My unboxing and review of the P78

[edent]

Here's my review https://shkspr.mobi/blog/2021/09/rev...e-anti-kindle/

And here's a *very* long unboxing!

https://youtu.be/Vb5nIk-xugg?t=150

[Deobulakenyo]

Did it come preinstalled screen protector like the P10?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by Deobulakenyo

Did it come preinstalled screen protector like the P10?

No - why? There is no pen to scratch it with.

[edent]

No screen protector - but the case closes to protect the screen from scratches.

[Deobulakenyo]

I just got my P78 yesterday for about 175 US$

I did not buy the case, i just skinned the back and that's it.

[olderTechnology]

Thanks for the tip about KO Reader. I was using the Kindle and Nook apps but this is a great addition. I'm still new to this Android-on-eInk thing.

[Quoth]

I use the built in readers on Kindle and Kobo and Sony.
I use the stock reader on the Boyue Likebook Mars for PDFs (autocrop and adjustment of background etc), but downloaded KoReader from git with the stock browser and use it for epubs.
From Android Store (Google framework only on for download):
k9 email; a real email client. Most Android email uses the built in mail which is a "terminal" to Google's servers which get all the credentials.
A better soft keyboard and the google one disabled.
Musicolet for audiobooks and music
Kobo ereader app
Kindle ereader app
Belinda Borrowbox app for the local library
Google Playbooks, but it needs the Google Framework on to use at all.

The stock file browser is better than any of the Android 3rd party ones I've tried.

I don't eject and use the SD card direct, I found that the MTP access with Calibre to manage books is fine once I turned off the Linux gvfs mtp volume automount.

I do use the Kobo Libra exclusively to proof read & annotate and for well formatted epub, including converted ebooks I buy from Amazon. But I read PDFs of scanned old books on the stock reader and badly formatted epubs not (yet?) fixed in Calibre as KOReader has many over-ride settings.

[olderTechnology]

I was surprised to see the P78 using MTP. I haven't owned an Android device for years, but that seems like such an ancient interface. Is there any way to make it just a Windows drive?

And what is this Linux gvfs mtp volume automount that I need to turn off? Calibre seems to work ok without me doing that. (There is a huge startup time while it scans the player.)

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by olderTechnology

I was surprised to see the P78 using MTP. I haven't owned an Android device for years, but that seems like such an ancient interface. Is there any way to make it just a Windows drive?

I don't care about USB - I transfer via WiFi File Transfer; there are apps that work really well

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by olderTechnology

what is this Linux gvfs mtp volume automount that I need to turn off? Calibre seems to work ok without me doing that. (There is a huge startup time while it scans the player.)

It's not used by all linux desktops. It automounts MTP devices so they work in caja filemanager. Then Calibre can't connect. Using Eject /Unmount works with my old sony MTP phone, but not the Mars. Disable automount on KDE on Mint works, but my default desktop is Mate on Mint.

If Calibre is connecting at once there is no need to use the Process Viewer on the start-bar/panel and stop "gvfs mtp volume automount". A kill won't work as the process will autospawn. Also "gvfs mtp volume automount" is NOT relevant to Windows. It's a Linux thing not even on all desktops of the same distro.


MTP is common with Android and the OS usually makes the device look like a drive. You don't mean "windows drive", you mean USB Mass Storage Device (which is what most Linux-without-Android use).

MTP is horrible. Google bought in Android and MTP might have originated with the MS Zune (not sure). MTP maybe is Media Transfer Protocol

[Quoth]

Wikipedia

The Media Transfer Protocol (MTP) is an extension to the Picture Transfer Protocol (PTP) communications protocol that allows media files to be transferred automatically to and from portable devices. Whereas PTP was designed for downloading photographs from digital cameras, Media Transfer Protocol allows the transfer of music files on digital audio players and media files on portable media players, as well as personal information on personal digital assistants. MTP is a key part of WMDRM10-PD, a digital rights management (DRM) service for the Windows Media platform. In 2011, it became the standard method to transfer files from/to Android

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Media_Transfer_Protocol

It's interesting, for a given degree of interesting and obviously MS (windows) and Google (Android) have a vested interest in gadgets using MTP and not USB Mass Storage.
Direct access is also difficult with Apple iOS. It adds extra levels of walled garden where the Apple player can only see mp3 transferred by Apple software (e.g. iTunes on Win7) and only 3rd party players can see mp3s transferred without the Apple ecosystem.

USB mass Storage based gadgets implement OS and application security by only sharing a particular partition or subdirectory.

[Quoth]

See also https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/USB_ma...e_device_class

IMO, the only reason for MTP is DRM and the desire to have "walled gardens".

Edit Autorun on USB Mass Storage:
MS should NEVER have implemented Autorun on Win95 CDs. The Amiga already had autorun viruses. I was disabling autorun on every Windows computer we supplied, and later USB autorun and Network autorun, which needed different registry settings. A crazy idea. They took years to wake up and issue security updates.
Stupidly other OSes made Autorun an option too, sometimes on by default.

[endemion06463]

Originally Posted by olderTechnology

Thanks for the tip about KO Reader. I was using the Kindle and Nook apps but this is a great addition. I'm still new to this Android-on-eInk thing.

I've been looking everywhere for an apk for OReader (not OOReader). Best reader I've ever used, everything customizable and great minimalist but information packed progress bar.

The silly thing with KO Reader is that you can't change the screen area type. Left is page back and right is next page. I want up to be page back and bottom be next page. It's also slow to open a (new?) book.

For now I'm sticking with the built in reader. But it has issues with fonts. Only arial and "serif" (which it uses by default) work. There is an option to download extra fonts but it's buggy after repeated failed download attempts before it finally did work, selecting any of hem does nothing. After manually downloading the font I used on my old device and pasting it in the font directory it somehow suddenly worked. I suspect the key is to NOT put it in the "english-fonts" directory and setting that directory in the app to 'same as chinese'.

I've also tried Alreader but not really geared to e-ink screens even though it has the option to set the app to e-ink compatibility.

AlreaderX has some potential but I've not been able to disable the "profile" aka some background paper type.

A few thoughts on the P78:

My previous eReader had physical buttons, I miss those. E-ink screens are just to slow for proper touch screen functionality imo.

By the way does anyone know if there's an easier way to turn on the backlight instead of tapping the middle, then tapping the light and then picking day, night, bed or custom?

I could also have done without the embedded sd/tf card slot. Especially with that MTP stuff. Well at least it still has such a slot.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by endemion06463

I've been looking everywhere for an apk for OReader (not OOReader). Best reader I've ever used, everything customizable and great minimalist but information packed progress bar.

OReader is just an old version of AlReader adapted to Onyx-Boox devices.
The only difference - if you have set the Alreader accordingly - is that the Alreader is much more flexible and can do more.

That's why I switched from OReader to AlReader.

[endemion06463]

What do you mean by "have set Alreader accordingly"?

Anyway I might give it another go, I just found a bunch of setting under 'screen' which I would have expected under 'statusbar'. I can't say that it's more flexible though.

And how do you add fonts to it. It doesn't have all the fonts OReader had. And the problem is that non of the modern fonts available differentiate between I and l (take the random fictional name Ilgrand for instance would look like llgrand).

By the way the use of MTP really sucks. I had things set up to do easy mirror backup my SD card trough syncbackfree. That's impossible now. Manually copy pasting it in my backup folder also sucks. It just keeps calculating and calculating, some more calculating, not sure it it's ever gonna really start doing anything. With my phone moving large files to the phone's SD also often crashes so there's that to potentially "look forward to". MTP Sucks so much. Anyone know how to contact boyue, I could at least throw them a complaint or two. I also tried to run a samba/smb server on the device but that was also problematic. It could only work with really cumbersome workarounds. Unless the device was rooted. Ugh I really hate this lockdown on proper ownership of our own devices. If it was rooted it wouldn't even be an issue as there are plenty of apps that enable UMS on rooted devices. Sure hope someone figures out how to do it for this device. Guess I'm left taking the device out of it's case, fiddling with that 'needle' thingy to pop open SD-card slot, take out the SD-card put it in (basically another) card reader to get a proper drive letter to mirror it. I wonder if there's windows side tool to turn MTP into virtual drives or something although I bet something like that would be just as buggy as manually copy pasting more than a few files (edit well there is MTP Drive but is 50$ and I can't find anything similar that is cheaper or rather freeware).