Onyx Boox M96

[martienne]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Hi,

my sample device (M96) is a white prototype and is already five months old. Current M96 has a little bit different (optimized) hardware.

Please watch this video. You could learn, how you could optimize reading of your PDF.
Open of a PDF document with Neo PDF Reader, improve pale scanned texts, hide system bar and/or reader bars, scribble annotations, optimize margins using auto crop, use text reflow to be able to read comfortably of multi column texts (in this case scribbling feature will be deactivated).

Hi Booxtor - I bought my M92 from you
But it doesn't have this NeoPDF writer I think -where do I get it from?
Also - did anything happen with the Acapela plugin that you were posting about in the autumn?

[por]

Originally Posted by martienne

Hi Booxtor - I bought my M92 from you
But it doesn't have this NeoPDF writer I think -where do I get it from?
Also - did anything happen with the Acapela plugin that you were posting about in the autumn?

The NeoPDF reader is an app on the M96 not on the M92.

[por]

Originally Posted by Neverm0re

That's unfortunate, but probably expected considering that the Android port is only a few weeks old, and a stable release is not available yet.

I think it would be helpful to report issues in the dedicated thread, or, better yet, at KOReader's issue tracker.

It turns out the reader works, just needed a very long time to open a pdf the first time. Unfortunately, it is unusable on the M96 because it is overall extremely unresponsive. I guess it's not optimized for such low specs.

[Just-read]

@Booxtor

I purchased M96 from your store (ereader-store.de). I received it before the expected time (to Canada). the shipping did not take long time.

I tried both onyx reader and Neo PDF Reader, for scribbling pdf files your Neo PDF Reader is better than onyx reader. but for highlighting and text selection, onyx reader is better than Neo PDF Reader.

I am satisfied with the device and Neo PDF Reader. improvement on text selection and highlighting and activate the scribbling feature in reflow mode will be great help for people working with technical documents.

Thanks a lot.

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Hi,

my sample device (M96) is a white prototype and is already five months old. Current M96 has a little bit different (optimized) hardware.

Please watch this video. You could learn, how you could optimize reading of your PDF.
Open of a PDF document with Neo PDF Reader, improve pale scanned texts, hide system bar and/or reader bars, scribble annotations, optimize margins using auto crop, use text reflow to be able to read comfortably of multi column texts (in this case scribbling feature will be deactivated).

[derball2008]

Since the M96 is out for weeks now, can you say something about the battery life (esp. now with Android)?
Also, did someone find the time to make a short video review? Would like to experience the overall performance (with Android) and the most important feature of reading PDFs (loading/ turning speed, etc.).

Personally, I am still undecided if I should go for the M92 or the M96 if it's just PDF reading.

edit:
Could anyone please try Foxit Reader PDF (free) on the M96? In my opinion it's the best and fastest PDF reader out there. If it works well with the eInk display, I'd go for the M96 just for that reason.

[bakisfigus]

Hi everyone,

I'm considering buying the new M96 and, as derball2008 in the previous message, I'm also curious about this new device battery life. The official site claims a "longer battery life by nearly 20%" and it'd be great if someone could confirm or rectify that information.

Plus, dumb question, the "Onyx BOOX M96" that one can get at eredear.de and the "Onyx BOOX M96 Universe" of onyx-boox.com are just the same model, right?

Cheers!

[NNN]

I’ve used the M96 for a few days. My impression is that the unit is nice (though mine arrived with a broken speaker and the volume rocker installed backward), but the software is unfinished. It needs a manual and, practically, it needs a side light.

Regarding the software, some menus haven’t been translated from Chinese; it does not come with a dictionary; some important M92 functionality has been lost (e.g., multiple annotation sets, format conversion); it can be frustratingly unresponsive, esp. with handwritten annotations; the native, image viewing app, Gallery, has repeatedly crashed on a simple JPEG. Also Android's screen shot function does not work and there’s no contrast or inversion setting, or ability to pinch/multitouch (such as touching the screen while pressing a button, or a longtouch-drag), so some webpages and Android apps are unreadable or unusable and even some of its native system menus are unreadable in “performance” mode.

I’ve posted a video showing problems with handwritten annotation, language translation, and scrolling (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_MXsUxTOZL0). I tried to kludge annotation sets by writing into a document, copying and renaming the document, and then altering the copied document. No dice: changes to the copied document are reflected in the original.

[ganzolo]

Hi guys,
i'm mainly looking for a 10 inch ebook reader to use as a screen when writing text (i wanted to use an external mechanical keyboard) and to read some books / comicas. Is M96 right for this uses?

[Alf77]

Hi, when will be available the white version of the M96?

I'm waiting for it.

Thanks,

alf

[pierro78]

Originally Posted by ganzolo

Hi guys,
i'm mainly looking for a 10 inch ebook reader to use as a screen when writing text (i wanted to use an external mechanical keyboard) and to read some books / comicas. Is M96 right for this uses?

yes according to this post and video by booxtor : https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...84&postcount=4

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by NNN

I’ve used the M96 for a few days. My impression is that the unit is nice (though mine arrived with a broken speaker and the volume rocker installed backward), but the software is unfinished. It needs a manual and, practically, it needs a side light.

Regarding the software, some menus haven’t been translated from Chinese; it does not come with a dictionary; some important M92 functionality has been lost (e.g., multiple annotation sets, format conversion); it can be frustratingly unresponsive, esp. with handwritten annotations; the native, image viewing app, Gallery, has repeatedly crashed on a simple JPEG. Also Android's screen shot function does not work and there’s no contrast or inversion setting, or ability to pinch/multitouch (such as touching the screen while pressing a button, or a longtouch-drag), so some webpages and Android apps are unreadable or unusable and even some of its native system menus are unreadable in “performance” mode.

I’ve posted a video showing problems with handwritten annotation, language translation, and scrolling (http://youtu.be/HeshmAdbFq0). I tried to kludge annotation sets by writing into a document, copying and renaming the document, and then altering the copied document. No dice: changes to the copied document are reflected in the original.

Which version of firmware are you using? (Settings -> About -> About Device -> Build number) and what vendor?

1. Sound. The volume rocker in my model is installed correctly. Regarding the "broken speaker" see here:

Originally Posted by ereader-store.de

In this M96 version the built-in speaker is not available - Sound playback is only possible via 3.5 mm audio output or bluetooth sound devices (headsets or boxes). Please ignore the pointer #6 in the quick start guide. The version with built-in speaker will not be available untill August.

Playing music through headphones works fine for me.

2. Menus not translated from Chinese. Presumably you refer to the single menu entry that allows you to enable Pinyin input, which obviously is not of your interest so you can safely ignore it. In addition I saw in your video that your keyboard was set to using this input method. At the top of the screen an icon of a keyboard appears when you enter text. Tap on this icon and you will be able to switch to whatever other keyboard you selected in the settings - English (UK) in my case.

There is also an entry that hasn't been translated from Russian - it says Русский - but I think it's intentional

3. Gallery crashes. Personally I haven't experienced that. The default Gallery app worked fine with pictures from my Canon camera. QuickPic worked fine too. Could you attach the file that crashed you Gallery?

4. Responsiveness. I haven't really experienced any issues and I work with >100MB scanned PDF books. They are admittedly slower to use than properly made PDF. Scribbling works smoothly for me too.

5. Android screen shot? Is there such thing? I have tried every single app under the sun on my rooted Andoid phone and none worked.

6. Unreadable web pages. No pinch but double tap works for me. Although, I must say that the ways mentioned by you seem clever solutions. Admittedly some Android apps are unreadable as they rely on colour, and as you are probably aware there is not much of that available in M96 and there is not much Onyx can do about that. Same goes for the badly programmed UI elements in apps that don't scale. Fortunately, I have seen some apps where developers have recognized the presence of ereaders in the markets and made them ereader friendly, e.g. AnkiDroid (I haven't tried it yet but I have seen options aimed at ereaders in the settings).

7. It needs a side light. So do real books, especially at night

Yep, there appears to be (in FW 2014-07-01) no dictionary, no highlighting, no manual, some things are missing from M92, some things don't work as well as in M92. However, Booxtor promised frequent firmware updates so stay positive In the meantime ask questions on this forum and we will try to help

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by derball2008

Could anyone please try Foxit Reader PDF (free) on the M96? In my opinion it's the best and fastest PDF reader out there. If it works well with the eInk display, I'd go for the M96 just for that reason.

FoxitReader works on M96. The menus are on the small side, the hardware buttons (left, right, joystick) don't work and there is a lot of annoying animations for everything. I contacted Foxit about the latter if they could include an option to disable it all for ereader use to which they replied:

Originally Posted by Foxit Corporation - Integrated Sales and Support Team

Thank you for your interest in our software and for selecting Foxit as your PDF solution. I have forwarded your request to our developers for consideration.

Thank you for your feedback as we work to improve our products.

From the distant times when I used Foxit on my desktop I remember that Foxit listened to their customers, so there might be a chance they will do something about it one day.

On the (very) positive note all the text manipulation tools (highlighting, underlining, strikethrough, notes etc.) work well.

[ThePilot]

Hi everybody,
New owner of the M96 (great device!), I just want to know if there's a way to switch the device off (or put to sleep) without changing the display, to keep the current screen.
Also, do you know other ereader launcher I can compare with Onyx Launcher? Or is it possible to do some customization (get rid of the Shop (Onyx bookstore), add other apps into the bottom menu...)

EDIT: Also, I find it quite annoying not being able to change the contrast in the general settings, for all apps (when browsing, ...)

[NNN]

Machinogodzilla, thank you. There being no manual, you and Onyx’s German distributor are the de facto, worldwide support team.

You’re right. I was recently sold a device with older, beta firmware and without a speaker or reset button.

The update seems to to have done six things: installed/improved Onyx Neo Reader; worsened OnyxReader; stabilized Gallery; added OnyxScribbler, a handwritten notes app; added pen calibration; added a system contrast setting, which doesn't seem to do anything; and broken the Play Store app.

OnyxReader is now totally useless for handwritten annotation, but Onyx Neo Reader does it well. Unfortunately, it’s still buggy (forgets auto-crop zoom settings between pp., search doesn't work correctly in word flow mode, scribble erase leaves scribble dots), cannot type-annotate non text PDF's, and lacks any means to export annotations or scribbles (essential). OnyxScribbler has the same problem.

I still have no word yet from Onyx as to when/whether it will implement this or app specific contrast settings; a Performance Mode contrast setting; pinch-zoom; screenshots; or document format conversion.

Android screenshot, when enabled, should be power button + volume up.

You’re right about the volume rocker. It’s labeled correctly, but installed backward from the GUI. That’s weak. It’s not as bad as selling units without the advertised speakers, hoping that customers won’t notice.

The M96 pairs with Apple Bluetooth keyboards.

ThePilot, you can set your M96 to stay awake while sleeping its network connections (Settings -> Systems -> Power Management).

[Booxtor]

@ThePilot: changing of contrast in general settings (the system level gamma correction) will be available very soon - we already test it.
@NNN: concerning implementation of document conversation - rather not. Other features are in task list.