Reading on the TouchPad

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by rhari79

I would have thought since webos is linux based, porting fbreader or coolreader should be fairly straight forward. at least the vanilla versions.
Wonder if it was ever tried.
Pity is i am not able to get a Touchpad at a decent price.

I am using fbreader in Ubuntu, you wouldn't even know you are using ubuntu while reading. Fbreader already is my favorite on my Irex.

Tried WebOS Adobe on a number of complicated PDFs -- it sucks indeed. However, Xournal in Ubuntu works just great, so I won't complain.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

How very very handy...! And I can get cards easily, work sells them.

Now I just need to get the thing. Shipping is slooooooow.

Always looking for a good excuse to use this smiley.

[Graham]

HansTWN, how quickly does Ubuntu start compared with the webOS reader? How fiddly is it to then launch Xournal and find a pdf (does it offer all pdfs on the Touchpad as per the webOS interface, or do you have to go through a file manager)?

The main reason that I'd install this is for pdf reading, but if it's significantly more fiddly to get reading than the webOS method it may be frustrating.

Though I suppose under Ubuntu you've got bookmarks, while with webOS you've also got to find the page you were on...

I've only got a 16GB TP, so a 2GB partition for Ubuntu is a sizeable investment of space. I've also not used Ubuntu before, or Linux much, so I've got a learning curve there.

Graham

[HansTWN]

If you are not very familiar with Ubuntu I would recommend the automatic setup in this thread http://forums.precentral.net/webos-d...on-ubuntu.html. It already includes Xournal and everything you need for the basics. Startup of Ubuntu takes just a few seconds (except the first time, of course). I use Xcfe4 Windows Manager (one of 2 options in the start up script). Then you are in a Windows-like environment. You go to the menu, "Application menu -> Accessories -> Xournal" and Xournal opens in about 1 second. Then you go to "file -- open" and to the directory where you have your PDFs. Ubuntu can access memory outside of the 2 GB you assigned to it, you can leave the files in the WebOS part. I just opened a 5 MB file, took about 3 seconds. Next time you open Xournal, it will remember the directory and search for new files starting from there. If you just want to read the PDFs, not annotate them, then use the hand tool. You can push the pages around by hand when reading.

You could even start Ubuntu and make it open Xournal right away. And generally, there is no need to close Ubuntu and Xournal --- we are the only mobile OS with real multitasking, remember? Just leave the card as it is, do something else and come back later.

Creating the partition for Ubuntu takes some fiddling. The actual installation of Ubuntu is a snap and so is using it for your purposes. My advice, go for it and try. You can always undo everything and even if you don't like it you will have learned something. If you use the script in the link above to set it up, then using Ubuntu is just like using Windows. But it needs a lot less resources.

[Graham]

OK, thanks Hans. I'll give it a go.

Graham

[ScalyFreak]

Okay, confused now. What type of card does the TouchPad take? The review on Precentral says it doesn't have a card slot. Is it internal?

[Nate the great]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Okay, confused now. What type of card does the TouchPad take? The review on Precentral says it doesn't have a card slot. Is it internal?

The word "card" is being used to refer to the on-screen user interface.

When you have an app running and then minimize it, the app will be shown on what is called a card. Ypou can flick the card up to close the app or flick sideways to reopen one of the other apps you have running.

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

The word "card" is being used to refer to the on-screen user interface.

When you have an app running and then minimize it, the app will be shown on what is called a card. Ypou can flick the card up to close the app or flick sideways to reopen one of the other apps you have running.

Aaaaaah. That makes far more sense. Noted.

[HansTWN]

And I thought you were kidding when you said "they sell cards at work".

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

And I thought you were kidding when you said "they sell cards at work".

Not at all. In my computer electronics world, a "card" is a form of removable storage media. It can occasionally also be an expansion component that sits in one of the PCI-express slots on the motherboard and does cool things, like rending The Witcher 2 at high frame rates.

New operating systems are just like everything else. One of the first obstacles on the steep learning curve is the vocabulary, and one of the first sources of frustration is how every stupid that vocabulary seems until you get the hang of it. Card? Really? Where all the words that don't already have a well established meaning in the world of portable electronics taken already?

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by ScalyFreak

Not at all. In my computer electronics world, a "card" is a form of removable storage media. It can occasionally also be an expansion component that sits in one of the PCI-express slots on the motherboard and does cool things, like rending The Witcher 2 at high frame rates.

New operating systems are just like everything else. One of the first obstacles on the steep learning curve is the vocabulary, and one of the first sources of frustration is how every stupid that vocabulary seems until you get the hang of it. Card? Really? Where all the words that don't already have a well established meaning in the world of portable electronics taken already?

Once you get your Touchpad you will find that "card" is actually a very fitting name.

As for me, I would say SDHC card, expansion card or something when referring to a memory card Well, what would life be without those little misunderstandings?

[ScalyFreak]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

Well, what would life be without those little misunderstandings?

Boring?

[Graham]

The card concept on the Touchpad is a great example of how speed isn't everything. It's actually slower, it takes more user actions, to switch between running apps on a Touchpad than on an Android device, but it is so much more intuitive... and fun!

Touchpad: swipe card up (or press home button), swipe sideways, perhaps several times to find the card you want, tap to open.

Android: long press on home button, tap to open.

And for added fun on a Touchpad, drag a card to the bottom of the screen then let go to have it shoot off the top with a whooshing sound effect.

Graham

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by Graham

The card concept on the Touchpad is a great example of how speed isn't everything. It's actually slower, it takes more user actions, to switch between running apps on a Touchpad than on an Android device, but it is so much more intuitive... and fun!

Touchpad: swipe card up (or press home button), swipe sideways, perhaps several times to find the card you want, tap to open.

Android: long press on home button, tap to open.

And for added fun on a Touchpad, drag a card to the bottom of the screen then let go to have it shoot off the top with a whooshing sound effect.

Graham

Switching may be slower, on the other hand we are talking about fractions of a second. And the programs on the cards are still actually running (not suspended). As you mentioned, it not only is more intuitive, it is also a great advantage that you see what is going on -- especially when you switch between cards with different websites open. And talk about speed -- try to close a program in Android (pulling up your task manager and then going through the list). They say you don't need to do it manually in Android ... after a while you sure have to.

[HansTWN]

WebOS is just fun and easy, but still very powerful --- the only thing I miss now is a Slingplayer app and Newspaper Direct. Netflix is important for a lot of people, though I am content with the Hulu Fix. I don't care to watch many movies on a small screen.

Though for my phone I do think Android's icon/widget based interface makes more sense than WebOS. But for a tablet you can't do much better than our Touchpad