WikiReader - first impressions

[Torfinn Ingolfsen]

Hi,

On Tue, Nov 10, 2009 at 3:55 PM, Sean Moss-Pultz <sean at openmoko.com> wrote:

>
> Are you running the latest kernel? (The way to tell is if you have
> kinetic scrolling, yes == latest kernel)
>

I am running whatever version the device was delivered with.
It doesn't look like scrolling is kinetic.



>
> http://cloud.github.com/downloads/wikireader/wikireader/kernel-2009-10-30.zip
>
>
Ah! I was looking around on the WikiReader web site for updates, I didn't
think about github.

Scrolling is really really good there.
>

I'll get it and see if I can update my card.


> You can hold down the backspace key. It will delete the word extremely
> fast. We're working on a few minor UI changes for the next release.
> Clear will be more obvious
>

I really hope you will implement a "clear" button - one button press is
faster than holding down the backspace key, IMHO.


> We didn't want to add another button. We might use left to right
> swipes in a later release. Not sure yet...
>

Swipes might work.

It doesn't have to be a physical button - how about using a corner of the
screen for that purpose?
Not really sure it would work - if I am right handed, I will use the thumb
of my right hand to scroll on the right side of the screen, and a button on
the lower left corner of the screen wouldn't interfere. However, if a left
handed person used the device, he or she might use the left side of the
screen to scroll. Hmm, this idea needs more thinking.



> > Annoyances:
> > - it is impossible (for me at least) to take out the microSD card without
> using a tool (pliers or something). Why do I want to take it out? To
> actually show people the small size of a Wikipedia database. :-)
>
> Push it in and it will pop out (beware it will *really* pop sometimes)
>

Not on mine. I have tried - it never pos out. I also tried shakking the
device - no, the card doesn't want to come out. My workaround is a handle
made of tape - see my other post.
Without that, I need something that can grab the cardon the sides - my
fingers / nails doesn't fit in there (ok, I can do it, but it takes almost a
minute, and a lot of cursing :-) ).

>
> > - the buttons on the on screen keyboard is a bit small for my fingers (it
> is easy to press the character left or right of the one I want). I don't
> know how to solve this yet.
>
> Software. If you've used an iPhone, the keypad is 70% of WikiReader's
> size. And typing is a lot better. So just bear with us. We're working
> on this big time.
>

Cool. I never have used an iPhone - I have a FreeRunner (and a 1973).
FWIW, I had this idea about the keyboard: if nothing else works, you could
always "split" the keyboard in a left and a right half, and only show one
half at a time (with a button to switch to the other half). Not ideal, but
then the buttons could be almost twice as wide.

Like David said, we encourage you to check out github.com/wikireader for
> now.
>

I will do that.
-- 
Regards,
Torfinn Ingolfsen
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