Boyue T63/Shine update (sort of)

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by carltonbp

My T63 arrived today, black case and screen protector included.

I'm happy with it but even though I'm someone who doesn't like it bright this is really dark. On the banggood site the poster here said it was dark and BG said to change it from night view to day view mode?????? Anyone know what where that is?

I also got a refurb from the Energy Sistem site of their t62+, it was half price and the audio might be useful.

No customs from Bang Good it seemed to land in the UK then get sent on.

This is the first time I hear of day view/night view mode on the T63! Curious, I hunted on my T63 and could not find any setting for this anywhere. I have no idea what BG is talking about there.

I like the low light, but for those who prefer something brighter, I hope that there is a day mode lurking in the T63 somewhere!

[parkher]

Thanks.

Another question.

Now that the official multi-lingual firmware is available as a separate download (if I'm not mistaken) perhaps it is much simpler to convert the Chinese version to the English (multi-lingual) one? Perhaps it is as simple as a firmware update?

I am asking because a friend of mine left for China today. I suggested to him to get a chinese version there. Should be cheaper than from Seychelles especially that ordering from outside EU probably results in VAT and possibly also customs duties.

[carltonbp]

On the Boyue site there's just June's firmware and the firmware that someone on here kindly uploads, the latest is corrupted.

I'm finding mine quite buggy, it doesn't like the micro SD and yesterday I had to reboot about 4 times. Also page turning needs a very definitive tap, I'm finding holding it with my left hand and using my left thumb usually doesn't work but if I tap with the pointy end of my finger that's fine. I prefer buttons so it's not the end of the world but I hope Boyue can address it in the firmware.

I'm someone who doesn't like the screen bright but this is actually at the lower end of what I would like so I hope boyue will improve this in a firmware update. I was thinking night/day modes could be something lost in translation and actually could just be be light on or off. I've asked the question on the BG site, hopefully will get an answer.

[downeaster59]

My T63 is also pretty fussy about microSD cards. It didn't like the first one I tried; fortunately, it liked the second - since that was my only other one.

I also found the firmware buggy in two ways: the Filemanager never works well or consistently (so I use Root Explorer), and Books has never worked properly, nor does my T63 "remember" the last book I read by listing it on the home page. My old T62+ was better at all those things. I use Calibre Companion as my library, and that works well.

The 300 dpi display is definitely better than the T62+ display.

At least some of these bugs could be fixed by updated firmware. I also wonder if the firmware for the Onyx Boox C67ML Carta 2 could work on the T63 with a few tweaks. I have both devices; I just haven't put in the time to backup my T63 and then try the Onyx firmware. The Onyx firmware is less buggy. I did install Onyx firmware on my old T62+, and that worked surprisingly well.

[parkher]

That is why I was asking if someone tried Cool Reader 3 made by jotas.
I am using it on my still favorite android reader Sony PRS-T2.
It is an e-ink specific reader with enhanced support for folder-based libraries while almost all the other readers are made for android phones: the official Cool Reader 3, AlReader, etc.

Other readers usually require e-ink unfriendly scrolling. But CR (jotas) handles everything with next/prev buttons: in the built-in file manager, in the (enhanced!) recently opened books list, in all the tabs in settings. No stupid animation, no unnecessary bells and whistles, things arranged on the screen so that the most frequently needed ones are immediately available, etc.
It also has specific support for landscape orientation (I prefer it on 6" readers because I like wide margins): some stuff is OK in the official CR in portrait orientation but requires scrolling in landscape. No such thing with jotas - taken care of
It also has several of its own e-ink refresh modes to choose from.

I prefer having books arranged in nested folders instead of some virtual collections that tend to choke with a bigger number of books.
Not only the indexing may take hours, but also the repeated re-creation on the fly of lists in collections may be unacceptably slow as well.

Because Cool Reader by jotas specifically supports C67 there is a good chance that it supports C67ML Carta 2 and T62 / T63 as well. At least their possibly interchangeable firmware with C67 family is a good sign.

[downeaster59]

I'd be happy to test out Cool Reader 3 by jotas, but I can't find a place to download it. I even found jotas' thread (on a Spanish language site) but couldn't find a spot where to download this. The links all lead to the "official" version, as far as I can tell.

[church mouse]

Originally Posted by downeaster59

I'd be happy to test out Cool Reader 3 by jotas, but I can't find a place to download it. I even found jotas' thread (on a Spanish language site) but couldn't find a spot where to download this. The links all lead to the "official" version, as far as I can tell.

Try this link:

https://mega.nz/#!SVEhGJaR!kpt1Dsdy9...lTYgi9jGhEi2pI

Name download as a .zip.

On opening, try www.lectoreselectronicos.com as the password.

That worked for me, but I am unsure how frequently he changes things.

[parkher]

Yes, that is the link to the current version 51-1.

You can find the hidden link to the latest version if you drag the mouse with the left button pressed just to the right from the link to the official version (just after "Google Play.")
The password remains the same.

There are 3 apk files in the rar. The one with "eink" in the name is the one to try first.
The "nook" is for Nook and the one without any description is for T1/T2.
I am not sure how subtle the differences between them are.

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by church mouse

Try this link:

https://mega.nz/#!SVEhGJaR!kpt1Dsdy9...lTYgi9jGhEi2pI

Name download as a .zip.

On opening, try www.lectoreselectronicos.com as the password.

That worked for me, but I am unsure how frequently he changes things.

Thanks! I have downloaded and unzipped the file, and have the various apk options. Later today, when I have more time, I'll install the eInk version and report!

Edit: Well, not so fast. My Mac tries to automatically extract zip files. I saw all the apks there, or so it seemed. However. they were all zero byte files. No good. So, I tried to extract the zip file manually. The password you gave me didn't work. I got a "wrong password" error. So I'm no further ahead than I was. Any other possible passwords I can try?

Edit 2: Found the problem. You have to save it as a rar file, not a zip file!

[carltonbp]

downeaster - what changes have you made to your t63?

It's been behaving itself since I moved books to reader and taken out the micro SD.

Got my refurb Energy Sistem Pro+ today (t62+) and quite happy with it, I need to 2 readers and it comes with 3 years warranty, immaculate condition, maybe the box was every so slightly not perfect. Cost about £58, ordered on 5th and arrived from Spain this afternoon. Would be handy if it had bluetooth so you could use wireless headphones with it.

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by carltonbp

downeaster - what changes have you made to your t63?

It's been behaving itself since I moved books to reader and taken out the micro SD.

Got my refurb Energy Sistem Pro+ today (t62+) and quite happy with it, I need to 2 readers and it comes with 3 years warranty, immaculate condition, maybe the box was every so slightly not perfect. Cost about £58, ordered on 5th and arrived from Spain this afternoon. Would be handy if it had bluetooth so you could use wireless headphones with it.

I have rooted my T63 and installed Google Play Store. Instead of Books, I use Calibre Companion to manage my library. Instead of Filemanager, I use Root Explorer. I have changed the icons on the home screen accordingly. But that's it. I have a microSD card installed. Oh yes - I have also set up FolderMount so that a couple of my apps can use the microSD card as data storage.

[carltonbp]

Thanks I'll look into those.

[stangri]

After spending some more time with T63, some conclusions from the long-time Kindle user.

The screen backlighting isn't perfect/uniform. It's visibly darker at the top and visibly brighter at the bottom of the screen. Maybe I was spoiled by Kindle Voyage which is (screen-wise) the most perfect e-ink reader I've ever had. If all you ladies and gentlemen do not have this problem, I'd ship mine back to BG (it's very pricey from Canada) for replacement -- let me know please.

The biggest reason I got the Android-based e-ink reader was Play Books, Overdrive and WiFi sync. They all work. My local library has huge queues for the popular ebooks so I haven't actually read anything with Overdrive yet, but Play Books works very well. With animations disabled it's lightning-quick on page turns.

All is not perfect however -- Play Books hijacks the screen brightness control so the built-in brightness control does nothing while in Play Books, on the other hand you can (to an extent) control brightness from inside the Play Books app.

Also, Play Books dims, but doesn't hide the system bar and disabling it in settings leaves me without the home button. I know people love button savior here, I find its icons ugly on T63 and prefer the full!screen, however the latter keeps crashing all the time, especially if you try to use its system bar hiding.

What I find most annoying tho is that I couldn't figure out the way to (hack) both physical side buttons to turn page down. I very rarely need to go back (and if I do, I'd swipe the screen), it would be great if I could use either left or right buttons to flip page down.

It's also quite annoying (although not catastrophic) that when you close the case the T63 doesn't sleep. I got so used to that with Voyage, why didn't Boyue think of implementing the same feature? It's not like magnets are prohibitively expensive after all.

Finally, the shutdown wallpaper has Chinese on it and I wish I could change it just like the sleep wallpaper (mine is attached).

Originally Posted by Purple Lady

I have the camera button assigned to brightness. Brightness is in my app drawer.

Thank you for replying! Now that I've discovered Play Books manages brightness on its own, it's not as important to me but still -- I don't think I have brightness in the app drawer as is. Did you install additional app? This one: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...lin.brightness or something else?

[parkher]

Originally Posted by downeaster59

Any other possible passwords I can try?

No, the password is correct. It is "www.lectoreselectronicos.com".
I just re-downloaded the latest version and extracted it successfully with this password.
Under Windows this worked fine:

unrar e -pwww.lectoreselectronicos.com 51-1.rar

However, the file is rar, not zip. Perhaps you renamed it to .zip and somehow it is causing the problem? Try naming it .rar
Under Windows I tried extracting it (both with 7zip and with unrar) with .zip extension - it still was extracted correctly, though.


The file to try is cr3.0.57-15-51-1-eink-jotas.apk
The other two are for Nook and for T1/T2. Still, they might be worth a try if there are problems with the first one, such as buttons not working in settings or in the file manager, etc.

[carltonbp]

Mines dark at the top and light at the bottom too.
I'd like a shortcut for turning on the light, screen refresh and for switching buttons around, I turned over in bed last night and had to go into settings.