Boox M92 wishlist

(initial wishlist from [1], classification template from ILiad Software Wishlist)

What do you want the software to be able to do? Here is the place to put it down.

W.r.t. Bugs: Please annotate Bugs/Bugfix requests with your firmware version when you find an issue solved - someone may have forgotten to do so. Note that it will also help to annotate the FW version you find the bugs in. ;)

Please check the Wiki before adding items to the wishlist. Some things (e.g., an FTP server) are already available ;)

This feature has been implemented
This feature is planned for one of the next updates
This feature will not make it to the M92 via Onyx
This feature has been implemented by an independent developer

(If you can, annotate an importance of your requested feature to help developers prioritize - is it a deal breaker? Is it something important (e.g., because some tasks are really complicated without it)? Is it something you miss occasionally? Or is it just a nice-to-have toy option? ;) )

This wiki

• Please mark first version to inlcude a requested feature

General

• Multitasking - means opening more than one ebook/application/browser and quick switching between them (planned, but not next release)
• Add a Greek keyboard layout to type Greek
• Add an Arabic keyboard layout to type Arabic.
• Add a Spanish keyboard layout to type the Ñ. It is very important for us, the Spanish people, that letter is in the name of our country "España". The tittles are important too for proper spelling: á, é, í, ó, ú.
• USB Host mode support [2], at least for an external keyboard
• Louder/more natural speech to text [3]
• Per file selection of reader application
• (FW1.7RC26/03/12) Direct jump to main directory (e.g., by long-pressing return button) [4]
• Longer configurable shutdown times (maybe user definable?) [5] (workaround, until feature implemented by Onyx [6])
• Tethering (/AdHoc Wifi Mode) support [7]
• Minimal information about wifi connection [8] and [9]
• SSH server/Easy way to send files to the device wirelessly (samba?) [10].
• Option to disable screensaver in suspend mode (keeping current screen ; toolbar below replaced by a status message to avoid confusion) (would be useful when a single reference page, e.g., a cooking recipe, has to be displayed for a long time - saving battery power) (there's a hack workaround in the meantime: [11]) - (nice to have)
• More File organization modes such as sort by modification time (time file was loaded on device)
• Improve Calendar App so that it allows adding tasks and meetings and can be synced over net[12]
• Password protected folders (there's a workaround for encrypting files and folders: [13])
• Password protect start-up, when resuming from standby and when USB cable is used to connect to PC [14]
• [15] Source code at least for linux kernel/patches (please respect the GPL), gui_shell and system_manager - preferably for the whole firmware. (There are kernel source files missing)
  
• Plugin interface and or source to facilitate system/UI extensions (e.g., allowing at least to register scripts/application with the tool menu, so they can be called when viewing documents) (very important to developer community) [16]
• Support for buttons of [17] alternative stylus (the lower one switching between erase and scribble/add, the upper one switching beteen scribble and annotation) - (very nice to have)
• Facility to manage WiFi settings without time pressure of auto-connection. (e.g. a stop-connect-button in the existing dialog?) Auto-connection sometimes happens to fast to even find the entry one would like to edit... or one would like to connect to - (imporant)
• Warning when editing a document on a storage device with low residual space, or on a device which is write protected ([18], [19]) (there's a workaround to do this for SDCards in the meantime: [20]) - (very important)
• Application/Option to see free storage space on internal memory and sd-card - ( There's a workaround in the meantime: Download script_ui_primitives and use the simple_command script to execute 'df -h' ) - (important)
• Integrate funtion to OCR scanned documents, possibly with software like Tesseract (nice to have).
• In the File Explorer it would be nice to have consistency so that you can set e.g. 'View by last access + descending' and it applies either everywhere or in that folder and _stays_ set like that.
• a better (i.e. scientific) calculator
• add possibility in dictionary to jump back and forth in the history tree of explanations. (Allow to return if user activates explanation from explanation beeing studied.)
• OpenDocument Format support (.odt / .ods) (important)
• User data (in this case 'notes') should NOT be stored on a small partition (in this case /root) which is swept by a script (in this case watchdog.sh) when it is full. Please keep the notes either on SDCard or the regular internal memory partition. [21] (very important)
• Allow for directory shortcuts in addition to file shortcuts - (nice to have)
• There should be a simple and fast way to synchronize folders on the M92 with dropbox/ubuntu one/mendeley/zotero... without using the webbrowser. (important - would make the device much more useful)
• Option to have Dictionary icon in the bottom panel, right side (possibly as a Settings option).
• Option to load more than one Dictionary at the time and see the results all listed at once.
• Option to change the contrast in the picture viewer.
• Option to see the name of the picture at top/bottom when visualizing fullscreen pictures.
• A full-featured email client (important).

Bugfix requests

• FW 1.8.1 20121113 Status bar icons choice does not stick. For example, select Annotation Icons, now open the menu, select Go To Page, at this moment the status gets reverted to General Icons.
• Fix Polish keyboard so that it features a slash, a backslash and a quotation mark - VERY ANNOYING, browsing the web requires language switching.[22]
• Fix wifi handling w.r.t. suspend mode (FW1.7RC 24/02/12: wifi is unavailable after suspend, if not deactivated prior to suspension) (update: now (FW1.7RC16/05/12) only requires browser restart)
• Fix missing files and issues in SDK and disclosed source repositories: feed_reader is missing feed_action.h and feed_action.cpp ; libcrypto missing in SDK (workaround: [23]) ; cr3 building yields linker errors (see: [24]), as it seems incompatible to the onyx_ui version in the repository ([25])... onyx should publish the sources of the software versions used in the firmware to comply with the GPL
• The page bar is sometimes drawn over the whole bottom side, then resized without updating the now-freed areas. The refresh icon etc. is hidden by the page bar artifact. See [26]
• Using the long-return-button option does not properly exit applications (e.g., scribbles are not saved; exiting from browser this way entails wifi problems until reboot; music_player is interrupted), and does not ensure a proper display of main page (needs refresh afterwards) ... there is _one_ positive thing about this behaviour, though: one can kill crashed scripts with it (maybe it should just exempt a configurable list of applications from its destructive behaviour? ;) )
• The screen doesn't always register clicks properly. This seems to happen whenever you don't tap perfectly - i.e (I assume) you trigger a drag event rather than a click event. Would it be possible to register very fast drag events as a click instead? Or, for areas where dragging makes no sense (such as the on-screen keyboard) could drag operations count as clicks? Currently I find the on-screen keyboard quite hard to use accurately.
• The keyboard for entering search or annotations sometimes comes up 'too wide' to see the characters on the right hand side and the OK button, and with no apparent method for moving it over.
• boot splash image and screensaver appears to show upside-down? EDIT by Mono: (Probably meant the case when the screen rotation is set to 180 deg. - upside down - to move connectors up) No, it's the normal way up and a PNG that looks normal everywhere else is reversed on the M92.
• The dictionary in Similar Words mode (a b c in circles) shows the formating tags instead of removing tags and showing plain text or better showing formated text (Like in Explanation mode).
• In 1.7 some language options are not shown in the menu (you can choose the option but there is no text that tells you what language that will be).
• In 1.7 for German language it fails to display the Germanic umlaut correctly (for Letters like Ä, ä, Ö, ö, Ü, ü and ß). This is at least for the GUI. ePub seems fine with umlauts directly in source code (no entities). Guess in 1.6 it was alright, so can't be a matter to fix it.
• * In 1.7 I can't delete files from SD card. After confirming that the file should be deleted, the page refreshes and the file is still there.
• In 1.7 when connecting to a computer via USB I can't delete files on the SD card via the OS File Explorer (it says the media is write-protected).
• In 1.8.20130322 there's no possibility to assign a static IP when DHCP is disabled.
• In 1.8.20130322 dictionary crossreference links send you to wrong entries.
• In 1.8.20130322 dictionary crossreference links send you to wrong entries.

PDFReader

• Chronology for each book – means saving and showing of last (let say 10 or another configurable value) opened pages in a book. So a reader can easily go for example to a register/addendum and back to the last read page (show taskbar let say by long holding the OK button)
• Annotation export - saving annotations as txt file
• Annotation information visible in Table of Contents (ToC)
• Turn off double click dictionary shortcut while scribbling annotations on the page
• Scribble annotations in Epub and Word documents [27] (impossible because of file structure)
• Split screen while doing scribble annotations (so you can see the text you are scribbling writing down about) - ideally with the ability to use a specific background
• Column Zoom mode - navigating along column with buttons, flipping to other column at end/beginning of current column [28]
• Panning with joystick in zoom mode (alternative to pen panning - given that 2 buttons on the left side already switch pages and that the current solution forces to switch frequently between scribble and pan mode)
• (FW1.7RC26/03/12) Merge highlights along with scribble into new PDF
• Annotation/Scribble/Highlight export as portable FDF/XFDF files [29]
• Adding highlighted text to exported text annotations
• Collapsible ToC [30]
• Irex style bar at the bottom - featuring most often used tools and icons (partial implementation in FW1.7RC26/03/12: quick access to annotation menu ;;; at least the same for zooming would be helpful)
• Long pressing of home button to switch between two tools [31]
• Hide/Show margin functionality (<=> panning) in hide-margin zoom (to facilitate margin scribbles without tedious menu traversal ;) ). It would be _very_ convenient, if the joystick would not pan by a fixed distance, but rather fully show/hide a relating margin (e.g., left->pan fully to the left of the document ; right->pan to hidden margin position again) - (very nice to have)
• More scribble stroke colors/grayscales (black, white, red, green, blue would be perfect) (grayscale in reader application, possibly user-definable colors after merging) (e.g., could use one color to mark errors, another to mark ideas or questions, ...) ; also, black scribbles are not easy to spot in merged documents, red would probably be better ( workaround hack in the meantime: [32]) - (important)
• (FW1.7RC26/04/23) Annotation exports should be saved into same directory as annotated document by default (very nice to have)
• <strike> (FW1.7RC26/03/12) Hide and display scribbles and/or annotations on pdf files at will. [33]
• Printing support (nice to have)
• 'Last/Most frequently used 4 items of each category' tab in menu as quick fix for missing toolbar (would save a lot of menu navigation ; note: mind limiting the scope in which the icons change place in here in order to stop it from being unusable as one has to search the icon every time ;) ) - (nice to have - as the toolbar is coming ;) ) ([34])
  • FW 1.8.1 20121113 I'd like to suggest a different solution - user customizable content of the Status Bar (higher priority) as well as a user customizable "tab" in the Home button menu (alongside the existing Reading, Page Settings etc. tabs) (lower priority).
• Highlight/annotation feature should allow for easy marking of entire words (avoiding accidental selection of partial words)
• Highlight feature in different colors/ grayscales and underline tool (like in a text editor, not scribble) (important)
• All metadata w.r.t. a document should be local w.r.t. its location in the file system (e.g. by replacing the document by a directory containing document and metadata once it is opened) (otherwise, managing files in a directory structure or continuing to work on a document at a later time becomes a nightmare, as annotations are currently in a DB - associated with a file of a fix name at a fix position - which is not even updated when the file is moved using the file operations on the M92 itself) - (very important) [35] (partial workaround: [36])
• at the moment you can chose a "standard font" in "Preferences". But unfortunately in the list of possible standard fonts the "custom fonts" in the "fonts" directory of the internal storage are missing. Would be cool to find them here, as well.
• possibility to scroll in dictionary lookup window (to read long dictionary entries without quitting the reader application) (very nice to have)
• Option to 'revert' to 'previous' zoom setting (use case: read doc. in custom 2-point-zoom ; zoom in on figure with new 2-point-zoom ; revert to previous 2-point-zoom to continue reading) - (very nice to have)
• Possibility to import/edit pdf annotations added on PC (usecase: someone else annotates a PDF with e.g., PDFXChangeViewer and sends it to a M92 owner for further processing) - (very nice to have)
• Shortcut for the dictionary when reading (in toolbar)
• Automatic move of the dictionary window from top to bottom of the screen after turning pages
• text of the next page exactly on the top of the new page after turning pages (redundancy, annoying to find the 'entry phrase' on the new page)
• Possibility to go to next and previous page in Dictionary window when in (a b c in circles) mode. (It is possible in standalone Dictionary Application by prev/next buttons)
• For FW1.7RC26/03/12 pdf rendering seems extremely slow with scanned pdf files, page turning takes, depending on file and zoom level/kind, at least 3 sec., with certain pdfs even 10 sec or more, see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175647 (FW1.6 is alledgedly much faster, so maybe this is rather a bugfix request?)
• Support for the EPUB3 standard[37] (see [38] for examples)
• Sticky settings (plus the option to have them sticky or not?). That is, when PDFReader opens, the toolbar and selected tool are the same as either the last time I opened PDFReader or the last time I opened that particular file. This would save much clicking to change the settings (primarily annotation for me) everytime I reopen a file or wake the machine.
• Pressing on a number in the document allows you to navigate to the corresponding page, in order to speed up cross-referencing.

Bugfix requests

• Merging of scribbles should not use smoothing, as smoothing very often kills lines. Please, let us have a merging function which does not attempt to smooth anything! Behaviour at the moment makes the merging of scribbles to pdf to unreliable to be useful. (very important)
• Annotation export (to .txt) omits spaces with some .pdf files - please fix (very important) (HARD TO FIX, SINCE IT IS ON ADOBE SDK)
• Fix for viewing certain pdf files such as those from the internet archive, where the contents are not displayed at all (or only at very low zoom levels of 50% or so), see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=171128 and http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=175652
• (BUG) White color being merged onto the PDF as black color. (important) [39] (fixed in FW1.7RC15/05/12)
• Merging of pdf with annotations containing special signs does not work (very important), see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=187509
• Attempting to use the annotation tool on an area with no text crashes the PDF viewer (losing annotations and notes!). PDF known to do this (though all in my experience do): [40] version 20121113, only on "new" PDF reader.
• On djvus: if you choose page selection, don't insert a number, press ok then exit via return button, you will not be able to open the djvu again, see http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=204084 (very important)
• new pdf reader: problem switching pages when waking up from sleep [41] (very important)

Browser

• Set screen status. Turn on/off fullScreen while browsing
• HTTPS support
• Browser tabs [42]
• Print pages to PDF or copy/paste text into notes
• Auto-jump to links with joystick and click them without stylus
• Startup page setting support
• Button to load images when auto-loading of images is turned off (very nice to have)
• Support to save pages for offline reading (nice to have)
• Use pdf viewer to view pdf links (without separate download/open step)
• (BUG FIX?) Open downloaded pdf files in pdf viewer. Currently it does nothing.
• Add support for Wolfram Alpha [43]
• Add support for "file://" links [http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showpost.php?p=1978755&postcount=407
• A feature that would allow us to copy text from websites, and paste it on the web (i.e. in an email or a forum .. etc.) and in the Note application.
• A status bar to show loading of sites and a history.
• Ability to edit current URI, e.g when opening the URL keyboard, the present/current URI should show and be editable (or deletable). This is even more relevant on 404s to correct typing mistakes. (Also the only way to verify what page is loaded.)
• URL keyboard activation icon could (should?) be move to the top bar. (There is space on the right side, can this space be used?)
• Refresh and Stop button could be combined into one button (changing icon as relevant, i.e. Stop when page loads, Refresh when page is loaded); to save space/unclutter look.
• Bookmark list icon in the top bar. (There is space on the right side, can this space be used?)
• When connecting to wifi, and then web page, it shows 'Connecting to xyz.com'. Would be nice if it also showed the wifi point connected too. Nice to have.

Bugfix requests

• (POSSIBLY A BUG FIX?) Auto-shutdown doesn't seem to work if the device is left in the web browsing mode.[44]
• For me at least (using 1.7 20120326), browser use is slow & flaky i.e. usually freezing when putting in passwords for gmail on my reliable home network or gateway passwords for public access wifi like 'The Cloud'. Whether this is the fault of the browser or the wifi connection I don't know. Virtual Keyboard in the web brwoser is incredibly slow!
• In some web pages (like gmail.com, amazon.com) it is not possible to enter an email address, so is impossible to login. (Firmware 1.7.20120726)
• Stop WiFi dialogue: When selecting 'No' or clicking the closing X, should stay in browswer, and current page (i.e. not jump out to bookmarks page). (Or possibly, hitting Cancel should jump out, but X-close should stay on page.)

Scribble

• (FW1.7RC15/05/12) Automatic file name containing creation date and time [45]
• Switching pen/eraser and pen thickness without entering menu (perhaps a toggle icon on the status bar)
• Easy page switching
• Different shades of grey to simulate colours
• The "Select Background" icon under the "Create Scribble" application is not giving options at the moment. It would be good to have at least lined and gridded backgrounds. [46] (workaround: [47],[48])
• Mark boundaries of background image (which seem to be boundaries of scribble area) by border lines for orientation - (nice to have)
• Offer alternative backgound images that fit screen proportions (that is: that allow scribbling on the entire page) - (very nice to have)
• (FW1.7RC26/07/12) Option to rename scribble files - (nice to have)
• Integrate peter-x's (existing) .SVG export (see: [49]) - (very nice to have)
• (FW1.7RC15/05/12) Confirmation question when deleting scribbles should mention scribble name for safety reasons - (very nice to have)
• Searching scribble file names (directly, without exporting first). Searching for "ale" should return "ale", "alert", "whale", "talent", etc. Very important.
• Transferring scribbles to pc via usb (directly, without exporting first). Nice to have. (Doable via OTFM and peter-x's script to convert .sketch files into .svg: Copy the .sketch files from the system directory into the SD card, apply script)
• Exporting multi-page scribbles (currently only the last page is exported). **Important! I want to recommend the m92 to my work colleagues but cannot do that in good conscience without this feature**
• Easier to add pages to a scribble. Inserting a page should put a page *after* the current one. **Important! I want to recommend the m92 to my work colleagues but cannot do that in good conscience without this feature** [Just pressing the "NEXT" button on the border of the device will do the job]
• Undo (last stoke/glyph) - nice to have
• Sort by file name, asc and desc (currently only sorting by access time, asc is possible). Important.
• When scribbles are exported, the pages of the file are saved as individual .png files with filenames entered by the user. In order to be really usable, the folder (containing the .png images) should also inherit this filename, instead of having a system-generated name. Otherwise there is no way to quickly browse the titles of saved scribbles. This is the only missing function that prevents the M92 from becoming a serious note-taking tool! Very important.

Bugfix requests

• (BUG) Merging algorithm misses parts of letters sometimes, always misses horizontal or vertical straight lines (very important) [50]
• Fix pen stops writing and/or connecting last written glyph with start of a new glyph (even though actually far away from each other). This issue occurs only when the device is not connected to any external power source. (very important) [51].

FBReader

• Annotation support [52]
• Margin setting support
• Dictionary lookup support (FW 1.7 RC 24/02/12 opens dict. window when viewing .txt file, but does not allow to mark words - instead, clicking results in a page flip) - (nice to have)

Bugfix requests

CoolReader

• Add support for hyphenation in different languages (at the moment english and russian hyphenation is hardcoded), see [53].
• Add support for KF8 MOBI (AZW3) format. Most of not DRMed Kindle books are in this format now and there is no way to read it on Onyx w/o converting first. See [54].

Bugfix requests

• ignores CSS directives inside of Epub files. Can be fixed very easily, see [55]

Note

• Add option to 'read' and edit .txt files with Note application (nice to have). This workaround allows to select any file for editing in the text editor [56] (Warning: it also allows editing files in your root system which can do damage if you do not know what you are doing, use with care and at your own risk).

Bugfix requests

Music Player

• Playlist support (nice to have)
• Streaming support (nice to have) ([57])
• AAC/m4a support for most recent sound files
• ogg support (nice to have)

Bugfix requests

• Volume control is badly misbehaving in different ways. See [58] Yes it is _way_ too loud on headphones with even the lowest volume setting barely usable.