PocketBook InkPad Eo - note taking device with 10,3 Kaleido 3

[Cyfranek]

New note-taking e-reader will be released soon as PocketBook InkPad Eo. Main features:
- colour 10,3' E-Ink Kaleido 3 screen;
- Wacom digital layer and stylus;
- Android 11.

PocketBook has sent out official announcement. More about the new device here: http://cyfranek.booklikes.com/post/6...z-androidem-11

[chrisridd]

Ah, I wondered whether it had become the Era Color. What's an Eo, apart from a film about a donkey?

Official PocketBook announcement

[Cyfranek]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

Ah, I wondered whether it had become the Era Color. What's an Eo, apart from a film about a donkey?

No idea Probably just name which was not used before for such device

[rcentros]

I had forgotten about the Eo. Here's the video they've posted on YouTube.



Listing on PocketBook's site.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Cyfranek

No idea Probably just name which was not used before for such device

About the best I can come up with is that "Eo" is short for "Eos" = "dawn."

[Rémi Ozene]

Feedback after purchasing the Android 11 ereader and e-notebook, Pocketbook Inkpad EO, for €580 on Amazon.

The purpose of my purchase was to be able to read large, searchable PDF files from books in digital libraries such as Archive.org in full sunlight, outside, offline, with access to dictionaries, especially Stardict DICT, but also Babylon BGL, DICTD, or Abbyy Lingvo DSL. or SLOB, XDXF, AARD, MDICT, EPWING. via GoldenDict or, failing that, Koreader.

I installed without difficulty the free Android reading application, Librera from the Playstore, on this new Android Pocketbook Inkpad Eo e-reader, which thus works perfectly and quickly with large PDF files without any redistribution, from Archive.org, while retaining the publisher's format of a original book with the possibility of zooming and where reading becomes a pleasure because of its speed, like on a smartphone. However, I bought Moon+Reader Pro (€9.49, while Librera Pro is €5.49), directly from the Playstore, whose interface I prefer, and whose functions are similar with Librera. On the other hand, I was unable to buy the latest paid version of GoldenDict's Android 1.7.2 apk, as no email was sent to me to validate the purchase, even though the free version of GoldenDict 1.6.8 (limited to 5 dictionaries) was working good. Searching on the Internet, I discovered an improved independent version of
official GoldenDict, which works like a charm. Free Mdict, whose references can be found on Github, and which does the same power-shell work to manage dictionaries: https://github.com/goldendict/goldendict/issues/1604 , the file name is GoldenDict.v.1.7.2.lic_sig.kill.apk . Perhaps I should have installed the latest official Android 1,,7,2 paid apk version of GoldenDict on my Smartphone first, and not on the InkPad, to ensure successful payment: mystery?

The only drawback of the PocketBook Inkpad Eo is that its interface doesn't yet support the French language. So I had to choose a language other than French, in this case Italian, for ease of use. For the Librera interface, I was able to use the French language, but not for Moon+Reader, which required the system language, in this case, always Italian. I installed nearly 60 dictionaries, mainly in Stardict format, which the Free Mdict application, the improved of GoldenDict, all supported.

So I said goodbye to my previous Inkpad Lite reader with 500 Mega RAM ( for 4 Gigas for the EO ), for which I used to have to tinker, before, with K2pdfopt or Abbyy FineReader, the searchable PDF book files, with frequent failures or significant slowness and also numerous bugs, even with Koreader. Being a computer ignoramus, I don't think I'm going to venture into the installation of Koreader on this new Android Pocketbook Eo reader, the pairing of Free Mdict (an improved version of GoldenDict) and Moon+Reader or Librera, meeting my needs: reading searchable PDF books without difficulty, particularly language manuals, with fingertip dictionary queries; note-taking or color being gimmicks for me. Librera or Moon+Reader, in their free or paid versions, also synchronize automatically with the Android smartphone.

Note that the default reading application on the Pocketbook Inkpad Eo, paradoxically, reads large PDF files from Archive.org at a snail's pace and with difficulty, which also makes the dictionaries offered, such as Google Translate, Abbyy Lingvo, Fora Dictionary or Reverso context unusable in practice. As a result, I'm never going to use it, limiting myself to the combination of the Android applications, Free Mdict and Moon+Reader or Librera, which are easy to install via the Playstore and Apk, and ensure smooth, easy reading from large PDF files of books.

The actual screen size, in theory10.3 inches, color ( for me, bland) at150 dpi and 300 dpi black and white, Kaleido 3, is in fact 15.6 by 20.6 cm, or 6.14 by 8.11 inches (so 10.1 inches diagonally), which mimics the size of a classic paper book. There's a slot for a micro SDHC card of up to 32 gigabytes (a 64-gig SDXC card didn't work), with 64 gigabytes of internal memory. The only languages allowed for the interface are English, German, Italian, Spanish, Polish, Czech, Ukrainian and Russian. The reader obviously has Wi-Fi, 5, Bluetooth 5.0, a USB-C port, note-taking, a supplied Wacom stylus, audio and photo, an Octa-core processor and weighs quite heavily (470g), with a 4000 mA battery. Finally, the presentation of the casing is almost luxurious.

[ab78727]

Thank you for this excellent review as I'm seriously considering the device as well. How has the battery life been for you so far, pls.? Are you needing to charge daily?

[Rémi Ozene]

Originally Posted by ab78727

Thank you for this excellent review as I'm seriously considering the device as well. How has the battery life been for you so far, pls.? Are you needing to charge daily?

To be objective, there are still a few large colour PDF files, from Archive.org books (not those from Google Books or Gallica), those with dark backgrounds, that still open slowly and with difficulty on the Pocketbook Android Inkpad Eo, even with Librera or Moon+Reader. But for other PDF books, even large ones, there's no problem. You need to be careful though, as Archive.org sometimes offers 2 different PDF file formats for download, some in colour, others in black and white, the latter entitled BW PDF. These are the ones to choose first, to read on the Pocketbook, and if the others resist, they should be processed by K2pdfopt or with a better result with Finereader 16 (conversion in 5 minutes to black and white, with Abbyy Finereader 16, for a subscription of €99/year, although I got it for €60 from them, after their cookies discovered that I had consulted a site with lower prices than theirs 5 minutes earlier).

Another advantage of pairing Librera or Moon+Reader with the Pocketbook Android Inkpad Eo is the use of the audio TTS Text to Speech function for language learning when reading (you need to update the Speech Recognition & Synthesis application from Google LLC for this to work).

According to the manufacturer, the battery lasts for one month without recharging, for ordinary use. For my part, with Bluetooth and WiFi open, over the course of a day, I lost 20% of battery.

[ab78727]

Thank you for the battery assessment - this looks promising. Is the Bluetooth needed for the pen or were you using it for something else, such as headphones?

The performance with opening PDFs is a bit concerning - my very old Sony DPT-S1 tends to perform very well with any files I send its way, albeit mine are scanned copies of my physical books generally; I'll keep the PDF optimization tips in mind - I have tended to use ghostscript [1] to reduce ebook sizes with adequate success but you're right that performance of opening in pdf readers can often be strange for downloaded pdfs. Thanks again for the help.

[1] gs -sDEVICE=pdfwrite -dCompatibilityLevel=1.9 -dPDFSETTINGS=/ebook -dBATCH -dNOPAUSE -sOutputFile=output.pdf input.pdf

[Rémi Ozene]

Originally Posted by ab78727

Thank you for the battery assessment - this looks promising. Is the Bluetooth needed for the pen or were you using it for something else, such as headphones?

The performance with opening PDFs is a bit concerning -

ATTENTION: I'm correcting what I wrote about reading certain PDF raster files with yellowed or dark backgrounds, made up of high-resolution jp2000 images from Archive.org, which were the only ones to cause problems when opened on models prior to the Pocketbook Inkpad Eo.
There are in fact two reading applications available for the Pocketbook Inkpad Eo, alongside a drawing and note-taking application.
One, called 'Reader', is more geared towards reading PDFs, and is the improved E-ink version of the free, full-function Pocketbook Reader smartphone application, and the other is more geared towards Epub, called 'Xreader', both of which allow notes to be taken with the stylus, but only the first, dictionaries. It's this second application, 'Xreader', that reads some of Archive.org's raster PDF books with yellowed backgrounds slowly and with difficulty.

On the other hand, the "Reader" application, in fact an improved "Pocketbook Reader", reads raster PDF files with a yellowed background from Archive.org, without even having to correct them beforehand with K2pdfopt or FineReader 16, but often on condition that you change the processor speed to the fastest setting (in the E-ink centre) as well as the background and text colours, lightening one and darkening the other. On the Pocketbook Inkpad Eo , it is therefore the 'Reader' application, in fact the improved 'Pocketbook Reader', that should be used first, to read PDF book-files, whether they are classic vectors or raster images, with a light background, never posing any problems; or whether they are PDF book-files with raster images, with dark backgrounds from Archive.org, supposedly resistant, which nevertheless require, for some of them, under the 'Reader' application, in fact an improved 'Pocketbook Reader', the little preliminary manipulation I've just described.

To answer ab78727, I assume that his PDF files from digitised books are in greyscale or black and white, with an average resolution of 300 dpi, whereas the difficult raster PDF files I'm talking about from archives.org are in colour, with a dark background and high resolution, which makes all the difference in terms of ease of reading on an E-ink screen, whether it's a Sony DPT-S1 or a Pocketbook Inkpad Eo.

Above all, I also discovered that the 'Reader' application, in fact the improved 'Pocketbook Reader', offered the same translation, dictionary and TTS (Text to Speech) possibilities with Bluetooth (and headphones) as the Librera or Moon+Reader and GoldenDict or Free Mdict combination. In fact, the 'Reader' application, in other words, 'Pocketbook Reader', can be linked via its interface to translation programmes such as Google translate, Reverso Context, Abbyy Lingvo and, above all, Fora Dictionary. The Fora Dictionary application provides instant access to the Wiktionary and the same functions as GoldenDict, although it supports fewer different dictionary formats, i.e. only Stardict, DSL XDXF Dictd, and .dict. I was thus able to install on the internal memory, in the required Android directory ( Android/data/com.ngc.fora/files), the raw files of around forty Stardict dictionaries, or free DSL language dictionaries, which all work perfectly, and simultaneously, after import, with the Fora Dictionary and Pocketbook Reader pair on the E-ink reader, as on the Smartphone. There is an accessory version of 'Fora Dictionary', called 'Premium Features', for €5.49, which I bought and which seems to be more a form of donation than anything else.
To use Text to Speech (TTS), you need to update Google's Speech Recognition & Synthesis application. Similarly, you need to choose Unicode for dictionary integration in Fora Dictionary, except for Russian dictionaries (UTF 8).

Still using the Pocketbook Reader application, I was able to connect very easily to my Calibre library, both on the Pocketbook Inkpad Eo reader and on my smartphone, by strictly following the explanations given by Pocketbook on its Youtube channel ( https://youtu.be/Ci-pWjbjvhY?si=4k00_cbD61IijO98 ), and by taking the precaution of uninstalling and reinstalling Calibre in order to give the necessary authorisations for public and private networks, blocked by default by Windows Defender or other firewalls.
What's more, in addition to its own library, Pocketbook is also offering a 5 Gigabyte Cloud, plus access to Google Drive or Dropbox.
You shouldn't be fooled by the appearance of the results when taking photos, which at first glance look mediocre on an E-ink screen, whereas viewing them on a smartphone or computer screen gives excellent results.
For daytime reading, the ideal screen illumination ratio seems to be 25% and 15%. There is no manual in French, and even the English manual fails to explain certain E-ink functions.

For intensive use, with Wifi and Bluetooth open, and maximum processor speed, it seems necessary to recharge the battery every 4-5 days. To be on the safe side, I actually recharge every day. You don't need to activate Bluetooth to use the stylus.
The Pocketbook Reader application, like Google Chrome, allows you to change the interface language, for example to French.

To get an idea of the possibilities offered by the Inkpad Eo's 'Reader' applications (in fact, the improved 'Pocketbook Reader'), their connection with the Calibre library, and 'Fora Dictionary', simply install their respective Android versions directly on your smartphone.
In conclusion, having hastily purchased their 'premium' versions, I abandoned also the initially free Librera applications, such as Moon+Reader and GoldenDict/Free Mdict, to limit myself to the combination of 'Reader', in fact an improved 'Pocketbook Reader', and 'Fora Dictionary', offered by default, which have more or less the same functions and are very easy to use.

[ab78727]

Thanks again for all of the useful tips. I have now ordered an Eo for myself (from grooves.land, which is also where I bought the pb743) and hope to receive it soon. My main uses will consist of note taking, reading, and email so hopefully it will work out well.

[ab78727]

My Inkpad Eo came in yesterday. Some initial impressions:

* Writing experience is currently not as good as my rM2 - main reasons for the lukewarm sentiment are the writing feel on the screen though the latter improves (imo) when I use the Staedtler Noris Digital, and the still-rough writing experience (eraser, writing styles, templates). I couldn't tell any difference in writing latency between the rM2 and the Eo so I was happy about that.

* The two reader apps and the library section are a bit confusing to me atm but I'll re-read the manual more thoroughly to get more familiar with operation. Edit: as the post #10 above says, the Reader is for pdfs and Xreader is for epubs - I should have re-read that post before using.

* The Android on this device seems a bit weird - all installed apps by default get app-installing privileges, for example. Registering the device with Google to get Play access worked ok though was a bit clunky. Apps installed via F-Droid and Play seem to work well so far - the Libby app installed fine and reading a magazine from there, in color, made me a bit happy.

* The display is quite nice and the device is relatively responsive.

* As far as I can tell, there is no built-in integration with the Pocketbook Cloud and etc. - I guess I can install their apps to get there but I'm surprised it wasn't built-in.

* No case or cover was included and there seem to be no magnets in place to hold the stylus. I am not sure I'll pay 50usd for the separate Pocketbook cover for the device so I'll wait for Fintie or kwmobile to release a case - I tried using the rM2 Fintie (spare since I have the rM2 keyboard cover) flip cover but the Eo is too short and a bit too wide to fit.

I'm still in the process of setting things up and may update or add later but so far I think it is a pretty good value for the price. I guess being a Bigme white-label device, some rough edges are to be expected and hopefully it will improve. I am running the June-16-2024 (?) firmware version, which is listed as the latest available.

(edit:20240715):
some negatives (imo) are as follows:
* Like most other Pocketbook devices, the ability to set a PIN or password on the screen seems to be disabled. This makes the device a bit useless for writing and etc. This is a baffling decision. If someone knows how to enable PIN on the lock screen, pls. let me know. I will open a support ticket with PB as well to see what they say.
* Advanced network settings to allow for the specification of DNS servers and etc., common in most Android devices, seems to be missing as well.

(edit: 20240716)
the trick was to get access to the 'real' settings app - I worked around it by installing a vpn app from f-droid, which gave me access to it from its settings. Once there, I was able to set a lock screen PIN and also specify DNS servers of my choice. PB support replied that they will add the ability to lock the screen via PIN in a future update - it just seems so pointless to hide the real Android settings in their launcher.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Rémi Ozene

Note that the default reading application on the Pocketbook Inkpad Eo, paradoxically, reads large PDF files from Archive.org at a snail's pace ...

I may be wrong, but aren't the PDFs at Archive.org usually just screenshots "sewn together?"

[Rémi Ozene]

@ab78727
1) The Pocketbook Cloud, on the Pocketbook Eo, can be found by going to «Reader», then top left, clicking on the arrow, back, where you'll find the library, including «My books», then go to Cloud. To put books in the Cloud, simply select a book and send it to the Cloud, which is marked by a logo representing a cloud

2) To see the full Android settings window, which is hidden by default, go to «Reader», then click on TTS at the bottom, next «TTS system settings», then click on the «floating ball» on the right, next on the third ball from the top, «Process Manage», then «synthesis settings», the Android settings window finally becomes visible.

3) After the 2 firmware updates in mid-June, there's another one today, 19/07.

4) To set a password for the lock screen, go to Android settings, as explained above, then to «*secure*», and after on «*screen lock*»

4) Indeed, the stylus is not magnetized.

5) I listened the following video on YouTube ("Ghostscript - Convert PDF to black and white using https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JtEvCWJX5qw&t=56s
) which proposes the following script to transform a color PDF file into black and white using Ghostscript:
gs \
-sDEVICE=pdfwrite \
-sColorConversionStrategy=Gray \
-dProcessColorModel=/DeviceGray \
-dCompatibilityLevel=1.4 \
-dNOPAUSE \
-dBATCH \
-dPDFSETTINGS=/default \
-sOutputFile=output.pdf \
input.pdf

Since you seem to know how to use Ghostscript, could you or another kind soul explain to me, from A to Z, how to use it with Google Colab ( https://colab.research.google.com/ ), in order to create a notebook there, (without having to install Python on my computer), the goal being to obtain, as a result, a lightening of PDF files with dark backgrounds from Archive.org. ? What exact set of commands do I need to write in order for this script to run, for example, if my file is called dickens.pdf?

[Rémi Ozene]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I may be wrong, but aren't the PDFs at Archive.org usually just screenshots "sewn together?"

As I explained in my more specific message of June 20, 2024, the PocketBook Inkpad Eo reads raster PDF files very well, some of which have a dark and colored background from Archives org, with its default “Reader” application, improved version for Eink, of the “Pocketbook Reader” application available on the PlayStore and the Apple Store for Smartphone or Iphone. It is only the other reading application offered, for the PocketBook Inkpad Eo, namely "XReader", more Epub oriented (even if "Reader" obviously also reads Epubs), which alone opens these few PDF files slowly and with difficulty. raster from Archive.org, with a dark, colored background. However, even this last fault of Xreader, concerning these colored files from Archive.org, can be partly corrected, by adjusting the speed (in Eink), the contrast or the whitening of the watermark (in "Reader").