Augen The Book: Preliminary evaluations

[7tronics]

TB's notepad application creates ONE notepad, rather than one per eBook opened. Nice that there is one, kind of a pain that there is only one, and only an "export" and "import" function for this notepad. Attempting to "import" a recently exported notes file also fails. So I'm not sure how to recover, other than using the PC to manage the file from Calibre.

? Anyone have any ideas for more flexible notepad file management ?

Best, Mark @ 7tronics

[VentureForth]

Hi Mark,

If you can PM me with the title of he epub book you're having trouble with, let me see if I can put it on mine with the yupdated firmware to see if it solves that problem. I'd hate for you to upgrade if it doesn't help.

VF

[stevestk]

A number of people say they have tested text to speach. Have you noticed it only reads one page and stops or is that only happening on mine.

[VentureForth]

Originally Posted by stevestk

A number of people say they have tested text to speach. Have you noticed it only reads one page and stops or is that only happening on mine.

It only reads one page. You then have to turn the page, then start 'er up again.

[dki]

Same here. Only one page rendered. I do hope for an update with continuous read option, so I can just be on one book between reading & driving. There is no hope right now for in between driving, walking/exercising/reading, but I can do my walking/exercising with music, and have that "pronounce" TB option synchronized with regular reading. I prefer one book at the time scheme, and I am constantly forced into 2-3 books at the time by the available players/options.

[VentureForth]

OK - getting frustrated with Augen. Rather than deal with the issues Mark, the Tech at Augen who has started the forums at augen.lefora.com, would rather close threads than answer the increasingly upset masses.

[denclock]

Has anyone read any comics on The Book? I really would go out and get one of these if it read comics nicely, since this is mainly why I want a second reader. Also considering a MID.

[ebsebs]

Quoting myself from this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...t=40475&page=2 (last post on the page):

Originally Posted by ebsebs

I used Will's program to convert some CBR and CBZ files to EPUB format and read them on my Augen TB. It worked well, even considering the tall and narrow (800 x 480) display format on the TB.

The previous poster talking about the CBR and CBZ formats was correct:
Both formats are a series of JPG images compressed using the RAR (CBR) or ZIP (CBZ) format. Renaming CBR files with a .RAR extension, or CBZ to a .ZIP extension allows them to be opened using standard RAR or ZIP programs.

[kilohertz53]

Originally Posted by VentureForth

OK - getting frustrated with Augen. Rather than deal with the issues Mark, the Tech at Augen who has started the forums at augen.lefora.com, would rather close threads than answer the increasingly upset masses.

I understand your frustration, but I still think the better way to get through to "Mark" is through the support page at Augen.

http://augen.helpserve.com/index.php

I usually get an answer within hours by email, even if it's not terribly enlightening. At least I know he's read my question or complaint. I am, of course, assuming that Mark and marktech are the same person. I see the forum as more of a place for users to commiserate with one another rather than as a means to communicate with the Augen technical staff.

I realize that Augen is a small company, but that's no excuse for unprofessional behavior. The recent TB firmware update, for example, still isn't on Augen's server, and it was left to the users to spread the word among themselves where to find the file and how to install it. That's not how it should be.

[Donnageddon]

Originally Posted by kilohertz53

I realize that Augen is a small company, but that's no excuse for unprofessional behavior. The recent TB firmware update, for example, still isn't on Augen's server, and it was left to the users to spread the word among themselves where to find the file and how to install it. That's not how it should be.

I imagine they are a little embarrassed by that firmware update, given the "backwards screen rotation" thing. Hopefully they are working to correct the update (and add to it) before they put it on their site.

I think we served as beta testers for the update.

[Barnone]

I'm giving up on my TB and taking it back to Kmart tomorrow.
Too many issues with it for me to deal with.

[denclock]

Originally Posted by ebsebs

Quoting myself from this thread https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...t=40475&page=2 (last post on the page):

Sorry, I remember reading that now, when you used the program to change it to epub, did you have to zoom in, or was the pages equal to screen size and was it legible?

I read in this post that The PD Novel was pretty good at this too. The book and The novel seem to both be pretty good deals.
Thanks for the reply ebsebs.

[ebsebs]

I was reading some scanned comics. The original size of the images in the CBR file was 1242 high x 828 wide. I set the EPUB conversion program to make the images a maximum of 800 pixels high, to match the TB screen size. I had it autocrop the edges, but I didn't "clean" the images, since that changes color images to B&W!

The text was a little small, but it was readable. If I set the TB zoom level to maximum, the images became slightly larger, but no major change.

[rscudder]

Originally Posted by 7tronics

TB's notepad application creates ONE notepad, rather than one per eBook opened. Nice that there is one, kind of a pain that there is only one, and only an "export" and "import" function for this notepad. Attempting to "import" a recently exported notes file also fails. So I'm not sure how to recover, other than using the PC to manage the file from Calibre.

? Anyone have any ideas for more flexible notepad file management ?

Best, Mark @ 7tronics

I have not been able to get the notepad to provide more than one page, although it does seem like using an infinitely long sheet of paper. I am using it as a place to take notes about the ereader - but I decided to add a grocery list in there temporarily, and regretted it- It is a total pain to remove information - you need to delete a letter at a time!

I am going to try to do a couple things- one is bring in a notepad with another name through the USB interface, and the other is to rename the current one to see if I can get more than one to show up. Since text deletion is such a pain, if I decide I want a new page in notepad, I think it may need to be deleted to get one. However, since you are not currently able to delete from favorites, I am not sure how it will work.

Rebecca

[7tronics]

Though the Pandigital Novel is almost twice the cost ($150 now at Bed, Bath, and Beyond after $20 rebate), with the one simple hack it is FAR more functional than TB.

I almost went with the B&N Nook, still had hope a week ago for Augen, until I read how Pandigital handled similar release of buggy initial firmware in their Novel product. Each of the past month worth of updates have been posted to the Pandigital site with both a loader program directly usable from Windows and a downloadable image installable from SD card posted. To top this off, Pandigital CEO even went to the length of being interviewed online and pretty much apologizing while a mass firmware update was underway for the already distributed Novels.

After update to the latest firmware, all of the major bugs noted have been resolved in a package that is readily accessible to all owners. New units in the field have copies of the process to handle the simple bugs and how to update to a new image taped to the commercial packing box to inform the customer of these options.

As I said, I had high hopes for the Augen TB, but the company response of Pandigital and the ready access to fixes led me to choose a higher price product which so far is far more usable both for the intended eBook reading and as a general purpose media device and even primitive web browser!

Oh, yes, the B&N book catalog integration is MUCH better than Augen TB integration with their preferred ebook service provider. Is the Pandigital Novel the "color Nook" ?

Best, Mark