Best Buy DR800SG Has Arrived

[MobileTechReview]

I just purchased a newspaper via NewspaperDirect on the Irex and it does indeed show you each page of the paper, just as it was laid out for print. But it doesn't fill the screen or reflow--it's like looking at a static image of each page . When I click on the icon to switch views, I get something that's largely text-based and not much better that what Sony and Amazon offer.

Now I'm trying the download to reader option from their website via computer, and it's been stuck at "preparing file for download" 0% for the last 10 minutes. *sigh*

[MobileTechReview]

Ah right, silly of me to forget there's no wireless, hence no bookstore on the device.

I agree, the handling of DRM credentials is tops- separate applets for Adobe account, myIrex account and PDB Barnes & Noble/eReader. And the suppport for multiple credit cards with PDF is brilliant! Even the Nook doesn't do that.

Originally Posted by mgmueller

There is no ebook mall app at all on 800S (no 3G, no WiFI = no way to use it). You can enter your B&N code (name and credit card number used for decryption) in settings, that's it. No icon (I saw it in the annoncements for 800SG) for any mall.
The decryption of B&N books works flawlessly. For ePUBS you don't have to enter anything at all. For PDBs, you need the name and credit card number. They even have been thinking ahead: You can add more than one name/credit card combination. I've got old fictionwise PDBs, bought with an old credit card years ago. Working as well, thanks to the 2nd settings.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

I just purchased a newspaper via NewspaperDirect on the Irex and it does indeed show you each page of the paper, just as it was laid out for print. But it doesn't fill the screen or reflow--it's like looking at a static image of each page . When I click on the icon to switch views, I get something that's largely text-based and not much better that what Sony and Amazon offer.

Now I'm trying the download to reader option from their website via computer, and it's been stuck at "preparing file for download" 0% for the last 10 minutes. *sigh*

If you just tap into the article, it should be shown in reflow. The text probably is about the same quality as you get from Kindle.
But in addition you've got the newspaper view. You can zoom into that, leaving the layout intact but still reading it. I very much prefer it.
Makes navigation way easier and has the "look and feel" of real newspapers.

You can either "send to device" or "save". "Saving" has modes for iRex, Sony, Kindle and some others. It's been a while. But I think it took maybe 2 minutes. You should see permanent progress.

[MobileTechReview]

Tapping an article does nothing At least not in the initially presented cover page mode. And it doesn't zoom.

I finally got newspaperdirect/pressdisplay to download an Irex version of the Guardian via my desktop browser. Either their website is powered by starved squirrels or their server is having temporary issues-- very slow. I transferred the newspaper to the DR800SG via USB and the paper does stretch to fill the page but text isn't at all readable in that pretty newspaper view (I assume these pages are images embedded into the ePUB since font size changes have no effect). I had to resort to the TOC via the DR's menu to get a text-based version that is readable. Those text-based articles are a bit more attractively laid out that the ones we get in the US from Sony, Amazon and B&N.

When I download directly to the device via wireless it's in NP format rather than ePUB. Interesting. And newspaper direct charges an additional air delivery fee 0f $1.08, even though I have a monthly subscription with them (or so a dialog said when I downloaded using the device).

For Americans, who expect everything to be easy and wireless delivery to be free (assuming that wireless delivery charge is true), I'm not sure this will be popular in the US.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

Tapping an article does nothing At least not in the initially presented cover page mode. And it doesn't zoom.

I finally got newspaperdirect/pressdisplay to download an Irex version of the Guardian via my desktop browser. Either their website is powered by starved squirrels or their server is having temporary issues-- very slow. I transferred the newspaper to the DR800SG via USB and the paper does stretch to fill the page but text isn't at all readable in that pretty newspaper view (I assume these pages are images embedded into the ePUB since font size changes have no effect). I had to resort to the TOC via the DR's menu to get a text-based version that is readable. Those text-based articles are a bit more attractively laid out that the ones we get in the US from Sony, Amazon and B&N.

When I download directly to the device via wireless it's in NP format rather than ePUB. Interesting. And newspaper direct charges an additional air delivery fee 0f $1.08, even though I have a monthly subscription with them (or so a dialog said when I downloaded using the device).

For Americans, who expect everything to be easy and wireless delivery to be free (assuming that wireless delivery charge is true), I'm not sure this will be popular in the US.

There should be a small "+" in the headline. Tapping this brings you into the zoom mode of the respective article.
Then there should be 2 icons in the top left corner. One for the table of content and another one for reflow.
You find small ">" in the articles as well. This jumps to linked articles.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

Tapping an article does nothing At least not in the initially presented cover page mode. And it doesn't zoom.

I finally got newspaperdirect/pressdisplay to download an Irex version of the Guardian via my desktop browser. Either their website is powered by starved squirrels or their server is having temporary issues-- very slow. I transferred the newspaper to the DR800SG via USB and the paper does stretch to fill the page but text isn't at all readable in that pretty newspaper view (I assume these pages are images embedded into the ePUB since font size changes have no effect). I had to resort to the TOC via the DR's menu to get a text-based version that is readable. Those text-based articles are a bit more attractively laid out that the ones we get in the US from Sony, Amazon and B&N.

When I download directly to the device via wireless it's in NP format rather than ePUB. Interesting. And newspaper direct charges an additional air delivery fee 0f $1.08, even though I have a monthly subscription with them (or so a dialog said when I downloaded using the device).

For Americans, who expect everything to be easy and wireless delivery to be free (assuming that wireless delivery charge is true), I'm not sure this will be popular in the US.

Maybe they deduct the $1.08 from your bank of included credits? I guess this is OK if you have an unlimited subscription.

[MobileTechReview]

I find that what you can do varies with each periodical title. On the San Jose Mercury News, the lead article on the front page has a +, but none of the other articles have that. There are no icons up top. There are icons at the bottom for TOC, page forward/back and multi-page view. Only the first page has a + for the lead article, and following pages in cover page mode have nothing. This is an .NP article downloaded wirelessly.

The Guardian, exported via their website and loaded to the reader as an ePUB has no icons and no + to read an article in cover page mode. I have to use the TOC to get to readable articles.

Quite a lot of variation, depending on the publication...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

I find that what you can do varies with each periodical title. On the San Jose Mercury News, the lead article on the front page has a +, but none of the other articles have that. There are no icons up top. There are icons at the bottom for TOC, page forward/back and multi-page view. Only the first page has a + for the lead article, and following pages in cover page mode have nothing. This is an .NP article downloaded wirelessly.

The Guardian, exported via their website and loaded to the reader as an ePUB has no icons and no + to read an article in cover page mode. I have to use the TOC to get to readable articles.

Quite a lot of variation, depending on the publication...

I think, the "+" and the other links you only have in the NP version.

[MobileTechReview]

Makes sense that only the NP version has the +. But only one +, alas. I'll have to download more papers.

[pauli]

to get the best paperlike view from the PC application of Newspaper Direct, use the *.np format with the "export to iRex" option. Depending on the zoom level you have selected you can change the zoom level on the device. I found a zoom level of 240 is good enough to read the paper while keeping the files at a reasonable size. The epub version that are generated are very much influenced by how good they were able to generate reflowable text from the original files they got. Also, when you use the PC application the "air delivery charge" doesn't apply.

more details here:
http://www.pressdisplay.com/pressdis...sdisplayFAQ#80
What's explained there for the DR1000S also applies to the DR800S(G)

[MobileTechReview]

So you have to zoom using the desktop client before exporting? Honestly, Calibre is much easier to work with . I still can't believe that NP files downloaded using the device's own NewspaperDirect store and wireless service aren't formatted correctly for the Irex.

My desktop client doesn't have an option to select NP vs. ePUB, but it does have device selection (and I have selected the Irex). The actual download never works using the desktop client (it shows a progress bar for formatting but downloads nothing). This is with the Mac client. If I use their web browser-based service on the computer and select the export to Irex option, it does at least download, albeit in ePUB format.

There's no device zoom on the NP files downloaded wirelessly to the Irex (could I be missing it-- I've tried every icon, single, double and tripped tapped pages?)

The Mac version of Press Reader has no file menu option to export a downloaded newspaper to the Irex (mentioned in the pressdisplay help). Now I need to boot up a PC, install Press Reader and authorize the PC as well so I can get that option?! Whooboy.

Goodness, it's giving me a headache! At the moment, removing DRM from an eBook and converting it to a few different formats seems like less work than getting a "pretty" version of a newspaper onto the Irex.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by MobileTechReview

So you have to zoom using the desktop client before exporting? Honestly, Calibre is much easier to work with . I still can't believe that NP files downloaded using the device's own NewspaperDirect store and wireless service aren't formatted correctly for the Irex.

My desktop client doesn't have an option to select NP vs. ePUB, but it does have device selection (and I have selected the Irex). The actual download never works using the desktop client (it shows a progress bar for formatting but downloads nothing). This is with the Mac client. If I use their web browser-based service on the computer and select the export to Irex option, it does at least download, albeit in ePUB format.

There's no device zoom on the NP files downloaded wirelessly to the Irex (could I be missing it-- I've tried every icon, single, double and tripped tapped pages?)

The Mac version of Press Reader has no file menu option to export a downloaded newspaper to the Irex (mentioned in the pressdisplay help). Now I need to boot up a PC, install Press Reader and authorize the PC as well so I can get that option?! Whooboy.

Goodness, it's giving me a headache! At the moment, removing DRM from an eBook and converting it to a few different formats seems like less work than getting a "pretty" version of a newspaper onto the Irex.

I didn't know about the zoom option, Pauli is mentioning (far from intuitiv, IMHO). I just bought the newspaper of choice and exported to iRex 800. Result was absolutely fine. As I explicitly chose "export to iRex", my guess was it's pre-formatted specifically for iRex.

Here you see what I've got: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=309
In Pic1 you see the tons of "+" and ">" I have.
In Pic2 you see the "zoom" symbol, which leads to Pic4.
In Pic3 you see the reflow.
I've only tested 2 newspapers though. Maybe I've got especially well prepared ones. But I didn't configure anything with these. Just exported to iRex.

[pauli]

you're right MobileTechReview... but once I figured this out, reading newspapers in the *.np format has been a joy. You still have the reflowable content at your disposal, but unfortunately the Dutch newspapers I frequently use are not rendered very well. Most USA and Canadian newspapers are done better, I think they have put some people on that to correct errors. I guess this all depends on how popular the newspapers are.

The MAC version of the Newspaper direct application is a few features behind.

The versions you receive directly on the device are in the smallest possible *.np filesize, to keep download time as short as possible. If the reflowable content is rendered correctly, this would give you the best possible quality/download time ratio...
The *.np files tend to be large 20 - 100 MB at the 240 zoom level

[MobileTechReview]

Oh hallelujah! Suddenly it's a different world-- the one you described Pauli. I ditched the web browser version, I ditched the Mac and booted up a Windows Machine. Went through the whole process again, and there it was: the export to IREX option that creates an NP file. Now I'm seeing the impressive newspaper you folks described. The export took about 10 minutes on my CULV notebook for just one 90 page newspaper (79 megs). This whole process needs a lot of work, but at least I'm seeing something really impressive now on the IREX.

BTW, our video review part 1 is up, along with photos of the IREX. Part 2 will be up shortly as well on MobileTechReview.com. Now, we'll have to do a part 3 with the special sauce recipe for NewspaperDirect periodicals. http://www.mobiletechreview.com/ubbt...p?Number=36062

[pauli]

MobileTechReview, just watched your review. Nice work. Gives good insight on the capabilities of the device. Never thought the color of the bezel would influence the reading experience that much. A zoom function on pdf's would be nice indeed.