[Rant] On the PocketBook Firmware

etatoby · 04-08-2017, 10:51 PM

One year ago I bought an Inkpad 840 specifically because the pbimageviewer app existed. I was leaning more towards the Onyx, the one with the same screen but running Android, knowing that nowadays the OS defines a device, but the existence of this app pushed me over to the Inkpad.

My primary use case was (and still is) reading manga in the summer, under the sun, hence my need for a large HD eInk screen. I got a 128 GB SD card to go with it, to keep my entire collection on the reader and I couldn't have been happier, right?

Well, I have been more than happy with rkomar's app: it does everything you might want and has great performance.

Unfortunately, I was less impressed by the firmware.

Let's start with the most trivial and the most obvious: the horrible 3 book carousel in the homepage. Surely people are reading more than 3 things at the same time? This is compounded by the fact that with manga you usually have separate CBZs for each book or even chapter, so the list quickly fills up with the single most recent thing you've been reading.
On top of that, items in the SD card would not show up at all in the homepage (even regular ebooks) which got me puzzled for a while, until a firmware update a few months later fixed it.
The builtin browser is complete garbage, as any PB owner quickly finds out. A version of Opera Mini taken from a cheap Nokia phone (the ones with no touchscreen and 4 MB of RAM) would have been more useful.
The file browser only has two possible views, each more annoying than the other: an icon mode that truncates the filenames and a list mode that only shows 5 items or such per page. Really, PocketBook? You sell a device with a 1600x1200 8" screen and you're showing me 5 lousy items per page? Was that designed by the same genius who did the 3 book carousel in the homepage? Are your programmers blind or just stupid?
I apologize if this list is short, but I only ever needed to do 3 things with my Inkpad: fly over the useless homepage; using the file browser to open files; and trying the web browser, foolishly thinking I could read the news or download an ebook. Yeah, right. The mind boggles at the chasm of hopelessness and despair I would have plunged into, had I tried to use the other builtin apps, the social features, and so on.
Finally, today I accepted the firmware update that had been bugging me for a while and... the damn thing froze on Database Update. No way to go forwards or backwards.

Running out of options, I downloaded the 4.4 firmware from their homepage (AHA! So they know their newer software is mediocre!) and lo and behold, most of these problems disappeared. Now I can actually keep track of what I'm reading and browse the contents of my SD card more easily.

What do you people think? Have you upgraded to 5 or downgraded to 4? How do you think this OS compares to the competition? Am I just having bad luck, or focusing on irrelevant details?

---

Quick instructions for any passers-by: just download an appropriate firmware zip for your model, extract SWUPDATE.BIN into the internal memory or into the SD, and power it on while keeping both up and down buttons pressed. Wait for several flashes and reboots, don't touch anything until you get back to the PocketBook OS. Then download the correct versions of any custom apps (such as pbimageviewer) and install them over the old ones.

jackm8 · 05-31-2017, 10:27 AM

Personally, I'm sticking with the three book thingy. I find it a small improvement over the 4.4 one. You know that you can scroll the thing to see older books that you've opened? But I guess it's not the right thing when you read plenty cbz's one after another.

Other than that, I'm mainly on later firmwares only because of pdf readability. Default was kinda atrocious for large PDF's with plenty of images. It's still not the best around, maybe the problem of high resolution, but it's a lot faster.

They don't have the best software that's for sure. Browser truly needs to be used only as last resort, and file viewer could be a lot better as well, though that one at least is usable.

p38lightning · 06-03-2017, 11:58 AM

Has anyone ever successfully hacked the 840 for android use is is that simply not possible?

joepie · 06-04-2017, 07:48 AM

Hi p38lightning,

I'm not so sure that Android is in there. There seems to be a stripped/minimalistic linux under the hood.

I am curious why you like to use Android on an ereader.

rkomar · 06-04-2017, 01:55 PM

I would say that it is not impossible, but close to being so. You can't just slap some generic android on any device, you need to have the proper drivers for the hardware on that device. In this case, the E-Ink display will need a driver that is probably not available to the public, if it exists at all for android.

p38lightning · 06-06-2017, 09:13 PM

joepie,

For one reason and one reason only!

When I use my smartphone (short trips under two hours on train to NYC for example) to read instead of taking my 840, I use eReader Prestigio which I am totally infatuated with!

Even without color, I would give almost anything to be able to use that software on the 840. Unfortunately, it is not ported to Linux.

I sideload ALL of my books to the 840 and always do a manual d/l install of the software updates so I rarely, if ever turn on the wifi!. Have never liked any of their book storage/sorting/display formats.

I purchased the 840 in order to have an 8 inch screen eInk reader that I do nothing but read books on and am (almost) content!

p38lightning · 06-06-2017, 09:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkomar

I would say that it is not impossible, but close to being so. You can't just slap some generic android on any device, you need to have the proper drivers for the hardware on that device. In this case, the E-Ink display will need a driver that is probably not available to the public, if it exists at all for android.

That's what I generally expected to hear, but hope still springs eternal. Thanks for the detailed comments.

rkomar · 06-06-2017, 09:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by p38lightning

That's what I generally expected to hear, but hope still springs eternal. Thanks for the detailed comments.

If you really want android on an 8" screen, I believe that the Onyx i86 runs android and has a similar screen to the Inkpad2. If your Inkpad ever bites the dust, you might look into purchasing the Onyx device to replace it.

p38lightning · 06-07-2017, 10:18 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rkomar

If you really want android on an 8" screen, I believe that the Onyx i86 runs android and has a similar screen to the Inkpad2. If your Inkpad ever bites the dust, you might look into purchasing the Onyx device to replace it.

Yes...that unit floats around in the back of my head if my current 840 (original version) ever does "bite the dust". My first one developed a cracked screen for reasons I never quite figured out but this one labors on with no issues so far other than losing the small "door" over the two ports on the top.

Hopefully, the Onyx will continue to be improved over time or that another 8 to 8.9 inch dedicated reader will arrive on the seen with Android at its source by the time I seriously need to consider replacing this unit.

BTW, I use my relatively new LG V20 for my "short term" reading jaunts and its screen size suffices for those shorter, frequently interrupted periods.

p38lightning · 06-07-2017, 10:23 AM

One other "quickie" for all:

Has anyone figured out how to set up Library folders on the 840 via USB to your desktop and then simply using File Explorer to move titles where you want them? Trying to do this internally on the 840 is a tedious nightmare. I even contacted Pocket Book about it and they had no solution.

I have set up a number of Library folders with different topic names via "Collections" and moved a few titles into each. This is a drawn out and tedious process. However, when you use Windows File Explorer to look at the 840's files/folders when connected via USB, those "Collection" folders are nowhere to be found!

jackm8 · 06-14-2017, 05:30 PM

I tried collections once, but quickly gave up on the system there. It would take ages to organise it as I liked. Now, I simply use folders that I organise from pc with Total Commander. Pocketbooks library app is robust enough, and offers folders view, so I only use that to go through them.

Few minor problems with it. As soon as you move books around, they'll again be reported as 'new', and it shows various files that programs like coolreader make, and clutter the space a little.

p38lightning · 06-20-2017, 11:13 AM

Thanks for that tip.

Have d/l the software and started "playing" with it.

04-08-2017, 10:51 PM	#1
etatoby Member Posts: 18 Karma: 24214 Join Date: Jan 2007 Device: BOOX Note 3, HiSense A5 Pro CC	[Rant] On the PocketBook Firmware One year ago I bought an Inkpad 840 specifically because the pbimageviewer app existed. I was leaning more towards the Onyx, the one with the same screen but running Android, knowing that nowadays the OS defines a device, but the existence of this app pushed me over to the Inkpad. My primary use case was (and still is) reading manga in the summer, under the sun, hence my need for a large HD eInk screen. I got a 128 GB SD card to go with it, to keep my entire collection on the reader and I couldn't have been happier, right? Well, I have been more than happy with rkomar's app: it does everything you might want and has great performance. Unfortunately, I was less impressed by the firmware. Let's start with the most trivial and the most obvious: the horrible 3 book carousel in the homepage. Surely people are reading more than 3 things at the same time? This is compounded by the fact that with manga you usually have separate CBZs for each book or even chapter, so the list quickly fills up with the single most recent thing you've been reading. On top of that, items in the SD card would not show up at all in the homepage (even regular ebooks) which got me puzzled for a while, until a firmware update a few months later fixed it. The builtin browser is complete garbage, as any PB owner quickly finds out. A version of Opera Mini taken from a cheap Nokia phone (the ones with no touchscreen and 4 MB of RAM) would have been more useful. The file browser only has two possible views, each more annoying than the other: an icon mode that truncates the filenames and a list mode that only shows 5 items or such per page. Really, PocketBook? You sell a device with a 1600x1200 8" screen and you're showing me 5 lousy items per page? Was that designed by the same genius who did the 3 book carousel in the homepage? Are your programmers blind or just stupid? I apologize if this list is short, but I only ever needed to do 3 things with my Inkpad: fly over the useless homepage; using the file browser to open files; and trying the web browser, foolishly thinking I could read the news or download an ebook. Yeah, right. The mind boggles at the chasm of hopelessness and despair I would have plunged into, had I tried to use the other builtin apps, the social features, and so on. Finally, today I accepted the firmware update that had been bugging me for a while and... the damn thing froze on Database Update. No way to go forwards or backwards. Running out of options, I downloaded the 4.4 firmware from their homepage (AHA! So they know their newer software is mediocre!) and lo and behold, most of these problems disappeared. Now I can actually keep track of what I'm reading and browse the contents of my SD card more easily. What do you people think? Have you upgraded to 5 or downgraded to 4? How do you think this OS compares to the competition? Am I just having bad luck, or focusing on irrelevant details? --- Quick instructions for any passers-by: just download an appropriate firmware zip for your model, extract SWUPDATE.BIN into the internal memory or into the SD, and power it on while keeping both up and down buttons pressed. Wait for several flashes and reboots, don't touch anything until you get back to the PocketBook OS. Then download the correct versions of any custom apps (such as pbimageviewer) and install them over the old ones. Last edited by etatoby; 04-10-2017 at 09:04 AM.

06-06-2017, 09:13 PM	#6
p38lightning Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 20939 Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Maine! Device: Lenovo Tab M9	joepie, For one reason and one reason only! When I use my smartphone (short trips under two hours on train to NYC for example) to read instead of taking my 840, I use eReader Prestigio which I am totally infatuated with! Even without color, I would give almost anything to be able to use that software on the 840. Unfortunately, it is not ported to Linux. I sideload ALL of my books to the 840 and always do a manual d/l install of the software updates so I rarely, if ever turn on the wifi!. Have never liked any of their book storage/sorting/display formats. I purchased the 840 in order to have an 8 inch screen eInk reader that I do nothing but read books on and am (almost) content! Last edited by p38lightning; 06-06-2017 at 09:16 PM.

06-07-2017, 10:23 AM	#10
p38lightning Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 20939 Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Maine! Device: Lenovo Tab M9	One other "quickie" for all: Has anyone figured out how to set up Library folders on the 840 via USB to your desktop and then simply using File Explorer to move titles where you want them? Trying to do this internally on the 840 is a tedious nightmare. I even contacted Pocket Book about it and they had no solution. I have set up a number of Library folders with different topic names via "Collections" and moved a few titles into each. This is a drawn out and tedious process. However, when you use Windows File Explorer to look at the 840's files/folders when connected via USB, those "Collection" folders are nowhere to be found! Last edited by p38lightning; 06-07-2017 at 11:44 AM.

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05-31-2017, 10:27 AM	#2
jackm8 Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 28464 Join Date: Nov 2015 Device: none	Personally, I'm sticking with the three book thingy. I find it a small improvement over the 4.4 one. You know that you can scroll the thing to see older books that you've opened? But I guess it's not the right thing when you read plenty cbz's one after another. Other than that, I'm mainly on later firmwares only because of pdf readability. Default was kinda atrocious for large PDF's with plenty of images. It's still not the best around, maybe the problem of high resolution, but it's a lot faster. They don't have the best software that's for sure. Browser truly needs to be used only as last resort, and file viewer could be a lot better as well, though that one at least is usable.

06-03-2017, 11:58 AM	#3
p38lightning Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 20939 Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Maine! Device: Lenovo Tab M9	Has anyone ever successfully hacked the 840 for android use is is that simply not possible?

06-04-2017, 07:48 AM	#4
joepie Zealot Posts: 110 Karma: 6478 Join Date: Nov 2010 Device: Inkpad 3 -> Onyx Boox Nova 3	Hi p38lightning, I'm not so sure that Android is in there. There seems to be a stripped/minimalistic linux under the hood. I am curious why you like to use Android on an ereader.

06-04-2017, 01:55 PM	#5
rkomar Wizard Posts: 2,985 Karma: 18343081 Join Date: Oct 2010 Location: Sudbury, ON, Canada Device: PRS-505, PB 902, PRS-T1, PB 623, PB 840, PB 633	I would say that it is not impossible, but close to being so. You can't just slap some generic android on any device, you need to have the proper drivers for the hardware on that device. In this case, the E-Ink display will need a driver that is probably not available to the public, if it exists at all for android.

06-14-2017, 05:30 PM	#11
jackm8 Zealot Posts: 115 Karma: 28464 Join Date: Nov 2015 Device: none	I tried collections once, but quickly gave up on the system there. It would take ages to organise it as I liked. Now, I simply use folders that I organise from pc with Total Commander. Pocketbooks library app is robust enough, and offers folders view, so I only use that to go through them. Few minor problems with it. As soon as you move books around, they'll again be reported as 'new', and it shows various files that programs like coolreader make, and clutter the space a little.

06-20-2017, 11:13 AM	#12
p38lightning Zealot Posts: 141 Karma: 20939 Join Date: Jan 2015 Location: Maine! Device: Lenovo Tab M9	Thanks for that tip. Have d/l the software and started "playing" with it.

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