Last Days of the NOOK?

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by HLS

I am tired of the same argument. Seems like everyone is on repeat. Yes people buy books on multiple platforms. I still buy Nook ebooks as well as KOBO and Amazon.

I do too. I haven't upgraded to a newer Nook, but the Glowlight 3 still has a great screen and I like the page turn buttons on both sides. I do wish they had kept hyphenation (or at least the choice to have it). I've come to terms with the font size choices now. If they let install your own fonts (and gave back hyphenation) it would probably be my main reader.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I do wish they had kept hyphenation...

That was the last straw for me. All of B&N's other antics I could live with. But dropping hyphenation felt like such a stupid and unnecessary step backwards and made the reading experience worse.

I've come to terms with the font size choices now. If they let install your own fonts (and gave back hyphenation) it would probably be my main reader.

If they added hyphenation back, it would likely be enough for me to buy a GL4.

I do still read on my (your) Nook ST with Glowlight. It was old enough they didn't bother going back and removing hyphenation.

[Sirtel]

For me, removing hyphenation would be an advantage. I can't live with the Nook software for other reasons - far too few customization options being the main one. No matter how nice the hardware, I just couldn't stand that constant frustration I felt every time I used the one and only Nook I've had.

But then I'm fussy. My Kobos are heavily patched too.

[LaughingVulcan]

Not a Nook series 4 owner. Have a really old Glowlight (battery is finally dying on it and I must deicide if I'm replacing the battery, Kobo Sage is my daily driver now) and preferred buying from Nook over other sources because B&N maintains brick and mortars. I purchase using the Windows app, not often but just did for the first time after a bit and found out about the dropping of the app from the store.

It seems to me that if B&N wanted to kill off the Nook line intentionally they could only be doing a marginally better job of it right now. They didn't need the front-and-center and high-staff-manning of the Nook center in the stores, but then they just got rid of it outright. If loss of the Windows app isn't enough to kill future use of it for me, it's awfully close... And there is no way I'm buying another Nook hardware device.

I remember Sony.

[Renate]

To anyone terrorized by the 5 GB limit:
You can change that, it's just the allocation of the spsd (sp?) file.
B&N was not being evil with this, just an arbitrary estimate of what the average reader wanted.
It's a limitation of wanting to use UMS, a truly archaic and bad idea, but apparently one that people are used to.
That's when you plug in a cable and your device freezes and says that it's connected.

I'm not saying that B&N isn't evil or stupid. If they've locked down Developer Settings then they are.

I bought B&N for a decade, now I'm very happy with my Onyx Poke5.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Renate

To anyone terrorized by the 5 GB limit:
You can change that, it's just the allocation of the spsd (sp?) file.
B&N was not being evil with this, just an arbitrary estimate of what the average reader wanted.
It's a limitation of wanting to use UMS, a truly archaic and bad idea, but apparently one that people are used to.

Most users (who are not android devs or folks with IT background) have no idea how to use anything else. People just plug their device into their computer and UMS is what they'll get, so UMS it is.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Renate

It's a limitation of wanting to use UMS, a truly archaic and bad idea, but apparently one that people are used to.

UMS? Do you mean USB Mass Storage? If so, why do you call it an archaic bad idea? I'm not following -- it seems to be the best solution that we have, far better than that protocol that Microsoft had 10 or so years ago, UPMC w/ MMPE or something like that.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by twowheels

UMS? Do you mean USB Mass Storage?

Yes.
Most filesystems have one OS that is responsible for the sanity of its data.
UMS just lends the entire raw data to any vagrant OS that thinks it understands it.

The solution is anything that says, "this file system is mine, I'm responsible for it, if you want a file, just ask."

Like ADB, FTP, heck, even MTP is better.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Renate

Yes.
Most filesystems have one OS that is responsible for the sanity of its data.
UMS just lends the entire raw data to any vagrant OS that thinks it understands it.

The solution is anything that says, "this file system is mine, I'm responsible for it, if you want a file, just ask."

Like ADB, FTP, heck, even MTP is better.

Yes, and how one goes about implementing those? I for one have no idea.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Renate

Yes.
Most filesystems have one OS that is responsible for the sanity of its data.
UMS just lends the entire raw data to any vagrant OS that thinks it understands it.

The solution is anything that says, "this file system is mine, I'm responsible for it, if you want a file, just ask."

Like ADB, FTP, heck, even MTP is better.

I've not seen any devices use MTP in years, but it was a horrible disaster, I don't see how you could advocate for that as being better.

For the use case of putting books on an ereader, music on a music player, or photos on a digital photo frame (do those even exist anymore?), mounting the filesystem and copying the files seems perfectly reasonable to me, anything more complex than that requires complex standards that cannot keep up with changes to file formats and device capabilities.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by twowheels

...anything more complex than that requires complex standards...

I don't know. In the Android world ADB is standardized.

[twowheels]

Originally Posted by Renate

I don't know. In the Android world ADB is standardized.

What does that have to do with anything? ADB is a debugging bridge that does FAR more than USB mass storage could ever hope to do, such as a shell, screen recording/mirroring, low level process control, etc.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Renate

To anyone terrorized by the 5 GB limit:
You can change that, it's just the allocation of the spsd (sp?) file.

Does that (whatever it is) still work now that they've password protected their Nooks against going into developer mode?

[Renate]

Originally Posted by twowheels

ADB is ...

Having patched adbd in assembly code, I have a fairly good idea what it is.

I have no idea what you are arguing.
My position: 1) UMS sucks, inherently and irremediably, 2) ADB does everything I need. Don't agree? Fine.

Originally Posted by rcentros

Does that (whatever it is) still work now that they've password protected their Nooks against going into developer mode?

It wouldn't take much to crack the password scheme unless it's server-based. Are we still talking about the BNRV1100 with 4.95 (the latest)?

It's too late in the day to install 4.95
I might try tomorrow.

[plainbriny]

It is possible to downgrade from 4.95 to 4.88.
Once USB debugging is enabled in 4.88, it keeps working even after updated to 4.95 (ADB authorization, accessing developer options, etc). I think the password is only implemented in the diagnostic tool. And it is not likely server-based, because at this stage of on-boarding, Wi-Fi is not configured yet.