japanese dictionaries.

2) MANUAL: I was not able to find a manual for the NovaPro. Inside the box there was only a quick start guide in English and Chinese. Could you please tell me if you have a PDF manual that you could share?

Thank you for your support!

[Hrod]

Originally Posted by VitOne

2) MANUAL: I was not able to find a manual for the NovaPro. Inside the box there was only a quick start guide in English and Chinese. Could you please tell me if you have a PDF manual that you could share?

I've yet to receive my Nova Pro but I found here a manual for the Nova Series:
https://www.boox.com/downloads/
https://drive.google.com/file/d/11eg...Sa7x-C4se/view

[MrE]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

What happens when you read externally annotated PDFs on the Book? I assume (from your description) that standard PDF annotations will not be visible on the Boox. Are they at least still present after export.

Your assumption is not entirely correct. As far as I have used the device, these annotations are visible and displayed correctly. I have loads of articles, and the highlights I made on the PC are visible on the Boox. There is no issue on that front, although these annotations are not editable.

The other way around, it is different: highlights made on the Boox are only visible on the PC after exporting from the Boox native app. The app then generates a second PDF, with annotations visible to other applications.

That said, you could easily install another piece of Android software to edit PDFs -- if you find one that works nicely with eInk of course. Different software, different functionalities.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by MrE

Your assumption is not entirely correct. As far as I have used the device, these annotations are visible and displayed correctly. I have loads of articles, and the highlights I made on the PC are visible on the Boox. There is no issue on that front, although these annotations are not editable.

The other way around, it is different: highlights made on the Boox are only visible on the PC after exporting from the Boox native app. The app then generates a second PDF, with annotations visible to other applications.

That said, you could easily install another piece of Android software to edit PDFs -- if you find one that works nicely with eInk of course. Different software, different functionalities.

Ok thanks for the info.
What happens when I save Onyx annotations to a new file from a file that had PC annotations in it? Are those retained alongside the ones made on the Boox?

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by VitOne

1) DICTIONARY: I tried to decompress many dictionary from the page http://download.huzheng.org, in particular JP and ITA ones. I decompressed the dicts folder of my NovaPro. For example I now have a folder named "stardict-jmdict-ja-en-2.4.2" that has 5 files inside it (.INDEX, .DZ, .ifo, etc). If I try to use this dictionary (and the other ones that I can see in the dictionary settings) the device will start "Searching" without results (I waited several minutes). I tried to restart the device but it still doesn't work. I have also checked and changed the “Preferred dictionary Setting” in the dict options menu (trying to mark/unmark the dictionaries). Could you please suggest me an install procedure and a dictionary that works? I am looking for Italian and/or Japanese dictionaries.

Personally, I find that Neoreader, the native reading app on Onyx devices, does not handle Japanese very well. Like many other reading apps, it puts any furigana immediately after each kanji rather than floating them above the kanji. This makes it challenging to look up kanji that have furigana associated with them.

I have also found that the dictionary function does not work well when you select multiple characters/hiragana when reading in the Neoreader app. Perhaps sideloading in specific Japanese fonts might help. Not sure.

Instead of Neoreader, I use Moon+ Reader Pro when reading in Japanese. It handles Japanese the best of any of the reading apps I have tried. The wonderful thing is that it handles furigana correctly.

Moon+ Reader also works well with the ColorDict and GoldenDict dictionary apps. They have a variety of dictionaries which you can install. You can then copy StarDict dictionaries to the dictdata folder which I believe ColorDict uses.

You can also set the dictionary in Moon+ Reader so that it will search other apps on a long press of the dictionary button after selecting a word.

I have Moon+ Reader set up so that a short press on the dictionary button will search the StarDict dictionaries which I have associated with ColorDict. A long press of the dictionary button will cause it to search for the term in one of my Japanese apps.

[elchamaco]

Originally Posted by Question Mark

Personally, I find that Neoreader, the native reading app on Onyx devices, does not handle Japanese very well. Like many other reading apps, it puts any furigana immediately after each kanji rather than floating them above the kanji. This makes it challenging to look up kanji that have furigana associated with them.

Integrated dictionary works very bad, and stardict it's not fully implemented, if the dict have a .syn file with inflected forms ignores it.

Originally Posted by Question Mark

Moon+ Reader also works well with the ColorDict and GoldenDict dictionary apps. They have a variety of dictionaries which you can install. You can then copy StarDict dictionaries to the dictdata folder which I believe ColorDict uses.

Lately i'm using fora, i don't know why, but it disappeared from market. It can be found in apk mirrors. It works very well.