Boyue Likebook Mimas (T103D) 10.3 inch''

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by Siggy1000

Warning concerning the note app: if you took notes and did not change to another app so they are saved, when the device does it's auto power down, the notes are lost. So be careful and remember to save them or set the auto power down timer to very high.

Thank you for mentioning that Siggy! I thought they were saving every time I X out of a note. It says "saving" when I close a note. Is that not sufficiently saved? I have my device set to only sleep and never power down on it's own, so I guess it hasn't been an issue... but I guess I will have to remember to check that before I do manually power down or restart in the future.


I did a factory reset last night and decided to try the built-in apps for a while, after being kind of frustrated with outside apps I added.

At this point, my biggest annoyance with the Mimas is that I have my books (in the root Books folder) organized in fiction and non-fiction sub-folders, and then further sorted in additonal subfolders by categories, just like I have them in my Boyue T62+... but the only way to navigate them like that is through the File Manager app which doesn't show any book covers. (Seeing the covers is so helpful for recognizing books - I don't always remember the title of the book I'm looking for, plus it's just nice to see the covers as I browse my library for something to read.)

I can see covers when I navigate through the Books tab at the top of the device... but the software places all of my folders and subfolders in random order - folders and subfolders mixed together - so I have a hard time finding the book I'm looking for.

This is so aggravating, and I haven't been able to find any good solution. I wish Boyue would update the software to allow navigating by folder-tree under the Book tab while showing covers.

Another thing that I hope they can fix with a software update is how the built-in reading app handles punctuation:

1. It breaks up contractions so you end up with I and then 've on the next line (or even page), for example.
   
2. It doesn't handle quotation marks correctly: I've noticed a quotation mark at the end of a page with the actually quote beginning on the next page... it doesn't see the quotation marks as belonging with the word it's connected to.
   
3. It often adds too much space between the last letter of a sentence and the period or question mark.

I think I noticed a similar issue with the built-in Adobe app on my older Boyue device, which is why I used the bulit-in FB 2 as the default on that device. (I wonder if they built the Boyue OS reading app on Adobe instead of the superior FB 2?)

At this point, I think my only other significant frustration with my Mimas is that I often have a hard time opening the Apps page when tapping on it (at the top of the home page.) I don't know if it's my particular device or the way it is mapped, but I almost always have to tap on it many times to get it to open. Does anyone else have that problem?

[rvcjew]

On the Mars it shows folders in the books tab, yours doesn't? How is the hierarchy of your folders in the books folder? For the apps page perhaps it's refreshing the page but that should be quick on these devices. How many non stock apps do you have installed?
Malcolm
Edit: your saying it shows the folders but not folders first so they get mixed alphabetically with the book names?

[Siggy1000]

Originally Posted by blue_skies

I thought they were saving every time I X out of a note. It says "saving" when I close a note. Is that not sufficiently saved?

Yes that's fine. But I kept the note open and did not X out.

Originally Posted by blue_skies

At this point, I think my only other significant frustration with my Mimas is that I often have a hard time opening the Apps page when tapping on it (at the top of the home page.) I don't know if it's my particular device or the way it is mapped, but I almost always have to tap on it many times to get it to open. Does anyone else have that problem?

Strange. My Mimas immediately responds to a tap on "APP". Do you have installed many additional apps or one with a complex icon? Maybe it needs long to load the icons. Just try tapping the "APP" button and wait a second.

[jask]

Originally Posted by Intet

As a developer (though not mobile/Android), this is how I understand the whole topic. Each manufacturer (Sony, Onyx, Remarkable, etc.) creates an SDK targeting their own devices that lets applications make use of "note taking e-ink"-specific capabilities like super responsive drawing with a stylus. These SDKs supposedly depend on certain hardware/firmware, so that's why every vendor has their own (but who knows, if they got together perhaps they could create a unified SDK).

I think you are right, The closed SDK are an issue and latency will never be as good in third party apps without that.
Still I think latency of the note apps is not on the pen side but on the screen redrawing side, and to my knowledge 10.3 ereaders all use the same Eink Mobius display.
Once in a while I run into a bug which causes third party apps to show considerably less redrawing times (and of course, a lot of ghosting, but a better pen experience in stylus apps), I think the trick to reducing latency for developers could be as simple as allowing ghosting in "fixed paper" apps... I think that's why the native apps in the Mimas don't have pan and zoom, it is a fixed canvas.

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

On the Mars it shows folders in the books tab, yours doesn't? How is the hierarchy of your folders in the books folder? For the apps page perhaps it's refreshing the page but that should be quick on these devices. How many non stock apps do you have installed?
Malcolm
Edit: your saying it shows the folders but not folders first so they get mixed alphabetically with the book names?

Under the 'Books' tab there are a couple pages worth of folders - but they are a totally random mix of my folders and subfolders. So on the first page there might be the following folders/subfolders: "Mystery" then "Cooking & Recipes" next to "Science Fiction" next to "Biographies" next to "Humor" next to "Classics" next to "Technical Guides" next to "Romance" next to "General Fiction" next to "Politics" etc... With the higher up folders of "Fiction" and "NonFiction" randomly included in the mix.

And I think the order of these folders keeps changing depending upon which books I open.

I prefer to just press on the Books tab and see my top folders - "Fiction" and NonFiction" - choose which of those I want, and then then see my subfolder categories that I have organized under Fiction or Nonfiction.

That is how it works in my Boyue T62+ when I press 'Books' on the home screen.

I hope that's understandable. I would take a screen cap but right now I am transferring a bunch of large dictionaries to try.

Originally Posted by Siggy1000

Yes that's fine. But I kept the note open and did not X out.

Oh, I see. Thank you for clarifying that.

Originally Posted by Siggy1000

Strange. My Mimas immediately responds to a tap on "APP". Do you have installed many additional apps or one with a complex icon? Maybe it needs long to load the icons. Just try tapping the "APP" button and wait a second.

I don't have any outside apps installed right now, since I did that factory reset last night. It seems like it has a hard time registering the tap for some reason.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by blue_skies

Under the 'Books' tab there are a couple pages worth of folders - but they are a totally random mix of my folders and subfolders. So on the first page there might be the following folders/subfolders: "Mystery" then "Cooking & Recipes" next to "Science Fiction" next to "Biographies" next to "Humor" next to "Classics" next to "Technical Guides" next to "Romance" next to "General Fiction" next to "Politics" etc... With the higher up folders of "Fiction" and "NonFiction" randomly included in the mix.

And I think the order of these folders keeps changing depending upon which books I open.

Try to change it to name or type and ascending.
Malcolm

[Intet]

Originally Posted by jask

Still I think latency of the note apps is not on the pen side but on the screen redrawing side, and to my knowledge 10.3 ereaders all use the same Mobius Carta display.

Absolutely, it's all screen redrawing, I'm sure stylus positions are registered almost instantaneously. Interesting that they use the same screen type.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by Intet

Absolutely, it's all screen redrawing, I'm sure stylus positions are registered almost instantaneously. Interesting that they use the same screen type.

Because like only 2-4 oems actually make displays and then the other companies use them in their products. For Eink that number is even lower.
Malcolm

[DTPop]

Hey guys,

Used this thread to find my way on this device and, since I am a fresh owner and also a previous owner of a Onyx Note, wanted to also share a few thoughts.
I had a few disappointments and head scratching moments with Mimas and the software is definitely a pain in the back, but I might keep this reader eventually. Compared to Onyx note, it is slower and buggier but the frontlight, the price and the external buttons are important assets.
A few things the new user might find useful:

- pdf - the proprietary reader is just almost useless for anything other than scribbling and reading. it fails sometimes, underlining/selecting is awkward and if you have 2 columns it might select backwards/opposite of what you want. the solution that I found working was using moon+ reader, after activating the google framework. with moon+ you cannot scribble but everything is so much better. if I were them I would add it to their store.
- note taking is also minimal compared to onyx, but I am fine with that as long as I can take plain notes.
- the USB-C cable needs to be forced inside to work. it enters only partially with normal pressure applied.
- the general menu is awkward and in many cases the obvious options are not where you expect them to be.

Frankly, I really hope they do something about the buggy software. This is a winner as long as Onyx Note Pro is not out there. Once it's there, the user experience might make a significant difference in sales.

[blue_skies]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Try to change it to name or type and ascending.
Malcolm

Thank you. I was really hoping there was a setting I just hadn't found yet.

I ended up changing the folder names by adding 'Fiction - " to the start of all the folders with fiction books, and "Nonfiction - " at the start of all the folders containing nonfiction, and had to get rid of all subfolders.

Then after sorting By Name and a reboot, I have one page with folders for Fiction genres and one page of the bookshelf with folders containing Nonfiction genre folders.

I can live with that.

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by blue_skies

Thank you. I was really hoping there was a setting I just hadn't found yet.

I ended up changing the folder names by adding 'Fiction - " to the start of all the folders with fiction books, and "Nonfiction - " at the start of all the folders containing nonfiction, and had to get rid of all subfolders.

Then after sorting By Name and a reboot, I have one page with folders for Fiction genres and one page of the bookshelf with folders containing Nonfiction genre folders.

I can live with that.

good enough lol, int he future if you put a file just called .nomedia in a folder android won't scan that folder into it's database but it will still exist so that might have helped on the ones you didn't want. The boyue launcher may ignore that anyways though.
Malcolm

[Siggy1000]

Another recommendation to all Mimas owners: In the Android Settings->Battery->More(the three dots) you will find the possibility to turn on energy saving mode. This may bump your runtime by some extra hours. Without it, I used my Mimas already for 5 days and battery is currently at 28%. I can't understand the YouTube comments bragging about bad battery life

[rvcjew]

Originally Posted by Siggy1000

Another recommendation to all Mimas owners: In the Android Settings->Battery->More(the three dots) you will find the possibility to turn on energy saving mode. This may bump your runtime by some extra hours. Without it, I used my Mimas already for 5 days and battery is currently at 28%. I can't understand the YouTube comments bragging about bad battery life

Also if it does eat a lot then do this to make it eat substantially less. https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...om.franco.doze it requires adb though to enable without root but is a one time setup. It gave me literally days on my phones so ymmv.
Malcolm

[Siggy1000]

Originally Posted by rvcjew

Also if it does eat a lot then do this to make it eat substantially less. https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...om.franco.doze it requires adb though to enable without root but is a one time setup. It gave me literally days on my phones so ymmv.
Malcolm

Thanks However I'm not a big fan of installing background apps on my devices for security reasons.

Another tip for Mimas owners: If you want to use PDF annotation with palm rejection on the native Boyue PDF annotator, disable pinch to zoom in the reader, use the page switch layout with page change on the bottom and menu on the top and place your left hand on the device like this.
Then you can write with the other hand
This is my go-to solution till the next software update.

Cheers

[Futuregrace]

Y’all that use Mimas for reading more than notes, how well do you like it?