New DR1000S firmware announced

[pthwaite]

Yes,
The problem is enabling colleagues to see the comments I make on pdfs. Without some method of merging the scribbles and the pdfs, either within the DR or via a PC/MAC etc, the DR is going to become pretty useless with the new firmware (for my own use anyway). Much as I'd like almost all the other changes.
To be honest until it's released, we won't really know how things pan out but I suspect I'll be needing to wait for a later revision.

[junkyardwillie]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

That's a good question. I'm hoping that at some point the DR1000 will get the same power management that is in the DR800. I don't know if that's what "minor power management improvements" means though.

I just went to turn on my DR1000S which had a full battery last night and the mysterious power drain happened again so my battery is back on empty. A fix for this had better be apart of their minor power management improvements at least.

[Gwaihir]

So.. an even longer wait for a (proper) new firmware

1. Shortcuts have moved to a subfolder of the Home screen, v1.7 shortcuts are not automatically converted.
2. The Toolbar is not configurable anymore but hard-coded. We aim to fix this in a future software release.
3. Automatic ‘Hide Margins’ zoom factor is not available anymore. We aim to improve this in a future software release.

I guess I can do without 2. for a while, but 1. and 3. are a must for me. Therefore this is NOT an upgrade for me and the wait will continue.

But ehm.. 1. isn't even labeled as "aim to fix later". Why? To have shortcuts on the home screen for the documents in immediate use at any given time is quite basic funcitonality. Why, o why abandon that?

And regarding 2., what zoom will be available? According to reviews, the DR800 currently has no zoom options in pdf at all. That's not just "set your zoom with the stylus" on page 1, as I do now with pdf with a superflous header / footer, but NO zoom at all!

Documents are shown with their Title and Author in the Content Browser (instead of filename)

Could a DR800 owner comment on how this works out if these fields are not (properly) filled out? Is this something one can switch on and off? Will it fall back to filename where the title is not filled out in the metadata?

Additionally: are there ways to (safely) edit this metadata without buying a full Adobe Acrobat suite?


Will there be a way to convert notes from old to new format? I fortunately haven't started to use my DR1000 as a notepad extensively, but it does worry me that at first glance we are supposed to simply abandon our current notes. Can't we count on support for CONTINUED use of this $$$ device?

Also, can they please confirm explicitly that all this talk about notes is also still about taking notes in pdf books? Somehow I have the bad feeling that one of the most key features may well be very silently removed here..

Originally Posted by junkyardwillie

I just went to turn on my DR1000S which had a full battery last night and the mysterious power drain happened again so my battery is back on empty. A fix for this had better be apart of their minor power management improvements at least.

Yeah, if only! In that case though, I do hope they'll be decent enough to make a 1.7.2, for all the mobi pocket users out there and to make sure my DR1000 won't finish of its battery once and for all before the "complete" firmware will arrive. (Given historical and current speed, I don't really expect the 2.1 before this time next year .)

When updating the software please use a different SD card, all notes on the old SD card will be over written and unable to be used again.

How does this work? As soon as I use my current SD card with the new firmware (even when placed on the device with another card), I loose all notes on it (but nothing else)? Is that correct? And if I decide to downgrade again, the same thing will happen? I have but one SD card for my books (in addition to the smaller one that came with the device). I assume it will be like that for most users..

[Warriah]

As I said on the blog,

Dictionary Support has been removed, because this relies on the Mobipocket format. + Automatic ‘Hide Margins’ zoom factor is not available anymore. We aim to improve this in a future software release. = FAIL.

No matter how temporary they'll be.

Many customers have bought this device mainly for his capability of looking-up on-the-fly in dictionaries (maybe, to say, in learning a new language?), and -- above all -- for 600/700 euro they expect a striking management of each centimeter-squared of this damn expensive screen.

This purchasers haven't had any major upgrade since August 2009 and now they have to wait for next one?

[Matthijs]

Originally Posted by badbob001

I wonder if 'tabs', for quickly switching between multiple documents, will survive the upgrade.

Yes, they are still there.

[Matthijs]

Originally Posted by olis

I use my DR mainly for reading textbooks and scientific papers. I find the "hide margins" zoom function [...] indispensable

While it's a little less user friendly, the 'selection zoom' function does a very good job of zooming away margins in documents. Since the zoom factor is stored, you need to do this only once per document.
I'm not saying it's not needed, but it's not too hard to work around the missing 'Hide Margins'.

[Matthijs]

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

And regarding 2., what zoom will be available?

Selection zoom is available, ref. DR1000S v1.7.1.

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

Could a DR800 owner comment on how this works out if these fields are not (properly) filled out? Is this something one can switch on and off? Will it fall back to filename where the title is not filled out in the metadata?

Yes, it will fallback to the filename.

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

Additionally: are there ways to (safely) edit this metadata without buying a full Adobe Acrobat suite?

There are open-source / free PDF metadata editors available on the internet.

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

Will there be a way to convert notes from old to new format? I fortunately haven't started to use my DR1000 as a notepad extensively, but it does worry me that at first glance we are supposed to simply abandon our current notes. Can't we count on support for CONTINUED use of this $$$ device?

You won't be able to convert them, but you'll still be able to open and view them. I think (I've not tested this yet) you can even still add additional notes to them, since writing on top of PDFs is still supported.

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

Also, can they please confirm explicitly that all this talk about notes is also still about taking notes in pdf books? Somehow I have the bad feeling that one of the most key features may well be very silently removed here..

Yes, you can still write on top of PDFs, but only in fixed page mode (not when reflowing them).

[Matthijs]

When updating the software please use a different SD card, all notes on the old SD card will be over written and unable to be used again.

This is not true (I'll ask Chris to adjust his post). The notes will not be overwritten.

You should however backup your old card before updating, because the new database format is not compatible with v1.7.1 so if you ever want to switch back your old notes will not be readable anymore and you need to restore the backup.

As I said above, you can still open and use your old Notes. You just cannot start a new note document like you could previously, because the template functionality is gone.

[pthwaite]

Nice to hear from you again Matthijs and thanks for some clarifications.
I don't suppose you could give an indication of whether saving scribbles with pdfs for export so other users can see them on PCs etc, will eventually return.

regards

[Matthijs]

Originally Posted by pthwaite

I don't suppose you could give an indication of whether saving scribbles with pdfs for export so other users can see them on PCs etc, will eventually return.

I honestly don't know.

[pthwaite]

Oh well, regards anyway

[ThR]

I will not write, what I'm thinking about this all...

Only one thing - the battery will present us a new surprise. "minor improvements" - that's the last, I wanted to read. Banana-Ware - Part MCX...?

[ExtraSF]

Hi Matthijs,
I heard in these forums that the overwhelming majority of readers who support Epub have dictionary Look-up capability. Is it to expect too much that very soon a firmware update will restore this lost capability to the Dr1000?

Thanks.

[PhishStyx]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

I honestly don't know.

Do you realize how many of us cannot use the new firmware until the answer is, yes they will?

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by Gwaihir

But ehm.. 1. isn't even labeled as "aim to fix later". Why? To have shortcuts on the home screen for the documents in immediate use at any given time is quite basic funcitonality. Why, o why abandon that?

I assume they're just talking about putting shortcuts in a "Shortcuts" folder, or something like that, instead of on the home screen.

And regarding 2., what zoom will be available? According to reviews, the DR800 currently has no zoom options in pdf at all. That's not just "set your zoom with the stylus" on page 1, as I do now with pdf with a superflous header / footer, but NO zoom at all!

Zoom is being added to the DR800 with this release. Since "hide margins" was the only one they said was being removed, I assume the others will be available, otherwise they would have mentioned them too.

Could a DR800 owner comment on how this works out if these fields are not (properly) filled out? Is this something one can switch on and off? Will it fall back to filename where the title is not filled out in the metadata?

I believe it defaults to the filename if there is no metadata, but not sure.

Also, can they please confirm explicitly that all this talk about notes is also still about taking notes in pdf books? Somehow I have the bad feeling that one of the most key features may well be very silently removed here..

"Notes" is talking about taking notes on what used to be called templates, and now is it's own note taking application. "Scribbles" are what you are talking about where you can write on an existing PDF file. That is still being supported.

Yeah, if only! In that case though, I do hope they'll be decent enough to make a 1.7.2, for all the mobi pocket users out there

I don't think they are allowed to legally. Once they put Adobe on the devices it would be a violation of the Mobipocket license to continue to develop a firmware that supports it.