News from Bookeen about firmware upgrade - Page 17

JeffElkins · 04-04-2008, 04:50 PM

It's pool season here in Florida, and as I feared my Nokia N800 is useless outside. So I'll probably be shopping for an e-ink device. However, I consider folder support to be essential, so I hope that Bookeen includes it in the firmware update.

One thing I noticed in browsing their site was no downloads of the Linux OS available. ASFAIK, this is a violation of the GPL (Gnu Public License).

DaleDe · 04-04-2008, 04:52 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I think most people would assume 'the first week' to mean the first period of the calendar mont ending at the first weekend. If we go with the assumption of the exact first seven days, we might as well go with the first seven business days. That would allow Bookeen to fudge until April 9th.

Derek

A business week is only 5 days long, Monday through Friday, not 9. Otherwise you wouldn't even have 4 weeks in a Month.

Dale

Halk · 04-04-2008, 04:56 PM

Well, I can wait. Apart from the fact my Cybook works fine and the only reason I'd change to the new firmware is folder support.... I've got completely sidetracked and I'm now playing with Foobar2000, FLACs, Rockbox and working out how to encode into aoTuv. And why? All because I took all my books up the loft and stuck em all in a box, likely forever, and decided to do the same with my CDs as well.

pilotbob · 04-04-2008, 04:58 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

It's pool season here in Florida, and as I feared my Nokia N800 is useless outside. So I'll probably be shopping for an e-ink device. However, I consider folder support to be essential, so I hope that Bookeen includes it in the firmware update.

One thing I noticed in browsing their site was no downloads of the Linux OS available. ASFAIK, this is a violation of the GPL (Gnu Public License).

I think the Jetbook has folder support. I am working on getting a review unit.

BOb

HarryT · 04-04-2008, 05:00 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

One thing I noticed in browsing their site was no downloads of the Linux OS available. ASFAIK, this is a violation of the GPL (Gnu Public License).

This has been discussed at length elsewhere. Apparently the company who actually manufacture the CyBook (which is most likely to be a company called "Netronix") won't give it to them

.

Zarkov · 04-04-2008, 08:16 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by delphidb96

I think most people would assume 'the first week' to mean the first period of the calendar mont ending at the first weekend. If we go with the assumption of the exact first seven days, we might as well go with the first seven business days. That would allow Bookeen to fudge until April 9th.

Derek

I'd say that stretching the definition of the first week of April a bit.

We might as well assume that Bookeen is functioning on the short-lived French revolutionary calender that features a 10-day week.

But seriously Bookeen doesn’t really have a stellar reputation of meeting the deadlines they hint at. That's probably why they never set a firm date.

I'm expecting the new firmware somewhere between now and the end June. And unless somebody starts a massive distributed computing project that statistically determines the most likely release date, I'm not getting my hopes up for any specific date.

Halk · 04-04-2008, 08:32 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Zarkov

French revolutionary calender that features a 10-day week.

Monday, Tuesday, Wednesday, Thursday, Friday, Saturday, Sunday...

HouseworkDay
EatMoreFruitAndVegetablesAndGetSomeExerciseDay
SortOutTheFinancesDay

Because I'm not getting those 3 days, that's why I've not been doing those things.

JeffElkins · 04-04-2008, 09:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

This has been discussed at length elsewhere. Apparently the company who actually manufacture the CyBook (which is most likely to be a company called "Netronix") won't give it to them

.

Thanks, I'm reading that thread now.

Utahcowboy · 04-05-2008, 01:01 AM

Perhaps Bookeen meant the first week of next April

billyad2000 · 04-05-2008, 04:31 AM

All good things come to those who wait

I've had my Cybook just over a week now and have completed two large books. The current firmware seems pretty solid, and is largely ok for the task of reading (Thats all I use it for).

It seems that the two most wanted features would be page numbers, and directory support.

As far as i'm concerned page numbers aren't neccessary. The only time i've had to use them, or will ever use them is when my bookmarks disappear. When I had this problem it did seem to be directly related to a problem with the SDcard and seems ok now.
It is important to me to have an idea of where I am in a book, even if just to give me an idea of when I need to be looking for my next one. I would hate to be out somewhere and realise that I had nothing to read. In this case the pageometer works fine.
When I had the bookmark problem then the pagenumber may have been useful, but I doubt it, even reading a paper book, page numbers are not something I pay attention to. If I ever loose my place then I usually end up flicking through until I find where I was upto. It's just much slower on a cybook. For this reason the bookmarks need to be 100% reliable.
Maybe for those who insist they need a number at the bottom of the page, a percentage would suffice.

As for folders, I've only had my cybook a week so it's not an issue for me at the moment. It likely depends on how you use the cybook.
In my case I have a collection of books that I have read many times, and will read many times more. I would expect over the next couple of years to buy many of these for my Cybook and eventually this would cause me issues. Paging through 100 pages of books at cybook speed doesnt sound like much fun.
Cybook obviously intended for large libraries to be kept on these devices by including the 2GB expansion. This being the case then the library could be better, although not necessarily through the use of folders. A possible alternative could be to have a more three dimensional database where a person could browse by genre, author, year, etc
If Author was selected then the library page would show only Authors, and only when an Author was selected then would a list of books by the selected author be displayed. This would be a true library feature, unlike the present which merely displays all available media.

Even if a better library(or support for folders) wasn't ever to be included it wouldn't be the end of the world. I would keep maybe 10 books at a time on my Cybook and keep everything else on my PC. Would save me worrying about bookmaks being saved on my SD card, because I wouldnt need one. The lack of this feature however could ultimately take me away from Cybook to another company that makes or starts to make E.Ink reading devices that do include this feature.

JeffElkins · 04-05-2008, 07:53 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by billyad2000

Cybook obviously intended for large libraries to be kept on these devices by including the 2GB expansion.

Actually, that 2GB "expansion" is an irritant. Standard SD is 8 MB to 4 GB, so I'm not sure why they limit it to 2. Worse yet, modern devices have moved to SDHC, which is 4 GB to 128 GB.

JSWolf · 04-05-2008, 07:56 AM

Remember, the first week in April 2008 is not over till Tuesday the 8th.

HarryT · 04-05-2008, 08:03 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JeffElkins

Actually, that 2GB "expansion" is an irritant. Standard SD is 8 MB to 4 GB, so I'm not sure why they limit it to 2.

Because there is no standard way that SD card manufacturers implement non-SDHC capacities above 2GB. A variety of different addressing schemes are used, which are mutually incompatible. 2GB is where the "standard" stops.

Quote:

Worse yet, modern devices have moved to SDHC, which is 4 GB to 128 GB.

True, but relatively few devices appear to support SDHC cards as yet. I have numerous devices with SD cards - HP iPaq PDA, Pentax camera, Garmin SatNav, Gen3; I don't think any of them support SDHC.

Someone reported here that the controller that the Gen3 uses does actually support SDHC, so it's certainly possible that support for larger cards could be added in a future firmware upgrade. Personally, however, I find 2GB to be quite sufficient.

JeffElkins · 04-05-2008, 08:24 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by HarryT

Someone reported here that the controller that the Gen3 uses does actually support SDHC, so it's certainly possible that support for larger cards could be added in a future firmware upgrade. Personally, however, I find 2GB to be quite sufficient.

640K should be enough for anybody, right?

Seriously though, SDHC support was enabled in the Nokia tablets via a kernel recompile, so that may well be the case for the Gen3.

Halk · 04-05-2008, 08:31 AM

Over 2GB would only really be useful for music. And even then I don't think it'd do better than a dedicated device. Oh, or cartoons I guess for people that like that sort of thing.

Ideally the next device I buy will be a phone/FLAC/e-ink device. But that's, fingers crossed, going to be a few years before I buy anything else.

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04-04-2008, 04:50 PM	#241
JeffElkins Guru Posts: 780 Karma: 1416 Join Date: Jan 2008 Device: Kobo Clara 2E/HD, Kindle PW	It's pool season here in Florida, and as I feared my Nokia N800 is useless outside. So I'll probably be shopping for an e-ink device. However, I consider folder support to be essential, so I hope that Bookeen includes it in the firmware update. One thing I noticed in browsing their site was no downloads of the Linux OS available. ASFAIK, this is a violation of the GPL (Gnu Public License).

04-04-2008, 04:56 PM	#243
Halk Fanatic Posts: 538 Karma: 469999 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Sony PRS-650 (PRS+ alpha - thanks Kartu!)	Well, I can wait. Apart from the fact my Cybook works fine and the only reason I'd change to the new firmware is folder support.... I've got completely sidetracked and I'm now playing with Foobar2000, FLACs, Rockbox and working out how to encode into aoTuv. And why? All because I took all my books up the loft and stuck em all in a box, likely forever, and decided to do the same with my CDs as well.

04-05-2008, 01:01 AM	#249
Utahcowboy Connoisseur Posts: 52 Karma: 52 Join Date: Feb 2008 Device: Cybook Gen3	Perhaps Bookeen meant the first week of next April

04-05-2008, 04:31 AM	#250
billyad2000 Enthusiast Posts: 36 Karma: 2968 Join Date: Mar 2008 Device: Cybook Gen3	All good things come to those who wait I've had my Cybook just over a week now and have completed two large books. The current firmware seems pretty solid, and is largely ok for the task of reading (Thats all I use it for). It seems that the two most wanted features would be page numbers, and directory support. As far as i'm concerned page numbers aren't neccessary. The only time i've had to use them, or will ever use them is when my bookmarks disappear. When I had this problem it did seem to be directly related to a problem with the SDcard and seems ok now. It is important to me to have an idea of where I am in a book, even if just to give me an idea of when I need to be looking for my next one. I would hate to be out somewhere and realise that I had nothing to read. In this case the pageometer works fine. When I had the bookmark problem then the pagenumber may have been useful, but I doubt it, even reading a paper book, page numbers are not something I pay attention to. If I ever loose my place then I usually end up flicking through until I find where I was upto. It's just much slower on a cybook. For this reason the bookmarks need to be 100% reliable. Maybe for those who insist they need a number at the bottom of the page, a percentage would suffice. As for folders, I've only had my cybook a week so it's not an issue for me at the moment. It likely depends on how you use the cybook. In my case I have a collection of books that I have read many times, and will read many times more. I would expect over the next couple of years to buy many of these for my Cybook and eventually this would cause me issues. Paging through 100 pages of books at cybook speed doesnt sound like much fun. Cybook obviously intended for large libraries to be kept on these devices by including the 2GB expansion. This being the case then the library could be better, although not necessarily through the use of folders. A possible alternative could be to have a more three dimensional database where a person could browse by genre, author, year, etc If Author was selected then the library page would show only Authors, and only when an Author was selected then would a list of books by the selected author be displayed. This would be a true library feature, unlike the present which merely displays all available media. Even if a better library(or support for folders) wasn't ever to be included it wouldn't be the end of the world. I would keep maybe 10 books at a time on my Cybook and keep everything else on my PC. Would save me worrying about bookmaks being saved on my SD card, because I wouldnt need one. The lack of this feature however could ultimately take me away from Cybook to another company that makes or starts to make E.Ink reading devices that do include this feature.

04-05-2008, 07:56 AM	#252
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,796 Karma: 146391129 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	Remember, the first week in April 2008 is not over till Tuesday the 8th.

04-05-2008, 08:31 AM	#255
Halk Fanatic Posts: 538 Karma: 469999 Join Date: Feb 2008 Location: Scotland Device: Sony PRS-650 (PRS+ alpha - thanks Kartu!)	Over 2GB would only really be useful for music. And even then I don't think it'd do better than a dedicated device. Oh, or cartoons I guess for people that like that sort of thing. Ideally the next device I buy will be a phone/FLAC/e-ink device. But that's, fingers crossed, going to be a few years before I buy anything else.

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