New Mars firmware

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by notimp

Someone should maybe mention the most important new feature that came with the update. No?

The ability to combine warm and cool lights hasn't already been mentioned?

Originally Posted by notimp

Well - then I do it. As mentioned in the changelog, when you venture into the the default read environment/readers settings > more settings - there is an option to enable ZReader.

ZReader is an entirely new reader engine (parser/browser), that for the first time supports html markup, and for the first time as well, supports soft hyphens.

ZReader is certainly an improvement over the old default reader. In particular, it is not running wordstogether or putting unnecessary spaces before punctuation marks , and that's a big improvement. But it is still not so good that I would give up Moon+ Reader for it. It seems to lack any ability to change the font.

Originally Posted by notimp

Regardless - soft-hyphens working on Boyues built in reader is kind of a big deal.

One more thing I like about Moon+ Reader is that I can turn hyphenation off. I might want hyphenation if I read German, and I'm sure soft hyphenation is good for those who want hyphenation, but I prefer no hyphenation.

[ernieh]

Used the update for a few days, not bad but no one here has pointed out a couple of glitches that I noticed and I hope there are not more I have not seen, as usual everyone puts out stuff without proper testing..
1 The library had an extra sub directory of all my books, but not actually connected to the actual book file and also put all my books on the root also not actually connected to the book files. The extra directory had about 1600 books, the root had about 1400 and I have actually got about 1700 so I assume these were my earlier lists. The extra fictitious directory was an easy delete but the root items took quite a while to get rid off a page at a time.
2 The clock on the home page is incorrect, does not always update etc. Not easily fixable as the time is perfect in the settings so the settings are not communicating with the top page.
Does anyone know how to get the previous updates if we want to revert to earlier settings in case this one bombs out due to a major problem we have not noticed?

[notimp]

Cant help you with reverting to a previous firmware (never tried), but would like to mention that the likebook has two time settings, one in the user settings thingy, one in the android settings (accessible via user settings, arrow right to the image of the ereader (at the top), and then android settings (or similar)), maybe setting both helps. Or not.

I had to reset the Likebook Mars (no books shown upon boot) and am just getting finished setting up all my android specifics once more - and all in all I love the new firmware especially the new default ebook reader/parser.

Feels like an entirely new device - thats also better using, the new 'both leds' feature.

(On the mars Im using custom with 1 pip on the blue led and 9 pips on the warm one - fonts are clearer with both enabled (diffusion layer properties, probably ))

Also, yes - the LED thing was probably the most notable new feature of the update.

For anyone looking for a quick guide on how I set up my android side of things, visit the mars thread, I'm writing a quick breakdown next.

[Sasha1968]

Of good. I go along the specified path. There is no ZReader. Firmware Mars V2.2.0-2020011014.

[Sasha1968]

Originally Posted by notimp

Someone should maybe mention the most important new feature that came with the update. No?

Well - then I do it. As mentioned in the changelog, when you venture into the the default read environment/readers settings > more settings - there is an option to enable ZReader.

ZReader is an entirely new reader engine (parser/browser), that for the first time supports html markup, and for the first time as well, supports soft hyphens.

Which means, that the Boyue ereaders native reader environment can now be used for languages that dont have an average word length of three characters (joking) like english.

There is a downside though - and that is, that most of the paragraph setting tools are getting more corse (less fine tunable) to use.

The main issue right now f.e. is that if you feed it a book with no page borders defined in the epub - margin-top, will be basically 0 regardless of tunable settings.

See:


If anyone can get in touch with Boyue, this is the first thing they should try to fix/address in zReader.

Regardless - soft-hyphens working on Boyues built in reader is kind of a big deal.

Which of course no one here noticed. You're welcome.

Of good. I go along the specified path. There is no ZReader. Firmware Mars V2.2.0-2020011014.

[notimp]

Same Firmware. There is. If you do it in an epub, opened in the default reader.



If there isnt for you, try backing up data and do a factory reset.

[wobolo]

Has anybody else noticed significantly stronger ghosting since the 2.2.0 update?
Also the frontlight takes quite a long time to turn on now from standby.

[notimp]

I have the same behavior on the frontlight after resuming from standby.

No on ghosting. Under what circumstances do you see it?

I always use full refresh never in the default ebook reader (with lowest contrast setting), and a custom Times regular font, and never see any ghosting.

If you are talking in an android app, there are a buch of longpress/customize settings to adress that. Regal mode claims to refresh 'differently'. Animation delay delays screen refresh after touch, so any potential animations are filtered out, and regular refresh intervall (which I have disabled), lets you set the period until an additional full refresh.

The default Boyue reading app has those full refresh settings in its setting. For any other android app, > longpress:customize.

Thats one of the things I don't like with Boyue devices. The quality of people that look at ereaders these days - is so poor, that they cant identify significant changes, or handle a little bit more complex options.

If I hear the youtube influencer from goodreaders state another time, that you "wouldnt buy Boyue devices for the ebook reading app" - and that "it only comes with one font" - I facepalm so hard, my hand hurts. (Nowadays Boyue even puts up a info message, when you try to change the font for the first time, that tells you that you can supply custom fonts. As many as you'd like.)

So I havent noticed a significant difference, neither on books, nor on comics, and if there were one, there are a bunch of settings you can play with to customize that behavior so hard - there hopefully is a solution for your woes.

edit: Also make sure A2 mode is disabled. (ghosting on that is expected. )
edit2: Me not noticing it, doesnt mean, that there wasnt a change. But I really don't notice any ghosting on several usage patterns, so my first question is - where do you see it, to try to confirm it existing myself.

[wobolo]

Originally Posted by notimp

If you are talking in an android app, there are a buch of longpress/customize settings to adress that. Regal mode claims to refresh 'differently'.

So they locked regal mode behind app customization now, interesting. i was really annoyed to see it gone from the system settings. You just cannot use regular mode with Manga and get good results i see, thanks.

Originally Posted by notimp

The quality of people that look at ereaders these days - is so poor, that they cant identify significant changes, or handle a little bit more complex options.

Please don't rant about xyz these days in a software thread.

[notimp]

Sure. Do you have more info about regal mode and what it actually does? (Specifics would be great.)

On the ranting front - the likebook software in its current state (aside some pdf note exporting issues that other people have reported), to me - makes the likebook Mars pretty much the perfect ereader.

I get everything out of it that I want, customization can be employed granularity, fonts can be replaced, soft hyphens work, line spacing works. You get small little details like being allowed to use the Kindle UI, when in the default reader software. I get dropbox syncing. I get a functional note function, exchangeable dictionaries. Customizable kerning (in 100+ steps), and a second reader/parser, that I can throw even at misconfigured books, and have a good reading experience, because it ignores most html tags, and a pdf reflow function thats up there with the best ones out there. And pretty much fully customizable eInk refresh settings for reading comics, or dealing with android apps. I get the best TTS possible, which I can install, because its android based (Ivona was bought up by Amazon an was responsible for voicing Alexa).

And then some (well known in the field) youtube influencer comes along, obviously has looked at the reader for 10 minutes max, fiddles with the only setting you shouldnt fiddle with, because you have no idea what its default setting is (because Boyue didnt give position marks on the overall UI contrast slider (which you never need to actually touch)), then hasnt even put books on the device to test what it does to formating, laments about there only being one english font and comes to his expert conclusion that - obviously no one would buy that reader for the ebook features.

Sorry mate, but if you have probably the best eReader UI out there in front of you, and you dont even notice it, because all that you have done was to set line spacing 'wrong', fiddle with the word spacing slider a little, which was probably the only setting, set properly, on a default book with the default san-serif font, without mentioning, that you could supply any .ttf font you want, close down your channel, delete all your videos, and change your profession.

Oh, I did it again. Dang it..

[pazos]

Originally Posted by notimp

Sure. Do you have more info about regal mode and what it actually does? (Specifics would be great.)

Is a type of waveform similar to GC16 (slow, good quality) that's supposed to reduce ghosting. I don't know the specifics.

A waveform table contains the specific timmings and voltages used to drive the EPD.

On most e-ink ereaders the main processor is armv7 and runs linux (both embedded distros and android). Main system uses ioctl system calls to talk to a second processor (normally TI MSP 16bit) which is the one that drives the EPD.

Programs on linux (system drivers on android) just request updates to the epd driver. For that they need to specificy a rectangle (x, y, width and height), a mode (full blackToWhite, automatic) and a kind of waveform (DU - fast, A2 - fastest, AUTO - let the driver decide, ...)

What bugs me about the RK3368 platform (which includes all recent Likebooks) is that I'm unable to trigger an update for a specific region of the screen. This makes any epd update all or nothing

IMHO tolinos and nooks are way better in how they handle both battery and epd updates. They're both compliant with intellectual property too

[notimp]

Thank you pazos.

[Chilipops]

Originally Posted by gigio

I have followed this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=326531 and I have resolved.

Thanks

Follow that thread - just "clear data" in the Boyue OS App settings - it worked for me!!

[Jinz]

Originally Posted by notimp

And then some (well known in the field) youtube influencer comes along, obviously has looked at the reader for 10 minutes max, fiddles with the only setting you shouldnt fiddle with, because you have no idea what its default setting is (because Boyue didnt give position marks on the overall UI contrast slider (which you never need to actually touch)), then hasnt even put books on the device to test what it does to formating, laments about there only being one english font and comes to his expert conclusion that - obviously no one would buy that reader for the ebook features.

Gooderader is pretty corrupted by being preferrential "business partners" with others and running their little shop also with custom branded stuff. I don't trust their reviews at all, they are shallow at best and just plain wrong and misleading most of the time.