PDF Reflow and PDF speed

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by m-reader

I think the KISS principle is lost to Irex design team and management.

Seems the design team (hired by iRex) won a price with the design of the DR1000...

[omro]

Originally Posted by Gertjan

When the DR1000 was introduced, the Adobe Mobile SDK didn't even exist. When Adobe anounced their SDK (February this year), IREX was among the first companies to license the technology. Unfortunately there is no firmware release for DR1000 yet, but the forthcoming DR800 is said to use it.

As for the Iliad, as far as I know there are hardware limitations which prevent decent sleep or hibernate functionality. I agree this could have been solved but it's no suprise that IREX does not actively develop for this device anymore. Given the form factor, DR800 is its obvious successor of the Illiad, and it does feature semi-instant resume from standby.

I had a BeBook (Hanlin v3) before I bought the DR1000. I ditched the BeBook because the 4 levels of greyscale on the 6" screen and it's inability to zoom/pan or PDF reflow made reading my textbooks impossible.

The DRs larger screen, greyscales and zooming made reading my PDF text books easy, so it was at the time the only logical albeit horrendously expensive choice.

I never expected the Astak PP to be able to compare. I bought it because I missed reading my novels. However, the speed and features and simplicity of the Hanlin v3 based BeBook have been passed on to the Hanlin v5 based Astak and throw in the PDF reflow and the fact that I can actually read my textbooks too and overall, device is amazingly useful.

The DR's inability to just stop reading where I was and return exactly to that spot an hour or two later was a killer!

To have to remember to turn the DR off if I didn't want to waste precious battery life and then go through the rigmarole of turning it back on, wait for the boot up, finding my document (if it wasn't one I'd created a short cut for) and opening it and waiting for it to open it... by the time the document was loaded again and I was ready to read, I'd often run out of the small pocket of time I had to read in or been put out of the mood. I asked over and over again on forums for a shutdown and start up script from iRex that would make a note of what documents were open, seeing as the existing software kept track of where you were in the document, and have that reopen all the documents again upon boot up. An easy thing that would have saved so much frustration while they sorted out their battery woes.

Throw in the slow speed with which it flicks through pages...

The only way to avoid the above was to keep the DR either on Mains power or on a USB cable tethered to a computer and this was ultimately my DRs undoing. I tripped over the cable and bang.

I want my DR repaired by my home insurance, as I miss the large screen, but if they refuse to repair it or just give me cash to cover the claim, I won't be buying another DR.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by omro

To have to remember to turn the DR off if I didn't want to waste precious battery life and then go through the rigmarole of turning it back on, wait for the boot up, finding my document (if it wasn't one I'd created a short cut for) and opening it and waiting for it to open it... by the time the document was loaded again and I was ready to read, I'd often run out of the small pocket of time I had to read in or been put out of the mood. I asked over and over again on forums for a shutdown and start up script from iRex that would make a note of what documents were open, seeing as the existing software kept track of where you were in the document, and have that reopen all the documents again upon boot up. An easy thing that would have saved so much frustration while they sorted out their battery woes.

Hi omro,

At this moment I am experimenting with a modified ctb (the app that allows you to browse on your SD-card and start documents) to store the (last) started documents in a 'recently read list'. This modified ctb does not start at the 'Desktop' folder, but in the folder with the recent files. It is still very experimental, I have only used the emulator so far. Maybe an initial version is working when your DR is back/replaced and you can be my 'test-crash-dummy' for trying it.
The problem with this kinds of hacks is ofcourse that it can only be used with one version of the firmware and since it is replacing a part of it should only be used by the 'very brave '...

(I think we are slowly getting off-topic w.r.t. the first post ...)

[omro]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Hi omro,

At this moment I am experimenting with a modified ctb (the app that allows you to browse on your SD-card and start documents) to store the (last) started documents in a 'recently read list'. This modified ctb does not start at the 'Desktop' folder, but in the folder with the recent files. It is still very experimental, I have only used the emulator so far. Maybe an initial version is working when your DR is back/replaced and you can be my 'test-crash-dummy' for trying it.
The problem with this kinds of hacks is ofcourse that it can only be used with one version of the firmware and since it is replacing a part of it should only be used by the 'very brave '...

(I think we are slowly getting off-topic w.r.t. the first post ...)

I'm not a topic nazi lol

If I get the DR back, I am happy to be a guinea pig. The word unfortunately is if.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Seems the design team (hired by iRex) won a price with the design of the DR1000...

Hi Mackx

I've been using my Iliad for almost 3 years now and I love it dearly. I think it's a beautifully designed product - I like the rubberised body, slightly odd shape, the works.
The problem is that the guys went ahead and designed a space ship when most of the times I really just need a push bike.
KISS principle doesn't cover design only, but functionality and usability.
Anyway, I am saddened to see that new Irex models have not improved on the basic functionality lacking in previous models. Otherwise I would gladly upgrade to DR1000 in a heartbeat.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by m-reader

Hi Mackx

I've been using my Iliad for almost 3 years now and I love it dearly. I think it's a beautifully designed product - I like the rubberised body, slightly odd shape, the works.
The problem is that the guys went ahead and designed a space ship when most of the times I really just need a push bike.
KISS principle doesn't cover design only, but functionality and usability.
Anyway, I am saddened to see that new Irex models have not improved on the basic functionality lacking in previous models. Otherwise I would gladly upgrade to DR1000 in a heartbeat.

Hi m-reader,

I am not saying that I like the design, but while we users are here complaining about the design/usability, other people are giving awards for it... very ironic. The market of e-readers is stil immature, all companies are still struggling to create a product that is 'better' then the others, unfortunately they do not always make the 'right' decisions.

[Mackx]

Originally Posted by omro

I'm not a topic nazi lol

Originally Posted by omro

If I get the DR back, I am happy to be a guinea pig. The word unfortunately is if.

Lets hope it is covered in your insurance, please give me a ping when you are 'ready' to test.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Mackx

Hi m-reader,

I am not saying that I like the design, but while we users are here complaining about the design/usability, other people are giving awards for it... very ironic. The market of e-readers is stil immature, all companies are still struggling to create a product that is 'better' then the others, unfortunately they do not always make the 'right' decisions.

True. Luckily we can always vote with our wallets and somehow I think companies understand that message very well

[omro]

Originally Posted by m-reader

True. Luckily we can always vote with our wallets and somehow I think companies understand that message very well

Anyone thinking of buying a DR will find a lot of people's disappointment with it via a quick google search.

As the only larger format device out there, it had the niche, however it will soon lose that and either the software will need a major revision to make the hardware competitive or it'll need both a hardware and software refresh.

To be honest, I expect iRex to do just that, announce a newer improved DR, with a 10" or larger screen, to compete with the slew of large format devices coming out in Q1 and Q2 2010.

[PhishStyx]

Hm, wonder if the 6" version has the same reflow capability?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by m-reader

Thanks for your answer Gertjan, I appreciate the thoroughness.
However, your point on hardware limitation just reinforces what I said earlier - Irex paid attention to all the wrong details of their product.
I think the KISS principle is lost to Irex design team and management.

That hardware limitation is one of the main complaints about the iLiad, and a very valid one. Keep in mind though that it's essentially a 3+ year old device. At the time it was designed, advanced power management (hibernate, etc) didn't exist for Linux, so it's not surprising that it wasn't taken into account. The version of kernel it is running didn't get APM modes until later, and even then they're released as patches back ported from when the functionality was developed for newer kernels.

That's not meant as an excuse for the lack of functionality, but sometimes it's useful to understand why things happen.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by m-reader

Anyway, I am saddened to see that new Irex models have not improved on the basic functionality lacking in previous models. Otherwise I would gladly upgrade to DR1000 in a heartbeat.

Hopefully switching to an Adobe based PDF viewer will take care of some of the functionality you were talking about.

[omro]

If I get my DR back from the insurance and they release a firmware with ADE and PDF reflow and a few other little things I've always wanted, like it automatically reopening the things I had open when it shuts down, I'll be very happy and eager to use a DR again. However, if the insurance doesn't replace it and I get cash, it'll be no big loss to me.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

That hardware limitation is one of the main complaints about the iLiad, and a very valid one. Keep in mind though that it's essentially a 3+ year old device. At the time it was designed, advanced power management (hibernate, etc) didn't exist for Linux, so it's not surprising that it wasn't taken into account. The version of kernel it is running didn't get APM modes until later, and even then they're released as patches back ported from when the functionality was developed for newer kernels.

That's not meant as an excuse for the lack of functionality, but sometimes it's useful to understand why things happen.

Sorry, but Sony had readers out at about that time and they didn't seem to a have problem with power management. If I'm not mistaken, PRS-500 is also Linux based.