"Live-blog" of the set-up process for my new Likebook Mimas

[MustardOrMayo]

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

I now plan to connect the Mimas to my PC to charge; then turn it on, connect it to my home wi-fi, and let it update itself as needed. Then I will be following along with this video to configure the device,

OMG!!!! That's actually MY video you watched!! Yes!! :cheering:

As a bonus, I found (last night) that sliding the contrast slider all the way to the right (one notch before would be the darkest contrast setting) will switch the display controller into a mode that allows me to read colour comics in monochrome! I'm looking at it right now, and for example, "Mr. Wolf's Class" looks rather interesting in this mode, but "The Fuzzy Princess" doesn't look as bad here. (Photos available on request)

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

and then I will be raiding MobileRead's “Summary of Modified Fonts” thread to find fonts to add to the Mimas

I'll be sure to take a look at that.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

4) What are the pros and cons for using the included screen protector? I’m inclined not to, but I want to hear more opinions first.

When paired with the included pen (the black one that is, not sure about the white one), it has a paper-like texture, well, until the nib starts wearing down.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

5) How will the default e-book library / organization software handle metadata from e-books transferred to the device from Caliber (eg: series title, subject tags, book descriptions, etc.)? The same question for Moon + Reader? Any recommendations for Caliber plug-ins that were designed specifically for Likebook devices?

The built-in reader doesn't seem to pull any metadata whatsoever from the files that I have, and uses the filename as the title. (Screenshots available on request)

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

7) Any app recommendations? Particularly for games (board games like Chess, Go, etc.; text-based games like SeedShip; puzzle games like sudoku, crosswords, etc.), web browsers, and text-to-speech apps that plays nicely with Moon + Reader and the Likebook’s default e-book viewers? As a dyslexic finding a good text-to-speech app is particularly important to me.

(Available on request, as I spent what felt like the entirely of 2 days writing this reply.)

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

After a long weekend of playing around with my Likebook Mimas I have the following general thoughts:

If you are primarily reading epubs then you may be better off with the smaller Likebook Mars or Muses, but for PDFs and comics / manga, the larger size of the Mimas is a godsend.

I agree. I primarily use mine to read comics (and news), and it's great being able to read them at close to print size.

I have photos available on request, that I wanted to post to Twitter and/or Instagram, but haven't had the time to do so. 2 photos, one comparing the physical size to that of 6.5 by 8 inch softcover (one of the Andrews McMeel Publishing collected editions of webcomics) and 6.2 by 9.2 inch hardcover (one of the Graphix hardcover releases) books. If you're wondering about where I got both books, I borrowed them from the local library for a personal research project I'm working on, and had already returned the former.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

The way I hold my e-reader, when not viewing it flat on a table, is by holding it with both hands at the bottom of the side bezels. As a result, the part of my thumbs that connects to the rest of my hand is resting over the hardware buttons, leading to several accidental presses. I would advise Boyue to indent the buttons on the bottom of the Mimas by at least the length of the button set in any future revisions of their 10.3 inch e-readers.

Interesting, as I don't seem to have that problem with mine. I seem to hold mine in one of two ways, not only what you mentioned, but also from the middle. (photos available on request)

Also, just wondering, do you use yours with the case or without? I do, but the 2 clips at the top feel loose, and I remember having dropped mine once with the case still on, but it only resulted in 2 scuffs on either end of the bottom side.

This reminds me: I had wanted to do a DIY case that replicates the feel of a hardcover book, but with the ability to flip it around. Sadly, I've never been able to find the same kind of cardboard used in hardcovers, though.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

But their epub reader needs a lot of work still, and its not just an issue of lack of experience with programming / designing around Latin-based languages and alphabets. Even pictures that are supposed to be centred in the epub are presented off-centre. I’m suspecting a CSS rendering issue here, but I seen programs that had CSS issues but didn’t mess-up word and pronunciation spacing, so who knows what the issue is. Also, Boyue needs to include a default serf font as well as the default sans-serf Arial font. How hard would it be to negotiate font usage rights from an open source font foundry like The League of Movable Type? At least Boyue acknowledges this software weakness by including KO Reader in the Boyue App Store.

I agred. However, I also don't recommend downloading the version of KOReader provided by Boyue, as I believe it lacks the correct screen refresh routines for RK3368 based e-readers. Instead, you should download it directly from the "releases" section of their GitHub page.

The Boyue curated "App Store" also has what appears to be a modified version of the Kindle tablet app, but I don't trust it, so I use the official release from the Play Store instead.

In the "Tools" section, there's even what appears to be an app that directly sends control commands to the lighting system, so that can be used to mix frontlights. Other than that, there's a reply I left somewhere else on MobileRead about mixing frontlights when using the Kindle tablet app.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

In regards to the Mimas’ battery life: if you don’t use (or only use sparingly) the device’s wi-fi then I suspect that you could get about a week of device usage between charges. If on the other hand you have the wi-fi always on then the device’s battery life becomes a day / a day-and-a-half.

For me, I did initially use those custom Boyue automatic power off features, but eventually disabled those, and just set an option in the Wi-Fi settings to disable it when it goes to sleep, and enable when it wakes up.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

Side-loading external fonts and dictionaries was relatively straightforward, following the instructions provided in the Mimas’ Quick Start Guide and the Boyue Likebook (BoyueTechnology) Twitter feed. But the annoying thing with installing fonts is that all variants are listed separately (eg: Input Serf Regular, Input Serf Italic, Input Serf Bold, etc.) instead of being grouped together (eg: all Input Serf font variants being represented by the Input Serf font menu listing) as is the case with fonts on my computer.

I have the same issue too!

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

With the dictionaries I downloaded from huzheng.org (pretty much the only source for StarDic dictionaries that I was able to find), I was able to plot them down directly into the existing Dict folder on my Mimas once I extracted them from their tarbal container. But there seams to be a limit to the number of dictionaries the Boyue Dictionary app can support because I can’t access the britannica_concise_encyclopedia at all and of the other three dictionaries I installed one of them only appears intermittently. Other annoyances regarding dictionaries: it would be nice if the listing of dictionary files on huzheng.org would have a date attached to them because for some dictionaries (such as Urban Dictionary and The Collaborative International Dictionary of English) it would be nice to know how recent / current they are. And of course Moon+ Reader uses a different dictionary system, so I need to figure out how to transfer the same files twice, if not find a different GoldenDict compatible dictionary files.

For me, I installed 1 package from that website, but it doesn't show up at all, and I can't use it in the built-in reader at all.

Originally Posted by SJC-Caron

PS: I found a full Mimas Instruction Manual on Amazon.com. I hope it helps.

Thanks! Interestingly enough, it appears to be a general user guide for the Boyue OS software itself. Most of the screens shown appear to be from the Mars, with stuff relating to note-taking features appearing to be from the Muses, which is weird, as both have no way to take screenshots without third-party apps, so they most likely captured thoss through Android USB debugging.

I think I forgot to quote something relating to this, but to take screenshots, press Power and Page Right at the same time! It will actually take screenshots in colour! Well, except that the built-in reader renders PDFs in greyscale. Not sure about EPUBs though.

[rubensa]

Originally Posted by MustardOrMayo

I think I forgot to quote something relating to this, but to take screenshots, press Power and Page Right at the same time! It will actually take screenshots in colour! Well, except that the built-in reader renders PDFs in greyscale. Not sure about EPUBs though.

It's strange cause I can't take screenshots by pressing Power and Page Right. Is only working on some apps? I own a black Mimas with firmware BYRead-V1.0.2-2019032218.

[rubensa]

Finally I get this working!!!

Don't know If I was doing something wrong but just tried again after update to BYRead-V1.1.0-2019060320 and now pressing Power + Page Right creates a new ScreenShot

[Jamesvx]

Has any one worked out if you can disable/lock the home button to eliminate accidental presses?

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