Report on new firmware?

[Michael]

Hello everyone,

The Mobipocket/Adobe story is a real issue for us and it will be the case for any other reader vendors.

We would have prefered to propose only one firmware to everyone with nice cross fetaure like "Mobipocket dictionary lookup" for ePUB and PDF files. But, we are not authorized do it and we have to deal with it. So we have tried to propose the best solution to the customers who already bought Mobipocket files with these 2 firmwares.

Since the beginning, we have always proposed pretty good fundamentals in our software (speed, rendering, interface). We have been the first to propose Mobipocket DRM support and be the first to be officially certified by Adobe on Adobe SDK.
Our interface has been obviously so much appreciated that it has been fully copied by one of our competitor. If Bookeen fires its engineers, I already know who will hire them.

Concerning the format support, there are plenty of things to do and I agree with you on many points:
- PDF: reflow, auto-cropping are must have
- HTML support is very basic and should be enhanced

On top of that all your requests are legitimate :
1) bookmarks page
2) Reading while charging (we said it)
etc.

All these points are on our list. We are clearly not releasing new firmwares at a pace which satisfies both you and us and we are fustrating about it. But as, we will try to communicate more with you, we will also try to release at a faster pace.

All the best,

Michael

[becket]

I will be happy to have Epub and Mobi on one reader as some books are not available from Fictionwise in England. So I looked at english online book shops with Ebooks and they use Epub alot. So I had been considering another reader, but now I can stay with the one.
Becky

[ErwinOtten]

Originally Posted by Michael

But as, we will try to communicate more with you, ...
Michael

For me, this is the key.... I'm not bothered by the fact that the last firmware-update is 9 months ago. I'm happy with my reader as it is. It's the miscommunication that bothers me.......

Keep communicating and I'm a happy customer

[Pulp]

I couldn't agree more - please keep us posted on the developement so we know you did not forget us

[EowynCarter]

Concerning the format support, there are plenty of things to do and I agree with you on many points:
- PDF: reflow, auto-cropping are must have

Yes

[Billi]

I think it is a bit unfair to entirely blame Bookeen for the mobipocket/epub-problems.
Of course it would be great to have both formats and a reasonable pdf-support on one reader.
But I guess ebook-live would be much easier if the publishing houses would sell their ebooks as mobi, epub and pdf-files. Everybody here is able to convert within these formats in less then five minutes, and the big publishing houses aren't able to do so???

[Idoine]

Originally Posted by Billi

...
But I guess ebook-live would be much easier if the publishing houses would sell their ebooks as mobi, epub and pdf-files. Everybody here is able to convert within these formats in less then five minutes, and the big publishing houses aren't able to do so???

I have to disagree here : I tried it numerous times, and conversion is not always a good one...

BTW, thanks Michael and all for your news, I'm so sorry I couldn't come last saturday, now I have to wait and be patient (as I said to myself when exploring my 20 pages of ebooks today (387 ebooks on my Cybook ! )...

[gerraldo]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Publishers are going epub.
And Epub is open

Publishers are going DRMed ePub. And DRMed ePub is NOT open!!!

(Sorry Eowyn, nothing personal, but I hear/read this everywhere and though ePub is an open and documented format it's DRMed version needs to be licensed and is encrypted in some way...)

[gerraldo]

Originally Posted by ErwinOtten

For me, this is the key.... I'm not bothered by the fact that the last firmware-update is 9 months ago. I'm happy with my reader as it is. It's the miscommunication that bothers me.......

Keep communicating and I'm a happy customer

Exactly what I was thinking! 100% ACK

[Jill74]

Hope they'll finish it asap. Lot's of us are waiting for the new development.

[lmarie]

I love my cybook, with the dictionary, so don't get me wrong here BUT reading this and other recent threads causes me to imagine:

one solitary worker (Michael) who engineers and solders cybooks, runs out to the front office to handle orders and repairs, slaves every night over the programming of firmware updates, worries that the only other company employee (Mr. Bookeen) will outsource his job to the Ukraine, frets that he's missed some snarky mobileread post.... and suddenly bolts upright, strikes his head with a brown leather sheathed cybook and yelps, "Mon dieu, I have forgotten about the blog!"



(You go, guy!)

[mjdb]

Originally Posted by Michael

Hello,
I am Michael and working at Bookeen.
[snip]
8) Reading while charging is not available. I am not sure we said it would be. But I am ready to stand the critics on this point.
[snip]

Thanks for all the helpful info.
Personally I am looking forwards to the much delayed firmware upgrade with improved folder support.
All I have been wanting is for the library to display the path (the names of the subfolders) as well as the book name. Will the upgrade do this ?


I am puzzled by your point #8 as quoted above.
Why would you remove this feature ?
Or don't you know how to enter this mode ?

With my Gen3 I thought that I have always been able to read an eBook while the device is connected to external power via the USB cable.
I seldom do so because the battery life is so long, but it is possible.

Admitedly it is a nuisance to get the reader into the correct mode, but it isn't that hard.

The trick is that the Gen3 is designed to also work as a digital photo frame while connected to external power, with a working display and navigation menus, rather than its default behaviour of just showing the USB connection screen and being external drive connected to a computer.

So if you are reading a book and the power is getting low, you first enter slideshow mode, then connect the external power, then exit slideshow mode, at which point you can navigate back to your book, and continue read the book while still connected to external power.

This isn't a new tip - I recall it was discussed here in Feb 2008, around the time that I purchased my original Gen3 in NAEBs first batch.

Or am I mistaken that the Gen3 is actually charging while reading and connected to external power ?
Certainly the correct red charging light comes on, and my recollection is that the battery guage goes up.

(If you unplug the usb cable and reconnect it, without going back into slideshow mode, the reader reverts to its default USB connect screen and mode as an external drive.)


Martin.

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by Michael

Hello everyone,

The Mobipocket/Adobe story is a real issue for us and it will be the case for any other reader vendors.

We would have prefered to propose only one firmware to everyone with nice cross fetaure like "Mobipocket dictionary lookup" for ePUB and PDF files. But, we are not authorized do it and we have to deal with it. So we have tried to propose the best solution to the customers who already bought Mobipocket files with these 2 firmwares.

Since the beginning, we have always proposed pretty good fundamentals in our software (speed, rendering, interface). We have been the first to propose Mobipocket DRM support and be the first to be officially certified by Adobe on Adobe SDK.
Our interface has been obviously so much appreciated that it has been fully copied by one of our competitor. If Bookeen fires its engineers, I already know who will hire them.

Concerning the format support, there are plenty of things to do and I agree with you on many points:
- PDF: reflow, auto-cropping are must have
- HTML support is very basic and should be enhanced

On top of that all your requests are legitimate :
1) bookmarks page
2) Reading while charging (we said it)
etc.

All these points are on our list. We are clearly not releasing new firmwares at a pace which satisfies both you and us and we are fustrating about it. But as, we will try to communicate more with you, we will also try to release at a faster pace.

All the best,

Michael

Thanks for the reply, Michael, it is really appreciated.
I, for one, very much honor good communication. I have said it many times on this forum and I stand to it: The Cybook is a good device and I can easily wait for any updates and improvements. What I have always criticised was the lack of communication and the fact that Bookeen missed their deadlines and didn't even say a word about it. Participating in the community here will definitely be a good way to prevent similar resentment by the community in the future.
It would also be a good idea, though, to make more use of your own blog. Not every customer is also on MobileRead (sadly). It should not be any real effort to post at least one short entry per week.
Also I think it's the wrong strategy to say: Because we keep missing our deadlines by months on end we stop telling people what we do and when it's going to be finished. If Bookeen cannot keep a deadline as vague as 1st quarter of 2009 (and FW is still not finished in 3rd quarter) then it's not a problem of changing one's communication but rather there are structural problems. Planning and/or execution are way off and need to be addressed internally. If you can't keep your internal deadlines it's a short-sighted solution to try to hush it up in public by not communicating any deadlines at all.
Also it is a very bad idea to keep it a secret what you are currently working on. Of course, you can't promise that every feature you are currently working on will be there in the next FW release and that can be clearly stated. But keeping it entirely secret leads to the current situation where everyone had different expectations and lots of people feel let down. If you gave more information about what is in the works people could give you feedback about what is a very highly desired feature and which one is not so much. You could then set your priorities accordingly.

Anyway, glad to have you here on the forum and I hope you'll get to like it here in our community

[EowynCarter]

Originally Posted by gerraldo

Publishers are going DRMed ePub. And DRMed ePub is NOT open!!!

Yeah, i don't know why the publishers bother with drm. Anyway, no drm book goes on my reader anymore.

[Snuffi]

Originally Posted by EowynCarter

Yeah, i don't know why the publishers bother with drm. Anyway, no drm book goes on my reader anymore.

Same here. I have lost a number of legally bought MP3s because that company went under and shut down their drm server, that's not going to happen again to me.
Also the reason why I wonder why the can't put DRM-free ePub support into the mobi FW. We all know that they can't put DRM ePub in this version for legal reasons but why no DRM-free ePub?