Friday, September 5, 2008

Software Upgrade for the Cybook Gen3: Ver. 1.2 Build 796

Dear Cybook User,

This utility updates the Cybook Gen3 (CYBGEN310B) system software to version 1.2.
Happy e-reading…

Sincerely,
Bookeen Support Team



What's New in Version 1.2 (Build 796)
  • New: user interface now available in 6 languages (English, French, German, Spanish, Italian & Dutch).
  • Improvement: reduced power consumption.
  • Improvement: reduced memory usage.
  • New: zoom menu for PDF files.
  • Improvement: fast panning within PDF files.
  • Improvement: general stability and performance.
  • Fix: SD card detection.
  • Fix: last page saved for files with UTF8 (non ANSI) names.
  • New: possibility to restore factory settings (also deletes personal data in internal memory). To do so, press volume- while switching off.

What was New in Version 1.1
  • New: hyphenation support in Mobipocket files.
  • Improvement: new button management (faster and buffered key detection).
  • Improvement: new event management (previous versions could miss events).
  • Improvement: reduced power consumption.
  • Improvement: table support in Mobipocket files.
  • Bug fix: large covers in PRC files.
  • Bug fix: Asian characters are now displayed properly in PRC files.
  • Bug fix: PDF viewer memory management (to be continued).
  • Bug fix: TrueType font detection (“Fonts” directory).
  • Bug fix: various user interface items (to be continued).
  • Bug fix: detection of MP3 playback frequencies.
  • New: in the “Library”, a lock symbol is visible when a read-only SD card is inserted.



How to Download

  1. From your computer, visit http://www.bookeen.com/support.
  2. Login and download the upgrade file.
  3. Extract the content of the downloaded zip file.
  4. You should get a single file “update_kernel”; this is the firmware upgrade utility.
  5. Copy the file “update_kernel” to the root of an SD card.



How to Install

  1. Make sure your Cybook has enough power to operate.
  2. Switch off your device.
  3. Insert the SD card into your Cybook.
  4. Switch on your device.
  5. When the boot image is visible (Cybook & Bookeen logotypes), press the center key of the navigation button and keep it pressed for a few seconds until the screen flashes.
  6. When the screen flashes, you can release the key; the upgrade process is launched.
  7. Only the needed sections are updated. The upgrade should be completed after a couple of minutes.
  8. When the upgrade is completed, the Cybook starts normally.
  9. Delete the file “update_kernel” from the SD card and from your computer. This file will not be useful anymore.
  10. Congratulations! Your Cybook has been upgraded with version 1.2.



How to Check my Cybook Version

  • Open the contextual menu.
  • Open "Advanced…", then "About…".
  • "Boo Reader" section shows "Version: x.y (build z)".



How to Send Suggestions

  • Your feedback is very much welcome.
  • Please avoid using blogs, forums or mailing lists.
  • Simply send an email to support_at_bookeen.com.
  • All suggestions are taken into account as much as possible in our development schedule.



What's Next

  • New directory view.
  • Improved Mobipocket, HTML & TXT support.
  • More languages.



34 comments:

Derek A Benner said...

This update failed to clear a crashed Cybook of the problems from attempting to update to Build 708 from Build 685.

... said...

Bravo pour le zoom pdf mais il n'est toujours pas possible de créer ses propres dossiers. Dommage...

Unknown said...

The PDF changes in this version are horribly broken… the text overflows on the right and I'm now unable to open a 20Mb PDF file.

susgod said...

My SD card slot does not work. I download selected book directly to my CyBook. How can I get the upgrade without an SD?

Unknown said...

My SD card does not work either. I expected that this time Bookeen would give their costumers a way of bypassing the SD card for upgrading purposes.
It didn't. And it is becoming a little bit frustrating now. If I should have no real hope, please Bookeen tell me now and I'll return the device immediately. I do not want to be stuck with firmware 1.0 for life.

Regards
Nelson

Unknown said...

The Kingston SD Card is OK,
Without any problems.......

Irene Delse said...

This update worked very well on my Cybook. I can now open even large PDF documents without making the reader crash (or being unable to read it because of the screen size).

Suggestions for the next upgrades:

1) Folders in the library, please !

2) a functionnal delete button would be practical ;

3) and epub support would be a definite plus too.

Christine said...

This "upgrade" has made a previously readable pdf file so that the pages are blank now. I deleted it and put another copy of it on the reader and it's still blank. It was not blank before the "upgrade".

This is why I hate putting these damn untested and untrustworthy upgrades on my cybook: I never know when it will actually make things worse. Let's see . . . first upgrade made things worse, second made things better, third made things worse. Now what?

Bookeen said...

Dear Christine,

Our support team sould be able to solve your problem, could you send us a mail supportatbookeen.com . You will need to send us your pdf file so that we can see the problem with that isolated bug.

Best regards,

Guillaume

Pulp said...

I experienced the same problem with some of my PDFs.
It only seems to occure when fonts are not embedded into the document (what is the case quite often).

Pulp said...

I would love to see the possibility to redefine the sidebuttons (music/delete/+/-) with other functions in one of the future updates.

For people like me who do not use the Cybook for listening to music the buttons could be much better used for quickly:

*Adding/removing & changing between bookmarks
*direct access to dictionary lookup
*zooming in/out in PDFs
*increase/decrease fontsize

This and the upcoming foldersupport are the only things I really miss on this great device.

Christine said...

The pdf has been sent, and I will be posting your response, or lack there of, on my blog.

By the way, nobody is going to read if they have to flip right to left for each and every sentence, which is what your new pdf zoom does. Stating the obvious: why don't you allow the text to flow in pdf files? I know some are made so it won't, but many are made so it will.

pais15 said...

hello
very well for me the latest update.
the cybook have survived a travel to cuba and another to egypt.i´d like to load wikipedya as most pda´s can,other folder management and(why not?)a software capable to enter a word to look up.
congratulations for your work

ET said...

After the update, the previously unreadable PDF of Black Gate 12 (http://www.blackgate.com/downloads/black_gate_12.pdf) now shows fine.

Michael said...

Dear bookeen-developer
As next step it would be great to see page number in ebook (prc) files. That is still missing. With that feature, the book would be perfect :-)
Regards, Michael

Pulp said...

Could you please make sure that the dictionary-lookup-selector always goes back to the last selected word of a page with the next update?
Usually we read pages from top to bottom so after one lookup the next selected word will be below the first one.

It does jump to the last selected one if the lookup failed, but it currently starts at the beginning of the page again when the lookup was successful - that little change would spare us a lot of moving the selector around if we have more than one words to lookup on one page.
Thank you :)

Ben said...

Hi, just bought a cybook gen 3 (*great* product, congratulations), and my version of the boo reader is 1.2 build 802. What are the changes since build 796 ? why isn't this new software update available from your website ?

Some suggestions for future updates :

- Please, *please* add folder support for the library. Or possibility to filter the books on the library by filepath (enabling or disabling folders), not just sorting them.

- It would be great to be able to know on which page of a book we are currently reading. I know this will change anyway based on font settings but since there is a feature allowing the user to jump to a specific page, I think it would make sense anyway.

Thomas said...

This update made my cybook gen3 (less then a week old) completely die. It doesn't even boot anymore :(

Is there no way to get the factory preset back?

Bookeen said...

Dear Thomas,

Our support team should be able to help you. Please, contact them at supportatbookeen.com.

Best regards,

Guillaume

Unknown said...

Please look into Bens comment, a page counter and a folder-display would improve the Cybook sooo much.

Martin. said...

I note that the email newsletter #8 that I received today says
"The [next new] firmware update should be released at the beginning of 2009"

Anyone have any better information about what Bookeen mean by the beginning of 2009 ?

Tony said...

My cybook has version 1.1 tried to update to 1.2
Put software on root of SD, tried Kingston, OCZ, and Transcend, nothing happens. Am I missing something.
Looked through the menu to spot the file, can see anything other then books and the pics that were already on the cybook when I bought it.

Tony

Tony said...

I appear to have got the update to work. I did not understand the instructions. Turn on the cybook with the sd card installed, then as soon as the cybook logo appears and before it completes boot up, press and hold the centre key.
I may not be the only person not to get this.
Tony

Dustin said...

Does anyone know when the next firmware update will be released?

Nelson S A E said...

vantadr, recent Bookeen newsletter (number 8, I think) promised it in the beginning of 2009.

Wait, that is... NOW! :-)

I expect a major upgrade, and I expected it in the next few days.

Am I expecting too much?...

Come Bookeen, there are so many people - your costumers - waiting for this!

Regards
Nelson

Anonymous said...

Guys -

Support for ePub files would be very great. Any plans for this ?

TK,

FredV

Luca said...

Can Bookeen give a tentative release date for the new firmware?

I would be higly disappointed if no folder support is included.

Best Regards

Beege said...

Would also be interested when a new firmware release will be coming as I am looking at purchasing another Cybook if the next upgrade impresses, like folder support as mentioned previous and better usable menu functions for scrolling through a large library.

Aleksander Helgaker said...

Is there any chance that the Cybook will add support for non-encrypted epub files? I know you can't support the DRM due to mobi's strict licencing agreement, but surely you're allowed to support it in an unencrypted form.

Luca said...

Any one in this blog is asking the same question:
public
"When will Bookeen Release the new firmware update with folder support?"

Can Booken give us a realistic release date?

Regards

Unknown said...

Adobe today announced an SDK for portable devices that supports PDF and ePub formats. Bookeen is listed in the press release as planning to incorporate the SDK into their device sometime this year. No idea how this will affect PDF reading on the Cybook, but at the least this will mean ePub support. Nifty.

galverbende said...

1) For the next upgrade please try to speed up the opening process of the cybook. The Sony reader stars very fast! It's frustrating to wait so long when I want to resume reading!

2) The Lookup option should be available from a button, or should be on top of the menu list. It's frustrating to wait 4-clicks long until I get to the lookup option in the menu!

3) The bookmarks should be numbered for ease of navigation.

4) Making small notes should be available also. You can type numbers when you want to go to a certain page, why not have all the letters and the possibility to insert small notes? Ok, the writing would be a hard thing to do, but here's a sugestion: use the mobile phone system for writing. For example, you have a table of 3x4 cells. In every cell you have 3 symbols, at least. You navigate with the up-down-left-right button. When you get to the cell where the desired imput-letter is, then you press enteer for selecting the first symbol or use another button for selecting the second or third letter. For example: I get to the ABC cell; then I press once a certain button to get to B (because A could be the default selection); then I press Enter for inserting the letter. And so on. OK, it's not very fast, but it shouldn't be slower than the SMS sending. And we're ok with it, most of the time! Of course, there could be other systems, much faster for writing. Do a brain-storming;). This capability would make the Cybook worth while!

5) Why is the emty-text border so big? Please include the possibility to have the text all over the screen! The PC-software is very good when it comes to customization! Do the same with the cybook software. Learn something from Sony!

6) The number of the page on screen is also a must-have!

7) And you should make available a free dictionary for the cybook. It's a competitive market and the the cybook should emphasize it's Lookup option.

8) There should be available a user-defined zoom level. Not just fit page, 70%, 80% etc. But also 73% if I want...The screen is small and for many pdfs this option is not enought. There remains empty scree-space...

9) Please include a delete option.

All the best!

johntindall said...

I have had my Cybook for a few weeks. I see that my firmware is 1.2 (build 820). How is it that this build appears to be newer than the one mentioned on the support site?

zed said...

It seems that not v1.2 build 796 is the latest available firmware - at least on my one build 802 is shown.
Is there any documentation around what are the differences? Or is it possible to download it somewhere?