ONYX BOOX 10.3" CARTA????????

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by joblack

I wouldn't use my Max in the subway and I probably wouldn't use a 10.3" device, too. We'll see what market such a device will have.

Don't use my Max on the subway either. However, it's not so much because of the size, but because of the type of reading which I got it for. I use the Max primarily for work related PDFs. That's just not the type of reading which I tend to do while commuting unless there is some pressing need. For regular reading, I prefer my Kobo.

As for the market, unless they dramatically improve the specs, I would see it as being primarily for those who cannot afford a larger device.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by orebmur

Ever tried to open multiple PDF files in parallel and switch between those?

...on an Onyx device.

Ok, now the answer is yes, and the results are positive, convincing and pleasantly suprising.

I tried App Switcher (com.milansamardzic.recentapp) from Milan Samardžić: it works well, but it would be possible to do even better - disabling the animations and using one less tap (it has a notification icon, but it is not single-tap like a button: it opens the notification window and then you open the task switcher from there). A very nice feat: it shows the memory consumption.

The local thread relevant to task switching is this. But I found App Switcher directly browsing the Market.

I am switching several versions of Librera. Having tested all the betas for the past three weeks, I have several versions installed simultaneously (I changed the package name to do that).

Experience: brilliant. To summon the task switcher is not immediate, but task switching between very heavy PDF files is lightning fast. And memory consumption is not bad either.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by mdp

...on an Onyx device.

Ok, now the answer is yes, and the results are positive, convincing and pleasantly suprising.

I tried App Switcher (com.milansamardzic.recentapp) from Milan Samardžić: it works well, but it would be possible to do even better

I directly developed my own - Boox Task Switcher -, as posted in the relevant thread, "App switch aka ALT+TAB aka long press home": why don't you try it and judge the experience of simultaneously browsing multiple documents?

[nabsltd]

Originally Posted by orebmur

The 10.3" size hits the sweet spot between too small and too big, and as an added plus is 4:3.

The previous 10.3" Onyx readers have much closer to a 3:2 screen (8" x 5.5") than 4:3. Since 3:2 is the historical ratio for most hardback books, it seems to work very well. It's not as good for PDF formatted for 8.5x11, but fine for A4-formatted works.

Is the new Onyx 10.3" really a 4:3 aspect ratio? It appears to be 3:2, just like the older ones.

[orebmur]

Originally Posted by nabsltd

Is the new Onyx 10.3" really a 4:3 aspect ratio?

Resolution is claimed to be 1872x1404, so just do the math:
1872/4*3
1404

[orebmur]

Originally Posted by mdp

I directly developed my own - Boox Task Switcher

Very nice for users of the the default ContentBrowser gui of the boox readers! Great contribution!

Unfortunately i see no way how to properly use this with RelaunchX that i much prefer over the comparatively rather unpractical Boox default user interface.

Nonetheless, my main point is that such a functionality should really be included out of the box ex factory, but is not.

A working multitasking addon was published by Booxtor for the venerable i62HD and worked reasonably well. But that device is already history.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by orebmur

Nonetheless, my main point is that such a functionality should really be included out of the box ex factory, but is not.

But that's just a matter of raising a feature request: <<Dear Onyx, please add a listener for the long-tap of the "Home" icon in the statusbar the global event of key press "recent tasks" (KeyEvent.KEYCODE_APP_SWITCH , 187)>>.
Android's "recent tasks switcher" is there in the system... It's just that we are missing a "Home" button to trigger it! If you inject the keypress manually with a
`adb -d shell input keyevent 187`, it appears...

Originally Posted by orebmur

Unfortunately i see no way how to properly use this with RelaunchX that i much prefer over the comparatively rather unpractical Boox default user interface.

That's strange, I have to check this RelaunchX - do you mean it does not have a statusbar?

[orebmur]

Originally Posted by mdp

That's strange, I have to check this RelaunchX - do you mean it does not have a statusbar?

No, i happened to have all statusbars and any other distracting elements turned off. Turning it on again indeed enabled trying out that multitasking feature. Unfortunately, while your effort is a very honorable one, the result is still not very convincing.

Switching between documents is a bit difficult if just multiple instances of the same reader app's icon instead of the document title is shown, so one doesn't know where touching an icon ends up. Also, it was not possible anymore to simply close a document, the app icon kept popping up. I lost interest investing any more time with further trials, please pardon me for that.

As i wrote before, this is something the upstream vendor should really take care of. The usability and overall practicability of a reader device is of utmost importance and the software should be much better designed in this regard. Great hardware is useless if the included software doesn't take advantage of it's possibilities out of the box. Especially if we don't deal with an open sourced platform as Android simply doesn't cut it.

After watching the video reviews posted in the reMarkable thread it should become clear how with a strong focus on software capabilities such a device very much gains in usability and thus attractivity.

After seeing those videos i feel rather tempted to buy a reMarkable instead of any further Boox device with much inferior software offerings.

[mdp]

Originally Posted by orebmur

while your effort is a very honorable one, the result is still not very convincing. Switching between documents is a bit difficult if just multiple instances of the same reader app's icon instead of the document title is shown,

Well, it's something I threw together in a few hours - very little time developing, lots of time circumventing dufficulties and troubleshooting -, it's not fully refined. I did not think of the detail that the single app content is not shown.

Originally Posted by orebmur

As i wrote before, this is something the upstream vendor should really take care of

But the vendor mostly guesses what the users want... It would take Onyx less than one hour - five minutes? - to implement the recent task switcher as I wrote earlier (upon long press on the home button, call RecentApplicationsDialog() ); if they did not, they probably gave priority to something else. Probably they were never requested...

Originally Posted by orebmur

After watching the video reviews posted in the reMarkable thread it should become clear how with a strong focus on software capabilities such a device very much gains in usability and thus attractivity.

To each its own? I understand that's a closed, specialized device. The day you will have troubles (both extensively and intensively - what it does, how it does it) with that still carefully crafted software you will have to cope with it. Today, my limits are the hardware, not the software.

[orebmur]

Originally Posted by mdp

But the vendor mostly guesses what the users want... It would take Onyx less than one hour - five minutes? - to implement the recent task switcher as I wrote earlier (upon long press on the home button, call RecentApplicationsDialog() ); if they did not, they probably gave priority to something else. Probably they were never requested...

There are many more issues in the Boox provided software than just that task switching thing.

It appears to be rather obvious that Boox doesn't have the man power nor advanced enough skills to provide a well made software offering. Everything is working only at a very basic level, as if created by non-expert developers.

A pity they don't fully open their software to allow interested third parties to fork it and provide enhancements and maybe even a fully reworked clone.

Even with the current slowish CPU offerings, the Boox devices would be phantastic tools if only the software capabilities were on par with the hardware.

[Kumabjorn]

Originally Posted by orebmur

There are many more issues in the Boox provided software than just that task switching thing.

It appears to be rather obvious that Boox doesn't have the man power nor advanced enough skills to provide a well made software offering. Everything is working only at a very basic level, as if created by non-expert developers.

A pity they don't fully open their software to allow interested third parties to fork it and provide enhancements and maybe even a fully reworked clone.

Even with the current slowish CPU offerings, the Boox devices would be phantastic tools if only the software capabilities were on par with the hardware.

Couldn't agree more. Unfortunately East Asian coders think they have to reinvent the wheel in every and all applications they are involved with. Just look at Samsung and their quest to replicate everything Google does, just at 80 % of their capacity.