New 6.8" GoodEreader/Netronix Device

[Question Mark]

Apparently, Good Ereader has now put their 6.8" device on sale and for immediate purchase:

Good E-Reader June 24 at 9:51 PM

The goodereader 6.8" is on sale right now and ships immediately !

just in case you all didn't know

https://www.facebook.com/Goodereader

Even though they have not yet fulfilled all their orders from their Indiegogo campaign where their long suffering backers paid a higher price:

nicsnake 3 days ago

Can we please have an update on the delivery timelines for the 6.8 eReader? I received nothing from you, same with many others – would be nice if you could let us know when we should expect to receive the units. Thank you.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/1...ader#/comments

And then there are the backers of their 13.3" device some of whom have been waiting more than two years now while new customers can purchase a unit at a discounted price for immediate shipping from Good Ereader's store.

Tsai fu kai 4 days ago

Order ID: 21, placed 20,Mar, 2016
please help check the package delivered or give me the expect date.
Thanks


Johan Ente 6 days ago

Michael,
I wonder if it is at all possible to give an honest update to your backers about the perk delivery?
It is good to be developing new products, but should you not see to the wrapping up of your current project first? A successful campaign will reflect good to new campaigns.
This campaign does not reflect well at all at this moment…
I for instance are also still waiting on: Order ID: 86 (March 26, 2016).
NOTHING YET! Please update us on expected shipping date. I will be moving home soon!


Direst 8 days ago

J’attends aussi mon produit, je suis content qu’une mise à jour ai été faite, que d’autres campagnes sont lancées mais quand vous attendez 2ans pour récupérer un produit c’est long
J’espère qu’il ne sera pas obsolète
Cordialement
Luc


Kyoung-Ju Park 9 days ago

Wow, it’s amazing to learn that they tried to launch yet another campaign at kickstarter, Is this becoming some sort of ponzi scheme?

Order ID:409
Order Date: Sep 12, 2016

No delivery, no update, no response whatsoever.

https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/1...ader#/comments

[jeffery]

What I don't get is why goodereader wants $70 to ship an ereader to the US from canada. I looked up the tariffs (value based) and shipping fees (size and weight based) and it's no where close to that. If you swap a small, light weight and cheap reader for a larger, heavier reader at 10x the cost, they still charge the same amount.

so, goodereader, if you are reading this, it only costs $7 for me to order a Kobo. so stick that in your USB port.

[DopeGhoti]

So I had the possible misfortune of ordering one of the 6.8" devices directly from their web site after doing not-nearly-enough research it seems. The lesson of Caveat Emptor is relearned.

I must be one of the lucky ones, because it only took one follow-up email with the magic word ("chargeback") to get not a reply, but notification of shipment. I remain cautiously hopeful that I'll actually get what I purchased.

Therty, I hope that we will indeed shortly be in a position to share tips and tricks. I do know that I'm past the deadline for the Google Play Store to work on an uncertified device.

[DopeGhoti]

It arrived! And actually works as described! The display has near-to-zero lag on it when writing which is a very pleasant surprise, and when I jot notes down they're actually just about as legible as when I smear pigment on dead trees. The Google Play store cannot be installed, sadly.

The "latest" version of Android, 4.4.2 did come preinstalled.

It cannot handle a 128GB SD card, and only has a 2.8 GHz wireless networking antenna, neither of which are really surprising.

The "acessory pack" did not include an extra stylus as promised. Wish me luck getting that sorted, I suppose.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by DopeGhoti

It arrived! And actually works as described! The display has near-to-zero lag on it when writing which is a very pleasant surprise, and when I jot notes down they're actually just about as legible as when I smear pigment on dead trees.

You sound as if writing on paper is a bad think. Lol You can't shame people into buying an ereader to write notes on. The term, dead tree books, didn't work when it came to people reading paper books and its not gonna work for taking notes.lol Congrats on the new Dug up earth reader though...

[jeffery]

Originally Posted by DopeGhoti

It cannot handle a 128GB SD card

I use this tool for my kobo memory card. To format its 64GB cards into fat32. The card worked just fine in a Kobo Aura HD supposedly limited to 32GB. Windows normally won't allow you to format past 32GB because it's not as efficient and Microsoft (who owns the patents to Fat32) decided they know best. But with 2k cluster size which is great for books you can format up to 8TB. This tool will go all the way up to 256TB for SDXC card.
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...?guiformat.htm

BTW, The only difference between SDHC and SDXC is the file system on the card. When a device says it is SDHC compatible, it is saying it needs a FAT32 formatted sd card. SDXC uses exFAT, that is the only difference. Other than that, if you reformat an SDXC card into FAT32, it will be compatible. *This assumes the device maker did not hard code a 32GB limit, which would be a silly waste of labor.

Hope this works for you. if it doesn't just reformat in exfat and the card will be back to factory spec.
Best of luck.

P.S. You may find this interesting. at one point. the main memory card of my kobo had a 64gb card as well. I had a total of 128GB eReader
https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B7S...dJTjlMMG8/view

[DopeGhoti]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

You sound as if writing on paper is a bad think. Lol You can't shame people into buying an ereader to write notes on. The term, dead tree books, didn't work when it came to people reading paper books and its not gonna work for taking notes.lol Congrats on the new Dug up earth reader though...

I'm not interested in shaming anyone into doing anything (or not doing anything, as it were); I just thought it to be an amusing turn of phrase. Thanks for the congrats though; I'm enjoying my indentured-servitude-reader quite a bit.

Originally Posted by jeffery

I use this tool for my kobo memory card. To format its 64GB cards into fat32. The card worked just fine in a Kobo Aura HD supposedly limited to 32GB. Windows normally won't allow you to format past 32GB because it's not as efficient and Microsoft (who owns the patents to Fat32) decided they know best. But with 2k cluster size which is great for books you can format up to 8TB. This tool will go all the way up to 256TB for SDXC card.
http://www.ridgecrop.demon.co.uk/ind...?guiformat.htm
[...][/URL]

Thanks for the helpful link. I mainly tried the 1/8TB SD card out of curiosity; it ended up (as intended) going into my Switch, and its old 32GB card went into the e-reader.

I've already sussed out a few things that might be helpful to know for any others who have a device with this firmware (or something like it). I know we might be few and far between, but I'm hoping to run into more lucky lottery winners who have one of these things to trade tricks with.

[mkowske]

Hi all,

I was very close to ordering one of these before I found this forum post. It sounds like their issues with inventory might be sorted out now.... but really I am interested in how the e-reader compares/performs. I can't find any reviews of it online other than by Good e-Reader itself. Has anyone else reviewed it? Any problems any of you have encountered so far?

Additionally, since you can't install Google Play store (it sounds like) -- how are apps installed?

[DopeGhoti]

Originally Posted by mkowske

Hi all,

I was very close to ordering one of these before I found this forum post. It sounds like their issues with inventory might be sorted out now.... but really I am interested in how the e-reader compares/performs. I can't find any reviews of it online other than by Good e-Reader itself. Has anyone else reviewed it? Any problems any of you have encountered so far?

Additionally, since you can't install Google Play store (it sounds like) -- how are apps installed?

I don't have the wherewithal to do anything resembling a proper review, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

I haven't had any problems with mine and I've been using it pretty heavily (mainly for notetaking) since it came in. The stylus remains very nicely responsive, the backlight is comparable to that of a Kindle Paperwhite. The built-in tools (ebook readers, notetaking/drawing) are pretty good, but the Android infrastructure is somewhat lacking.

It's only running Android 4.4.2 which is, put mildly, very very old. I would not call any Android apps anything resembling "fast" or "snappy". The only PDF reading software is by way of Android apps; there is nothing built-in for them.

The closest things I have to a complaint are the lack of a "left-handed" mode, and that there does not seem to be away to adjust the intensity of the backlight without drilling into the Settings menu/app.

As you mentioned, the Play Store will not function, but you can sideload any .apk that you care to. The Amazon Android App store provides them, and there are many other sources for application files that you can sideload. It also comes with a "good e-reader eInk app store" that I have not looked too deeply into yet.

[mkowske]

Hi thanks for the info. I was attracted to the Good e-Reader because of the slightly larger screen (I don't read many PDFs, but when I do sometimes they are unbearably small on my nook) and the fact that it uses the Android OS and I wouldn't be locked into one reading app or PDF viewer.

I understand 4.4.2 is old, but that seems to be the case with a lot of e-readers -- I just don't htink they have the CPU/memory to run the latest version. I do worry that this will seriously limit what apps can be used on the device.

The stylus seems like it would be nice for highlighting and taking notes too.

I'm also a little worried it is produced by such a small company.. how long will it be supported, will there be regular updates, etc. My 1st gen nook JUST died 3 days ago after 8 years of pretty heavy use, so I'm not one to switch devices very often.

The closest thing I'm considering is the Kobo Aura One -- appreciate your feedback, thanks.

[therty]

Originally Posted by DopeGhoti

I don't have the wherewithal to do anything resembling a proper review, but I'm happy to answer any questions you might have.

I haven't had any problems with mine and I've been using it pretty heavily (mainly for notetaking) since it came in. The stylus remains very nicely responsive, the backlight is comparable to that of a Kindle Paperwhite. The built-in tools (ebook readers, notetaking/drawing) are pretty good, but the Android infrastructure is somewhat lacking.

It's only running Android 4.4.2 which is, put mildly, very very old. I would not call any Android apps anything resembling "fast" or "snappy". The only PDF reading software is by way of Android apps; there is nothing built-in for them.

The closest things I have to a complaint are the lack of a "left-handed" mode, and that there does not seem to be away to adjust the intensity of the backlight without drilling into the Settings menu/app.

As you mentioned, the Play Store will not function, but you can sideload any .apk that you care to. The Amazon Android App store provides them, and there are many other sources for application files that you can sideload. It also comes with a "good e-reader eInk app store" that I have not looked too deeply into yet.

Any app recommendations? The wikipedia app is quite good, but I havent played with much else. I added the swype keyboard, but it isn't great - there is probably a better option...

[DopeGhoti]

Originally Posted by therty

Any app recommendations? The wikipedia app is quite good, but I havent played with much else. I added the swype keyboard, but it isn't great - there is probably a better option...

I haven't tried to load it on the device as I haven't found a stand-alone APK yet, but I'd like to try the new stock Android keyboard ("gboard"). Squid might be a decent Android-side note-taker but I'd just as soon use the built-in one; it's probably be more responsive. I was thinking Google Keep would be good but it depends on your use-case for it, I suppose.

For my part, it's interesting that for a device for which such ballyhoo was made over its Android capability, I am mainly using the built-in firmware apps 90% of the time.

[therty]

Originally Posted by DopeGhoti

I haven't tried to load it on the device as I haven't found a stand-alone APK yet, but I'd like to try the new stock Android keyboard ("gboard"). Squid might be a decent Android-side note-taker but I'd just as soon use the built-in one; it's probably be more responsive. I was thinking Google Keep would be good but it depends on your use-case for it, I suppose.

For my part, it's interesting that for a device for which such ballyhoo was made over its Android capability, I am mainly using the built-in firmware apps 90% of the time.

I would say at this point I'm using built in apps closer to 99% of the time! (Though that's the reason I bought it...)

[king76]

Hello guys,

Originally Posted by DopeGhoti

It arrived! And actually works as described! The display has near-to-zero lag on it when writing which is a very pleasant surprise, and when I jot notes down they're actually just about as legible as when I smear pigment on dead trees.

Are you sure !? I received mine today and i am very disappointed, it's too slow for me ;-(

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by king76

I received mine today and i am very disappointed, it's too slow for me ;-(

I'm curious. Did you buy your device new from their web store, or were you a long waiting backer from their Indiegogo campaign?