Palm Reader Pro Updated to 2.2.6

[archangel]

Palm Reader Pro 2.2.6
- Add the "Menu", "Open" and "Start Auto Scroll" icons to the toolbar preferences.
- Change auto scroll to use native pixels on Palm OS 5 devices (scrolling speed may need to be adjusted).
- Change the dictionary lookup to sort ligatures in the correct order.
- Fix a problem with selection and icon tracking on Acer handhelds.
- Fix a problem with the device powering off on Zire 71 handhelds.
- Fix a problem with links that start with accented characters.
- Fix a problem with new bookmarks taking a long time if the book has a lot of chapters.
- Fix a pagination bug with DOC format books when a hyphen falls on the end of a line.
- Requires 295K free memory.

Looks like mostly a bug fix release, but new options on the toolbar is cool.

[Tixx]

Thanks:)

[plaid]

I installed the new palmreader pro, and it is not wrapping text properly for palm ebooks or doc files. I've tried using different fonts, and using only system fonts, turning off fonthack etc. but I get lots of text missing. It looks like the text continues for quite a few words passed the right edge of the screen. Anyone else notice this?

[Unregistered]

All I see is 2.2.4 on their website, for the Palm.

[Tixx]

Originally posted by Unregistered
All I see is 2.2.4 on their website, for the Palm.

I logged in and it had 2.2.6 waiting for me to download.

[jamester]

Must be a selective thing, I've still only got 2.2.4 when I log in. =( Ah well, I'll try tomorrow. :)

J

[Unregistered]

Ah! I suppose I would have to purchase it first then. Of course, until I see some improvements I think I will hold off. So, I guess we can say that the free 2.2.6 version is not yet available.

thanks!

[Brownster]

I logged in and saw 2.2.4....I wonder if they pulled it due to problems?

Jim

[allesi]

I heard somewhere that they are going to do a complete re-write on this application. Anyone heard the same thing? I have seen the MS Reader, and it appears like something worth purchasing compared to the Palm Reader. I guess if you want the latest books, you don't have much choice right now on the Palm platform. Still can't believe that you have to pay for this thing, plus they make royalties on each book sold also.

[rldunn]

You don't have to pay for it. They have a free reader with nearly the same amount of functionality. The only things the free one doesn't have is dictionary support and font support.

[rldunn]

They definitely must have pulled it, because I downloaded 2.2.6 earlier, but I just went and checked again, and it's now 2.2.4. I wonder if I should switch back. I like the icons on the top bar and haven't noticed any problems with word wrapping.

[Brownster]

I just checked again...even downloaded and installed...it is 2.2.4...this is odd. PalmProWin is 2.2.6.

Jim

[Tixx]

Originally posted by rldunn
They definitely must have pulled it, because I downloaded 2.2.6 earlier, but I just went and checked again, and it's now 2.2.4. I wonder if I should switch back. I like the icons on the top bar and haven't noticed any problems with word wrapping.

Hmmm...I have no problems either. This is strange.

[allesi]

Yeah, I know there is a free version but it is gimped without nice fonts. I mean, it is a reader and fonts are the only way to compete with other readers. Also, I am not a big fan of it's tool bar. Clearly it was designed for the Palm V series displays. Actually, the entire app doesn't even meet Palm's interface standards. Kind of like they bought it from Peanut Press and put their logo on it, then raked in the money. Mobipocket sure seems more cutting edge for the latest OS, plus it has really nice anti-aliased fonts. It just does not have the titles to compete. An open secure doc standard would be nice, huh.

[archangel]

They must have noticed the bug in the word wrapping (though it didn't happen to me) and pulled it.

[jamester]

IMO, Mobipocket just doesn't compare. Palm Reader Pro is lightening fast compared to Mobipocket. I love my Palm Reader Pro. :)

J

[yorrick]

Mobipocket runs quite slow, the user interface is not helpful (nor untuitive) and I am now regretting any ebooks on Mobipocket. Palmreader is a lot simpler and runs faster!

[yorrick]

I was looking at www.palmdigitalmedia.com and comparing the differences between the free version and the commercial one. I am wondering if I missed out any other points in the differences?
1) PalmReaderPro has a dictionary
2) PalmReaderPro has selectable fonts
3) PalmReaderPro has additional selectable fonts that costs a bit extra.

Or is there extra stuff in the features and functionality that I missed out on?

[OcellNuri]

From what I read a while ago...

The free version does not have custom colors, fonts (I want to use small fonts on my Hires NX), VFS support (though I'm not sure about this), and it does not let you turn the display to landscape mode. I think it's also not Hires+.

Right now I'm using DeepReader... and excellent ebook reader. I want... sooo bad... to be able to do landscape. I'm scared to buy PalmreaderPro though, because I've gotten so used to the fonts in DeepReader.

[rldunn]

Ocell, don't be afraid. PRP has Font Smoothing, which in conjunction with some of the Fonts4NX fonts (my favorite is TimesRoman) looks awesome for the books.

[archangel]

Originally posted by OcellNuri
From what I read a while ago...

The free version does not have custom colors, fonts (I want to use small fonts on my Hires NX), VFS support (though I'm not sure about this), and it does not let you turn the display to landscape mode. I think it's also not Hires+.


The Free version of Palm Reader does have VFS support, Landscape mode and Hi Res+.

The only things you are missing is dictionary support, custom colors, and the additional fonts.

I have Mobipocket Pro and its a really mediocre program. Its slow, bloated, not as user friendly and you have to pay for the Pro version to get VFS support. I have a few Mobipocket format books, but whenever possible I read on Palm Reader Pro.

[allesi]

From the screenshot I see that the finally included the drop down menu capability to the toolbar! When I had my Tungsten T that drove me crazy, having to open the slider to get the drop down menus.

[OcellNuri]

Originally posted by archangel
[B]

The Free version of Palm Reader does have VFS support, Landscape mode and Hi Res+.


Sweet! I'm going to download now. :-D

DeepReader IS very nice though. Everyone check it out if you havn't. Here is a screenshot.

http://home.earthlink.net/~ocellnuri/clie/deepreader.jpg

- Sorry that's a bit off-topic.

[rldunn]

Originally posted by allesi
From the screenshot I see that the finally included the drop down menu capability to the toolbar! When I had my Tungsten T that drove me crazy, having to open the slider to get the drop down menus. They added that capability long before the TT came out; probably well over a year ago. But the menu button only displays when the toolbar is on top.

[OcellNuri]

Hey rldunn... you might want to check the content of your screenshot. You mod's have an image to keep right? :D

[allesi]

Toolbar on top must be a Pro feature also, unless it is hidden somewhere.

[rldunn]

Originally posted by OcellNuri
Hey rldunn... you might want to check the content of your screenshot. You mod's have an image to keep right? :D That's the second time in a row that's happened to me when I posted a PRP screenshot!! That just happens to be where I'm at in my current book, and it's not a vulgar book at all. Just a rough cop making comments in character. Oh well, not doing another one.

[archangel]

Originally posted by allesi
Toolbar on top must be a Pro feature also, unless it is hidden somewhere.

It probably is. Its a newer feature and I haven't checked the regular Palm Reader to see if it has it.

[Tixx]

Originally posted by rldunn
That's the second time in a row that's happened to me when I posted a PRP screenshot!! That just happens to be where I'm at in my current book, and it's not a vulgar book at all. Just a rough cop making comments in character. Oh well, not doing another one.

I was laughing as I remember this happening before:D Excuses excuses. Rldunn likes vulgar books*LOL*:D

[Shrink]

I've been using TealDoc and it seems good to me.
Are there any advantages to PalmReader or PRP?
alan

[rldunn]

It used to be that the biggest advantage by far was the selection available for Palm Reader, which blows away anything else if you're into current best-sellers. I even used Palm Reader on a Clie when it didn't support high-res, just because of the selection. But now the reader has made great strides in the past year, and it holds up well vs other readers.

But to answer your question, if you're happy with the selection for TealDoc, then there's probably no reason to switch. However, I haven't used TealDoc, so you might want to get a copy of PalmReader (the free version) and see if it has any features that TealDoc doesn't.

[*YellowRose*]

You know, I wish PalmReader had the ability to 'hide' the status bar on PDAs with VG. I know it's possible 'cause ZL does it . . . I think it would look nice & give you an extra line or three (depending on the type size you use).

:D

[narnia_77]

(Sorry I didn't post this yesterday - I wasn't "surfing")

I too had a problem with PR PRo 2.2.6, so I emailed them. Here is their (very quick) response: Subject: Re: problems with PalmReader Pro 2.2.6

This is due to a bug in the recently released version of Palm Reader Pro.
We should have a fix up on our web site some time tomorrow. I apologize for this defect in our software.

Thank you for being a Palm Digital Media customer.

[plaid]

I'm glad you got a responce. I used the form on their site to post this problem and I got an email back from them with only this in it:

<<< No Message Collected >>>

[Tixx]

Not up yet.

[kstuart]

Aargh ! We know it's not up yet when no one posts to the thread. When someone posts to the thread, we think it is up.

Sheesh !

[Tixx]

Originally posted by kstuart
Aargh ! We know it's not up yet when no one posts to the thread. When someone posts to the thread, we think it is up.

Sheesh !

Still not up yet:p

[rldunn]

So is it up yet or not?

[Tixx]

Originally posted by rldunn
So is it up yet or not?

I'll go check, hold on...



......do........... do
Do ......do... do...do
...............do




Nope:(

[Tixx]

Thought it might have been by now.

[allesi]

Obviously the bug was deeper than they expected. Never heard of a software company releasing an app, pulling it because of an issue, then being able to fix the issue within a day. Usually they will have to do QA all over again after the bug is found and fixed.

BTW, why is the PocketPC version up to 2.2.10 but the PalmOS is hovering between 2.2.4 and 2.2.6?

[archangel]

Originally posted by allesi
Obviously the bug was deeper than they expected. Never heard of a software company releasing an app, pulling it because of an issue, then being able to fix the issue within a day. Usually they will have to do QA all over again after the bug is found and fixed.

BTW, why is the PocketPC version up to 2.2.10 but the PalmOS is hovering between 2.2.4 and 2.2.6?

The PPC version is different and IMO a much better ap. The changes taking it up to .10 are mostly bug fixes. I really wish they would do a special OS 5 only version of Palm Reader that is more like the Desktop version. Here is the read me of changes for the basic version.


Changes
=======

1.2.10
=================================
Back out new drawing code.

1.2.9
=================================
Various fixes for device locking and time stamping.

1.2.3
=================================
Fix device locked book opening.

1.2.1
=================================
Fix bug with accented characters in dictionary.
Add support for new dictionaries.

1.2
=================================
Add support for new book format.
Begin the merge of PocketPC code to desktop code. Fixes various small rendering bugs.

[allesi]

Seems like a lot of Palm apps just wont let go of the past. Compatibility with non-arm devices is begining to weigh down the platform as a whole. However, I am sure that if competition in PalmOS readers isn't around then they wont sink the money into a new build for OS 5.

[Brownster]

Problem is that they didn't repost a fix within a day. At last check it was still at 2.2.4.

Jim

[archangel]

Originally posted by allesi
Seems like a lot of Palm apps just wont let go of the past. Compatibility with non-arm devices is begining to weigh down the platform as a whole. However, I am sure that if competition in PalmOS readers isn't around then they wont sink the money into a new build for OS 5.

Problem is stuff like the original Zire sells nearly a million handhelds, so program makers are still catering to the OS 4 audience because its most of the Palm PDA owners.

The support for OS 5 has been pretty pathetic so far. I can only think a few programs designed from the ground up for OS 5 and the OS has been out for quite awhile now. It will probably end up taking till OS 6 for most programs to finally start getting updated to fully take advantage of the Arm processor.

[CliePal]

I went out to the Palm Reader site, and the 2.2.6 looks to be only for the desktop. The latest version for the PDA is 2.2.4.

Is that what you all found???

[*YellowRose*]

Originally posted by CliePal
I went out to the Palm Reader site, and the 2.2.6 looks to be only for the desktop. The latest version for the PDA is 2.2.4.

Is that what you all found??? Nope. There WAS a 2.2.6 Palm version. For a few hours... some people got it, but I wasn't one of them. :( It had some issues (as you can see mentioned above . . .)

[archangel]

Here is a screen shot of 2.2.6. You can see the new menu buttons and they can be on the top or bottom. Its nice having a scroll button now. The scrolling also looks much better now on my NX.

http://home.satx.rr.com/laseractive/PRP.jpg

[allesi]

I finally bought the Pro version today, with the font pack. The feature called "Font Smoothing" makes page turning a nightmare. Click the button, no-response at all. Click it a few more times then finally it turns the page. Turn off font smoothing and all works perfectly. I truely hope they address this in 2.2.6 for the Zire71.

[archangel]

Strange. I never noticed more than a slight slow down using font smoothing even on OS 4 devices. Usually when trying to go back a page or forward quickly. Must be a Zire 71 issue. I would email them. They are usually pretty quick to fix bugs in the program.

[allesi]

Thank god! They finally put a Menu Dialog button on the toolbar when in the bottom position. That should make a lot of Tungsten T users happy.

[allesi]

The last feature that I would really like to have in the Palm Reader is Page Grabbing. I prefer the control over auto-scrolling and page turning.

Tomeraider and iSilo has it, but Palm Reader is just more streamlined for reading books.

[AlbertLu]

Originally posted by allesi
The last thing feature that I would really like to have in the Palm Reader is Page Grabbing. I prefer the control over auto-scrolling and page turning.

Agreed. I do it all the time with Acrobat Reader on Windows and like it. It's actually much more intuitive and flexible&nbsp;than tab-and-scroll-one-page.

[narnia_77]

I agree that it looks like the bug was not minor and might take a while to correct...

archangel, is your Clie using Palm OS 5? Is that why 2.2.6 worked for you? I'm currently using a T665C (OS4) and had the problem of cut-off text, and had to go back to 2.2.4.

(kstuart, sorry for the bump - no new version on site) :(

[archangel]

Originally posted by narnia_77

archangel, is your Clie using Palm OS 5?


Yes, I have an NX60. The change they made to enhance scrolling on OS 5 PDAs might have been what caused the problem on OS 4 devices, but thats a wild guess. The problem may also show up on OS 5 PDAs, but so far I haven't noticed a problem.

[allesi]

Ah!!! The OS4 peeps are holding us back! ;)

[a0rez]

Hi Gang,

&nbsp;

PalmReader Pro 2.2.6 is back on www.palmdigitalmedia.com (http://www.palmdigitalmedia.com).&nbsp; The update description seems not to have changed form the first post in this thread.

&nbsp;

I hope they fixed whatever was wrong when they pulled it before &lt;grin&gt;.

&nbsp;

Take Care,

&nbsp;

a0

[volcanopele]

well that's great to hear. However, what exactly was wrong? I have been running 2.2.6 on my NR70V since it was first announced here and never had text run-off problems.

[Tixx]

Finally, though I have had no problems either.

[*YellowRose*]

Kool! I got it this time!

:D

[allesi]

Font Smoothing still makes page turning hesitant...

[rldunn]

On my NX with font smoothing on, turning to the next page goes pretty good, provided I only turn one page at a time, but going back a page takes forever. They need to add some optimization to PRP for OS5 devices.