Alternative software for Sony eReaders!

[church mouse]

Originally Posted by robkat

Hi
Loaded the alternative software, get to menu but nothing happens when I press the button. Now cannot delete alternative software from _PRS-300.
Any help would be welcome.

If the reset does not work and you cannot get it to run, there is always the failsafe of reconnecting your reader to your computer and just deleting the ebookapplication files you installed. Your reader should be back to normal.

[robkat]

Have reset the device and it works fine. No longer get the alternative menu, but the files are still in device root directory and will not delete. I get the following message when I try to delete them "[Bt]he operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -1407).[/B]Any ideas???

[church mouse]

Originally Posted by robkat

Have reset the device and it works fine. No longer get the alternative menu, but the files are still in device root directory and will not delete. I get the following message when I try to delete them "[Bt]he operation can’t be completed because an unexpected error occurred (error code -1407).[/B]Any ideas???

Robkat, are you using a Mac?

I could not get a good install or deletion using my Mac, so I switched to my Windows machine and was able delete the files without a problem. (The installation also worked without a problem using the PC). I'm not savvy enough to know why, sorry.

[robkat]

Originally Posted by church mouse

Robkat, are you using a Mac?

I could not get a good install or deletion using my Mac, so I switched to my Windows machine and was able delete the files without a problem. (The installation also worked without a problem using the PC). I'm not savvy enough to know why, sorry.

I am using a Mac but following your suggestion was able to delete files using PC.
thanks very much.

May look at loading alternative software thro PC.
cheers

[fanoI]

Today I've installed this firmware on my new PRS-300 Sony Reader a very great work!

These are my impression:

+ Now I can choose the fontsize with meaningful values not only S-M-L
+ I can orient the screen in all way not only portrait or landscape but reversed too
+ I can put book simply in folders... I could organize the book as I like (not as Sony likes )
+ ... and in zip format, too! In the 300 as internal memory is only 512 MB and there is no way to expand it is a big plus...
+ I can put a lot more file format now! No more silly conversion...
+ RTF shows images, too...
+ The clock is very useful... but sadly this a - contemporary as you can see after!
+ When USB is connected the device is fully operational not locked! I hated this beahviour so glad it is gone, now...

- PDF works bad as in the original firmware: big margins at the side, little font... the zoom works as the original firmware zoom the image so after 125% part of the text is lost Maybe set visible can do the REAL job (crop the margin and zoom to all the screen size) but sadly do nothing!
The "landscape" mode mitigate the problem as in the original firmware, but it's really impossible to resize a pdf in the right way? Really ?
- I've tried to read a cbz (after renaming it on zip), the zip is opened in memory (and this is great) and images as shown as files... selecting the first the bad happens... big big borders... the image is very small.. landscape not help in this case simply the small image is showed in landscape...
Ahh the ZOOM modes do nothing on images (as Sony Sony origanal firmware!)
With the Sony Firmware the cbz (after transformation to epub so not really fair I know) fill the screen... not really readable but I can select landscape and the image is divided in 2 part...
- The clock... can be very useful IF it not be 2 hours before than the Sony Firmware (some problems with Daylight Save time and Time Fuses?)
That is it says 15.36 now NOT 17.36... I'm on GMT+1 and in DST now...

Now my requests:

- More format is possible to implement LIT? A lot of old ebook use this format... yes I can convert them, but if I can avoid them is better (the formatting is always slightly changed by Calibre)
I hope there is not copyright issues...
It seems odt (Open Office doc format) there is not? Weird...
- Add more compression format support why limiting to zip only? Rar, 7z, the miraculous xz format (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Xz)... I think not be so problematic... in Linux all this format are supported so...
- Add a real Comic Reader Application to read cbr/cbz... this "files" must be opened as is (an epub is zipped dir too, but you not expand its content in memory obviously ) with the first image selected and automatically zoomed to fill the screen... the zoom must work, obviously

Thanks for your great work!

[DrunkenDonkey]

Speaking about the clock, thats my biggest issue, not being able to set it to the correct time, it always shows something weird and off the scale, especially when it happens to discharge the device from time to time, clock quickly became useless :/

[fanoI]

For the clock, I've in this way, added +2 hours at the time set in the Sony Firmware... now is OK... it is no-sense but it works

I've tried the same cbz converted in EPUB, here there is something wrong: the size of the image is very little (smaller than reading it as zip/cbz) and there is no way to resize it! The size change let my choose fonts size NOT image size... if I try it application die, obviusly (the operation is invalid ).
It is very slow to load the file to... 1-2 minutes at least

I've tested more the zip/cbz thing and I think if the zoom was functional the results would not be so bad (maybe best that epub converted as these are the original NOT ricompressed/modified images)... the thing should be similar in functionality at the pdf reader if the image is zoomed should possible to navigate with up & down arrows.
The technology is already here (the rectangle is present!) but zoom do nothing...

Well I think we have to wait that the software is more polished...

[ebookapps]

New! Version 1.7 of alternative firmware for Sony eReaders
We have added 3 very important features in this update: dictionaries, custom fonts and flexible page-view settings (borders, line-spacing)


1. Dictionary
1.1 In-book dictionary
Launches from context menu when the book is opened. Select any word and get it translated without closing the book.
1.2 Dictionary as standalone application
Launches from the Main Menu. Type any word and receive immediate translation for it.
eBook Applications firmware supports dictionaries in widely used StarDict format. You can download dictionary files from:
http://www.huzheng.org/stardict-iso/stardict-dic or other internet resources

2. Custom fonts
Add any font in the .ttf format and use it in your books.

3. New Page View settings
3.1 Vertical borders
3.2 Horizontal borders
3.3 Spacing between the text lines

There are number of minor bug-fixes and interface changes.

[Hamid]

ebookapps' Twitter said new version is available Download

edit: sorry, haven't seen the post above, great job. Still some bugs but hopefully things will be getting better. Great features but had to reset twice to get things working... Anyways, thanks for your work.

[lordvetinari2]

I tried the new firmware. The dictionaries work very nicely, but there are some display issues. It seems hyphenation is performed the Asian way, i.e. per character. Please see attached picture "dictionary_cut". Is this fixable?

The links in ePub still do not work. I downloaded the news for Adventure Gamers with Calibre, and shot pictures of the first two pages in both ebookapps and Sony modes. Please find attached ebookapps1-2 and sony1-2. As you can see, it's a complete mess. Maybe this is fbreader's fault?

Also, it would be nice having a history of recent page views, as in the official firmware. It is very useful when you lose track of the last page viewed, or when you use hyperlinks and you want to go back.

I have noticed that after using the ebookapps firmware, Calibre refused to connect to the Reader. I had to delete the "metadata.calibre" in the root folder of the device, delete the ebookapps firmware, reset the device and come back from idle mode. Deleting the "metadata.calibre" is not enough, nor is just resetting the device or deleting the new firmware. Some combination of the above is required. Very, very annoying.

All in all, a very good release.

[Lantrino]

Originally Posted by lordvetinari2

I have noticed that after using the ebookapps firmware, Calibre refused to connect to the Reader. I had to delete the "metadata.calibre" in the root folder of the device, delete the ebookapps firmware, reset the device and come back from idle mode. Deleting the "metadata.calibre" is not enough, nor is just resetting the device or deleting the new firmware. Some combination of the above is required. Very, very annoying.

Great post! =)

I was very tempted to give this alternative firmware another go, but upon hearing that this issue remains, I think I'll give it a miss...

edit:

Originally Posted by ebookapps

New! Version 1.7 of alternative firmware for Sony eReaders
We have added 3 very important features in this update: dictionaries, custom fonts and flexible page-view settings (borders, line-spacing)

It'd be great if you could maybe put up a comparative video on your site of the two separate versions. I'd love to actually see it in action... without having to run the risk of losing calibre functionality by trying it for myself.

[ebookapps]

Originally Posted by Lantrino

Great post! =)
It'd be great if you could maybe put up a comparative video on your site of the two separate versions. I'd love to actually see it in action... without having to run the risk of losing calibre functionality by trying it for myself.

Thank you for the idea, we may actually do it.

I tried this horrible software on my 300. Epubs look like crap. There are strange characters displayed and formatting looks like a damn text file. each paragraph begins and ends with a box looking character. Links don't work. And the file manager cannot find pre-installed books. I installed both a DRMed ePub file from Sony Store and a non-DRMed one in one of the apps folders so it could find them. The fb2 files look just as crappy. Also, it takes minutes to open a book and the menu interface is super slow. The jump to page function is retarded. The Sony firmware is much faster, displays much better, is more user friendly. I would not waste time installing this crap.

[ebookapps]

@jswinden Most of the users were happy with full justification in ePub. Can you please send to info@... problem files so we can make our firmware better and hopefully make it work for you. Same for fb2 files.
So far this is first report about drastically slow menu, everyone before your was saying that the responsiveness of the menu and page flipping is the same if not faster than in the original firmware.
Please also respect our effort and users. It will be great if you instead of criticizing, report discovered problems and inefficiencies, so we can fix them to the everyones benefit.

[lordvetinari2]

Originally Posted by ebookapps

[...] report discovered problems and inefficiencies, so we can fix them to the everyones benefit.

I hope that my report was detailed enough, with pictures and all. Otherwise, please let me know if the ebookapps project has a bug tracker where I can post these issues. Thanks.