TXT format does not work correctly, too!

[greenapple]

I've reported earlier that DOC format didn't work correctly for firmware v1.71. So far I haven't seen anything being done by iRiver to resolve the problem.

Out of curiosity I tried to read a TXT document (in English). It would seem that iRiver Story doesn't read TXT files correctly too. Words at the end of the lines are broken up and go to the next lines. In other words, it doesn't do word wrap at all.

So it would seem that iRiver Story is only able to support ePub and PDF at this time.

If you are going to buy an iRiver, please take these severe restrictions into consideration. I got a feeling iRiver isn't very keen on taking out the bugs, as they've more or less left the firmware to the user community.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by greenapple

I got a feeling iRiver isn't very keen on taking out the bugs, as they've more or less left the firmware to the user community.

G'day greenapple,
You may be right on this, but I hope you're not. I'm hoping the idea of declaring it open-source is to encourage people developing third-party apps to work with the device and expand its capabilities (and therefore its appeal and therefore its number of users). And I'm guessing that's why the Story comes with 2GB of memory as default (when most other e.Reader devices have far less built-in, always-on memory) and a full QWERTY keyboard, and WiFi support written into the new firmware (even though there aren't physical WiFi capabilities in the hardware).

I'm hoping you're not correct on this point because, if iRiver stops developing it, and just wants to manufacture the device and have other unpaid people make it work, then that would result in the Story being abandoned in no time flat. The aspects of my new Story that work well I'm really, really happy with, but I'm realistic enough to know that it doesn't have anything like a large enough user base to survive as a solely open-source project. I seriously doubt even devices with much more established numbers and support, like the Sonys, would be able to. It needs someone with a vested commercial interest to drive it, and if that's not going to be iRiver itself, then it's doomed.

The big question for me is how to rev iRiver up about developing their own device? What they've done so far, as far as they've gone, is great; but with the degree to which the firmware/OS falls short of even iRiver's stated claims for its capabilities, it's like they've come round the final curve and seen the home straight stretched out in front of them ... and simply stopped running. How do we gee them up again?