New PocketBook InkPad X Pro

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by rcentros

"Once upon a time" is now.



I don't know. I'm just going by what was said in this thread, that the Linux kernel couldn't be updated because of a CPU that only supports Linux 3.10 or Android 4.4. If that's not the case, then (again) the question arises, why not update the Linux kernel?

It's not so much that the kernel can't be updated but more that allwinner is not doing the heavy lifting/maintenance for it. As long as Pocketbook sticks with their custom Linux based system there's also not really any need to go to newer kernels as all the features they need (other than IO) comes from software on top of the kernel & libraries.

This does has me wondering how secure these pocketbook devices are vis a vis known vulnerabilities, might be a fun project to look closer at one of these days.

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

For outdated technology!
Even the latest Pokebook development uses obsolete (2 year old) screen technology

Old is not always obsolete, the displays are fine.

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Because that means a lot of development work, for which it is not even certain whether the component manufacturer has the right drivers for it.
For Android there are such.

If hardware works in android it'll work in linux, android runs on top of linux, but the core issue here is allwinner not building newer kernels for their old soc's. A lot of driver kernel modules are also only provided by manufacturers as binary blobs, this is a well known issue for Android and Linux in general and why eg LineageOS can;t always update the kernels either because they have to maintain compability with closed source binary blobs.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

Old is not always obsolete, the displays are fine.

100 vs 150 dpi? Color border problems?
NO!

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by kandwo

On an Android reader I can just install Goldendict, a stardict file for the language I want and a hunspell dictionary for morphology support and off I go. Perfect language learning device.

Would I prefer this to be implemented in Kobos own ecosystem or directly in Koreader? Yes. Is that ever going to happen? No.

Err, Koreader supports stardict, does it not? It might not be enough for your use-case though, but you could always file a Feature Request or a bug report if something is broken.

I know you can add stardict files to kobo with a bit of manipulation but your mileage my vary, the languages I master seem to display properly.

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

100 vs 150 dpi? Color border problems?
NO!

We're not talking about a colour device here, the Inkpad x pro is monochrome. The colour models they do have are not new devices and the screens were not obsolete when those models were released.

[ottischwenk]

There are interesting news:

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

The colour models they do have are not new devices and the screens were not obsolete when those models were released.

Look!

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

We're not talking about a colour device here, the Inkpad x pro is monochrome.

Look!

Powered by Android

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

There are interesting news:Look!

Didn't know about this one, fair enough, that's just dumb.

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Look!

Yes, I know that, I saw the first 2 posts in this topic which is why I already mentioned multiple times that including Google stuff comes with restrictive licensing which makes me wonder if they will actually include the google play store and all the rest that entails or something else.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

I already mentioned multiple times that including Google stuff comes with restrictive licensing which makes me wonder if they will actually include the google play store and all the rest that entails or something else.

Android without Google Play Store is pretty pointless.
Many buying apps require the Play Store for their verification.
And getting a license is pretty easy with the GSF ID.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

It looks like this

Thank you! Judging by those pictures it seems to have three buttons on the lower left side of the device. But the pictures are not clear enough to determine that.

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

Err, Koreader supports stardict, does it not? It might not be enough for your use-case though, but you could always file a Feature Request or a bug report if something is broken.

I know you can add stardict files to kobo with a bit of manipulation but your mileage my vary, the languages I master seem to display properly.

Yes, Koreader supports stardict. It doesn't have inflection/morphology support, though, which means that searching for Spanish "hablábamos" doesn't necessarily show the infinitive form "hablar". It has fuzzy search, but it's not very accurate with conjugated forms. And it's even worse for Russian.

This is all intended behaviour and the devs are not interested in adding morphology (e.g. hunspell dictionary) support.

What languages do you read in, then? Are they similar to English in that they lack very complex morphology?

[rkomar]

Originally Posted by kandwo

Thank you! Judging by those pictures it seems to have three buttons on the lower left side of the device. But the pictures are not clear enough to determine that.



Yes, Koreader supports stardict. It doesn't have inflection/morphology support, though, which means that searching for Spanish "hablábamos" doesn't necessarily show the infinitive form "hablar". It has fuzzy search, but it's not very accurate with conjugated forms. And it's even worse for Russian.

This is all intended behaviour and the devs are not interested in adding morphology (e.g. hunspell dictionary) support.

What languages do you read in, then? Are they similar to English in that they lack very complex morphology?

Pocketbook native dictionary software does have support for handling morphology, but it is up to each dictionary producer to include the proper rules. That is no easy task for most languages, so few dictionaries actually have that information included in them.

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Android without Google Play Store is pretty pointless.
Many buying apps require the Play Store for their verification.
And getting a license is pretty easy with the GSF ID.

Not really, if you want to include GMS you need to pass their requirements. See https://source.android.com/docs/compatibility

GSF Is bound to the user, not the manufacturer.

[Amon_Re]

Originally Posted by kandwo

What languages do you read in, then? Are they similar to English in that they lack very complex morphology?

Yes, English, Dutch & French.

[kandwo]

Originally Posted by rkomar

Pocketbook native dictionary software does have support for handling morphology, but it is up to each dictionary producer to include the proper rules. That is no easy task for most languages, so few dictionaries actually have that information included in them.

Well, a purely theoretical possibility to look up words is a poor consolation when they are nowhere to be found

I think the goldendict approach is easier to support, since it doesn't matter whether or not it's included in the dictionary - the rules are handled by a separate dictionary: hunspell. And hunspell dictionaries are available for almost all major languages with some notable - agglutinative - exceptions.

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

Yes, English, Dutch & French.

Yes, out of those I'd only expect maybe French to offer any sort of trouble. But it's no surprise that it's well supported. But for Slavic languages one has to resort to Android for dictionary support. Not to mention something like Finnish - which also works well on Android.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

For outdated technology!
Even the latest Pokebook development uses obsolete (2 year old) screen technology

I don't worry about "outdated" technology. I still use some readers that are over ten years old. Never did care if I had the newest technology. What I've seen with many of the newer readers (with their new "high tek") is that the battery life is diminishing. The screen and battery (with workable firmware) are the most important features to me. PocketBooks (as they are) do a good job for me.

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Because that means a lot of development work, for which it is not even certain whether the component manufacturer has the right drivers for it.
For Android there are such.

If you're talking about the current line of PocketBooks, the development work has already been done. The code base already exists. My PocketBook HD 3 is being maintained not reinvented each time an update is applied to it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Amon_Re

It's not so much that the kernel can't be updated but more that allwinner is not doing the heavy lifting/maintenance for it.

That's the way I look at. If it works, don't fix it.