Onyx N96\N96ML is here!

[increduloussus]

Originally Posted by deepspaceleader

Currently on my other active-stylus devices I'm using styluslabs 'write' software. (available in google play), and would be interested to know if any of you have tried it and how it performs.

My review attached.

[UncleZeno]

I finally received my N96ML too and I played a bit with it, even if not too much so far.

This is my first ebook reader and as I said before my goal is to use it to read PDF books taking notes on them like on a paper book plus prepare some notes on what I am studying. So from now on I will concentrate on this use and I will write something on what I think about it.

At the moment I tried to open one of my books (PDF), I arranged a decent zooming and I started taking notes on pages. I am using the embedded Onyx Neo Reader.
I confirm that the only way to have the zoom working having the page within the size of the screen is to select the zooming zone manually. Once done, all pages will be kept at the same level of the zoom and will not go out of the borders. I think Stardest suggested this and I can confirm this i sthe perfect way to work.

Taking notes is simply great! The writing is smooth enough and I feel confortable to write and underline almost like on paper books. One thing that I have to double check is the following: when you take notes on one page and then move to another page I am not sure if there are completely new notes associated. I mean if the system recognize that notes on a new page are in a sort of new session... thing is that when you want to delete notes you have two options: delete all or manually select what to remove. If you are taking notes on several pages and then you want to remove all notes on a single page if you use the "delete all" it is possible that you remove all notes from all pages. I have to check this and I will do it when I'll be back home.

Generally speaking, I confirm what already others said about the need of a task manager and, a lot more important, of an application switcher. For task manager I used one of the suggested software in a previous 3ad.
For application switching/multi-tasking I tried SwitchR but I don't really like to swipe on side to open it. I am searching for something that stays in the status bar or that can be associated with home button but so far I had no luck in my search.

I can also add that I successfully installed and configured Owncloud application from F-Droid store and is working perfectly.

Now I have a question :

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

I can use Onyx Scribbler in "quality" mode no problem, and it does some magic to make the stroke width vary as you write, I find the experience really smooth, almost no different to regular note taking.

what do you mean with "Scribbler in quality mode"?

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

Regarding the multiple sessions issue, doesn't it just save the annotations when you close the book? It does on my M96, you don't have to do anything. Just press the "back" button, open the book again, and your notes should be there. Doesn't it work like this in N96ML?

Yes, is same on N96ML.

UncleZ

[franzli]

Originally Posted by increduloussus

Some more observations:

- A task manager app is essential--as Stardest mentioned, this device bogs down and gets buggy quick. Currently I'm using "Task Manager" by Omich Software (there are alot of these apps with the same name). This one seems to work well and is fairly customizable and accessible through the menu bar once configured.

- Amazing that they didn't think to provide a simple way to switch between apps. I'm trying out "Swapps" and "Side Apps Bar" to see if they will do. Really wish there was a simple way to configure the hardware "menu" button to be a "recent apps" button instead.

- Replaced the home screen (Onyx calls this "ContentBrowser) with "Nova Launcher". So far its well, although setup is somewhat cryptic and took some experimentation. Once set up it functions well. Only problem is that there are two very important things that are only accessible through Onyx's "ContentBrowser" (as far as I can tell--please correct me if there's another way): "Onyx Neo Reader" doesn't show up in the app list, though it does show up as an optional way to open documents. And the only way to change the reading light settings (brightness) is to go to the "ContentBrowser".

- I still haven't found a solution to my issue regarding handwritten note taking with the stylus. "Onyx Neo Reader" is ok for reading--especially because you have many options for navigation, etc. But taking notes is useless, because each time you work with the document your only option is to export, rather than just save the document. "Xodo" works great (and integrates nicely with Dropbox), but without capacitive touch it is very difficult to navigate; virtually impossible in two-page scanned .pdf's.

- So far the best rotation app I have found is "Rotation", by Pranav Pandey. Very quick, easy to use, highly customizable. I have my word-processing app set to automatically rotate to landscape on opening. Speaking of which, that app is "TextMaker Mobile". There are other (more advanced) apps by the same company, and others with sweeter features, but this is the only one I have found that works reliably.

- There have been some questions put to me, I haven't had a chance to test anything else out... I figure some info is better than none. I know how it is trying to decide about this with such limited info.

To answer one of your questions, if you're rooted there is a way to configure the menu button to recents. Unfortunately, it seems you also lose the possibility to force a refresh with long press that way, which is why i speed using it. (If anyone knows of a way to configure long press separately, please share!).
Essentially, you have to Mount system as rw (eg with es file explorer) and then go to the folder /system/usr/keylayout/
There's at least a file generic.kl and another one named something like buttons...kl. don't remember the exact name, but if you open the file, you'll see only a few lines that correspond to the mappings of the physical buttons. Look for the line with MENU and replace that word with APP_SWITCH (the keycode should be 127 if I remember correctly?). You could do the same in generic.kl, although this may only be needed is you use an external keyboard, not sure about that. Reboot and now your menu button should open an old-school recents menu.

[franzli]

Alternatively, another app for access to switching is button savior. I'm not super excited about it, but it works OK.

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by UncleZeno

I confirm that the only way to have the zoom working having the page within the size of the screen is to select the zooming zone manually.

Is there no "Auto-crop" option in Neo Reader for N96ML? For me it works great 99% of time (in M96).

Originally Posted by UncleZeno

If you are taking notes on several pages and then you want to remove all notes on a single page if you use the "delete all" it is possible that you remove all notes from all pages.

The "delete all" removes all doodles from a single page on my M96. The only problem I have with it is that it's too easy to tap on it accidentally (happened to me a few times making me produce a significant amount of verbal abuse ). A confirmation dialog would've been nice...

Originally Posted by UncleZeno

I tried SwitchR but I don't really like to swipe on side to open it. I am searching for something that stays in the status bar or that can be associated with home button but so far I had no luck in my search.

If you find one please let us know!

Originally Posted by UncleZeno

what do you mean with "Scribbler in quality mode"?

See that icon with "rotating" arrows in the top right corner? Tap on it to switch between "quality" (default) and "performance" (black and white only). Unfortunately Onyx is useless at promoting it's programming libraries to the world so that people can use them to build (or enhance) note taking apps using the magic Onyx uses for scribbling in its own apps. Hence, the third-party apps perform very poorly, with bad rendering and significant delay. Switching to "performance" mode somewhat helps.

[stjoe]

Just sharing my experience so far with N96 for note taking ..

I have been using LectureNotes with good result .. no jaggies line, I set the Savitzky-Golay filter in setting of LectureNotes to have smooth lines ..

The lag is still there but it is okay, not so bad ..

Good thing, the notes can be sync to GoogleDrive so I can open from other Android devices

[machinogodzilla]

Thanks for the suggestion. I installed LectureNotes Trial and the user interface looks much better on the reader than the one in Papyrus. Especially in the "performance" mode (that considerably reduces the lag) you can still get to all the options without the need for refreshing the page. Also, unlike in Papyrus, you can use the "<" and ">" physical buttons of the reader for turning notepad pages which is nice.

Do you know if there is a way for changing the eraser so that it removes entire strokes? For example, if I write a word without lifting the pen in other note taking apps I can remove it by just crossing it out with the stylus. Here however, I have to take care of removing every single pixel myself, just as if I was using a real eraser.

[stjoe]

Make a closed loop in eraser mode, it will erase all strokes inside the loop in LectureNotes

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

Thanks for the suggestion. I installed LectureNotes Trial and the user interface looks much better on the reader than the one in Papyrus. Especially in the "performance" mode (that considerably reduces the lag) you can still get to all the options without the need for refreshing the page. Also, unlike in Papyrus, you can use the "<" and ">" physical buttons of the reader for turning notepad pages which is nice.

Do you know if there is a way for changing the eraser so that it removes entire strokes? For example, if I write a word without lifting the pen in other note taking apps I can remove it by just crossing it out with the stylus. Here however, I have to take care of removing every single pixel myself, just as if I was using a real eraser.

[UncleZeno]

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

Is there no "Auto-crop" option in Neo Reader for N96ML? For me it works great 99% of time (in M96).

Yes, there is. But on some books with larger borders is not enough

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

The "delete all" removes all doodles from a single page on my M96. The only problem I have with it is that it's too easy to tap on it accidentally (happened to me a few times making me produce a significant amount of verbal abuse ). A confirmation dialog would've been nice...

Yeah, indeed I confirm everything.

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

See that icon with "rotating" arrows in the top right corner? Tap on it to switch between "quality" (default) and "performance" (black and white only). Unfortunately Onyx is useless at promoting it's programming libraries to the world so that people can use them to build (or enhance) note taking apps using the magic Onyx uses for scribbling in its own apps. Hence, the third-party apps perform very poorly, with bad rendering and significant delay. Switching to "performance" mode somewhat helps.

Ah-ah!! This is the "famous" a2 mode?

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by stjoe

Make a closed loop in eraser mode, it will erase all strokes inside the loop in LectureNotes

Yes, that works, thanks I would still prefer the stroke eraser, though, but maybe it's just a matter of getting used to a different way of doing things. For example, if I draw an arrow that goes across the page, over some text, with stroke eraser I can easily annihilate the arrow by just touching it somewhere once. Not so easy with this solution without affecting the text underneath the arrow.

[A.Rezkin]

Can anybody here with more skill than I do try to get Google Docs+Drive on this device? I'm about to return mine because the Google Store says it's not compatible with the e-reader. But I'm honestly desperate, there's barely any competing device (bigscreen, light, stylus, etc.) around.



I don't mind if it's rooted or such, I'm willing to learn and follow instructions.

I write a lot and already have a bluetooth keyboard that I've successfully used with this e-reader. I just need the app. Evernote has text formatting issues with most mobile devices, so Google Docs is my champion as it is.

Please and thank you for your time!

[franzli]

You might try the method described here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=242320

[machinogodzilla]

Originally Posted by UncleZeno

For application switching/multi-tasking I tried SwitchR but I don't really like to swipe on side to open it. I am searching for something that stays in the status bar or that can be associated with home button but so far I had no luck in my search.

Have a look at this post, the app is from the same developer who made SwitchR.

The running apps list appears to be available only in the Sidebar Pro version though.

[cancan]

Hi everyone, i am a student and am considering buying the N95 mainly for reading textbooks using the VitalSource Bookshelf app as well as doing worksheets in PDF format. Does anyone have any experience with using the Bookshelf app and writing on PDF ? I would love to get the Onyx Max 13.3" but that model is way out of my budget so have to settle for the smaller screen size model. But N95 is still quite pricey so I thought to get some feedback from users before putting down the money for it. Alternatively if anyone has a suggestion for an older model that would suit my needs, that would be great so i could save some money ! Appreciate any help, thanks everyone !

[UncleZeno]

Originally Posted by machinogodzilla

Have a look at this post, the app is from the same developer who made SwitchR.

The running apps list appears to be available only in the Sidebar Pro version though.

Thank you very much!
I'll try it.
At the moment I am using Swapps and is not that bad... very similar to the one of the post you mentioned.

Uz