New "Mars" device from Likebook? - Page 17

notimp · 10-26-2018, 04:29 AM

Thats essentially the problem in a nutshell. You have five people struck by confirmation bias, 20 people that always phrase their inputs with "I'm very happy with what I bought" regardless of what they bought. An entire 16 page thread that cant point out the shortcomings of a device - and in the end every voice that does, gets counter balanced with another one of those 20 stating "I'm very happy with what I bought".

Thats the internet in 2018 for you. Everyone very eager to participate, while have nothing of substance to say.

One more shortcoming - if you have any app installed that uses an Android notification to stay active, the dropdown menu will now default to the notification view. So added to the very fidly "get the dropdownmenu to appear" gesture (which is an edge gesture (the designer should be fired..

)), you'll now have to swap the dropdown layout each time you want to get to the brightness slider. Which then isnt very responsive either.

That means, that you are fidling around more than 1 minute each time, you want to change the brightness alone.

In the reading app they noticed, that that is an issue, and wrote in another brightness slider - but this one has no "numbers" for you to gage what setting you actually are on.

Every usability designer, looking at this thing will get a laughing fit.

And again, its only three, four "small" things, but each of them is "ruining" the device for anyone who is clued into how better eReaders are designed.

Take your software team, go over the four most important points (make soft hyphens work, dont overrule epub layout settings (at least not by default), make the "move in" action for the top bar more usable (create a touch target, Idk), let the device perform a "new books?" check everytime you leave an app (or a certain app - if you want to save battery and let the user make the choice) -- maybe even: make the contrast enhancement options more usable with most apps (most simply "forget" them past the first screen) - or have someone explain to your customers why you cant (thats fair as well)) with them, and you have a very good eReader.

Maybe Librera can be a decent replacement for the reading part, but then we are back to contrast and kerning options. If the app has them (which it probably does), they are likely bothersome to interact with... So most people wont.

Their general idea is correct. Take the Android platform - create a customized launcher, create a good reading app, you are done. And they are half way there - they havent made any unforgiveable design mistakes either - its just, that they went to market before finishing their work. And then had a bunch of cheerleaders tell everyone on youtube, what a great device this is.

By leaving all the stuff mentioned here - out.

And please - dont get me started with other eReader manufacturers with bigger brand names, that cant get it together either. This is not a rant against one participant, this essentially is the market - sans Amazon..

franzli · 10-26-2018, 04:43 AM

@notimp, since I didn't notice you mentioning this as an issue, I'm wondering if you have found a way to use the Recents menu to quickly switch between apps? (Using, eg, an app that provides you with the necessary button like Button Savior, or using Alt+Tab on a keyboard)
Sorry to be going on about this, but so far, I haven't had anyone either confirming or disconfirming that they're having the same problem with that as me, so I'm not sure if this is a software problem or if I'm doing something wrong.

Someone had asked whether I've set the appropriate settings in Developer settings. I guess everything is set fairly standard there, see picture.

notimp · 10-26-2018, 05:53 AM

Here is a short little video I made about the Librera/Ivona Text to speech functionality in practice, so you can gage whats involved, to get it started once you've set it up (Librera usually defaults right into the last read book, this time it didn't, probably exited once before.):

https://streamable.com/64m7i

Audio on the video is only set to half in the player, so pull it up, you need it.

(Audio levels and my smartphone I tells ya..

)

Just as a memento of what is possible - that especially amazon isnt tapping in yet (because they own the company that created those voices...

).

Pairing the likebook to a bluetooth speaker is pretty easy as well, and yes, it does remember its last paired device.

notimp · 10-26-2018, 05:58 AM

@franzli, I can look into it - give me some time, should be able to get back to you in the evening (in 6 hours or so), the only thing I've noticed so far, that background apps are getting killed, on the launch of a new app in the launcher interface (at exactly that time) - because I can exit Google play music (back to home screen), and reenter it via the dropdown notification - while it remains playing (it doesnt even have to be on the "allowed in the background list" to be able to do that), but as soon as you launch another app, it gets killed.

My apps for changing the screen orientation, as well as the TTS apps survive the launch of another app though (with them being on the whitelist) - so perhaps...

On the other hand if alt tabing is opening them in a "freshly launched state"... Seems like their hook to change that behavior is pretty deep in android at that point.

notimp · 10-26-2018, 07:18 AM

@franzli: Was quicker than expected, because the likebooks behavior actually was normal at this point.

I just switched between the eink launcher, the built in launcher, KOReader and Librera, without them closing on me.

The only prerequisite was, that both the apps I wanted to have remaining running in the background were set as "being allowed to do so" in the Usersettings/Powesavings/something menu.

So it does work. And its normal android behavior at this point. I had a second launcher (eink Launcher) switch between them as well, and that also worked, without them being closed.

So - at this point, its

- either the app you are using
or
- their android killing processes in the background after a certain memory or app number threshhold in which case this is intermittent behavior and not fun to troubleshoot

In short - everything I've seen so far tells me that "it should work" (If the app thats launching the others does not specify , that it absolutely wants them launched "fresh").
(Android normal behavior is, that if you call any app name, the app will be launched in "its current state" if its already running, and be launched if its not - so thats actually not something that launchers usually mess up.)

So may I as you what you'd require in specific? alt+tab as a keycombination working, an applet on screen that can launch from one app into another?

I didn't use any such trinkets on android in the past, so my guess on what works is as good as yours at this point.

Because we are dealing with an unrooted device, there are several "tricks" an app might perform, to be able to act as a launcher from within another app. One I'd look for is, that it would put up a persistent notification (that way it doesnt get killed from ram), another way is that the app can actually require permission to see what other apps are running (thats grantable in Android 6 afair), and the third one would be to put up an overlay over any other app, thats grantable as well.

Everything should be possible in theory.

notimp · 10-26-2018, 08:01 AM

Just tried it with this launcher that stays in the notification tray:
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....recentappspro

Works perfectly well. (Once you've allowed it to stay active in the background with "user serttings/powermanagement")

Vortex · 10-26-2018, 02:07 PM

I received my Likebook Mars today. Hardware seems very well made, software unfortunately seems to have been an after thought. Hoped that maybe after an update it would be better.

As soon as I connected it to my wifi I got a notice of an available update: V1.0.2-2018092813. At first the download was so slow it was going to take a month, after several retries I got it to download at a reasonable speed only for it to keep failing half way through.

I tried downloading the update from this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=293799 and followed the instructions to do a manual update, but it gives the error: 'Not a valid file'. Is there somewhere I can download V1.0.2-2018092813 and do a manual update?

I tried following the instructions in this thread but got stuck in dead links or pages of Chinese: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=19 Is there a Version 2.0 update, does anyone have working links?

Sorry if these questions have been answer before.

micha123 · 10-26-2018, 02:41 PM

As I am from Europe it looks like I should buy the Mars at Al***s and their Spain shipping location, or not? I haven't found any other seller source without additional customs duty or have I overseen another shop avoiding custumers duties for european?

downeaster59 · 10-26-2018, 03:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vortex

I received my Likebook Mars today. Hardware seems very well made, software unfortunately seems to have been an after thought. Hoped that maybe after an update it would be better.

As soon as I connected it to my wifi I got a notice of an available update: V1.0.2-2018092813. At first the download was so slow it was going to take a month, after several retries I got it to download at a reasonable speed only for it to keep failing half way through.

I tried downloading the update from this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=293799 and followed the instructions to do a manual update, but it gives the error: 'Not a valid file'. Is there somewhere I can download V1.0.2-2018092813 and do a manual update?

I tried following the instructions in this thread but got stuck in dead links or pages of Chinese: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=19 Is there a Version 2.0 update, does anyone have working links?

Sorry if these questions have been answer before.

The threads you refer to are for the Likebook T80S - the wrong device. Those updates cannot work on the Mars, for various reasons. The Mars is the Likebook T80D.

Try downloading the update by wifi again! It may take several tries to get a connection at decent speed.

joandr · 10-26-2018, 03:48 PM

for Micha123 : Are you sure that you can avoid customs duties for european with the Spain shipping location ? i have read few month ago on the web (i don't remember where) that even with Spain shipping location i should pay customs duties for chinese products to france ?

Vortex · 10-26-2018, 06:13 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by downeaster59

The threads you refer to are for the Likebook T80S - the wrong device. Those updates cannot work on the Mars, for various reasons. The Mars is the Likebook T80D.

Try downloading the update by wifi again! It may take several tries to get a connection at decent speed.

Thanks, downeaster.
I persevered and after 4 attempts managed to get the V1.0.2 update. After a restart it immediately informed me there was another new update: V1.0.32018101818 Got that one the 3rd try and after updating it's a lot better. The screen is loads more responsive and overall it feels a lot less buggy. Feeling quite pleased with now

Micha123, I'm in Ireland, got mine from Amazon.co.uk with free delivery no import duty.

thordk · 10-27-2018, 03:50 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by joandr

for Micha123 : Are you sure that you can avoid customs duties for european with the Spain shipping location ? i have read few month ago on the web (i don't remember where) that even with Spain shipping location i should pay customs duties for chinese products to france ?

I bought mine on Likebook Reader Store on AliExpress and it was shipped from Spain in a very nice package within 3 days.

No TAX or anything and a bundle with a sleeve too.

Regards

welcomyou · 10-27-2018, 10:14 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Vortex

Micha123, I'm in Ireland, got mine from Amazon.co.uk with free delivery no import duty.

Quote:

Originally Posted by thordk

I bought mine on Likebook Reader Store on AliExpress and it was shipped from Spain in a very nice package within 3 days.

No TAX or anything and a bundle with a sleeve too.

Regards

Did the seller set the lower price on invoice (bill) to avoid/decrease import tax?

thordk · 10-27-2018, 01:06 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by welcomyou

Did the seller set the lower price on invoice (bill) to avoid/decrease import tax?

As i understand it they are allready in stock in warehouse in Spain and was shipped directly from there.

Therefore no import tax or anything and was shipped very fast.

Regards

romevi · 10-27-2018, 11:47 PM

Finally got Google Play installed! Happy me!
What I didn't realize is that it would wipe my entire system. Oh, woe is me!

I've been fiddling with it for a while today. After trying a couple of e-reader launchers, I decided to go back to ol' faithful Nova Launcher. One weird thing is that I can't seem to change the wallpaper. I'm trying to get the wallpaper to change to an all-white background and customize my Mars to get my own e-reader launcher experience, but I can't get that one fix. I'm able to do everything else just fine, though. I even found an icon pack that is just pure black, so it looks great when in the apps drawer.

10-26-2018, 04:29 AM	#241
notimp Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 892441 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: K2i	Thats essentially the problem in a nutshell. You have five people struck by confirmation bias, 20 people that always phrase their inputs with "I'm very happy with what I bought" regardless of what they bought. An entire 16 page thread that cant point out the shortcomings of a device - and in the end every voice that does, gets counter balanced with another one of those 20 stating "I'm very happy with what I bought". Thats the internet in 2018 for you. Everyone very eager to participate, while have nothing of substance to say. One more shortcoming - if you have any app installed that uses an Android notification to stay active, the dropdown menu will now default to the notification view. So added to the very fidly "get the dropdownmenu to appear" gesture (which is an edge gesture (the designer should be fired.. )), you'll now have to swap the dropdown layout each time you want to get to the brightness slider. Which then isnt very responsive either. That means, that you are fidling around more than 1 minute each time, you want to change the brightness alone. In the reading app they noticed, that that is an issue, and wrote in another brightness slider - but this one has no "numbers" for you to gage what setting you actually are on. Every usability designer, looking at this thing will get a laughing fit. And again, its only three, four "small" things, but each of them is "ruining" the device for anyone who is clued into how better eReaders are designed. Take your software team, go over the four most important points (make soft hyphens work, dont overrule epub layout settings (at least not by default), make the "move in" action for the top bar more usable (create a touch target, Idk), let the device perform a "new books?" check everytime you leave an app (or a certain app - if you want to save battery and let the user make the choice) -- maybe even: make the contrast enhancement options more usable with most apps (most simply "forget" them past the first screen) - or have someone explain to your customers why you cant (thats fair as well)) with them, and you have a very good eReader. Maybe Librera can be a decent replacement for the reading part, but then we are back to contrast and kerning options. If the app has them (which it probably does), they are likely bothersome to interact with... So most people wont. Their general idea is correct. Take the Android platform - create a customized launcher, create a good reading app, you are done. And they are half way there - they havent made any unforgiveable design mistakes either - its just, that they went to market before finishing their work. And then had a bunch of cheerleaders tell everyone on youtube, what a great device this is. By leaving all the stuff mentioned here - out. And please - dont get me started with other eReader manufacturers with bigger brand names, that cant get it together either. This is not a rant against one participant, this essentially is the market - sans Amazon.. Last edited by notimp; 10-26-2018 at 04:44 AM.

10-26-2018, 05:53 AM	#243
notimp Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 892441 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: K2i	Here is a short little video I made about the Librera/Ivona Text to speech functionality in practice, so you can gage whats involved, to get it started once you've set it up (Librera usually defaults right into the last read book, this time it didn't, probably exited once before.): https://streamable.com/64m7i Audio on the video is only set to half in the player, so pull it up, you need it. (Audio levels and my smartphone I tells ya.. ) Just as a memento of what is possible - that especially amazon isnt tapping in yet (because they own the company that created those voices... ). Pairing the likebook to a bluetooth speaker is pretty easy as well, and yes, it does remember its last paired device. Last edited by notimp; 10-26-2018 at 06:01 AM.

10-26-2018, 07:18 AM	#245
notimp Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 892441 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: K2i	@franzli: Was quicker than expected, because the likebooks behavior actually was normal at this point. I just switched between the eink launcher, the built in launcher, KOReader and Librera, without them closing on me. The only prerequisite was, that both the apps I wanted to have remaining running in the background were set as "being allowed to do so" in the Usersettings/Powesavings/something menu. So it does work. And its normal android behavior at this point. I had a second launcher (eink Launcher) switch between them as well, and that also worked, without them being closed. So - at this point, its - either the app you are using or - their android killing processes in the background after a certain memory or app number threshhold in which case this is intermittent behavior and not fun to troubleshoot In short - everything I've seen so far tells me that "it should work" (If the app thats launching the others does not specify , that it absolutely wants them launched "fresh"). (Android normal behavior is, that if you call any app name, the app will be launched in "its current state" if its already running, and be launched if its not - so thats actually not something that launchers usually mess up.) So may I as you what you'd require in specific? alt+tab as a keycombination working, an applet on screen that can launch from one app into another? I didn't use any such trinkets on android in the past, so my guess on what works is as good as yours at this point. Because we are dealing with an unrooted device, there are several "tricks" an app might perform, to be able to act as a launcher from within another app. One I'd look for is, that it would put up a persistent notification (that way it doesnt get killed from ram), another way is that the app can actually require permission to see what other apps are running (thats grantable in Android 6 afair), and the third one would be to put up an overlay over any other app, thats grantable as well. Everything should be possible in theory. Last edited by notimp; 10-26-2018 at 07:24 AM.

10-26-2018, 03:48 PM	#250
joandr Enthusiast Posts: 28 Karma: 10 Join Date: Feb 2018 Device: Likebook Mars, Onyx Boox Nova, EnergyReader ProHD (Boyue)	for Micha123 : Are you sure that you can avoid customs duties for european with the Spain shipping location ? i have read few month ago on the web (i don't remember where) that even with Spain shipping location i should pay customs duties for chinese products to france ? Last edited by joandr; 10-26-2018 at 03:51 PM.

Similar Threads
Thread	Thread Starter	Forum	Replies	Last Post
BOYUE Likebook Plus (Carta 7.8''- 4core processor)	viceant	Boyue	278	04-02-2024 04:11 PM
Boyue LikeBook Plus (T80s): Technical Stuff	fernsruben	Boyue	250	03-21-2023 09:03 PM
BOYUE Likebook Note	fernsruben	Boyue	107	04-12-2020 09:30 PM
Boyue Likebook Air T65s 1GB/16GB firmware	raoulw	Boyue	4	09-05-2018 10:47 AM
Boyue T65s JDREAD Venus 512M + 8G Likebook Air	W0lf	Boyue	0	02-05-2018 11:36 PM

10-26-2018, 04:43 AM	#242
franzli Addict Posts: 220 Karma: 704750 Join Date: Apr 2016 Device: Nook Simple Touch, Onyx Boox T68 Plus	@notimp, since I didn't notice you mentioning this as an issue, I'm wondering if you have found a way to use the Recents menu to quickly switch between apps? (Using, eg, an app that provides you with the necessary button like Button Savior, or using Alt+Tab on a keyboard) Sorry to be going on about this, but so far, I haven't had anyone either confirming or disconfirming that they're having the same problem with that as me, so I'm not sure if this is a software problem or if I'm doing something wrong. Someone had asked whether I've set the appropriate settings in Developer settings. I guess everything is set fairly standard there, see picture.

10-26-2018, 05:58 AM	#244
notimp Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 892441 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: K2i	@franzli, I can look into it - give me some time, should be able to get back to you in the evening (in 6 hours or so), the only thing I've noticed so far, that background apps are getting killed, on the launch of a new app in the launcher interface (at exactly that time) - because I can exit Google play music (back to home screen), and reenter it via the dropdown notification - while it remains playing (it doesnt even have to be on the "allowed in the background list" to be able to do that), but as soon as you launch another app, it gets killed. My apps for changing the screen orientation, as well as the TTS apps survive the launch of another app though (with them being on the whitelist) - so perhaps... On the other hand if alt tabing is opening them in a "freshly launched state"... Seems like their hook to change that behavior is pretty deep in android at that point.

10-26-2018, 08:01 AM	#246
notimp Addict Posts: 248 Karma: 892441 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: K2i	Just tried it with this launcher that stays in the notification tray: https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....recentappspro Works perfectly well. (Once you've allowed it to stay active in the background with "user serttings/powermanagement")

10-26-2018, 02:07 PM	#247
Vortex Groupie Posts: 171 Karma: 10 Join Date: Dec 2008 Device: Likebook Mars	I received my Likebook Mars today. Hardware seems very well made, software unfortunately seems to have been an after thought. Hoped that maybe after an update it would be better. As soon as I connected it to my wifi I got a notice of an available update: V1.0.2-2018092813. At first the download was so slow it was going to take a month, after several retries I got it to download at a reasonable speed only for it to keep failing half way through. I tried downloading the update from this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=293799 and followed the instructions to do a manual update, but it gives the error: 'Not a valid file'. Is there somewhere I can download V1.0.2-2018092813 and do a manual update? I tried following the instructions in this thread but got stuck in dead links or pages of Chinese: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...3&postcount=19 Is there a Version 2.0 update, does anyone have working links? Sorry if these questions have been answer before.

10-26-2018, 02:41 PM	#248
micha123 Member Posts: 11 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Kindle Keyboard 3.3	As I am from Europe it looks like I should buy the Mars at Al***s and their Spain shipping location, or not? I haven't found any other seller source without additional customs duty or have I overseen another shop avoiding custumers duties for european?

10-27-2018, 11:47 PM	#255
romevi Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 468 Join Date: Sep 2018 Device: Likebook Mars	Finally got Google Play installed! Happy me! What I didn't realize is that it would wipe my entire system. Oh, woe is me! I've been fiddling with it for a while today. After trying a couple of e-reader launchers, I decided to go back to ol' faithful Nova Launcher. One weird thing is that I can't seem to change the wallpaper. I'm trying to get the wallpaper to change to an all-white background and customize my Mars to get my own e-reader launcher experience, but I can't get that one fix. I'm able to do everything else just fine, though. I even found an icon pack that is just pure black, so it looks great when in the apps drawer.

Advert

Advert