Pandigital Novel

[givitup2E]

Could we get a new folder that deals just with the Pandigital Novel. I'd like to put in a few of my thoughts as well as some things I have learned when setting it up. May help some folks out. Thanks.

[NoHolyGrail]

I would like to hear more about the Pandigital Novel ("ePaper" version). It looks interesting, since it's a touchscreen electronic ink reader. How does it compare to the Sony touchscreen models, for example?

I suspect some quantity of posts have to be reached before they would create a separate folder for it. In the meantime, you seem to be in the right place to begin posting.

[imaredr]

I think that would be a great idea.

Ellen

[Wondercookie]

I got a Pandigital Novel (black) as an early Christmas present and I'm trying to learn more about it. Seems like all the other eReaders under the sun are listed...can Pandigital get one? Pleeeeeeze?

[DaleDe]

Pandigital Novel is covered in the wiki. As the Christmas rush shakes out will all the new models I suspect MR will have to revisit adding some separate forums. There is a feedback section on this web site to request new forums.

Dale

[jlg432]

I live in Canada and just bought the Black Pandigital Novel from Beds Bath & Beyond (Dec 21).

I tried to find a white one but it looks like Canada has the Black version with the built in Kobo reader.

I did the new software upgrade and it appears to have opened up the Android OS to the user. I believe though that it is still at Android level 1.5.

I have managed to install some additional apps but serveral have refused to install or work after the install - I assume because of the Android 1.5.

The White one comes with Android 2.0.

The wifi works great as far as I am concern. The native web browser seams to work well. As this is my first Android device I have nothing to really compare it too. The kobo readers is okay. I already had an account because of my purchases for my Aluratek Libre Pro. One thing I also noticed since the upgrade was the scrolling. It nows seems to have momentum when you slide a page. You give the screen a swipe and it keeps on going. You have to really watch it or you can over shoot a page. I believe it didn't work like this before.

I installed a different PDF reader which appears to do some "text flow" rendering when switched on. This reader is called "Repligo Reader". I was strongly recommend it. In page view you see the whole page but you can switch to "Reading View" in which case it zooms into the page and wraps the text around so that you do not have to pan sideways.

So far I have found the unit quite stable and the screen is clear and responsive. I do use my own stylus because I am use to using one as oppose to my fingers. I do like the auto screen switching between portrait and landscape but it would have been nice to have the ability to do it manually when you turn off the auto feature.

The battery life might be an issue. They claim 6 hrs but I believe that is for reading only. If you start taxing it with various apps I believe the life will be much shorter. I have yet to set up email. I have accessed my email via my ISP's home page via the browser.

I was able to play mp4 video right out of the box. It wasn't jerky. I also installed a "Youtube" player and it works great as well. This player was an older version that I heard was required for this unit.

I have not had to do any mods other than the FW update from Pandigital.

It would have been nice to find a white one with the Android 2.0 on it but it looks like I will be stuck with this one to play with.

Other that not having gotten a white one with the higher OS I am quite pleased with it.

John

[NoHolyGrail]

Has anybody seen or used the electronic ink version of the Pandigital Novel?

[awesome71717]

Yup. I have one. It is the 4fff N618 and I'm running a flashed version with bqAvant firmware.

[NoHolyGrail]

How do you like it? How's the quality of the screen? If you have any experience with the Sony PRS-600, could you say how it compares?

[awesome71717]

I like it. It's not exactly the fastest, but its meant to be read and it does well in that area. The contrast is similar to other readers like the kindle or the nook, but those are a bit better. I've never used that sony model and the one I saw today in Best Buy was broke so I can't give you too much of a comparision. It recognizes books within random directories too.

I personally think it's useful for it's main intended purpose: reading.

Web-browsing and other stuff is a nice addition, but the ePaper screen isn't too fast at refreshing color images like LCDs. The Clarity is very nice (pixels aren't seen unless you hold it really close), although it requires at least a close light source like other readers. The part I like the most is that it runs linux, which can be modified very easily.

If you want to see videos, etc look up the 4fff N618. This is the original model. Other companies just create their own firmware

[Caesius]

I'm not sure if I should post this here or elsewhere, but I have the Black Pandigital Novel, and am not terribly knowledgeable as to the software available, but if there is a You Tube app, I'm all for it. Since it has a browser, but it won't access my Yahoo mail (it said some free email accounts won't work), I'd like to get some net fun with it. Anyone have the info on this? I have the recent 7" 4GB PDN (although 'properties' said it was 3GB).

[Caesius]

-= I deleted the post I wrote here since I clarified the question I had in the next post AND because I probably didn't have to clarify the question at all. But I did, and that resulted in wasted time & space -- sorry.=-

[Caesius]

I thought I should clarify my question: Is there a naming standard for epub files in the Pandigital Novel so it can properly sort by Title and Author? Is this done somewhere other than the file name?

I asked that follow up question because what confuses me most is the 100 classics that were pre-loaded used ISBN (or some number) as the file name...So either the Title & Author info is stored elsewhere, or they pre-loaded 100 books that could never be sorted properly.

Since we get books from various sources, the file names are not going to be formatted the same. So how does the Pandigital identify the Title and the Author -- and how do I input the info for a correct sort?

I've looked everywhere. Chango714 asked about this 2 weeks ago, but I saw no answer. Pandigital's Customer Service is overloaded. And I go to the download section of the Pandigital site and the page is either down or empty. The rest navigates fine. Just not the one they told me to go to for updates. :/

Before I begin to match my thumbnail file names to my epub file names, I need to know what naming standard to use -- or I'll end up doing it all over again for 200 books (x2 since I'm doing both thumbnails and epub). It is bad enough I am going through all of these and manually matching them up (some covers I'm having to create or pull from the net and edit).

[NoHolyGrail]

That's a good question; I don't have a Pandigital Novel so I can't help you directly. But since Pandigital runs Android, maybe it's handled in a similar manner as other Android-based e-readers? There's a forum around here for Android devices. Maybe it's worth a post over there as well to see if someone has advice?

[Colina]

I got the PanDigital epaper 2Gig reader for Xmas (had asked for the Kobo, but they were sold out everywhere). Both my children got the Kobo for Xmas, so I was able to compare the two.

The Kobo has a simpler navigating system, is a bit brighter, and the Kobo desktop app works perfectly with the reader for syncing, and the auto sync (wireless) feature is great too.

PanDigital epaper is a bit darker, and the manual is in pdf, and is only available on the reader itself which is annoying with the scrolling back and forth feature. I copied it to my laptop as it's easier to read it and then follow along on the reader. I don't see any reason why I would even bother to read a pdf on it as it's incredibly annoying, it takes epubs and they work perfectly so far. I have no problem reading it in good light, the touch screen is pretty responsive, I like the calendar feature and have used it, also the sudoko is fun, :-), mail, browser - won't use them. And I prefer shopping on my laptop and transferring the books as the Kobo app is a bit more limited than the site itself. All in all I'm happy with it - my son offered to trade with me as he likes the touch screen but I think for the time being I'll keep it. I don't like the ADE software, but to be fair I didn't give it a lot of my time, I found Calibre and used it instead and it works quite well.

I also like the bookshelf feature with the Pandigital, as the Kobo only seems to offer sorting by Author or Subject, and it resets every time you turn it off - annoying!