Factory wants me to poll for firmware upgrade

[Robertb]

Dear All:

The factory that makes Pocket PRO and EZ Reader is willing to do a firmware upgrade. BUT... they want me to poll. We may not get everything so please pick three items that you want to see. This would apply to BOTH the 5 inch and the 6 inch.

[SmartyPants]

I have a suggestion for 'Other' - being able to delete books from the reader itself.

[Blossom]

I second the delete option and maybe add a option to turn off the clock for those of us who don't even use it.

[Davimee]

I agree on the delete option! I would love to be able to delete books when I am done with them. If I like the book, I'll keep it on, and that reminds me to look for other books by the same author. But if I don't care for it, I'd just delete it. Also along with that, a way to move, or copy books would be great. (I just discovered that option today when I downloaded LBook firmware. I went through a bunch of books I read recently, and copied the ones I liked to the main memory, then deleted them. And I deleted the ones I didn't care for. Now I will be able to easily find more stories by the authors I enjoyed.) I would prefer having Astak firmware, but I figured I'd try out the LBook and see what it's like.

[Solicitous]

With the inclusion of the latest version of Coolreader, I think it would be great if we were able to select when reading an epub to open it with either ADE or Coolreader. When I was running the March firmware some epubs I wanted to open in Coolreader, others in ADE and the only option I had was add .fb2 to the filename of the epubs I wanted to open in Coolreader, which meant plugging into a computer and doubling up on files.

An idea was suggested sometime ago with when opening an epub a LONG press could present a menu giving you the option of either ADE or Coolreader to load the file. Alternatively I'd be happy with in the Settings menu give me an option to set ADE or Coolreader as the default epub application.

Lastly a 'would be nice but I can live without it' is a revision of the zoom scales with ADE, specifically between S and M. It's like the font scale goes from 100% - 150% - 250% etc etc making that jump from 150% to 250% rather large (unfortunately I don't know the proper percentages for the current firmware).

[Steven Lake]

Ok, my 2c on this.

1. What is CoolReader? If it's what I've discovered so far, it's a text to speech system. The trouble is, the wiki says it's for Win, Linux and Mac, but the site only lists Windows!
2. What is FB2??
3. Leave the clock out entirely. I have no use for it.
4. What is LIT?
5. What's the advantage of Dictionary Support!?

Thanks for the input. Once I get some info, I'll give my 2c.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by Steven Lake

Ok, my 2c on this.

1. What is CoolReader? If it's what I've discovered so far, it's a text to speech system. The trouble is, the wiki says it's for Win, Linux and Mac, but the site only lists Windows!
2. What is FB2??
3. Leave the clock out entirely. I have no use for it.
4. What is LIT?
5. What's the advantage of Dictionary Support!?

Thanks for the input. Once I get some info, I'll give my 2c.

Coolreader does more than text-to-speech, it also allows the user to further customise the application to suit them, such as font/size options, hyphenation, line spacing etc. I don't know about Mac but with Linux it should be available in the repositories of most distros (usually listed as 'cr').

FB2 is another ebook format, specifically created with the intention of fiction books. Unlike epub which is essentially a zip file containing .css and .html files, a fb2 file is just one big xml file. Once again it is a format, used in conjunction with Coolreader that gives the end reader quite a lot of flexibility in how they want the ebook displayed. In my opinion FB2 is a brilliant format, unfortunately the only real program to create compliant FB2 files is BookDesigner (unfortunately only a Windows app). Calibre does a rather poor job.

Unfortunately I can't give must help with LIT, as far as I know it is a format conjured up by Microsoft for use with their reading software. Apparently still a number of people use it and there is demand for ereaders to support it.

Hopefully I've been of some help.

[jusmee]

Yes, the delete option - but it should also allow copying/moving - like a mini filemanager of some sort.

[ashdragon]

-A delete option for sure.

-LIT support I'd like as well, i have a huge Library of books from my PDA reading days and 95% of them are LIT. Having said that any books I want to re-read I can probably either convert or re-download in something a bit more modern but for people who don't have this ability ( ie the other half a dozen people for who i have bought Pocket Pro's for starters) it would be good if it all "Just Worked"

-Happy to lose the clock, don't use it.

-Dictionary support - again not worried

-FB2 support - Ditto

I saw in another post that EPUB seems to be winning the current format War, assuming that is correct i would rather see Astak concentrate on keeping up with the latest and greatest in EPUB developments.

[Sweetpea]

Dictionary support
The ability to keep my bookmarks if I leave my book even though I have spaces in both the book name as the folder it's residing in.

[theducks]

Delete, move,copy (like Lbook has)
and the ability to purge a (wrongly opened) book from the Recently read list. (Lbook)

Lit that does not freeze up.

[Dave_S]

Q1 "Add CoolReader, without severe battery drain!"
The latest CoolReader is always good to have. However, since CoolReader is an application, it has nothing to do with battery drain in keylock mode. Battery drain is an operating system issue where the OS is not putting the system to sleep when no keypresses are being processed.

Q2 "Latest version of FB2"
What does a file format have to do with a firmware upgrade? A MUCH BETTER selection would be a upgrade of ADE to where it could at least approach CoolReader in features.

Q3 "IF possible, keep Visible Clock Set when device off"
That is not possible, since that would require a hardware change, not a firmware change.

Q4 "LIT is still not right, can you please get LIT to work"
Or just drop it all together.

Q5 "Add Dictionary Support!"
Already there for formats that CoolReader supports.

[Spiffy]

Originally Posted by theducks

Delete, move,copy (like Lbook has)
and the ability to purge a (wrongly opened) book from the Recently read list. (Lbook)

1.) That, at the least. Or even better (since the L-book version's "move" is only between a card and the built in storage), a general "cut/copy/paste/delete" paradigm--where you can cut and paste, or copy and paste, files between any two locations, as WELL as delete.

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2.) In terms of the Recent Files, I'd say double or triple the amount of them it can retain (there's no reason it has to only be 8 items).

3.) And finally... Favorites. In the same pop-up menu as the file copy or delete actions, have an "Add to Favorites" option. The Favorites would be a pseudo-directory on the hard drive, just like "Recent Files" and would work just like that (except, again, it wouldn't just be 8 items long).

4.) Oh... one more. In terms of ADE... they need to make sure the bookmarking works inside of it properly. Inside the latest LBook firmware, I know that's broken (at least for ePubs). So if what your 'factory' puts out is based on a common codebase with Lbook, I fear that being broken.

[ashdragon]

Originally Posted by Dave_S

Q4 "LIT is still not right, can you please get LIT to work"
Or just drop it all together.

Hell no, LIT support was one of the primary reasons I looked at the Astak brand in the first place. The fact that it still effectively doesn't work is a continuing disappointment but as I mentioned I have largely worked around it (personally). Removing a feature advertised on the box is NOT what any reputable company should be considering as a "fix".

[Dave_S]

Originally Posted by ashdragon

Hell no, LIT support was one of the primary reasons I looked at the Astak brand in the first place. The fact that it still effectively doesn't work is a continuing disappointment but as I mentioned I have largely worked around it (personally). Removing a feature advertised on the box is NOT what any reputable company should be considering as a "fix".

I know there are some die hard LIT fans, but from the point of view of investing money in more software engineering they are probably a very small minority. Since in is so very easy to convert LIT to a format with a future, "my opinion" in this survey is to just quit throwing resources at beating a dead horse. However, that is ONLY my opinion, not a prediction of what Jinke may do.