New "Mars" device from Likebook?

[DarkCookie]

I have sent you a private message with link but better offer now you will get from there:
http://item.jd.com/32396233517.html

[romevi]

I contacted the Amazon seller (Likebook) to try to get instructions on upgrading it manually. I don't mind doing that if it means being able to get Google Play officially installed.

[ivanvt]

Hi Guys, i am new to the forum just wanted to post about my experience with my Likebook Mars and Kobo Aura One.

I bought the likebook mars from Aliexpress and it took 2 days to arrive to NZ.

First boot goot the latest firmware version, upon reboot the language was in chinese, with a little bit of translation i managed to set it back to english.

Google Play apk was stored as a .rar file, i extracted the file, enable google play service and now i have goople play store.

I have yet to test lighting uniformity and refresh rate of third party application.

[Matilo]

Originally Posted by ivanvt

I bought the likebook mars from Aliexpress and it took 2 days to arrive to NZ.

Which is the name of the seller, because there are three sellers and two (Ebook reader Store and Hi mary ebook Store) of them claim to deliver it from Spain. I am from Germany and I am thinking about buying the Mars.

[ivanvt]

Originally Posted by Matilo

Which is the name of the seller, because there are three sellers and two (Ebook reader Store and Hi mary ebook Store) of them claim to deliver it from Spain. I am from Germany and I am thinking about buying the Mars.

Got it form here:

https://www.aliexpress.com/item/2018...39364c4dYcbwRu

A few more notes:

- Likebook mars is super super slippery.
- Even if you are reading and swiping pages the device goes to sleep, in other words it does not detect page turning.
- Libby app margins are getting cropped at the top and is ready hard to read the store, page refresh is quite slow.
- Kindle app works way better however the wiki option does not load any information.
- Built in reader works like a charm, really fast and good refresh rate however it doesnt have dictionaries or instructions on how to load more.
- Built in reader needs way more options such as remaining time/pages/fonts perhaps fast reading.
- UI and software needs a lot of work, lots of text is overlapping or really bad translated.
- Lighting there are two different menus one inside the native reader to adjust brightness - and in order to adjust the "night" light you need to click on the main top bar.
- Would be nice to select a different default reader such as MR or FBReader
- Sleep screen doesn't show charging status, battery or the book you last read.

[jkrzok]

Originally Posted by ivanvt

- Would be nice to select a different default reader such as MR or FBReader
.

A long press on a book cover will open up a dialogue box for "open way." Click the "always" option and you should be good to go.

"Open Way" Yes , many poor translations though out. I especially dislike "readed."

I also notice that the built in reader has issues with apostrophes, putting in line breaks at an 's.

[ivanvt]

Originally Posted by jkrzok

A long press on a book cover will open up a dialogue box for "open way." Click the "always" option and you should be good to go.

"Open Way" Yes , many poor translations though out. I especially dislike "readed."

I also notice that the built in reader has issues with apostrophes, putting in line breaks at an 's.

You are right, you can change the default reader, however both MR and FBReader have issues with refresh rates and ghosting.

Another thing i found is that the lighting system is not adaptive like the Kobo where the "night light" automatically starts around 11pm.

Hardware wise has a lot of potential however third party integration is abysmal and defeats the purpose of running Android.

After reading a few hours yesterday i prefer the Kobo Aura One as a reading device.

[Johann Cat]

Originally Posted by ivanvt

Hardware wise has a lot of potential however third party integration is abysmal and defeats the purpose of running Android.

After reading a few hours yesterday i prefer the Kobo Aura One as a reading device.

I agree with this assessment--I have two black and white Androids from 2014/2015
that I was hoping this Mars would easily surpass (speed? battery life? etc.), but it is in every way not only inferior to those (they handle Android 4 adeptly and run lots of apps well, esp. Moon +, but can be a little slow, especially in professional situations), but to a good Kobo or Kindle.

[ivanvt]

After more hours of side by side reading:

- I usually grab the ereaders with my right hand from the bottom right corner, the likebook feels more comfortable than the KAO as the edges are rounded.

- At the same time, the sleep button is exactly located where my little finger is, i reckon the sleep button should be located at the top.

- The KAO screen looks a little bit whiter.

- The default Likebook font is bolder which i really like.

- Likebook battery is really good, on par with the KAO (then again i enabled all power settings)

- Likebook menus are really snappy i suppose thanks to the ota core processor.

- Size, weight, margins etc, changes are really fast.

Home screen shows your reading acitvitiy however clicking on it does nothing, would like to see more widget option/information.

[downeaster59]

Originally Posted by fduniho

I also contacted the Amazon seller, and so far, I have been told, "I still need to ask the R&D engineer to see if you can get the upgrade firmware and instructions later.
If there is the latest news, I will let you know the first time."

The Amazon seller told me the same thing, but I haven't heard anything from the seller since then. Has anyone gotten the link to the upgrade firmware/instructions yet? Just curious...

[romevi]

I was told the same earlier this week. They informed me they'll send me a manual installation this week, whatever that means. I'll update when I learn more.

In their reply I received a PDF of instructions, so I was assuming I'd get some firmware via email.

[Sylph]

Originally Posted by romevi

I was told the same earlier this week. They informed me they'll send me a manual installation this week, whatever that means. I'll update when I learn more.

In their reply I received a PDF of instructions, so I was assuming I'd get some firmware via email.

Do you mind sharing those instructions? I'm interested... even though I just got done organising sending back my Mars for a refund. When I asked the seller to get instructions and fixed firmware from Boyue, they just immediately approved my refund request. And I ordered another from Boyue directly...

[romevi]

Originally Posted by Sylph

Do you mind sharing those instructions? I'm interested... even though I just got done organising sending back my Mars for a refund. When I asked the seller to get instructions and fixed firmware from Boyue, they just immediately approved my refund request. And I ordered another from Boyue directly...

It's a PDF, but it's the same as what's in this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=uIkQPkNmgSA

The PDF comprises pictures of the Mars with red circles over the buttons we're supposed to press, and one-sentence instructions. We early adopters presumably would have to follow them if and when we get the manual firmware upgrade.

[wyzer]

Hello everyone,

I received mine yesterday (I bought it from here : https://fr.aliexpress.com/item/2018-...923180286.html ).

I've tried something to lunch the Play Store and it works !!

1) Activate the Google Framework : BySettings => Apps => Clic on the "wheel settings" on the top right => Clic on "Enable Google Framework".

2) Go back to home, open the web browser.

3) Enter this address : play.google.com/store

4) Let the page load, and in a moment it will launch the Play Store.

Because we already have the Play Store on the Likebook Mars, but I think it's just a problem of "showing" the icon on the "App" section.

I hope it will help you.

[azw409]

I also received my Mars yesterday after it had been held up in customs for nearly a week. I ordered it from the Likebook Store on AliExpress and dealt with somebody called Alex who was extremely helpful.

So it arrived with a free a case (2 boxes) and I fired it up - all in Chinese but an option to switch to English. It had about 80% charge so I proceeded to connect it to the internet and it then did a firmware update and restarted in Chinese again. It took a little hunting around to find the Android settings to get it back into English. I enabled the Google Services and after a quite a while and a restart the Play Store appeared - I noticed the installation package was in the /sdcard directory ready for install.

I installed a few apps no problem - Kindle, Moon Reader Pro, Google Play Books all work beautifully. I installed Chrome and even watched a video on YouTube in A2 mode and it played and was viewable. Very like the magic newspapers in Harry Potter !

I am completely blown away by this device. Previously I've owned a Kindle Touch, Kobo Touch (upgraded to Android) and an Onyx Boox M96C. I really thought the Onyx was going to be the answer to what I wanted but it was too slow, unresponsive, low-res and it was just painful to use. This device fixes all of those issues - it's sharp, clear, very responsive and runs Android apps flawlessly.

So, the built in reader isn't good, the launcher is good but can only use the built-in reader so fatally flawed. I tried KOReader and RelaunchX and they didn't work particularly well together. RelaunchX just shows files instead of books with covers and then KOReader shows the last book you read rather than the one passed from the launcher. KOReader is also extremely slow when opening a new book, although works well when open.

So I settled on Moon+ Reader Pro which I also use on the Kobo Touch. This opened large EPUB's and even a huge scanned PDF very quickly and allowed for zooming to get sensible margins and then handled page turns effortlessly keeping the margins so no need to rezoom and pan on every page. So Now I just need a very basic launcher with just app icons, time and date, and a Wifi on/off button and I'm happy. All of the reader apps have their own library management features so it's unnecessary for the launcher to try and do this. The launcher and the reader reminded me very much of the Onyx platform so I suspect the same devs develop this stuff.

I am delighted with this device, it's a pleasure to use. I don't think I'll be using the built-in launcher and reader so I have no complaints about the poor software, the base Android system works very well indeed.