New "Mars" device from Likebook?

[Sasha1968]

What is heard about the new firmware for Mars?

[mbrisco]

Originally Posted by StaticChromatic

Thanks! I'll also post my response from another thread, in case it helps anyone here:

So, I think I've found the culprit. It seems that certain services (location, certain apps, etc.) ping the CPU pretty often when turned on, even with WiFi off. Everything off, with Greenify forcing all apps to hibernate (and the device to enter "doze mode"), in battery saving mode, I reduced the overnight charge from 35% to 1%. That's without the device's "auto-shutdown", which Boyue recommended having on (but I didn't like having to boot up my device each time to use it).

I'm not sure if this was a software problem on Boyue's side, but with many of their default Android settings on, the battery drain was massive. Luckily, with some tweaks, it's greatly increased.

I've also been speaking with some devs at Boyue on how to better improve the battery life via slowing down the CPU, so hopefully it will be further improved in a later update. Their customer service has been very helpful so I'm hopeful

Just wanted to ask if you would enlighten us about these Greenify settings. I find myself in the same situation and not sure what to enable and whatnot in Greenify on a Likebook.

[Ivan Pavlov]

Does anybody else have the same issues with uneven lighting, especially with warm light at low settings?

[urbie]

I read at "Good E-reader" that all Likebook readers are eligible to receive Android 8.0

https://goodereader.com/blog/boyue-e...android-8-soon

[urbie]

Deleted

[notimp]

Crosspost from the new firmware thread:

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.

[Incanus]

Originally Posted by notimp

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

Too true

Much obliged!

[INCANUS]

[joandr]

The previous / current Boyue soft reader was unusable in French because of the lack of hyphenation (that is ok with Moon+RP) now ZReader becomes interesting especially that Boyue will continue to develop it. Thank you for pointing this improvement.

[notimp]

Some pointers on setting up android Apps like I did.

Had to reset my Likebook Mars after the current firmware update (no books shown), and therefore set up my android side of things once more as well. Thought I document it for others.

First: Boyue default ebook reader settings:

Lowest contrast setting for text (0.0% has an issue where it might not trigger that correctly at first, so set it to 0.1% first, then 0.0%), leave that for images at default. Page refresh: never. Turn off: Never. Standby: after 5 minutes. Multi document mode (tabs) off. Progress bar bottom: off. Settings>More Settings>Enable ZReder: on (has to be enabled per book). Page turning settings: Kindle style (third) ; Reading Health reminders: off;

Backlight settings: 1 pip of blue LED, 9 pips of warm LED

WLAN settings > advanced, only keep wifi on while charging enabled.
-

Android apps:

First make sure you enable Google Services in settings, so you get access to the Google Play Store (will then be available as an app).

Librera PRO
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...eader&hl=en_US
(alternative eReading software - mainly for TTS (using Ivona TTS voices - separately installed))

Comixology
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...omics&hl=en_US
(long press icon > optimization > full screen mode on > use regal to refresh on (?) > contrast adjustment use system contrast off and 68% contrast used (change that for different type of comics you read.)

To get Comixology to auto rotate to landscape:
Force rotation
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ation&hl=en_US

To get Comixology to exit guided view using a "back gesture":
Gesture control
https://play.google.com/store/apps/d...ntrol&hl=en_US
Set to large bar (left option on setup), increased bars width (height), then make the bar invisible (appearance settings or similar). Drag bar to the left is used as android "back" button, set drag right and up as you like. Mirror all settings at the drag and hold options (the liekbook isnt that responsive. ), turn off all options for just click on bar (if necessary, dont remember).

To move books over from Dropbox (free) without eating up one of your device slots for Dropbox free:

Dropsync
Use folder sync with option "Download and Delete" (so not two way), from a Dropbox folder to /Books on the Likebook Mars.

I had an issue with connecting the app up with the dropbox account using the default browser, so I installed Google Chrome, and did the authenication for Dropsync through that. This also has the positive side effect that you will also update the google services framework, to be able to use Chrome. (Throws you a reminder and opens up the play store page). You can uninstall Chrome afterwards.

Those two apps -

Gesture Control and
Force Rotation

Have to be enabled as Boot from boot (good english), and background activity under the snowflake icon on the app drawer for them to be allowed to start their services on boot) and to run in the background.

Both of them were also set to 'non optimized' in battery optimisation settings under android settings.

If Force Rotation (App) launches after every boot, turn that behavior off in its settings (service will still be launched anyhow).
--

Other apps I use (might be less interesting)

Quickly (Notification dropdown menu launcher (has to be snowflake menu enabled and set to non optimized under battery settings, same as with the two apps above, to be able to run in the background)).

KOReader (installed from the Boyue Appstore, not the google appstore - has good pdf reflow ability - but so has the default Likebook Mars Reader app, just note - that KOReader also is an option))

Perfect Viewer (Comics)

Total Commander (filebrowser, set to light theme) and Total Commander LAN addon (SMB) (setting up lan drives shows some buttons totaly whited out, so maybe revert back to dark mode, or finger pick hunt like I did.. )

Battery usage shortcut:
https://apkpure.com/battery-usage-sh...yusageshortcut
Just a shortcut to the battery usage menu

And my Ivona TTS voices Amy and Marlene (German)

and thats it.
-


To auto soft-hyphen my epubs, I use calibre 3.39.1 (I think I remember I had to revert down to that version for that usecase), with

Hyphenate this (look for dictionaries separately to finish setting it up)
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=208534
and
Modify ePub (1.3.13)
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=154371

installed (probably through calibres plugin search feature)

And the following bash script on a Macbook:

cd ~/Downloads

mv "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" ~/Dropbox/

sleep 1.5

cd ~/Dropbox

open -a Terminal

while true; do
	echo Processing: "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)"
    read -p "Is this a german ePub?" yn
    case $yn in
        [Yy]* ) /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/console.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-meta "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" --language de; cp "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" ~/Dropbox/Books/; cd ~/Dropbox/Books; find . -maxdepth 1 -name '*.epub' -exec /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/console.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre-debug -e ~/Documents/kindle-hyphens/main.py {} {} \;; cp "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" ~/Dropbox/Likebook/; /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/console.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1 | sed 's/.epub//g' | sed 's/(\(.*\))//' | sed -e 's/[^A-Za-z0-9._-]/ /g').azw3" --share-not-sync --filter-css font-family,color --change-justification justify; rm "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)"; killall Terminal; exit;;
        [Nn]* ) cp "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" ~/Dropbox/Books/; cd ~/Dropbox/Books; find . -maxdepth 1 -name '*.epub' -exec /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/console.app/Contents/MacOS/calibre-debug -e ~/Documents/kindle-hyphens/main.py {} {} \;; cp "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)" ~/Dropbox/Likebook/; /Applications/calibre.app/Contents/console.app/Contents/MacOS/ebook-convert "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)"  "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1 | sed 's/.epub//g' | sed 's/(\(.*\))//' | sed -e 's/[^A-Za-z0-9._-]/ /g').azw3" --share-not-sync --filter-css font-family,color --change-justification justify; rm "$(ls -t | grep '\.epub$' |head -1)"; killall Terminal; exit;;
        * ) echo "Please answer with yes or no.";;
    esac
done

killall Terminal

This looks up the most recent epub in the ~/Downloads folder, asks if it is a german epub or not, adds the german language tag to the epub metadata (or not), moves it to the ~/Dropbox folder, and then uses calibre, as well as the kindle hyphens script ( https://github.com/dmalinovsky/kindle-hyphens ), to copy the epub into a different Dropbox folder, and add soft-hyphens (depending on the language tag of the epub).

(And also creates an .azw in a different folder just for good messure.. )

If I remember correctly, the config file for kindle-hyphens defaults to russian as the default language (if no language tag is set). You might want to switch that to english (one small edit in the config file).

On the Likebook Mars I then just use Dropsync to download the book, and switch the book parser to ZReader in the Likebook Mars default book reader (otherwise gaps between syllables in the text, when soft-hypened).

Thats it - have fun.

[notimp]

Oh and here is my fonts folder:
https://mirrorace.com/m/2haR4

I'm mostly using T_imes-regular these days.

I'm also using the oxford dictionary someone else already posted in here afair, if you need the files (because they are down) PM me and I'll see that I can upload them as well.

[notimp]

Short Script Editor (macOS) script to pull screenshots via adb from a connected android device like the likebook mars and store them in a folder named boyue on the Desktop:

tell application "Terminal"
	do script "echo i can haz screencaps"
end tell
do shell script "/bin/sleep 1.7"
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/adb shell screencap -p /sdcard/screencap.png"
do shell script "mkdir -p ~/Desktop/boyue"
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/adb pull /sdcard/screencap.png ~/Desktop/boyue/screencap.png"
set theFolder to (((path to home folder) as text) & "Desktop:boyue:") as alias
tell application "Finder"
	set k to 0
	repeat with thisFile in (get document files of theFolder that name contains "screencap" and name extension is "png")
		set k to k + 1
		get name extension of thisFile
		if name of thisFile contains "screencap" then
			set name of thisFile to "screencap " & k & "." & result
		end if
	end repeat
end tell
do shell script "/usr/local/bin/adb shell rm /sdcard/screencap.png"
do shell script "killall Terminal"

Needs android-platform-tools installed via brew as a prerequisite

So:

brew install homebrew/cask/android-platform-tools

after you install brew from here:

https://brew.sh/

Android Debugging needs to be enabled on the Likebook in developer settings. And adb access permissions granted on the device after trying to adb to the device for the first time.

[notimp]

Originally Posted by mbrisco

Just wanted to ask if you would enlighten us about these Greenify settings. I find myself in the same situation and not sure what to enable and whatnot in Greenify on a Likebook.

Greenify basically should not be needed. The likebook kills all apps, that are in the background periodically, if you dont excempt them from that behavior in the snowflakes list in the app drawer. Meaning the only apps constantly running will be the boyues own minimum set of apps.

Greenify is basically another way to do just that, with a few added 'features' (no one needs) on top. So Greenify or not should make no difference.

[notimp]

Perfect viewer setup guide:



Long Press Settings: Just has regal refresh enabled for greyscale images (disable for color images), we do contrast optimization in app. (The contrast adjustment slider could be used in addition, depending on content (usually doesnt have to be used)). Also has a short animation filtering delay - not sure if I'll keep that, still testing (this will delay screen transitions after any touch action. You normally use it to filter out screen transition animations in apps, where you cant disable them).


Touchscreen settings (one touch) - first enable the more complex touch layout (first touch layout, not third) in settings:

(There is a reason for this strange layout, and it is usability - while reading. You will hold the eReader slightly different (different hands, different hand positions) over time and still would want access to the most important functions. With both hands. And without worrying about missclicks. I very much recommend setting it up somewhat like this. )


General settings for most comics:


Contrast (actually Hue/Saturation/lightness) adjustments (use both saturation and lightness settings as seen) - this is the reason for why images are displayed blue in the screencaptures, on device they will be grayscale (because of the eink screen) - blue is the highest RGB value, so shifting images to more monochrome blue using the lightness setting, also increases contrast.

This is still the most ideal contrast configuration I've found, without reducing detail (if you increase lets say gamma, or Boyues system contrast you will sacrifice dark detail.


Sharpness adjustment:

Enable or disable depending on content. Move slider depending on content. This also interacts with Image smooth filter: Nearest neighbor/Averaging/... (Averaging is default), so tinker with both until satisfied. (Depending on content) Note that in my case it is turned off with Nearest neighbor smoothing enabled. Try that first.

Crop pages set to automatic crop:


Frontlight settings:

9 pips of warm LED
Adjust blue LED to room conditions (about half to -2 pips from black), so the image becomes roughly neutral white looking.

[Vortex]

My Likebook Mars has the habit of randomly joining small words like 'as', 'in', 'on', 'the', 'but' etc. to the ends or beginnings of the adjacent words, so for example something like 'community of' appears as 'communityof'. It's not like it in the ebook files as I've checked them on a pc. Often the longer word is a name of something, but not always. Also the spacing between words is an inconsistent size.

It's been happening for quite a while and I've done several updates and it's not changed (last one about 8 weeks ago). Does this happen to other people, is there a fix for it? Apologies if this question has been answered before, I searched but could not find anything related to it. Thanks.

EDIT: I'm reading epubs.

[shak3800]

It happens with my alita as well. I think it happens mostly with pdfs although i am not 100% sure