Recommendations for EInk Android Reader with Google Play Store

[readabit]

Thanks everyone for the great discussion so far, sharing your thoughts, pros/cons, etc. -- super helpful!!

I've ended up deciding to give the Mars a try, and so far I like it. I have a few more questions though, in part since this is my first eink device.

1. With E-ink, am I correct that it is only using power if it is actively doing something (ie, Wifi On, Frontlight On, changing visual content on the screen, etc.)? In other words, if Wifi is Off and the Frontlight is Off, is it using any power to have the text still displayed on the screen? Or to put it yet another way, is there a benefit to putting the reader to Sleep, or a benefit to Powering Off the reader (eg, turning it Off over night)?
2. Any recommended settings for Moon+ Reader for EInk? I'm trying the "Outdoor (Pure white)" theme currently since it seemed like that might give the display the least amount of data to be redrawing. And of course am not using page turn animations.
3. [Edit: the book cover issue is resolved.] In my initial testing it looks like the Mars launcher bookshelf doesn't display covers for books for Moon+ Reader (I think because the Mars bookshelf expects thumbnails to be in a different location). Anyone else running into this?
   Those of you that use Moon+ Reader (instead of the Mars reader), do you even bother with the Mars bookshelf? I'm currently thinking I'll just stick with the Moon+ Reader bookshelf organization and ignore the Mars bookshelf entirely.
4. Any other tips, suggestions, etc. for optimizing my Mars Reader (particularly for use with Moon+ Reader or Pocket)?

Thanks!

[readabit]

Thought of a few more questions...
5) For Moon+ Reader or Pocket, any thoughts, recommendations, preferences on use of A2 mode, "Bleaching function," "Use Regal to refresh," or any other settings that can be configured on a per-app basis? I think I understand A2 mode, but I'm a bit fuzzy on Bleaching and Regal as to when I might want to use them, and what the pros/cons are of using them (eg, using more battery?).

[pazos]

1. The screen only drains battery when you refresh its content. Android is a huge beast of OS so you should suspend if you're not reading (lets say 5 - 15 mins) and poweroff fo longer times (more than 8h-24h without reading). Linux e-ink devices work way better because there is only one program/service running vs the 20-30 running on android.

3. Boyue has a service which scans shared storage and add new books to their database. Covers are picked there. The system just doesn't knows which software you are going to use for read that particular book. So standard epubs with standard covers are usually ok.

5. A2 is useful if you spend time scrolling because it is faster and uses less battery. If you plan to use your device to read using paginated views (like in moonreader and pocket) you're better with A2 disabled. Regal means normal w/ a waveform optimized to leave less ghosting on the screen. It is useful for some people on some devices, but should not affect the battery life.

[readabit]

Thanks for all that -- very helpful!

As a follow up to (3) above: I ran into another issue, in this case to do with file paths. Inside Moon+ Reader I have my path set to /sdcard/BOOKS_FOLDER.... But if I open a book via the Mars bookshelf Moon sees the book as having a different path:
/storage/emulated/0/BOOKS_FOLDER.... And because of that Moon treats the same book as being two different books, depending on whether I open the book within Moon or from the Mars bookshelf. The two paths of course resolve to the same location and the same books. I did a little bit of research and it looks like this problem shows up with other situations, like folks using Calibre Companion:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=286251

So until Moon+ Reader is able to recognize that those paths are the same and pointing to the same file (which I don't even know if there's a way for the app to do that in Android) I recommend that you pick which method you want to use for organizing and opening your books and then stick with it. For me, I prefer to organize my books within Moon+ Reader, so I am just going to ignore the Mars bookshelf.

If anyone has any thoughts, recommendations on the above (or 1-5 earlier in this thread) I welcome them.

[fduniho]

1. Since it's an Android tablet, it's going to be running apps even if it is not updating the screen. So, even when idle, it will be using the battery somewhat.

2. Moon+ Reader is not telling me what theme I'm using, but I believe it is Outdoor {Pure white). I have the "Automatic day night mode switch" unchecked, since I don't need a different theme for the night. I have "Page Flip Animation" set to "None".

3. I use Nova Launcher, which doesn't include the Mars bookshelf. I treat the default reader as though it doesn't exist and just use Moon+ Reader, the Kindle app, and some other reading apps in its place. I let each reading app maintain its own bookshelf without having any handled by the OS.

4. Thanks to the AppSales app, I have gotten paid versions of various apps for free or on sale. I got Rotation Control Pro for free, which I use to regularly set my screen orientation to reverse portrait and to sometimes set it to landscape. This is important, since it has no gyroscope, and I prefer to have the power button and the audio and USB ports at the top. Reminder Pro and Weather Pro are other useful paid apps I got for free.

I use Firefox as my main browser, because it supports extensions. I use Hacker's Keyboard for my keyboard. It is a great device for reading manga. I use it with various manga apps. Thanks to the earphone port, I can listen to music on Spotify while I read.

I have a lap desk with a slot in it. My Likebook Mars fits snugly into this slot, so that I can stick it there and read hands free (except for turning pages) while lying down.

5. In general, A2 mode makes page turning and page scrolling faster and more fluid. So I prefer to keep it on. But it makes less difference in Moon+ Reader, because it has the fastest page turning of any app I use.

Turning it off is useful when I want to get rid of ghosting or see the full color palette clearly. In A2 mode, it uses fewer shades of grey. In particular, it treats red (#ff0000) as black (#000000) instead of as a shade of grey. This is not really an issue when you're just reading text.

[Gibbo]

I'm also very interested but I would like to know how the following apps would look and function on this device.

Kindle
Scridb
Google Books
Audible

Would they look like a dedicated Kindle reader/Android tablet?.

Thanks.

[Gibbo]

Also I've seen a few YouTube vids and ghosting is present is that avoidable?.

[Lparsons21]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

I'm also very interested but I would like to know how the following apps would look and function on this device.



Kindle

Scridb

Google Books

Audible



Would they look like a dedicated Kindle reader/Android tablet?.



Thanks.

I don’t use Audible so I can’t say on that one.
The other 3 work fine on my Likebook Mars. As to your ghosting question, yes it is there but not bad for book reading. Some are more bothered than others with it.


Sent from my iPad using Tapatalk Pro

[fduniho]

Originally Posted by Gibbo

I'm also very interested but I would like to know how the following apps would look and function on this device.

Kindle
Scridb
Google Books
Audible

Would they look like a dedicated Kindle reader/Android tablet?.

Thanks.

I have used the Kindle and Google Books apps. Overall, the Kindle app is good to use, but it does have some drawbacks compared to using a dedicated Kindle. The most annoying is that it provides a smaller area for tapping to turn the page. You have to tap on the far right, and if you tap in the middle, it is like tapping at the top on a dedicated Kindle. Another annoying one is that it sometimes deletes my books, including my dictionary, on its own, requiring me to redownload them. My dedicated Kindles, a Touch and DX, have never done this. One more drawback is that it does not support custom fonts. You can use it only with the fonts that come with it. At least it comes with a good selection of fonts, including Bookerly, which I use by choice on my dedicated Kindles. One more font issue is that it provides a limited number of font sizes, and there is a point where there is too large of a gap between adjacent font sizes. I have not had this problem with the iOS Kindle app or with dedicated Kindles. With A2 mode off, you can get clean page turning, but it will be a bit slower. With A2 mode on, you can get faster page turning with some ghosting. The ghosting usually doesn't affect reading. The main reason for using a Likebook Mars over a dedicated Kindle is that the device itself has some advantages over recent Kindles. It is larger than a Kindle Oasis, it comes with warm lighting for reading at night, it has an audio port, and by being an Android device, it lets you use better browsers and run various Android apps.

The Kindle app does handle audio books. I do not generally listen to them, but I tried one out for a book on Kindle Unlimited. I stopped mainly because the narrator was reading the text differently than I would.

Google Books is another good reading app. I have not used it much on other devices, because I prefer to read on e-ink. I have read one book with it on the Likebook Mars, and it works well enough. It should behave the same as on other Android tablets, because the Likebook Mars is also an Android tablet, and it runs the same app as other Android tablets do.

[Gibbo]

Thanks very much for your comments.

[hansipansi65]

...my two Cents, at least for my Android reader Boox Note Pro (1)

/ for now I'm happy with PDF- and epub-annotations and syncing everything to my own private cloud and android phone, quote:

Originally Posted by hansipansi65

Hello julian, quite the experience I got with the Boox Note Pro (1)

>without rooting<
(rooting is at least for now not possible on Boox Note Pro (1))

[indi_man89]

Hi everyone.

I've just got the Likebook Mars.
I only installed Perfect viewer, Moon reader and KOReader.
With wifi off, bluetooth off and google framework disable, its battery decrease so fast.
I mean standby battery, 1 percentage per every 3 hours.
Should I do more to improve standby battery.

Thanks all.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by indi_man89

Hi everyone.

I've just got the Likebook Mars.
I only installed Perfect viewer, Moon reader and KOReader.
With wifi off, bluetooth off and google framework disable, its battery decrease so fast.
I mean standby battery, 1 percentage per every 3 hours.
Should I do more to improve standby battery.

Thanks all.

Standby is broken on Likebooks. Probably not easily fixable as their firmware is a crap. AFAICT Nooks and Tolinos have a saner standby behaviour, probably because they're based on non-broken SoC and developed by non-crappy vendors.

[notimp]

Originally Posted by pazos

Standby is broken on Likebooks. Probably not easily fixable as their firmware is a crap. AFAICT Nooks and Tolinos have a saner standby behaviour, probably because they're based on non-broken SoC and developed by non-crappy vendors.

Ah magical thinking of someone incapable of actual logic. With an added probably - to seem as if this was thought out in any way.

Turn off Wifi.
Turn off Bluetooth.

And in Android settings unter WiFi/Advanced, make sure you set "Keep WiFi on during sleep" to "Only when plugged in", and that you disable Network notifications (Notify whenever a public network is available).

On a Likebook Mars thats almost two years old at this point, this will give you 20 days of standby use.



Deactivate turn off after x minutes, so that the device always just goes into standby as well.

For any android device this is plenty.

People dont even have to deal with apps breaking sleepstates and draining batteries faster, because Boyue force closes all apps after a while, if not specified specifically to not force close. Similarly Boyue doesnt allow for Android apps to set 'start at boot' flags, unless you specify them as being allowed to start at boot. This counteracts most of the usual battery drain on Android - which allows for those long standby times in the first place.

On better SOCs Wifi might not have to be deactivated at all, but with this one - something using Wifi (or Bluetooth) seems to suspend deep sleep states for too long, which is why it is recommended to deactivate those to to get those stand by times.

If we are all finished playing pricks in the know - as far as I'm concerned, we can move on.

[pazos]

Originally Posted by notimp

Ah magical thinking of someone incapable of actual logic. With an added probably - to seem as if this was thought out in any way.

LoL, let me explain

Originally Posted by notimp

Turn off Wifi.
Turn off Bluetooth.

And in Android settings unter WiFi/Advanced, make sure you set "Keep WiFi on during sleep" to "Only when plugged in", and that you disable Network notifications (Notify whenever a public network is available).

These are mitigations. They're cool as a suggestion but they don't apply to the previous user, who had wifi and bluetooth already off.

Originally Posted by notimp

On a Likebook Mars thats almost two years old at this point, this will give you 20 days of standby use.

Battery guesses are broken in most ereaders, rockchip and freescale. The only way to know how much time can a device spend suspended is by measuring a full battery charge, from 100% to 0%.

I did these tests on a Likebook Mimas (RK3368) and a Energy Pro 4 (RK3026). Recently I did test on a Nook and it last longer.

Obviously comparing them with plain linux ereaders isn't fair, as android e-readers have a bunch of system services running on the background.

Originally Posted by notimp

Deactivate turn off after x minutes, so that the device always just goes into standby as well.

I would suggest the other way around. If your device is going to sleep for more than an hour you'll probably want to turn it off instead of suspend. Things go kaboom if we're talking about days or weeks.

Originally Posted by notimp

For any android device this is plenty.

I don't have a way to measure plentiness.

Originally Posted by notimp

People dont even have to deal with apps breaking sleepstates and draining batteries faster, because Boyue force closes all apps after a while, if not specified specifically to not force close. Similarly Boyue doesnt allow for Android apps to set 'start at boot' flags, unless you specify them as being allowed to start at boot. This counteracts most of the usual battery drain on Android - which allows for those long standby times in the first place.

Fair for user installed apps. Media server, adb, rk-updater, the indexer ... all run at boot and stay alive during standby.

Originally Posted by notimp

On better SOCs Wifi might not have to be deactivated at all, but with this one - something using Wifi (or Bluetooth) seems to suspend deep sleep states for too long, which is why it is recommended to deactivate those to to get those stand by times.

Indeed some phones are very well optimized during sleep modes. As far as I know no eink device is well optimized so your suggestion could apply to any android ereader.

Keeping the wifi chipset idle by itself won't harm too much the battery. My Cervantes can stay on standby during weeks even when the core is always powered. Other things like scanning wifi networks while idle make more harm.

Originally Posted by notimp

If we are all finished playing pricks in the know - as far as I'm concerned, we can move on

Sorry if I hurt you. It wasn't intended. I'm not a fan of Likebooks for other reasons too, but I tried to not mix these reasons in the same bag. I was talking about how badly optimized is the battery time on recent Likebook devices. Specially compared to linux ones, but mainly compared to other android ereaders.

Obviously your suggested mitigations are ok to get most of these devices but having a few real (or better) purchasing alternatives shouldn't allow us to underestimate the main limitations of this product.


I'm happy that you're actually enjoying your rig