yashsingh1/xdaforums huggingface dataset:
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] bluenote73:
Caliber does an amazing job of converting everything I throw at it, as well as managing my library, check it out.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] pox67:
Hey Jim, this is a pretty awesome reader. By far the best I have found for Win Mob.

Is it possible to add DRM EPUB?

Is PDF out of the question? I have a lot of PDF books and non of the Win Mob PDF readers are up to scratch. None of them come close to Freda for ease of use or polish.

I am confortable using Calibre so will start converting my current books to EPUB for now.

Cheers, pox67.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] fistikal:
hi Jim,

sent you an email via gmail, would love to be a tester for 1.1

Arvind
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Technically: very easy, thanks to the folks behind 'INEPT'. Legally and commercially: it's rather more complex ;)

I've been avoiding it - partly because decoding PDF is a tricky business (particularly for display on devices with small screens, where you can't really stick with the original document layout) and partly because I actually think EPUB is the 'right' format for e-books.

PDF-decoding is on the list, but quite a long way down it. Anyhow, as you note, Calibre does a decent job of conversion.

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] pox67:
Hi Jim, thanks for answering my questions.

The reason for DRM EPUB is so I can buy books with the mobile device and not have to go through a computer. Currently I would have to buy an ebook online, remove the DRM on a computer and then convert to EPUB. I am used to this as my current ebook reader (Bebook) only read DRMed Mobi and not all books are available in the Mobi format. I was just hoping for the one shot solution.

Cheers,

pox67
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] bdacier:
Cannot open ebooks

I've installed it on my HD2 but it won't work. The default two ebooks open, but when I trie to open my own in epub txt or html it won't load. I've tried many different ebooks but it just won't work.

When I look thru the logfile it says the following:

There's a error message but it cannot be shown install netcfv35.messages.en.wm.cab.

Log as generated:

Loading ePub book: \*\*\*\****.epub
Problem in LoadBook, fileName = \*\*\*\****.epub

There's a error message but it cannot be shown install netcfv35.messages.en.wm.cab.

At System.Io._Error,WinIOError(Int32errorCode, String str)
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Hi,

Can you PM (or email at home(at)jim-chapman.net) some more details please. At a minimum, I need to see more of the stack trace (i.e. where did it call System.Io._Error from?). But really, to help you, I will need to have a sample of one of the epub or txt files you're trying to open, and the whole log file, so I can see what file locations it is trying to use.

Thanks,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] gizhola:
I've been using Freda for a few days now and I LOVE IT!!! I've been spreading the word on other forums as well. Thanks and keep up the great work! You should really think about putting a donation button on your website.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Methel:
I'm also using this on a HD2 and I'm not having any trouble with it. Works great!
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] MDA_newbie:
Thank you again for this beautiful software. I just tested version 1.1 today. It works really well on my touch HD including the new features. Even the new dictionary lookup in SlovoED works perfect. Animation is also running much smoother than the previous version.

The only two things I noticed:

(1) When going to the Find ‘…’ menu, there is a little interspace between ‘in book’ and ‘in dictionary’ popup menu

(2) CBZ comics converted to epub are still not showing properly. I converted cbz comics in Calibre which shows properly in the Calibre reader (screen filled). However when read it in Freda, images were only showed in small size and not screen filled.

I noticed you changed the Bookshelf menu, which looks really nice. It might be something related to my device, but I have some visual problems with the upper alignment of the text, would it be possible to make it align centered instead of up? Just a suggestion: Would it be possible to add custom arrangement and a ability to add background in future releases?

Thank you again for this great ebook reader and I am looking forward to your next releases ;).

Another question:

I start using Freda as my main ebook reader, so I have to convert my ebooks to the epub format. It seems that Calibre is quite popular as desktop ebook manager and converter, so I would like to convert my ebooks using Calibre. However when I tried to convert, Calibre shows a list of different devices for optimalization. Does anyone knows which one fits the best for Freda?

Thanx.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] stuntdouble:
I've added your program to the Blackstone wiki along with a link to this thread. Hope you don't mind me doing so. Just figured it's worthy of spreading the word.

Been using it for a few days now and it works really well. Not found a single problem so far.

I do a lot of reading at night and the only suggestion for an improvement I can think of is to make it so the HD's backlight stays on while the program is open. Perhaps in the form of a night/day mode (backlight on/off).

Overall a very useful program.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Unit ZER0:
possibly assigning buttons ala iSilo?

to make autoscroll a possibility, maybe assigning the hardware buttons different tasks like so:

Play

Stop

Previous Chapter

Next Chapter

Home

and making the "Up" and "Down" directions on the D-pad control the scroll speed...

This looks like an awesome app, one question though, can it read .lit files? those are free too...
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] frquixote:
Freda 1.0 Options still not sticking

I am using Freda 1.0 (Build 325) on an HP iPaq 210 running WM 6.0. I am setting the Advanced Setting "Search Subfolders in Library" to checked, but each time I close Freda and then re-open it the option is again set to unchecked. As a result, Freda isn't finding my books in the subdirectories. The strange part is that it STILL doesn't find them even after the option has been checked during the session. :(

Any thoughts?

Regards,

FrQuixote
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Gandhi70:
one thing i am missing is a search function to search for text inside a book.

is something like that planned?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Yes. So far only search for a single word (not a phrase containing multiple words and/or punctuation - which would be complicated to implement because of the way Freda stores text internally).

In v1.0, long-tap on a word, and you'll see a menu item letting you search for that word (Find 'word'). In v1.1, you get the choice either searching for the word in the current book, or looking it up in a dictionary (if you installed one).

Thanks,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Strange. In v1.1 I will do this differently anyhow. The 'Library' screen will let you specify what folder you want to search in, state whether to search subfolders, let you filter book files by file name, and sort by file name or folder name. I just finished getting the code to build and (mostly) work yesterday evening - so expect a second 'release candidate' distribution soon ...

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
It's painful to get Freda to customise the hardware buttons and D-Pad, because different WinMo devices have different hardware buttons. I personally have an HTC TP2, which has none (or, at least, none you would want to customise!). I will revisit the subject some time, but not before release 1.1 is finalised.

It cannot read LIT files. I'd recommend converting them to EPUB, using some tool like Calibre.

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Implemented in v1.1 (to be released soon).

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
So there is. I will tidy that up.

Unfortunately, Freda is pretty simplistic about how it does image layout and sizing. It is never going to be a satisfactory solution for reading comics. I targeted Freda at 'reading books with the occasional image in them', and changing it so it renders image content properly would mean a major redesign. Sorry.

I'll look at the text alignment and see what I can do. Not so sure about custom background and layout - it adds to complexity, and gives the user various new ways to make the program unusable ;)

Sorry, no idea. Anyone with thoughts on the subject please feel free to post them.

Cheers,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] stuntdouble:
Excellent thx. :)
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] frquixote:
Additional Problems

Using Freda 1.0 on an HP iPaq 210 (WM6) with both SDHC card and CF card installed. As mentioned previously, Freda seems to be losing my subdirectory settings and isn't finding books located in subdirectories on the SDHC card. Even so, I'm still trying to work with Freda and Calibre as part of my efforts to get rid of eReader formatted books.

Just installed an ePub formatted book to the SD Card. Since I previously had this book loaded as an html file, I chose to clear the TEMP directory to allow it to rebuild the temporary files for the new ePub book. Now Freda posts a message "Sorry: The selected book file cannot be loaded. Tap OK to continue." When I tap OK I get the splash screen, but when I tap on the splash screen all I get is the error tone. Any idea what's wrong here?

Update: I had to totally delete Freda from my PDA, including the Temp directory and start over. Re-install fixed the error tone, but the subdirectory settings are still getting lost. Also, any chance we can import other fonts? For some reason the implementation of Tahoma being used by Freda doesn't match up with the implementation being used by the rest of my PDA apps. It appears that Freda's Tahoma 10 pt is less than 10 pt in height and bolded. Also, the Splash Screen text no longer fits on the screen at 10 pt.

I'm really looking forward to 1.1 ... hope some of these problems go away.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
v1.1 does handle the 'library' screen and the use of sub-directories in a clearer way - so that might work better for you. I have a 'testing release candidate' available for v1.1 now, so if you'd like to try it out, email me (home@jim-chapman.net) and I will send you details.

As for the temp folder, I advise that if you are experiencing trouble with books failing to load, you should: (1) use the Options->App Settings/Advanced' screen to 'clear temp files' and 'clear bookshelf' (2) quit Freda and then, using File Explorer, delete all the contents of Freda's temp folder [step (1) should have done this, but you should make sure]. You can find what temp folder Freda is using by looking on the Options->App Settings/Folders screen. Note: for Freda to work right, that folder must exist; if you delete the folder, it may cause problems.

Installing new fonts (for use by Freda or any other app) is easy. You just need to put the font file into the \windows\fonts\ folder on your phone, and then the font will be available for use by any app on the phone. You can get font files by downloading them from the internet, or by copying fonts from the C:\windows\fonts\ folder on your PC. [by the way, deleting a font off the phone is more complicated - you may find, when you try to delete the file, that the system has locked the file and won't delete it. In that case, MOVE the file to some other folder, soft-reset the phone, and then delete the file from its new location].

As for your particular problem with Tahoma, I don't know for sure what is going on. You are probably falling victim to WinMo's font subsitution rules, which are arcane. Especially in the case of Tahoma which, for some WinMo versions, is the system's default font (and that means that various bizarre registry settings come into play, and the system will in some circumstances give you a different font but tell you that it is Tahoma).

Thanks,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] pongster:
Looking forward to testing out Freda 1.1 =)
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] bjrmd:
Can you open a file directly from Freda without using the library step? It does not list some of my files in the library that are html and open with mobipocket.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Bald_Eagle:
Try renaming them to .htm. They should appear then.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] frquixote:
Thanks, my email is on its way. I'll try substituting another font for the Tahoma and see how things go.

v/r,

FrQuixote
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] LightC:
Hey Jim,

Great work on this app. The work you've done on freda is definitely appreciated.

What kind of progress have you made on the new version? It would be cool to have a list of features you're looking to implement on the first / second post of this thread.

I know you're working on adding bookmarking to the new version. You've mentioned that you can select a word and create a bookmark on a word. Alternatively, is there any way to bookmark an entire sentence? The reason I ask is because I've been a mobipocket user for some time now and I've gotten into the habit of highlighting interesting quotes and bookmarking them for later viewing.

Also, is their any plan on implementing a dictionary lookup similar to the functionality that mobipocket has? I'm currently using the WordNet dictionary in mobipocket and it comes in quite handy when you stumble on a word out of your lexicon.

Again, great work. I look forward to reading updates on the progress of this app.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Release 1.1 should be ready for general use within a couple of days.

Freda doesn't support any finger/stylus gesture that could reasonably be used for selecting text (or rather, it treats those gestures as 'swipes', which are used to turn the page). So the bookmarking functionality in 1.1 only lets you bookmark a single word (though it lets you add as much annotation text as you like). Implementing 'select' behaviour would mean creating a 'modal' user interface (since sometimes a swipe would select text, and sometimes it would change page) - and that is precisely the kind of UI complexity that I am really trying to avoid with Freda.

Yes, v1.1 uses SlovoEd. It could in principle be extended to use other dictionary packages (all I require is that (1) someone tells me what registry key to look in to find the path to the dictionary app (2) the dictionary app knows to look in the clipboard to find the word it's meant to be looking up).

Thanks for using Freda,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] damikey:
Are you able to implement -VBK- files?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] frquixote:
Freda 1.1

Finally got a chance to install Freda 1.1 this evening. I REALLY like the new Library and Bookshelf ... especially the ability to navigate to the subdirectories. Only a few small problems:

1) On the Library screen I check the Search Subfolders, but it isn't persistent. Next time I go into the Library screen it is again unchecked.

2) Under Application Settings => Colours I set a Custom color for the background. The book opens with the custom color for the background, but while I had added it to Custom Colors via the "Add to Custom Colors" button followed by OK, it was not listed in the Custom Colors the next time I went in to adjust the colors.

3) The Color palette screen for creating a custom color doesn't fit the width of my VGA screen. Without any instructions it took a bit to figure out that I had to drag the title bar for the palette window across the screen to find the color window and the Hue/Sat/Lum/Red/Green/Blue settings. Further it was unclear that to set the Hue/Sat/Lum/Red/Green/Blue settings it was necessary to first tap in the numeric field to place the cursor in the desired field and then tap on the bottom bar twice to bring up the keyboard and enter the numeric values. BTW, the colors I use are the standard dark brown from the color palette on a beige background similar in color to the parchment setting in eReader ... lessens the contrast and glare some on the LCD screen for longer reading time.

Apart from that, I found Freda 1.1 to be very easy to use and responsive. Initial load time was a bit long (not unexpected), but subsequent loads were at least as fast as eReader on the same device for the same book. Page transitions were very snappy.

I loaded a couple of additional fonts (Arial and Times New Roman just for testing) and found that as with the Tahoma font, the Arial font was presented in bold instead of in normal face. The height of the fonts were correct, unlike my previous experience with Tahoma on Freda 1.0. I also found that the interline spacing was acceptable, though I would probably like the option to specify something between 1.00 and 1.25 to give a bit just a bit more room between the lines for my aging eyes. I think a 1.1 interline spacing would be just about perfect without pushing too many lines off the screen. In the meantime, I am open to suggestions for a couple of better fonts, one serif and one sans serif.

Overall, I'm very impressed and thankful that a good ePub reader is now available for my WM6 device ... I had been thinking about getting a Sony PRS-600, hence the interest in an intermediate step of having ePubs on my PDA, but I think I may just hold off on the dedicated eBook reader. I've been reading on PDAs since the Peanut Press days and really prefer not having yet another device to carry around.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] pox67:
frquixote, I have put aside my Bebook reader in favour of an HTC HD2 and Freda. The only reason you might find a PRS-600 better is for large format text book PDFs. For fiction reading Freda is great.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] stuntdouble:
Version 1.1 out already?
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Thankyou for the feedback.

I thought about this, and did it this way on purpose. Sometimes you will set up a query on this screen that takes several minutes to run (I have several thousand books on my phone, organised in a very convoluted folder structure, and if I want to search for every filename containing "turnip" it will take a while to produce that list). So whenever you go to that screen, it returns to a simple default state that (I hope) won't take too long to refresh.

It's horrible, but it is the standard Windows Mobile dialog box for choosing colours. I could write a customised one, but it would be a significant amount of programming effort, for rather a limited benefit. I'm kinda hoping that, with all these new versions of Windows Mobile about to be announced, Microsoft will start shipping a better ColorChooser dialog as standard :)

Fonts are tricky. To be sure of getting the non-bold version of the font, you may need to get the 'Light' variant of the TTF file from your PC.

My personal favourite san serif font is Frutiger Linotype.

Thanks for the feedback, and thanks for using Freda,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
VBK files ... that's a new one to me!

Generally, my strategy is to wait for the world to converge on ePub as a standard (and to use Calibre to convert their existing books to that format).

It is, in principle, possible to enhance Freda to be able to read other formats, but it would just make the program larger, slower and more buggy. So I am not keen.

Cheers,

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] Jim Chapman:
Still in pre-release testing. Full release is imminent (next day or three); I am re-writing the manual at present.

Jim
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] frquixote:
Font

Thanks very much, I'll give it a try.
[Windows Mobile Apps and Games] stuntdouble:
Paying £60 for just one typeface seems a bit steep for ebook reading, when there are plenty of other similar ones that are free to choose from. :eek:
[HTC Excalibur] Herox:
Ok well, I just updated my dash to the 6.5. I got a theme off the internet. I go to install it, and it says successful, than I press yes again and it says it couldnt be saved and I need to make space. Is there anything I can do? I've tried freeing up space and it doesn't help.
[HTC Excalibur] trinistylez:
just a thought... you can try this.. im not sure if it would work. try saving the downloaded file to a micro sd card and apply the theme from there. mind you, you would want to keep ur sd card in there at all times if this works until the theme is gone
[HTC Excalibur] Herox:
I dont currently have one but im buying one by the end of the month. I'll try it then. If anyone else knows why, please post.
[HTC Excalibur] Herox:
I tried deleting extra themes from the phones home folder, and it still says there was an error and I should free space and try again. I can't find a fix on google. :|
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] Peteryoung:
Right, i make no promises that i can definitely help you as its seems somethings work on one device and not on another. BUT i have IGO set up on my device, working full screen, tts working, everything seems to be working for me, works portrait and landscape (you need to open the keypad BEFORE you start the program)

So.....assuming you'd like to try my fixes...PM me so i can 'help' you.

take it easy people!

whoop, i'm a junior member, but i get so much from everybody else on here i'm hoping i can do my little bit to give something back to you all.
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] khaytsus:
So that's when you create a Q/A Thread, not a private message thread...
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] BWheezy:
Or you could just post your sys.txt, that's generally where igo8 installs are won and lost...

Mine works fine other than landscape appears to be using the wrong resolution directory, haven't bothered to manually fix my sys.txt (just swapped the card in from another device)
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] godefroi:
Exactly. I'm interested in EXACTLY TWO THINGS: the exact version you're running, and the contents of your sys.txt file.
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] pistou:
+1 for this request
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] godefroi:
Lol. Just reread this, and I think I mighta used up my entire "exactly" quota for the day.
[Touch Pro2, Tilt 2 Themes and Apps] BWheezy:
Well I was just about to post that I had this working, but I just found out everytime I open a text input screen it inserts one of the accented A's and keeps doing so over and over... As soon as I work that out I'll post my info.

Ok well this sorta works, you can't use the hardware keyboard apparently, I'll see what I can come up with on that, it does work fine using the IGO built in SIP keyboards as far as I can tell. This setup defaults to always operating in landscape (which frankly is the only way that makes sense to use it to me). I believe if you remove class="landscape" you can pick your orientation in the program, but changing orientation was kinda buggy, so I just stuck with landscape.

Igo8 ver 8.3.4.102680

sys.txt follows:

[device]
Type="ALIAS_TOUCH HD"
sdcard_dsk_num=7

[folders]
app="%SDCARD%/iGO8"

[rawdisplay]
highres=0
screen_x=800
screen_y=480
class="landscape"

[debug]
enable_roadshadow=1
show_residentonly=1
enable_roadsign=1
enable_landmark_occlusion=1
show_oneway_3d=1
show_oneway=1
show_gps_pos=1
show_signpost=1
background_navigation=1
screen_calibration=1
skip_eula=1
;max_memory=25000000

[interface]
maxzoom2d=6000000
show_exit=1
shutdown_time=0
defaulttilt3d=7600

[map]
2dheadup=1
3d_max_tiltlevel=10000
3d_max_zoomlevel=3000
3d_min_zoomlevel=40
3d_max_zfar=2000
stop_rotate_on_map_move=1
inertia_on_map_move=1
follow_gps=1
2dheadup=1

[poi]
poi_show_all_btn=1
poi_labels=1
show_poi_boundingrects=1
show_poi_areas=1

[navigation]
show_current_city=1
show_countrychange=1
autoreplan_action="AUTO"
gps_pos_to_road=1

[smartzoom]
minangle=0
maxangle=80

[msnd]
enabled=0

[map]
3d_scale_carmodel=1
3dcarsizemin=3500
3dcarsizemax=5000
3dcarsizemul=10000

[tts]
tts_buffer=131072
announce_exit_directions=1
tts_logics=3
priority="HIGH"
always_say_road_names=1
announce_street_name=1
skip_exit_numbers=0

[sound]
ding=0
queue_length=200

[timezone]
patch_dst=1

[timezones]
use_timezone_setting_fix=1
use_new_timezone_ini=1
timezone_key="Time Zones"

[3d_config]
disable_roadsign_navigation_mode=0