DR800 Public BETA of the DR800S and SG 2.0 software available

[pauli]

@ 5staro,
if you change the file extension from *.epub to *.zip (epub is basically a zip file anyway), you can check how that particular epub is build up: 1 big html file or a lot of small ones. If the file is encrypted, you won't be able to see the contents of the file... but you can check if Kolenka's comment explains the problem.

[OrcaBlue]

Originally Posted by Kolenka

This seems to be a problem with the Wacom touch screen used. Changing the angle of the pen as it gets near the screen will change the point. You can adjust the calibration to help, but I found the only way this is truly accurate is if you hold the pen exactly the same way every time, including when you calibrated it.

This was true even on the old firmware.

I didn't know you can scribble with old firmware. I calibrated the stylus using different methods including holding the pend exactly the same way. However, it still seemed very inaccurate.

I think scribbling needs to have better respond time, accuracy, and feel natural. Otherwise it would be too annoying to use. Imagine having to pay attention to the angle of the stylus when scribblings.

[OrcaBlue]

Originally Posted by Mackx

I also noticed this (and other problems), I need the R2.0 SDK, which will only be released after the final R2.0, to fix this.

Thanks for all the hard works Mackx. I can't wait until the next release of xournal.

[Shaggy]

Originally Posted by OrcaBlue

I didn't know you can scribble with old firmware.

They were probably talking about the old DR1000 firmware.

I calibrated the stylus using different methods including holding the pend exactly the same way. However, it still seemed very inaccurate.

I've seen at least one person point out that the accuracy is a lot better with the notes application than it is with scribbling on PDFs. There may be something they can tweak in the PDF code to help make it better, but I'm not sure. See if you get better results from the note app.

I think scribbling needs to have better respond time, accuracy, and feel natural. Otherwise it would be too annoying to use. Imagine having to pay attention to the angle of the stylus when scribblings.

Some of that is limitations in WACOM and eInk technology. The angle of the stylus effecting accuracy comes, in part, from how WACOM works. The response times are generally limited by eInk refresh speeds, which are still quite slow compared to other display technology. There may be additional software tweaks they can make to help improve things, but ultimately the underlying technology is going to limit how far those improvements can go.

I'm assuming that they should be able to improve the accuracy of PDF scribbling to equal the note taking app, at least.

[Matthijs]

Originally Posted by catharsis

I have no idea how to power it off, but if I hold the button for a long time, something happens, maybe a reset. Anyway, from now on I'm using sleep mode and I don't care that much how to power it off.

You cannot power off the device. If you hold the on/off button, the device does a cold reset (see User Manual).

[Matthijs]

Originally Posted by OrcaBlue

Need ability to switch between "panning mode" and "pen mode" from the status bar.

I would like to get some feedback on how to best implement a shortcut for the various pen modes. Let me explain the problem:

In the document viewer (UDS), the stylus can be in one of the following modes:

• pencil
• eraser
• panning
• zooming
• nothing

In the Notepad app, it is easy: the stylus can be either a pencil or an eraser, so switching by clicking on the icon is unambiguous.

In the document viewer, it's not that easy. There is no logical 'next state' to be defined. If you're in pencil mode, you may want to either go back to 'nothing' or go to 'eraser'. When you're zoomed in, you may want to switch between 'panning' and 'nothing', but you may also want to enable the pencil.

What we could do is by clicking the icon it will cycle through the modes which are available in the current state, which may be (depending on your settings):

nothing, pencil, eraser, panning, (zooming)

I would personally exclude zooming from the list, as you don't need that too often.

Comments, thoughts? I cannot promise this will make it into 2.0 (since that's mostly finalized) but if it doesn't make it we will certainly look at this for the next version.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

I would like to get some feedback on how to best implement a shortcut for the various pen modes. Let me explain the problem:

In the document viewer (UDS), the stylus can be in one of the following modes:

• pencil
• eraser
• panning
• zooming
• nothing

In the Notepad app, it is easy: the stylus can be either a pencil or an eraser, so switching by clicking on the icon is unambiguous.

In the document viewer, it's not that easy. There is no logical 'next state' to be defined. If you're in pencil mode, you may want to either go back to 'nothing' or go to 'eraser'. When you're zoomed in, you may want to switch between 'panning' and 'nothing', but you may also want to enable the pencil.

What we could do is by clicking the icon it will cycle through the modes which are available in the current state, which may be (depending on your settings):

nothing, pencil, eraser, panning, (zooming)

I would personally exclude zooming from the list, as you don't need that too often.

Comments, thoughts? I cannot promise this will make it into 2.0 (since that's mostly finalized) but if it doesn't make it we will certainly look at this for the next version.

One thing I would suggest is after zooming the device automatically goes into panning mode and when you press the pan icon again it goes back to full page display.

But in general, such a cycling through the options would be great and should satisfy everyone, since you can access the options much quicker from the menu.

[HansTWN]

One problem I seem to experience in software version 2 is that screen sensitivity seems to have decreased. Quite often I have to press several times to activate something, be it go to a directory, use a slider to go down in a list, etc. Shouldn't just hovering over a point activate the screen already (occasionally it does)? Sometimes it works very well, sometimes I have to retry 3 or 4 times. I tried to recalibrate the stylus but it (as expected) doesn't have any effect, should affect accuracy only, anyway. And the target area is very large. Most noticeable is this problem in the newspaper direct application.

And in the notes application the screen appears to be super sensitive.

[jm35]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

I would like to get some feedback on how to best implement a shortcut for the various pen modes. Let me explain the problem:

In the document viewer (UDS), the stylus can be in one of the following modes:

• pencil
• eraser
• panning
• zooming
• nothing

...

In a graphics program, the different states for the pen tool are often accessible through a "fly-out" menu. (The first image on this page shows a fly-out.)

The DR800 has status indicators in the lower right. Although I haven't tried the 2.0 beta, I am assuming that there is a new pen icon to the left of the download indicator. Would it be possible to have a "fly-up" from that pen icon? Clicking on the pen icon would pop up a vertical row of icons for the various pen options. When the user selects an option, the pen indicator would change to that icon until the user clicked it again to select a different option from the fly-up.

This approach tells the user at a glance what state the pen is currently in. It requires only two taps to change the pen options. Also, by using icons rather than text menus, there is no need to translate for different languages.

[OrcaBlue]

Originally Posted by jm35

In a graphics program, the different states for the pen tool are often accessible through a "fly-out" menu. (The first image on this page shows a fly-out.)

The DR800 has status indicators in the lower right. Although I haven't tried the 2.0 beta, I am assuming that there is a new pen icon to the left of the download indicator. Would it be possible to have a "fly-up" from that pen icon? Clicking on the pen icon would pop up a vertical row of icons for the various pen options. When the user selects an option, the pen indicator would change to that icon until the user clicked it again to select a different option from the fly-up.

This approach tells the user at a glance what state the pen is currently in. It requires only two taps to change the pen options. Also, by using icons rather than text menus, there is no need to translate for different languages.

I think a pop up vertical row of icons is a great idea. However, they need to be responsive.

Matthijs, please try your best to get this include in the 2.0 final release. Thanks!!!

[leexp82]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

I would like to get some feedback on how to best implement a shortcut for the various pen modes. Let me explain the problem:

In the document viewer (UDS), the stylus can be in one of the following modes:

• pencil
• eraser
• panning
• zooming
• nothing

In the Notepad app, it is easy: the stylus can be either a pencil or an eraser, so switching by clicking on the icon is unambiguous.

In the document viewer, it's not that easy. There is no logical 'next state' to be defined. If you're in pencil mode, you may want to either go back to 'nothing' or go to 'eraser'. When you're zoomed in, you may want to switch between 'panning' and 'nothing', but you may also want to enable the pencil.

What we could do is by clicking the icon it will cycle through the modes which are available in the current state, which may be (depending on your settings):

nothing, pencil, eraser, panning, (zooming)

I would personally exclude zooming from the list, as you don't need that too often.

Comments, thoughts? I cannot promise this will make it into 2.0 (since that's mostly finalized) but if it doesn't make it we will certainly look at this for the next version.

Please take a look at this thread, a minor bug relevant to this discussion:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=80449

[leexp82]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

I would like to get some feedback on how to best implement a shortcut for the various pen modes. Let me explain the problem:

In the document viewer (UDS), the stylus can be in one of the following modes:

• pencil
• eraser
• panning
• zooming
• nothing

In the Notepad app, it is easy: the stylus can be either a pencil or an eraser, so switching by clicking on the icon is unambiguous.

In the document viewer, it's not that easy. There is no logical 'next state' to be defined. If you're in pencil mode, you may want to either go back to 'nothing' or go to 'eraser'. When you're zoomed in, you may want to switch between 'panning' and 'nothing', but you may also want to enable the pencil.

What we could do is by clicking the icon it will cycle through the modes which are available in the current state, which may be (depending on your settings):

nothing, pencil, eraser, panning, (zooming)

I would personally exclude zooming from the list, as you don't need that too often.

Comments, thoughts? I cannot promise this will make it into 2.0 (since that's mostly finalized) but if it doesn't make it we will certainly look at this for the next version.

I reported this a few days ago and would like to bring it to your attention:

2.0 Beta - Minor bug with panning icon display

The panning icon on the task bar will not display properly sometimes when in panning mode.

To reproduce:

1. Open some PDF, zoom and pan.
2. while still in panning mode, leave the PDF and go back to "Books".
3. When going back to the same book, the panning icon does not show. but obviously the device is still in panning mode and works properly as such.

I guess this is tolerable but better get it fixed before the final 2.0 firmware. Thanks.

[badbob001]

Originally Posted by Matthijs

I would like to get some feedback on how to best implement a shortcut for the various pen modes. Let me explain the problem:

In the document viewer (UDS), the stylus can be in one of the following modes:

• pencil
• eraser
• panning
• zooming
• nothing

As others have suggested, a pop-up menu would be best and would allow you to add more items to the list in the future (highlight, define, etc).

I suggest that in the bottom bar, show this:
[mode icon][popup triangle]

The mode icon obviously shows the current mode and clicking on it TOGGLES from the current mode to 'nothing' mode. To change mode, click the triangle to pop-up a menu.

As for the style of the pop-up menu, many possibilities:

• a vertical bar of mode icons with optional text names. The only problem with this is that it may corrupt the document that pops over and requires a refresh.
• an alternative is a horizontal bar of icons that expands to the right. It's okay that it obscures the rest of the bottom bar since it's only temporary. Now only the bottom bar needs to be refreshed.

Ie:

[mode]>

[mode]<[mode1][mode2][mode3][mode4][mode5]

And while we're talking about interface changes, any news about a BACK feature, as in to go back to the previous page after a link-jump/page goto? I suggest to make a long-press of the menu button be back, which allows one-hand stylus-free operation.

[CoolDragon]

I will vote for the popup menu from the icon too.

By the way, has the continuous view in pan mode been enabled? And also the "go to next section by flipbar" bug in the pan mode (it goes to the bottom of the page currently) been fixed?

[penartur]

I believe i have a better idea.
2 icons; one for pencil/eraser, other for zoom/pan. So when you will tap on the pencil icon once, the pencil mode will be activated; when you will tap on the pencil icon twice, the eraser mode will be activated; when you will tap somewhere on the free space on the statusbar, "nothing" mode will be activated.
So there will be no need to redraw (as opposed to popup menu solution); and for two of five actions there will be one tap needed instead of two (also only tap instead of two for e.g. entering the eraser mode if the pencil mode is used); and it is imho simplier to understand. Cons are that there will be two icons instead of only one.