Yay, my 360 arrived. Taking the first steps into e-reading

alexul · 09-01-2010, 05:15 AM

At last, after a whole month of waiting I got my hands on the PB360. (actually the delivery in US took only 3 days but the I had to wait for someone to bring it to Romania).
My first impression is good so far. I didn't have time to check every little function of the device, but for reading I find it perfect. I didn't know what to choose betwwen Kindle, Nook and PB but finally I went with PB because I find the keypoard on the others to be a waste of space and I need something smaller.

I read the brief user manual and still have some questions, probably more in the future

The battery indicator shows full so I shouldn't charge it right?
I understood that the first charge should be around 10 hours so I didn't connect it so far to the computer because I didn't want to start charging and then disconnect. Can it be connected to the PC without charging? I know it has 2 modes but it's not clear if PC Link is only for coppying files without charging.

Because I didn't connect to PC, I copied one book from SD. Most of my books are in PDF so I used Calibre and used Epub as output. After reading something on this forum I chose Opus as the output profile and it generated extra blank lines and a weird word wrapping, some lines had only 3-4 short words. When I read the book with fbreader the blank line were removed and some of the wrapping corrected, still I have incomplete lines.
The original PDF is properly formatted so something doesn't go right at the conversion. Anyone has some tips for converting PDF for PB? I will try later with the FB format.

One last question: how much does the G sensor consumes from the battery?
I turned it off for now, because I often change the position of the reader and I noticed the green LED blinking.

Have a great day everybody

kacir · 09-01-2010, 05:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexul

The original PDF is properly formatted so something doesn't go right at the conversion. Anyone has some tips for converting PDF for PB? I will try later with the FB format.

PDF is not a good format as an e-book source. Whether you talk about using pdf directly or use it as a base for conversion.
The only pdf file that works perfectly is the one that was formatted specifically for the device screen size. Most pdf files are formatted for A4 or Letter page size.

When you generate pdf file you throw away large amount of formatting information. This is by design. It means, nobody can take your pdf reformat it easily and publish it as their own.
[ordinary] Pdf format isn't even aware of difference between paragraph break and end of line on page. So the conversion software has to guess. Calibre does excellent job, but you would need and artificial intelligence that understands the text to do reformatting with 100% accuracy.

If you have no choice and there is only pdf version of your book available, I suggest you run it through an OCR program. Abby FineReader or Readiris from I.R.I.S. do great job in creating RTF files from your pdf. (do experiment with various layout options. "recreate exact layout of document" is not a good option)
Readiris that I sometimes use at work for this purpose came bundled with a cheapo scanner/printer/copier/fax combo from Hewlett Packard.

mtravellerh · 09-01-2010, 07:36 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexul

The battery indicator shows full so I shouldn't charge it right?
I understood that the first charge should be around 10 hours so I didn't connect it so far to the computer because I didn't want to start charging and then disconnect. Can it be connected to the PC without charging? I know it has 2 modes but it's not clear if PC Link is only for coppying files without charging.

Please ALWAYS charge your reader first before doing anything else, even if it shows a full battery. You can connect to your PC or power source and charge and read at the same time. PC Link is for copying files and charging at the same time, while the charging mode allows reading at the same time but you can't transfer files.

fjtorres · 09-01-2010, 08:09 AM

If PDF is your primary source of ebooks you have a lot of conversion ahead of you. PDF is not a good fit on 6in readers, much less a 5in reader.
If the PDFs are mosty text, you might be able to salvage most of the info using the free Mobipocket Creator from Mobipocket.com. Just make sure to do the Publisher install instead of the Home install (it's the same install file). In addition to creating a .prc version of the converted PDF, Creator leaves behind a very clean HTML that can be converted to FB2, epub, or whatever.

If the PDFs are technical (tables, eqns, etc) you have a serious mismatch. Abbey Finereader is best for those kinds of documents (athough ScanSoft is pretty good, too) but complex documents are simply not a good fit.
PDF isn't a true ebook format, but rather its "pretend-paper", more of a digital microfiche than an ebook. And trying to shrink a page intended for 300-dpi A4 reading to 200dpi 5in screen is simply not a good experience. Put it this way; a typical PDF page, laser printed, has 8.4 million pixels vs an eink screen's 480000 pixels. You're looking at a 16x reduction in resolution just in pixel count.
The PB360 is a great ebook reader but it's still bound by the laws of nature and PDF is not what *any* ebook reader does best.

(Keeping the motion sensor on full-time will likely reduce your reading time from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 weeks. Less if you don't have it actually power down. The worst I ever got was about a week with the sensor on and leaving power-on full-time. Since the PB360 has such a fast boot time, I turn it off and set the start image to "Last page". This gets me back to where I was reading in seconds. I usually disable the sensor and get around 3 weeks of time between charges.)

Have fun exploring what the PB360 does best; ebook reading.
And check the threads here for links to Themes (I favor FIVE), dictionaries, FBReader180, and the hacked AdobeReader, among other enhancements and tweaks.

Logseman · 09-01-2010, 01:45 PM

Here's a goody you may appreciate, alexul: a user-made translation of the firmware commands into Romanian.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...13&postcount=5

Mickey330 · 09-01-2010, 03:19 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexul

At last, after a whole month of waiting I got my hands on the PB360. (actually the delivery in US took only 3 days but the I had to wait for someone to bring it to Romania)...

Welcome to the PB360 "club" Alexul!

Glad to hear you are enjoying it.

Happy reading.

Marilyn

tvpupsik · 09-01-2010, 03:26 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mtravellerh

Please ALWAYS charge your reader first before doing anything else, even if it shows a full battery.

alexul, I concur with mtravellerh - please fully charge the reader first. Unless someone who brought it to Romania played with your reader and charged it already

alexul · 09-02-2010, 07:27 AM

Hello,
I'm glad to be in PB360 club

Actually I'm trying to attract new members and show the device to everyone I know and most of the people like the design(I got the Ivory one) and also the reading. It's a pitty that it's so hard to get one. The European version is too expensive and shipping from US... brings you to the same price in EU. It's even more frustrating because I saw the company is based in Ukraine, which is just north to Romania. If I had had a car I would have just driven there and buy one from their HQ

.

Oh, this thing with PDF is not so good news. For now I read some research ,but not technical, books and papers so wrapping is not too annoying. I'll give it a try with Abby too. Fortunately most of my reading is plain text with only several tables, pictures per book

Thanks for the firmwire Logseman. Right now I don't want to mess with it until I learn how to back it up first. How do I do that and how do I restore it in case of emergency?

Happy (reading) day

Logseman · 09-02-2010, 07:30 AM

It's not the firmware, it's just a translation. You won't screw up anything

Here you have the instructions to use the translation: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...28&postcount=1

alexul · 09-08-2010, 06:08 AM

Hello again,
So I finally found some time to charge the 360. I only have the USB cable for charging so 3 hours ago I plugged it into the computer, it was turned off(the device not the computer

; instantly the device powered on, booted normaly and showed me the main menu. But the thing is I don't see it from my computer. I have a Win 7 on 64bit and on the setting menu on the device the USB connection was set to PC Link. I don't have any SD card in it. I restarted the device, still doesn't show. The LED is orange, the battery indicator shows charging so everything seems fine, except that it's not visible.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Any ideas?

LE: found this answerhttps://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...83&postcount=9 right after posting. So I guess it should have been on to actualy use the PC Link mode.

tvpupsik · 09-08-2010, 09:55 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexul

Hello again,
So I finally found some time to charge the 360. I only have the USB cable for charging so 3 hours ago I plugged it into the computer, it was turned off(the device not the computer

; instantly the device powered on, booted normaly and showed me the main menu. But the thing is I don't see it from my computer. I have a Win 7 on 64bit and on the setting menu on the device the USB connection was set to PC Link. I don't have any SD card in it. I restarted the device, still doesn't show. The LED is orange, the battery indicator shows charging so everything seems fine, except that it's not visible.
Any ideas?
Thanks
Any ideas?

LE: found this answerhttps://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...83&postcount=9 right after posting. So I guess it should have been on to actualy use the PC Link mode.

Yes, the device should be turned on in order to enter into PC Link mode and be recognized by a computer. By the way, when the device is in PC Link mode it is also charging in the same time.

alexul · 09-08-2010, 10:11 AM

Hello,
Ok, so 2 hours ago the light turned green but I said to let it connected just to make sure it charged fully. Now I disconnected it. The light turned off but when trying to turn it on it froze, the light is green but nothing shows up. Any ideas? Is it on, is it Off?

tvpupsik · 09-08-2010, 10:56 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexul

Hello,
Ok, so 2 hours ago the light turned green but I said to let it connected just to make sure it charged fully. Now I disconnected it. The light turned off but when trying to turn it on it froze, the light is green but nothing shows up. Any ideas? Is it on, is it Off?

When the reader is not connected to a PC or charger the indicator light should be OFF. It turns green when the readers does some operation (opening a book, turning page, etc). Based on the symptom you describe it looks like the reader is frozen and you might need to do Reset.
If you have firmware version 15.1 on your device which freezes often I would recommend to downgrade to 14.2 version.

alexul · 09-08-2010, 11:09 AM

Well, just before you posted , kept my breath and my fingres crossed and opened the back cover and reset it from the button. And I happily saw the main menu. Then I managed to connect it again and copy 2 books. Everything works fine now. Hope this will not repeat too often

Thanks tvpupsik

tvpupsik · 09-08-2010, 11:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by alexul

Well, just before you posted , kept my breath and my fingres crossed and opened the back cover and reset it from the button. And I happily saw the main menu. Then I managed to connect it again and copy 2 books. Everything works fine now. Hope this will not repeat too often

Thanks tvpupsik

Glad it is working, alexul! When my PB360 had firmware version 15.1 such freezes happened way too often and since I downgraded to 14.2 I haven't had a single issue.
Happy reading!

09-01-2010, 05:15 AM	#1
alexul Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 4324 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Device: PB 360, Kobo Touch	Yay, my 360 arrived. Taking the first steps into e-reading At last, after a whole month of waiting I got my hands on the PB360. (actually the delivery in US took only 3 days but the I had to wait for someone to bring it to Romania). My first impression is good so far. I didn't have time to check every little function of the device, but for reading I find it perfect. I didn't know what to choose betwwen Kindle, Nook and PB but finally I went with PB because I find the keypoard on the others to be a waste of space and I need something smaller. I read the brief user manual and still have some questions, probably more in the future The battery indicator shows full so I shouldn't charge it right? I understood that the first charge should be around 10 hours so I didn't connect it so far to the computer because I didn't want to start charging and then disconnect. Can it be connected to the PC without charging? I know it has 2 modes but it's not clear if PC Link is only for coppying files without charging. Because I didn't connect to PC, I copied one book from SD. Most of my books are in PDF so I used Calibre and used Epub as output. After reading something on this forum I chose Opus as the output profile and it generated extra blank lines and a weird word wrapping, some lines had only 3-4 short words. When I read the book with fbreader the blank line were removed and some of the wrapping corrected, still I have incomplete lines. The original PDF is properly formatted so something doesn't go right at the conversion. Anyone has some tips for converting PDF for PB? I will try later with the FB format. One last question: how much does the G sensor consumes from the battery? I turned it off for now, because I often change the position of the reader and I noticed the green LED blinking. Have a great day everybody

09-08-2010, 06:08 AM	#10
alexul Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 4324 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Device: PB 360, Kobo Touch	Hello again, So I finally found some time to charge the 360. I only have the USB cable for charging so 3 hours ago I plugged it into the computer, it was turned off(the device not the computer ; instantly the device powered on, booted normaly and showed me the main menu. But the thing is I don't see it from my computer. I have a Win 7 on 64bit and on the setting menu on the device the USB connection was set to PC Link. I don't have any SD card in it. I restarted the device, still doesn't show. The LED is orange, the battery indicator shows charging so everything seems fine, except that it's not visible. Any ideas? Thanks Any ideas? LE: found this answerhttps://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...83&postcount=9 right after posting. So I guess it should have been on to actualy use the PC Link mode. Last edited by alexul; 09-08-2010 at 06:15 AM.

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09-01-2010, 08:09 AM	#4
fjtorres Grand Sorcerer Posts: 11,732 Karma: 128354696 Join Date: May 2009 Location: 26 kly from Sgr A* Device: T100TA,PW2,PRS-T1,KT,FireHD 8.9,K2, PB360,BeBook One,Axim51v,TC1000	If PDF is your primary source of ebooks you have a lot of conversion ahead of you. PDF is not a good fit on 6in readers, much less a 5in reader. If the PDFs are mosty text, you might be able to salvage most of the info using the free Mobipocket Creator from Mobipocket.com. Just make sure to do the Publisher install instead of the Home install (it's the same install file). In addition to creating a .prc version of the converted PDF, Creator leaves behind a very clean HTML that can be converted to FB2, epub, or whatever. If the PDFs are technical (tables, eqns, etc) you have a serious mismatch. Abbey Finereader is best for those kinds of documents (athough ScanSoft is pretty good, too) but complex documents are simply not a good fit. PDF isn't a true ebook format, but rather its "pretend-paper", more of a digital microfiche than an ebook. And trying to shrink a page intended for 300-dpi A4 reading to 200dpi 5in screen is simply not a good experience. Put it this way; a typical PDF page, laser printed, has 8.4 million pixels vs an eink screen's 480000 pixels. You're looking at a 16x reduction in resolution just in pixel count. The PB360 is a great ebook reader but it's still bound by the laws of nature and PDF is not what any ebook reader does best. (Keeping the motion sensor on full-time will likely reduce your reading time from 2-3 weeks to 1-2 weeks. Less if you don't have it actually power down. The worst I ever got was about a week with the sensor on and leaving power-on full-time. Since the PB360 has such a fast boot time, I turn it off and set the start image to "Last page". This gets me back to where I was reading in seconds. I usually disable the sensor and get around 3 weeks of time between charges.) Have fun exploring what the PB360 does best; ebook reading. And check the threads here for links to Themes (I favor FIVE), dictionaries, FBReader180, and the hacked AdobeReader, among other enhancements and tweaks.

09-01-2010, 01:45 PM	#5
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,000 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	Here's a goody you may appreciate, alexul: a user-made translation of the firmware commands into Romanian. https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...13&postcount=5

09-02-2010, 07:27 AM	#8
alexul Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 4324 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Device: PB 360, Kobo Touch	Hello, I'm glad to be in PB360 club Actually I'm trying to attract new members and show the device to everyone I know and most of the people like the design(I got the Ivory one) and also the reading. It's a pitty that it's so hard to get one. The European version is too expensive and shipping from US... brings you to the same price in EU. It's even more frustrating because I saw the company is based in Ukraine, which is just north to Romania. If I had had a car I would have just driven there and buy one from their HQ . Oh, this thing with PDF is not so good news. For now I read some research ,but not technical, books and papers so wrapping is not too annoying. I'll give it a try with Abby too. Fortunately most of my reading is plain text with only several tables, pictures per book Thanks for the firmwire Logseman. Right now I don't want to mess with it until I learn how to back it up first. How do I do that and how do I restore it in case of emergency? Happy (reading) day

09-02-2010, 07:30 AM	#9
Logseman Orisa Posts: 2,000 Karma: 1035571 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Ireland Device: Onyx Poke 5	It's not the firmware, it's just a translation. You won't screw up anything Here you have the instructions to use the translation: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...28&postcount=1

09-08-2010, 10:11 AM	#12
alexul Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 4324 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Device: PB 360, Kobo Touch	Hello, Ok, so 2 hours ago the light turned green but I said to let it connected just to make sure it charged fully. Now I disconnected it. The light turned off but when trying to turn it on it froze, the light is green but nothing shows up. Any ideas? Is it on, is it Off?

09-08-2010, 11:09 AM	#14
alexul Connoisseur Posts: 63 Karma: 4324 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Romania Device: PB 360, Kobo Touch	Well, just before you posted , kept my breath and my fingres crossed and opened the back cover and reset it from the button. And I happily saw the main menu. Then I managed to connect it again and copy 2 books. Everything works fine now. Hope this will not repeat too often Thanks tvpupsik

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