European update for JBL

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/18/2011 05:30:25

Hello all.

Are there specific eurpean flash-rom updates or should I use the english one? I bought my JBL in Spain, came with spanish books preloaded, etc.

Thanks in advance, Javier.

nerve_net wrote:Hello all.

Are there specific eurpean flash-rom updates or should I use the english one? I bought my JBL in Spain, came with spanish books preloaded, etc.

Thanks in advance, Javier.

Hi Javier,

Thanks for the message. The only current update we have can be found here http://www.jetbook.net/update

It will delete the pre-loaded books but you can find all of them for any language here http://www.jetbook.net/ebooks where it says "books for ectaco jetBook reader"

Hope this helps!

The JBL's current firmware seems to support 5 languages through the "Settings">"User Settings">"Languages" selection.
It supports ebooks in many more languages, of course, but the five are for what you see in the menus and messages.

The 0.16e update from the Ectaco site should work fine in your "Spanish" JBL. (The Hardware is actually Chinese, the
Firmware mostly Russo-American)

The menu order:

1. Russian
2. Polish
3. Spanish
4. German
5. English

So you can make the menus any of those even if you have only one you don't read, at the start.

Luck;
Ken

Jerry wrote:
Hi Javier,

Thanks for the message. The only current update we have can be found here http://www.jetbook.net/update

It will delete the pre-loaded books but you can find all of them for any language here http://www.jetbook.net/ebooks where it says "books for ectaco jetBook reader"

Hope this helps!

Hi Jerry,

Many thanks.

Ken Maltby wrote:
The JBL's current firmware seems to support 5 languages through the "Settings">"User Settings">"Languages" selection.
It supports ebooks in many more languages, of course, but the five are for what you see in the menus and messages.

The 0.16e update from the Ectaco site should work fine in your "Spanish" JBL. (The Hardware is actually Chinese, the
Firmware mostly Russo-American)

The menu order:

1. Russian
2. Polish
3. Spanish
4. German
5. English

So you can make the menus any of those even if you have only one you don't read, at the start.

Luck;
Ken

Hi Ken,

English, German or Spanish will not be a problem...

Thanks Ken.

Is there a way to save the current flash-ROM on SD?

I mean that if I'm not happy with 0.16e. Can I rever to 0.14i (patch v15)?

Regards.

The 16e update is a major change that is a little better than the previous firmwares, in almost all ways.

Some do prefer the earlier PDF reader for some reason, but the new one is Adobe Reader Mobile 9.1.1
and has PDF Reflow as well as a number of other features for PDFs.

If you want to reflash to an earlier firmware most are available online.
In addition to this site, the "MobileRead Forums" has info on the JBL.

Luck;
Ken

Ken Maltby wrote:
The 16e update is a major change that is a little better than the previous firmwares, in almost all ways.

Some do prefer the earlier PDF reader for some reason, but the new one is Adobe Reader Mobile 9.1.1
and has PDF Reflow as well as a number of other features for PDFs.

If you want to reflash to an earlier firmware most are available online.
In addition to this site, the "MobileRead Forums" has info on the JBL.

Luck;
Ken

Hello Ken,

currently I only use mobi, pdb, text, and epub formats on the JBL. IMHO PDF is not well suited for VGA devices like the JBL.

Thanks for the information. Regards, Javier.

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/22/2011 22:01:24

One underrated and seldom mentioned feature of the JBL is that it supports .pdb ebooks,
where a lot of other ereaders don't. I have a large library of those files left over from
the days when I used to read on my PDA.

My SD card is probably almost 50% .pdb and 50% .epub, now a days.

I agree .pdf is not a very good format for any device that can't display a full size magazine
page. It's OK on my 10.1" ASUS Transformer, but while the JBL does its best, and you can
work your way through a PDF, by panning and scrolling the 5" display, I don't recommend it.

Luck;
Ken

Ken Maltby wrote:One underrated and seldom mentioned feature of the JBL is that it supports .pdb ebooks,
where a lot of other ereaders don't. I have a large library of those files left over from
the days when I used to read on my PDA.

My SD card is probably almost 50% .pdb and 50% .epub, now a days.

I agree .pdf is not a very good format for any device that can't display a full size magazine
page. It's OK on my 10.1" ASUS Transformer, but while the JBL does its best, and you can
work your way through a PDF, by panning and scrolling the 5" display, I don't recommend it.

Luck;
Ken

Thanks Ken,

Well to be honest I'm an happy PalmOS user since 2003.

IMHO when manufacturers talk about .pdb ebook compatibility they are doing it a bit wrong. As explanation, under PalmOS the .pdb extensión stands for Palmos DataBase, it is simply a container for data and has no direct relation to ebooks as it can hold any type of data under PalmOS.

As long time PalmOS user I used and use currently several ebook formats under PalmOS and all of them can be saved as .pdb files on a PalmOS device, for example, my favorite format for PalmOS is Plucker, and Plucker saves them as .pdb files. As far as I have tested the JBL doesn't support Plucker formatted .pdb ebook files.

The JBL seems to support Aportis and eReader formatted ebooks, booth are popular ebook formats used on PalmOS. Mobipocket files can be saved on PalmOS devices as .pdb or .prc files (internal RAM of the device). So talking about .pdb files can be very confusing.

What .pdb ebooks formats supports the JBL?

This message was edited 1 time. Last update was at 11/23/2011 16:54:29

As you mentioned the JBL supports the "eReader" .pdb format. It also supports the "Secure eReader" .pdb DRM and
the version of it that Barns&Noble uses on their .epub files. I have obtained .pdb files from many sources and they
have all worked very well in the JBL. At the most I might have had to run a few through calibre, but I do that routinely
for most ebooks, to have the "jetbook 5-inch" output profile applied. There are a couple of thousand .pdb ebooks on
my SD card that have not had anything done to them though and they read just fine in the JBL.

The latest release of the free "calibre" program has some added support for the "Plucker" format.

http://calibre-ebook.com/new-in/eight

Luck;
Ken