new "alternative" firmware

[roebeet]

Installed on my PRS-300 (Russified, btw) and it works just fine for me. Just extracted to the root of my device, and refreshed.

Keep in mind that I only tested epubs, and none of my books are DRM-infested, so YMMV. Two cons I have with this is the performance to open up a book (minor) and also that there's a screen "ghosting" effect where the menu system is faintly visible once a book is opened - easy fix for that is to just put the device to sleep and then turn back on.

I couldn't get a custom font to work, but the default Serif font is fine for my uses, right now. Just getting full justification makes this software worth using. All in all an excellent effort so far and a big THANK YOU to the developers!

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by dolmen

Crap ?

Stop trolling

So Mr. 6-Posts is calling people who have been MobileRead members for years trolls because they don't like the software he and his buddies are advertising? That's an interesting way of looking at things.

[matt314159]

well, there is some...what would I call it...misinformation? in this thread...such as "takes two minutes for an average epub"....not so. The longest I've been able to make it take was around 30 seconds to load Eugene Sledge's "With the Old Breed" which is 128,000 words, with some maps and illustrations scattered throughout. I'd say that either the poster is having trouble with the term "average" epub, or needs to have his watch checked, because there's no way it's going to take 2 minutes on a PRS-300 to load an "average" epub book.

The formatting on them does pretty much suck, but I believe in accurate criticisms and not hyperbole.

[pepak]

Originally Posted by dolmen

Crap ?but it formats books beautifully, including hyphenation,

I can't help but wonder - which e-book format do you use? Because those I tried are anything but "beautifully formatted" (though they may have hyphenation - I haven't really noticed, being too consumed by the loss of all formatting I so carefully added to my books).

But you are quite right in asking the previous poster to stop trolling.

[pepak]

Originally Posted by fanoI

[*]Epub fully supported (full justification AND hypenation)

AND no CSS support whatsoever...

[*]More format supported (DOC, HTML...)

Many of them are pretty useless due to incomplete support, though (e.g. HTML doesn't support CSS or even basic tags such as H2/H3, PDB seems to be fixed to a russian codepage with no option to change it etc.).

[pepak]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I'm not a troll. I guess these narrowminded individuals consider bearers of the truth to be trolls. I installed this CRAP and used it for a day on my PRS-300. It is terrible. ePubs are rendered like TXT files. Each paragraph started and ended with a box character, so it obviously cannot render standard text correctly. It was incredibly slow to open books (2+ minutes for average ePub), extremely sluggish using the menus, and to boot up takes a very long time. Now perhaps it works better on their readers, but on my reader it was CRAP! Oh and one more thing, it cannot find preloaded books. You have to load a second copy into a special folder before it can find it. Crap by any other name still smells like crap.

I wouldn't use such a strong language for a free software which succeeded with something no else could manage, but I would have to agree with the general sentiment - the implementation is, as of current version, not even in an "alpha" stage. I do hope it will evolve quickly, though, and then I can see it replacing the default firmware.

[pepak]

Originally Posted by matt314159

well, there is some...what would I call it...misinformation? in this thread...such as "takes two minutes for an average epub"....not so. The longest I've been able to make it take was around 30 seconds

I wonder: Does the city of Hong Kong exist? I have never seen it.

[matt314159]

Well, let's think about this for a moment: we're running identical hardware: PRS-300 and Identical software: ebookapplications...and seeing vastly different results. Methinks the user is either a) loading a "non-average" epub and then crying about the time it takes, or b) misrepresenting the time it takes in his hyperbole about how much the software sucks. Besides the fact that there's no definition for "average" ...the book I did was on the long-ish side and had a handful of graphics, so I would think that should take *longer* than his "average" epub...yet it takes less than 1/4th the time. Hmmm....

I'm not out to blow the horn trumpeting the software, but I think the discussion would benefit from people making well-reasoned criticisms and not "omg!!11 this software is teh crap!!!"

[montsnmags]

Please note that this is a discussion-based community and as such everyone is entitled to share his or her opinion politely.

MobileRead Guidelines

To paraphrase and elaborate on what matt314159 says above, this discussion and its contributors would benefit from NOT using words like "crap" and "troll", and with a considered observance of the Guidelines' request for politeness.

Cheers,
Marc
Moderator

I'm a straight shooter--I call it as I see it. This so-called firmware replacement is very poorly done:

• it has lackluster support for formatting
• it is extremely flaky and slow (at least on my 300, several people with 300s have said they could not get it to work at all)
• it cannot recognize pre-installed books, you have to place copies of your books in a special folder
• it has no support of CSS stylesheets (at least in ePub)
• it is not a good replacement for Sony's firmware

For the record I installed several ePub books recently purchased from Sony both with and without DRM. None had images except the cover, and none were more than 300KB. None were readable with this replacement firmware, unless by readable you mean look like a TXT file with no formating.

I suspect that those who are so exited about this replacement firmware either are connected to the designers thereof or perhaps are so new to ebooks that they cannot objectively know good or bad firmware when they see it. I've owned 5 different Sony reader models, 2 Kindle models, and an Aluratek Libre, and more PDAs with ebook reading software than I can possibly remember, so I know what is good, acceptable, and bad when it comes to ebook reader firmware. This replacement firmware is terrible and in its current state. I suggest they spend a long time polishing it before even thinking about releasing it. I will continue to warn people not to waste their time with it.

[Kluyg]

Originally Posted by jswinden

For the record I installed several ePub books recently purchased from Sony both with and without DRM. None had images except the cover, and none were more than 300KB. None were readable with this replacement firmware, unless by readable you mean look like a TXT file with no formating.

None of epubs are readable with the standard firmware, unless by readable you mean no full (right-side) justification. This bug had been in the sony firmware for ages, and they don't care. Only Sony PRS-900 have full justification in epub. Personally I can't read epubs without full justification, even if all other functions (links and CSS) are working. This is why I'm still using LRF on my Sony PRS-300.

[Worldwalker]

Originally Posted by Kluyg

None of epubs are readable with the standard firmware, unless by readable you mean no full (right-side) justification,

What gives you the idea that ragged-right text is not readable? You're reading it right now! You read it on forums, blogs, news sites, email, all kinds of things, all the time. Some, though not all, newspapers and magazines set their text ragged-right. Some books, too, for that matter. Like millions of people, I've been reading Project Gutenberg since the days when it was nothing but .txt files, no formatting whatsoever. And I read several books a week on my 505 ... epubs ... ragged right.

Now, if you want to say that some people find perfect-justified text easier to read, you won't get an argument from me; it's quite true. But when you try to claim that ragged-right text is unreadable, you make me question a lot of things, particularly your agenda.

[roebeet]

Originally Posted by jswinden

I suspect that those who are so exited about this replacement firmware either are connected to the designers thereof or perhaps are so new to ebooks that they cannot objectively know good or bad firmware when they see it.

I completely disagree with your statement.

First off, I don't know the developers any more than i know you. Second, I am semi-versed in ebooks and I can spot format differences, font differences, left justified vs right vs full etc.

I am not saying that this software is perfect - it is not. It is slow to maneuver vs. the OF but, once you get into a book and start reading, it's been smooth sailing for me. The book in question is an EPUB with some formatting and I actually had issues trying to change the font to some other than the defaults they offered (the formatting went all wonky). But their default Serif font worked fine. [EDIT: I assume you are concerned about the differences in epub formatting such as the lack of spaces between paragraphs or chapters not starting on a new page. You may see this as a major problem, but I do not - as long as it's readable, I don't really care and I prefer this over the left justified / lack of choices in zoom we have with the OF.] As for moving the books into another folder to read them, we are talking about very small files and I don't see this as an major issue - I consider it a minor bug that I hope will be fixed, in time.

The bottom line is whether the alternative firmware is worth using over the OF and I believe that the answer to that, in my case, is yes - for the reasons I already stated. You obviously have your reasons for dismissing the software, and you have every right to do that - but please don't call me a shill or inexperienced just because I don't agree with you.

[jj2me]

Originally Posted by matt314159

Well, let's think about this for a moment: we're running identical hardware: PRS-300 and Identical software: ebookapplications...and seeing vastly different results. Methinks the user is either a) loading a "non-average" epub and then crying about the time it takes, or b) misrepresenting the time it takes in his hyperbole about how much the software sucks.

You may very well be right. But there's also a chance that there may be some "c)", like book or format interactions. Example, the well-known and Sony-admitted problem with DRM'd library ebooks and PDFs not playing nice together.

I'm only mentioning this because I was once in a discussion about the Sony interaction problem where a lady with the identical device and firmware was basically calling me a fool for blaming Sony rather than myself, as she had never experienced such a problem and had downloaded lots of library ebooks and PDFs.

I've observed too many "sure things" not turn out, so now I keep as my motto, "You never know."

[matt314159]

That's fine, but considering the other stuff the same poster was saying, I still suspect a or b. I'm admittedly new to ebooks, but there were some things on the 300 that bugged me so much, that ANYTHING that comes along to allieviate those problems will be a saving grace. for instance, 7 font sizes instead of 3, line spacing, text justification, the ability to orient the screen for right-handed landscape mode, clock, native .doc support, and several others. I don't think it's that great yet, but it's certainly usable. THey need to fix the epub formatting, first and foremost, IMHO. Other stuff is rather secondary.

I do notice that if I move my books into *JUST* The "Books" folder on the root of the drive, my sony firmware sees it just fine, so that's a plus, you don't necessarily have to have "double copies" of everything.

I'd say it's in "beta" quality mode now; I certainly disagree with the "not even alpha" crowd in that regard. I'm rather new to eBooks, but I have a kindle2 and a PRS-300. The kindle2 trounces the PRS-300 in almost every way imagineable, by the way, and it's nothing really to do with the PRS-300's hardware, but rather MUCH better software. I can't wait for the k3 to drop.