Firmware updates, dictionaries, fonts and third-party software for M92

[Acryde]

From what I've read in a recent comparison (PB 903 vs. boox M92) jbaach wrote it would be worth to implement some functionalities in the M92:

PDF handling

- annotate files (take snapshots in addition to scribbling and highlighting)
- display all annotations as a list and within the table of contents
- export annotations

- column mode : "you are zoomed in really close, and then you use the arrow keys (up, down) to make the 'zoom' area move one screen lenght (e.g. a third of a column) down. When you reach the bottom of the page, you get moved to the top of the second column. Really nice for reading small text on pages with columns"

- pan with joystick (not with pen) : there seems to be a conflict "when you are zoomed in (e.g. to read small text in columns). Because you need the pen to pan around, you need to switch constantly between scribble mode and pan mode. Which is really annoying. Would be much better if you could use the joystick to move the zoomed area around (well, more then 2 pixels per click)."

EPUB handling
Adobe Reader

- annotate files (scribbling, highlighting, snapshots)
- display all annotations as a list and within the table of contents
- export all annotations

- go back and forth between endnotes and main text : seems to be currently only a one way trip from main text to endnotes (with no way back)
- displaying pages numbers from original printed editions is a great feature but it seems that "Sometimes the number overlaps with the text though".
- set margins
- select a font family

FBReader
- annotate files (scribbling, highlighting, snapshots)
- display all annotations as a list and within the table of contents
- export all annotations
- set margins
- go back and forth between endnotes and main text : seems to be impossible in both ways

- improve search for a word in dictionnaries (as said in a previous message by Kal9871, don't know if it concerns only EPUB with what software?)

Web browsing
- set a startup page

Speech to text
- need to be louder and more natural

Multitasking

Calibration of the pen input (as already said by psv and peterx)

Pending questions: would it be nice to have the possibility
- to merge highlights into a new pdf file (in addition to scribbles) ?
- to set the reading software per file and not systemwide as it is currently ?
- make annotations with a virtual keyboard ?

IMHO (and as a researcher in social sciences) the most important implementations expected are annotations (making them / exporting them) with a priority given to pdf files.

These points would have more weight if actual owners of these devices could confirm my comments. And if we could have a timeline for these main improvements I would buy a boox M92 as soon as it is available for France!

[eLiNK]

Originally Posted by Kal9871

Yes what I really would love to see is a shortcut to the dictionary tool when reading a book.

The current approach of clicking the main menu, selecting the dictionary tool and then clicking on a word has a few drawbacks:

a) it's rather slow.
b) you have to do a manual screen refresh or the text that underneath the main menu window will barely be visible when you select the word to look up.
c) if the word is at the bottom of the page, it'll be hidden by the dictionary window, and it can be selected easily.

When you read a book and you are in the default operation mode (ie. you have not selected a tool from the main menu) the stylus is only used to change pages.

So here's my suggestion: when you're in the default mode clicking on a word with the stylus and holding it in for 2-3 seconds should launch the dictionary tool and look up the word you selected. You could still change pages with the stylus by tapping the sides of the screen where there are no words.

I don't think this would be very hard to implement, and in my opinion it would really improve the dictionary experience.

Thanks for forwarding our suggestions Booxtor!

Would an inline dictionary as realized in the kindle be not more convenient?

[Beryll Snyder]

Originally Posted by Acryde

From what I've read in a recent comparison (PB 903 vs. boox M92) jbaach wrote it would be worth to implement some functionalities in the M92:


IMHO (and as a researcher in social sciences) the most important implementations expected are annotations (making them / exporting them) with a priority given to pdf files.

These points would have more weight if actual owners of these devices could confirm my comments. And if we could have a timeline for these main improvements I would buy a boox M92 as soon as it is available for France!

Forget it.
For just reading the device is actually quite good. But that's basically it.
As a professional tool it is useless.
The platform they are running it on in my opinion is a dead end.

[Acryde]

Originally Posted by Beryll Snyder

Forget it.

I'm pretty disappointed, is there a reader that you would recommend (Kindle DXG, Pocketbook 912, Asus DR900, Ectaco Jetbook color...)?

And is your opinion shared by others?

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by Beryll Snyder

Forget it.
For just reading the device is actually quite good. But that's basically it.
As a professional tool it is useless.
The platform they are running it on in my opinion is a dead end.

What would be the best platform in your opinion? (Mine: Android)
What are the tools and the features that would make an ereader a good "professional tool"?

[matulena]

what is the password firmware 1.6. zip,please¿?

tanks you

[Acryde]

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

What would be the best platform in your opinion? (Mine: Android)

Well if you ask me I would answer that I don't have a preference for a specific platform, I don't feel the need to have a whole ecosystem like I do with my smartphone. Then I like (and use) open systems like linux.

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

What are the tools and the features that would make an ereader a good "professional tool"?

pretty simple answer:
- big screen
- minimum eye strain
- quick responsive convenient for reading pdf files (scientific articles but also scanned versions of old books that are no more edited)
- possibility to annotate (scribbling, highlighting, snapshots) and to export all annotations as text files.
that's about it! Then I have a preference for touch devices with a stylus cause the interaction feels more natural. Every other function/feature is welcome.

Is it too much to ask?

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by Acryde

Well if you ask me I would answer that I don't have a preference for a specific platform, I don't feel the need to have a whole ecosystem like I do with my smartphone. Then I like (and use) open systems like linux.



pretty simple answer:
- big screen
- minimum eye strain
- quick responsive convenient for reading pdf files (scientific articles but also scanned versions of old books that are no more edited)
- possibility to annotate (scribbling, highlighting, snapshots) and to export all annotations as text files.
that's about it! Then I have a preference for touch devices with a stylus cause the interaction feels more natural. Every other function/feature is welcome.

Is it too much to ask?

Pretty much the same requirements like my requirements.

I would add two more things (@Boxtoor: please add this to your list):

-the PDF comments/highlights/annotations should be exported as FDF or XFDF files, this makes them portable on any platform. I do realize that this might require efforts and I believe that they will implement easily most of the features available via the PDF library used to implement the PDF reder (PoDoFo). I already searched podofo.sourceforge.net and could not find any reference to FDF or XFDF so ... I guess this is not something that is doable in the near future
-when you highlight something it would be nice to have the highlighted text added automatically as comment. This is a standard feature for many PDF editing programs. Any other way to export the highlighted text is welcome.. I believe that exporting the highlights is very important because most of the times when you learn you want to select the items you want to learn. At least in my case I have very little to add to a PDF as comments but lots of things to select for later reviewing and for this reason I believe that a faster selection of these items and exporting the highlighted text in any way are crucial

@Acryde: excepting the exporting I don't think that we are too far from what we are asking. Then why are you declaring this ereader dead as professional tool?

[Acryde]

Originally Posted by PF4Mobile

@Acryde: excepting the exporting I don't think that we are too far from what we are asking. Then why are you declaring this ereader dead as professional tool?

I didn't :

Originally Posted by Beryll Snyder

As a professional tool it is useless.
The platform they are running it on in my opinion is a dead end.

[kamizase]

I came up with another idea, for plain text (ie. ePUB) reading it might be more convinient to be able to split the text in colums for better reading.

Originally Posted by Acryde

Is it too much to ask?

Apparently it is. Either you get an iPad or you have to live with what you get from either Onyx or Pocketbook.

[astrobot]

Firmware update failure
I got Boox M92 yesterday and tried the firmware update 1.6 because the calibration did not work well.
Once it finishes installing the update, it restarts and the progress bar got full. But the problem was that, then it stuck at the welcome screen (screen with images of books and device). I thought that was what Booxtor wrote "it stucks there on dimmed start-up screen", but the blue light keeps blinking so the device is still on.
I waited for overnight, but it was still blinking.

Then, I decided to long press the power button to turn off and restart it manually, but again it stuck at the welcome screen.

I also tried another firmware 1.7, but the same thing happened and cannot go further from the welcome screen.

Could anyone can help me to solve this issue?

I really appreciate.
Thanks.

It somehow that when I connected the device to a computer and restarted it, the issue was solved. I don't really get why, but now I have no problem. Thank you.

[Booxtor]

Originally Posted by astrobot

Firmware update failure
I got Boox M92 yesterday and tried the firmware update 1.6 because the calibration did not work well.
Once it finishes installing the update, it restarts and the progress bar got full. But the problem was that, then it stuck at the welcome screen (screen with images of books and device). I thought that was what Booxtor wrote "it stucks there on dimmed start-up screen", but the blue light keeps blinking so the device is still on.
I waited for overnight, but it was still blinking.

Then, I decided to long press the power button to turn off and restart it manually, but again it stuck at the welcome screen.

I also tried another firmware 1.7, but the same thing happened and cannot go further from the welcome screen.

Could anyone can help me to solve this issue?

I really appreciate.
Thanks.

It somehow that when I connected the device to a computer and restarted it, the issue was solved. I don't really get why, but now I have no problem. Thank you.

Long pressing power button doesn't work in this case.. Short pressing does

[astrobot]

Originally Posted by Booxtor

Long pressing power button doesn't work in this case.. Short pressing does

Thank you very much for the quick reply.
Only one more issue is that Stylus Calibration is not working very well on my device.
After the calibration, I tried to scrabble on pdf and found that all drawn thing is shifted outwards; at the center, the point I press with the pen is exactly same as point where the dot is drawn. However, as it get closer to the edge, the dot placed becomes about 2-3mm outwards. I also tried on a new blank Scrabble, but the result was the same.

I am wondering if everyone experiences this problem or is actually my device specific problem.
Thank you so much.

Sincerely,

[sammy]

I had a lot of large readers yet and for me, the M92, is the really best. Kindle DX has no folders, so you have to search around all times, and no scribbling in the text,PDF reading doesent work. PB is well I think, very good TTS in many languages!! but too slow, the M92 is really quick in searching contents, books underlining, etc. The Entourage edge is really interesting but the boot time is too long. So I really would like to scribble in the epub format and export annotations too, but for scientific reading (mostly text pdfs) the M92 fits.

[PF4Mobile]

Originally Posted by sammy

I had a lot of large readers yet and for me, the M92, is the really best. Kindle DX has no folders, so you have to search around all times, and no scribbling in the text,PDF reading doesent work. PB is well I think, very good TTS in many languages!! but too slow, the M92 is really quick in searching contents, books underlining, etc. The Entourage edge is really interesting but the boot time is too long. So I really would like to scribble in the epub format and export annotations too, but for scientific reading (mostly text pdfs) the M92 fits.

If I only could export the annotations from the eInk PDF reader in Entourage Edge that would be my preffered reader.... no matter how long it takes to boot up :-)
The option to see the PDF in colours and in B&W on the same device in priceless . I am still thinking about buying a second hand one and pay a programmer to solve the problem for the difference up to 400$ to a M92.