Jetbook will add FBReader with next firmware update

[jgray]

In some recent emails to Ectaco, I make some suggestions about improving their firmware. I also mentioned these forums and the growing number of users here.

In the latest email from Ectaco, I learned some very good news. With permission, I am posting that news here. The next Jetbook firmware will include FBReader version 0.10.7 (the current version). Ectaco will be doing some "internal Q&A on June 16" and the release of the new firmware is "expected in 1-2 weeks after that".

I don't know whether my suggestions had anything to do with this, or perhaps Ectaco was already working on incorporating the latest FBReader into its firmware. In any case, this is good news for Jetbook owners.

Assuming that Ectaco incorporates the full functionality of FBReader and doesn't strip anything out, we should see support for additional ebook formats (notably HTML). We should also see some CSS support, which will be a major improvement in the display of epub and mobi.

I am looking forward to the new firmware and am happy to see that Ectaco is actively improving the product. If I learn anything further, I will post.

[wallcraft]

This is very good news. The OpenInkPot firmware on a Hanlin V3 also supports a recent version of FBReader. I don't have a complete set of screenshots (scans), but see 20090222 snapshot for a short tour of the many FBReader options available in OIP.

One thing this will do is reduce the need to convert to a "preferred" format, such as FB2. There are some differences between formats, but FBReader by and large treats all formats similarly. Note that it only supports single-file HTML, which can be zipped if the HTML references images.

If you want to try it out, FBReader is available for Windows and Linux Desktops (and there is an unsupported Mac version).

[Kris777]

Good news! I don't need HTML but it will be nice to have CSS support for Mobi and ePub

[Ankh]

I am not sure what OS is jetBook running under the hood. But if it is Linux, the big question is why is Ectaco burning their resources on maintenance of ... open source software, such as FBreader?

They should open sources for the drivers for their devices, provide information to projects like OpenInkPot, and let the community deal with the FBreader and load via SD whatever software they please on the reader. They already sold the hardware, now didn't they?

I understand that proprietary software has to be kept under control, but OS and the drivers for their device definitely do not fall into that category.

And this is general rant, not necessarily specific to Ectaco. The fact that Open Inkpot effort to support Sony readers has stalled due to the lack of information is utter shortsightedness on Sony's side. There are a bunch of people willing to make their product even better? And Sony doesn't want them to?

[Ham88]

WOOOHOOO! New firmware, I don't really know the merits of fbreader but I'm sure to look into that to see if it actually makes a difference to my reading practices. I'm really just excited because firmware updates are great because you never what they will really include. Sure there's the stuff the company talks about but when you actually get in the new firmware you find exciting things they didn't mention.

[ProDigit]

HTML reading? Awesome!
Hope that comes to other readers as well!
Finally done with converting books,and edit books through a text editor anywhere!
That would truly be awesome!

Even more,
It would be awesome if some readers would have a small port to connect a thumb keyboard to. Then have a program that would allow HTML source code edit in the reader!
Not that it will be used a lot, but a program like that would hardly take up 100kb of code, and could come in handy to correct that one error that shows ok on your pc, but not on the reading device!

[jgray]

Wow, a new title, a picture and the front page, even. I'm honored

[rgeorg]

jgray - Bravo, well-done!
I'm certain that your public comments and communication with their support team did "nudge" Ectaco to decide to upgrade their firmware to include new formats. Hopefully, HTML-support will be one of the FBReader upgrade features.
I appreciate your efforts that help in creating a richer jetBook experience. To be brutally honest, I figured that I'd have to give up features in exchange for a saving money on the reader price and proprietary bookstore costs.

In this economic climate I made much of my purchase decision based on initial and ongoing cost estimates between the name brands of readers and ebook acquisition options. Salaries in Greece are pretty pitiful in general, and teaching is not a high-income profession to begin with! In addition, even purchasing ebooks using a credit card with a European address is becoming difficult.

Between having all of the accessories included, instant start-up time, wonderful screen, instant page-turns, dictionary support, and now seeing that firmware improvements to support additional ebook formats are coming at a quick rate - it is very gratifying (boy, I sure do make good decisions when I research things!)

And again, much of my pleasure in the jetBook is due to jgray, Kris777 and others who have helped me reduce the "learning curve" to about zero-time - thank you!

[jgray]

Just to clarify, I don't know officially that HTML and the rest of the formats that FBReader supports will be in the new firmware. The only details provided to me so far are the two quoted items in my original post.

I would assume that Ectacto would not remove such functionality while porting the program to the Jetbook. We'll know "The Shape of Things to Come" in a few weeks

I did email Ectaco a few more suggestions about integrating FBReader into the Jetbook. I hope they find these suggestions helpful and not consider me a pest.

[jgray]

One enhancement I asked Ectaco about earlier is better font support. I asked for a wider selection of built in fonts (some serif would be nice) and also the capability of using fonts that are added to a "fonts" folder by the end user (like the Sony). I haven't heard anything back on this request yet. It may be too much to incorporate into this next firmware release. If additional font support is not included this time around, we can hope that it will be in the next firmware.

[wodin]

Outstanding! Thanks jgray!

[Lbooker]

If you have that much influence, then maybe reading the following message (which I just posted in the Hanlin forum in a thread called Wikipedia on Bebook) will be a new occasion for you to help us get Wikipedia on many readers!

Copied and pasted:

Frank Burkhardt is the German author of mobipocket ports of Wikipedia in several languages, available freely on his site:
http://pinguinburg.de/wpmp

The older German versions work on my Lbook, and they work perfectly. I use the very good March 2005 version 1.6 in German thanks to the latest Lbook firmware. It is perfectly indexed, and searchable thanks to the virtual keyboard that appears on the screen (go to index, and once in the index press OK and then 1 to search in the index. It would be perfect if opening Wikipedia put us directly in that mode). The links that appear in one article, e.g. the highlighted words linking to other articles, work exactly like in the real online Wikipedia! It is very impressive! And free!

All the recent versions of Wikipedia on his site are split into several files because Wikipedia has become too big to fit in one file apparently. But that reason should be checked. The one-file version I use is 329 MB big!

The old versions of Wikipedia in German (the ones that work) are available here:
http://www.axelschaefermdb.de/service/wikipedia.html


Here is the little thing he asked the programmers of Mobipocket on their forum a couple of years ago:
http://www.mobipocket.com/forum/viewtopic.php?p=32971
But they refused to make the links between several files work in the new version of their software, like they used to work in the older versions written for other products!
Here is the list of the differences between the two major versions of Mobipocket:
http://www.mobipocket.com/dev/articl...File=cross.htm

My new hope now is FBreader.
There are discussions on their list.

They recently added support for Mobipocket.


What we can do:
- register on the Mobipocket forum and add our voices to that of Frank in the discussion he started
- register in the FBreader group on google and ask them if they can please add the support for links between files
- offer a Hanlin reader to Frank to get him on board with us, and very very motivated to find a solution to get recent versions of Wikipedia in many languages work on our favorite reader. Note that he is also working on other projects of interest to us, like making the very best free english-german dictionary (Ding (available in Linux)) mobipocket friendly.

[jgray]

I don't have any influence at all. I am just a Jetbook owner who took the time to contact the manufacturer with some suggestions. Whether they act on those suggestions or file them in the bit bucket is beyond my control.

As to your Widipedia problem, the Ectaco folks aren't the ones to fix things for you. You need to contact the author of FBReader with your request. If he can't help you, then perhaps one of the talented programmers who have ported/modified FBReader to run on the iLiad or Open Inkpot will be willing to contribute some code.

[Dennisvjames]

I apologize ahead of time for rambling a bit on this reply. I have a Jetbook that I just purchased and I love it. I like the LCD screen better because there is no flash as the page turns. Mine came with all the extra formats (mobi etal) which means that there is almost no format I can't read. I do like RTF format best because it adds a little space in between the lines which is easier on my eyes.

I would love to have FBReader-ability on this. However, I use FBReader on my Nokia 800 it seems a bit buggy. I can open a particular document to the last spot I was reading but the library functions (adding to the library and selecting from the library) don't seem to work for me.

So that's my point, right now the Jetbook is simple to use, doesn't seem to have a bug anywhere, works well, and is as fast or faster than the Kindles and Sonys I have tested. But if I could suggest...the more complex this product gets, the more chances to bug it up or bog it down.

Not saying people shouldn't try and I know I can choose to upgrade to the new firmware or not, but remember that the best chance the Jetbook has to move forward is to keep it's simplicity for wider adoption and I'd like to see it get wider adoption so they keep bringing out new versions.

That said, I know that there is a Chinese version with wifi. :-) If I really had my druthers, I love a version of this that would be fast enough to check my blogs too (the Kindle sucks at this for me). Add that and more dpi and it would be perfect...

[wallcraft]

Originally Posted by Dennisvjames

However, I use FBReader on my Nokia 800 it seems a bit buggy. I can open a particular document to the last spot I was reading but the library functions (adding to the library and selecting from the library) don't seem to work for me.

If the jetBook version works like the OpenInkPot version, FBReader's "library" isn't used at all. Navigating to an ebook is the same as now on the jetBook, but when you open the ebook FBReader is invoked on that ebook only. It is possible to use FBReader this way on Desktop machines too (e.g. right click on an ebook and select FBReader to open the file).