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FREQUENTLY-ASKED
QUESTIONS
Q.
Only $12! Will it stay that cheap? What about future upgrade costs?
Q.
What Palm devices does DeepReader run on?
Q.
Why don't you support VFS (Virtual File System)? I want to
read eBooks directly from expansion card (Memory Stick, Secure
Digital Card, Compact Flash, etc.)!
Q. Why can't I open my eBooks with DeepReader?
Q. Hey! DeepReader can't see my eBooks! What's up?
Q. What is coming in the next version?
Q.
Does anti-aliasing always help readability? I think everything
is fuzzy-looking.
Q. What is "color-fringing" or "color-aware"
or "color-smart" anti-aliasing? How does it make
the "effective resolution" of a color Palm device any
higher? Isn't the screen always 160x160? (or higher on the new
Sony Clies or latest HandEra devices.)
Q Why won't DeepReader open my PalmReader (Peanut)
eBooks?
Q. Why don't you support Microsoft
Word / iSilo / TomeRaider / HTML / RTF or [Insert Your Favorite
File Format Here] format files?
Q. Why don't you support images?
Q. Why do you only have the two built-in fonts?
Q. Hey! You used to have three built-in fonts!
What happened to Pakenham?
Q. Will you add [insert your best idea here] to
the program?
Q. How do you get italics?
Q. I found a bug!
Q. What the heck are you doing working on a freaking
eBook reader!?! I want more ShadowThief adventures? You've
been saying Adventure 2 would be out soon for years now!
Q.
Only $12! Will it stay that cheap? What about future upgrade costs?
A. You can still purchase DeepReader for
only $12, but please be aware that if you do so through PalmGear,
I am only earning 75% of this -- PalmGear keeps 25% for themselves.
Meaning I earn $9 and PalmGear earns $3. If you use PayPal
WebAccept, I earn $11.35, almost all of the $12; there
is only a 65 cent fee paid to PayPal for processing. So you decide
where you want your money to go.
I
have finally decided to leave the price of DeepReader at $12 even
though PalmGear has significantly increased its cut, meaning less
money for me and more for them. (I would actually earn more
of the $12 price with PayPal than I would charging $15 at PalmGear!)
But I am keeping PalmGear as an option because many people prefer
the convenience, they are a well-established and well-run site,
and (in spite of the fact that I disagree with their price increase
and some of their recent policy changes) the history of PalmGear
has been generally good for the Palm software community. I will
continue to support them by listing my software with them. (For
now, anyway.)
Unless
DeepReader is significantly expanded beyond its current form (or
these services continue to increase their fees!), I do not expect
to raise the price of DeepReader. Ever. While I agree that $12
is a bargain, and quite a bit less than most of the competition
out there, I offer DeepReader only AS IS and do not offer phone
support, nor do I guarantee timely feature updates (then again,
who does?). My product is shareware, not commercial software,
which in some ways does reduce my overhead and allow me to make
a profit at a lower price-point to you, the consumer. But I do
appreciate the sentiment and am glad you like the program. (It
you really feel strongly about this, beam the program to everyone
you know and encourage them to register as well.) And as features
are added to the program, I reserve the right to increase the
base price accordingly.
[Note
that unless I expand DeepReader into DeepWriter (a big
if!), I will not charge an upgrade cost for future 1.x versions
to existing owners. If there is a 2.0 version that requires tons
of extra development and scrambles eggs or something completely
new, then, well, I might charge an upgrade. (...but I doubt
it. More than likely, even if a future version does include writing
capability (again, no promises!), it really depends on how much
work has gone into it as to whether I would bother to charge existing
owners for an upgrade. More than likely, buying early only guarantees
a lower cost and less time reading nag messages. I'd like to reward
my loyal early adopters.) People who are not existing owners will
probably pay more for more features, i.e. the base price will
probably increase.]
Q.
What Palm devices does DeepReader run on?
A.
DeepReader 1.0 requires Palm OS 3.5 or higher. It will run on
any greyscale-capable Palm with at least 2MB, which means everything
above a Palm III. (This includes most units from Handspring,
TRG, and Sony. Note that Handspring devices do not have upgradeable
Flash ROM, and thus it will not work on older pre-3.5 devices.)
It may work on lesser Palms that have been upgraded, assuming
they can display at least 4 shades of grey. If you have difficulty
running DeepReader on any of these devices, make sure you have
some free RAM available. On some 2MB EZ-processor Palms (Palm
V, Vx, IIIx), there is a slight bug that will sometimes not allow
DeepReader to initialize. A warning message and a graceful exit
will occur in this instance, and a subsequent re-launch of the
program always succeeds.
Q.
Why don't you support VFS (Virtual File System)? I want to read
eBooks directly from expansion card (Memory Stick, Secure Digital
Card, Compact Flash, etc.)!
A. Version 1.1 is now available as
a "public beta". It allows the opening of eBooks from
any expansion card. You still have to set up the File/VFS Preferences
to tell DeepReader where your eBooks are stored on the card, but
you can pick up to 3 different folders to look in automatically.
For
version 1.032...
You
can open eBooks on expansion devices right now using HandEra's
Autocard or AutoCF if you get version 1.01, released 7/30.
It disables Bookmarks, which I realize is only a temporary solution,
but hey.
Similarly,
I have had very good reports on Sony Clie's using MSMount to access
eBooks on Memory Stick. Again, it will not retain Bookmarks,
although apparently Bookmarks will still appear to work
in the MSMount case, and will indeed work fine until you close
that eBook. (They will not be saved.) In both cases, your current
place for the current eBook is retained regardless.
In
a future release, I will hopefully allow you to open files from
your expansion card directly from the file browser without these
limitations; I am seeking the best way to handle bookmarks.
Because
the 4.0 APIs are relatively young (as are most of the devices
with all this expandability), there's still some "commonalities"
to work out. There are some non-trivial choices to make. DeepReader
stores bookmarks inside the eBook, as described in the
original DOC specification. Since there is no API call to write
a single record to the VFS device, I either have to turn off bookmarks
for documents stored there, or copy the entire document from the
card into Palm storage (kinda defeating the point) and then copy
it back, or choose to store bookmarks elsewhere, leading to clutter
in Palm memory. There are solutions to this and other VFS-related
issues, but it is going to take a little work to sort them out.
I am getting opinions and trying to figure out the best way
to add VFS support in a future release.
Q.
Why can't I open my eBooks with DeepReader?
Q. Hey! DeepReader can't see my eBooks! What's up?
A.
Good question. There are one of maybe three possible good answers
(and maybe a few bad ones). It is probably either:
A)
Your books are stored on expansion card but you haven't yet told
DeepReader where to find them. If this is the case, go
into File/VFS Preferences and select one (or more) of the
boxes at the bottom under "VFS Folders." You can change
the folder by clicking on the name and navigating to the new folder
and pressing "Choose This Folder." Turn the boxes to
the left on for up to 3 folders that will be scanned whenever
you select Browse eBooks or click the small document icon
on the lower left.
B)
Your books are not DOC format books.
DeepReader only supports DOC format, the most widely-used format
for Palm. If you downloaded your books from PeanutPress or Palm
Digital Media, you can only use their proprietary reader to read
them. There are other readers that support proprietary formats,
including iSilo, Mobipocket, and others. Be sure your books are
DOC format. Click here for more information about
Palm Digital Media's proprietary format and why you should support
a choice in format.
Q.
What is coming in the next version?
A.
Version 1.1 supports VFS (Virtual File
System), allowing you to open eBooks stored on expension cards
directly. It will retain bookmarks properly regardless of where
the eBooks are stored. It also includes a more robust file browser
and a number of performance enhancements and additional features.
(In a future version, I hope to include font loading as a separate
option, including additional font sizes and hopefully a utility
to convert your own fonts into DeepReader fonts. This feature
will not be in version 1.1.)
Q.
Does anti-aliasing always help readability? I think everything
is fuzzy-looking.
A.
There are always some people whose personal preferences are different
from the norm. More power to them. For my taste, anti-aliasing
looks better, clearer, smoother, superior -- especially
at the dots-per-inch resolution of a Palm handheld. If you honestly
don't believe so, don't use it.
Q.
What is "color-fringing" or "color-aware"
or "color-smart" anti-aliasing? How does it make the
"effective resolution" of a color Palm device any higher?
Isn't the screen always 160x160? (or higher on the new Sony Clies
or latest HandEra devices.)
A.
The complete answer to this question is a bit complicated, but
a simple summary is this: On those color devices in question,
the CRT screen is actually made up of red-green-blue sub-pixels
arranged left-to-right...in the case of traditional Palm devices,
160 of these 3 sub-pixel sets in each horizontal row. By treating
these sub-pixels separately, a 160x160 screen can be considered
to be 480 (160 x 3 = 480) pixels wide! To minimize strange color
effects at the edges, some averaging techniques are also used,
but the "effective" resolution is still greatly improved
by exploiting this linear propertly of handheld CRTs.
There is a lot more information about this technique/technology
at the Gibson Research
Corporation's website on Sub-Pixel Font Rendering. Exciting
reading! (And yes, this is the same "technique" that
Microsoft uses in their trademarked "ClearType," although
the technique has been around for quite some time.)
Q.
Why
won't DeepReader open my PalmReader (Peanut) eBooks?
A. Unfortunately, Palm has chosen to support a closed (proprietary)
eBook format with PalmReader (formerly Peanut Reader from Peanut
Press). Many people protest the lack of choice in reader by choosing
to download the open DOC format instead. Hopefully, Palm can be
convinced in the future to make their format accessible to developers,
possibly through the use of a protected API. While I would be
happy to enforce their encryption, accessing these books is simply
not available to developers at present. Even trying to
"reverse-engineer" their proprietary format could make
me open to prosecution according to a flawed DMCA (Digital Millenium
Copyright Act).
While
the use of a Digital Rights Management (DRM) system seems good
for eBooks on the surface, this policy is ultimately bad for eBooks,
spreading confusion and a conflict of "non-standard"
formats, and limiting the "fair use" of eBooks you have
paid for. It limits your choice as a consumer. (If Sony VHS tapes
only played in a Sony-brand VCR, wouldn't you complain?) If this
issue makes you unhappy, please voice your opinion directly to
Palm Digital Media. It would be possible for Palm to either make
access to their encryption engine available in the form of a secure
API, or as a shared library. But the only way they will ever "open
this up" and allow other eBook readers to access their books
is if enough users demand it.
That
said, I am also interested in furthering an extension to DOC,
(one has already been designed by the fine folks at CSpotRun),
for a Digital Rights Management system for all DOC readers. I
personally hope to implement this in DeepReader 1.2.
Q.
Why don't you support Microsoft Word / iSilo / TomeRaider / HTML
/ RTF or [Insert Your Favorite File Format Here] format files?
A. Well, some of these formats are closed and proprietary,
others are possible additions at some later date. For version
1.0, I simply wanted to make an eBook reader that I would enjoy
using to read books, and most eBooks out there are available in
DOC format, so that's good enough for me. While it might be nice
to write documents with even more formatting options, most
eBooks that I have encountered do not really utilize many extended
formatting options.
DeepReader
does support a limited set of RTF formatting when using
Michael
Arena's RTF2Doc or WRTF2Doc. All italics or bold typestyles
in RTF files converted with this utility will show up as either
italics or bold type in DeepReader 1.0. (On standard-resolution
color devices, bold type will currently display as italics.)
Q.
Why don't you support images?
A. Again, it might be nice in a future version to do so, but
the DOC format does not have standard image options, so as yet
neither does DeepReader. Maybe later.
Q.
Why do you only have the two built-in fonts?
A. Actually, this is likely the first enhancement I hope to
add to the program...the ability to import your own fonts. A lot
of the needed code already exists (I generated these fonts, after
all, didn't I?) The techniques I am using for both "color-fringing"
and especially for sub-pixel kerning make a generic font
import slightly non-trivial, and I am platform-agnostic enough
to hope to offer this feature to Windows and Mac-heads alike.
So....No promises on when, but I'd expect this feature to appear
in version 1.5.
Q.
Hey! You used to have three built-in fonts! What happened to Pakenham?
A. With the extension of complete ASCII characters (for display
of accented characters in Spanish, German, French, etc.), the
font information got larger. To reduce the program bloat, I eliminated
the least-popular of the three fonts. If you are desperate for
it and do not need accented characters, get a copy of version
1.02. (I will likely have the accented character inclusion an
option in release 1.1, in addition to offering other "lite"
versions of the program. Until I get VFS into the program, I don't
want to go through the hassle of multiple versions.)
Q.
Hey! You don't have accented characters! Why not?
A. As of version 1.03 we do support the full ASCII character
set, allowing reading of French, Spanish, German, etc. eBooks.
See, requests do work!
I've
also received requests for completely alternate character sets
(Japanese / Chinese / Korean / Etc.) ...On that front, I don't
know what all is involved with these "two-byte" sets, but I would
certainly consider tackling the two-byte character sets as this
time. Perhaps someone can point me to the appropriate information
on two-byte character support and some good clean public-domain
fonts? The most important thing is finding a good clean public-domain
font.
Q.
Will you add [insert your best idea here] to the program?
A. Request it!
I do have many ideas for future enhancements and additions to
DeepReader (not to mention DeepWriter!) and will certainly
entertain your thoughts and wishes. (Who knows, most-requested
features might even get priority...) Of course, how much
time gets exerted on shareware depends an awful lot on how popular
the product is -- and specifically, how popular registration
of the product proves it to be.
Q.
How do you get italics?
A. DeepReader converts emphasis with underscores (like _this_)
into "cheated" italics (this) on-screen (slanted
lettering, not a unique italics font) when you have "Automatic
Smart Formatting" selected in the preferences. Many standard
Doc-format eBooks out there have this type of embedded italics
in them.
You
can also use Michael
Arena's RTF2Doc or WRTF2Doc to convert your Rich-Text-Format
(RTF) documents into Doc-formatted files with special codes for
formatting. Note that DeepReader only supports italics and bold
typestyles; bold-italics will simply show up as bold. (DeepReader
does not fully support all RichReader codes, justification, or
multiple font sizes, nor does it support color fonts.) But this
is an easier way to retain italics or bold typestyles if you are
making your own Doc files.
Q.
I found a bug!
A. Please let me know.
If it is repeatable, please let me know exactly what eBook and
location you were reading when it occured, or a step-by-step explanation
of how to make it occur again. Non-repeatable bugs are the hardest
to eliminate. While DeepReader was tested extensively for many
weeks, I cannot guarantee that every bug was eliminated.
Also,
please let me know if your Palm is running any hacks or overclocking
utilities! DeepReader has not been tested with every configuration
of hack out there, and it is likely one of these is causing any
general aberrant behavior.
Q.
What the heck are you doing working on a freaking eBook reader!?!
I want more ShadowThief adventures? You've been saying Adventure
2 would be out soon for years now!
A. (Sigh.) Once again, I apologize for the delay. Truly. Directly
after I wrote ShadowThief (v. 0.97), I got kinda busy
with filmmaking. Last year, I added a programming partner for
ShadowThief (Dave Johnson), who has helped with some nice
enhancements and has promised to help me finish ShadowMaker,
which will allow me to make Adventures 2 and 3 (and you
to perhaps make Adventures 4 and 5 and 6 and...) much more easily.
Again, I am sorry for the infinite delay, but perhaps we'll get
even more surprises in there by the time this thing is
finally done...
Have
a question I didn't answer? Send me an email.
VERSION
HISTORY
1.0
-- 7/28/01
Initial Public Release
1.01
(also called 1.0a) -- 7/30/01
- Added the ability to open eBooks on HandEra devices with
Autocard/AutoCF (bookmarks are disabled due to "Read Only" status...admittedly
a temporary solution until full VFS support is added.)
- Added the ability to control Scroll Speed with the jog-dial.
- Fixed an infrequent bug (Fatal Exception) when scrolling at
some record boundaries at certain font sizes.
- Fixed a bug on HandEra devices when the Filename was too long
to fit on the Percent Bar
1.02
-- online 8/10/01
- Added "Jog-dial scrolls by page."
- Added "Do not repeat last line on page."
- Added additional hi-res screen refresh option (line by line).
- Improved (lessened) the faint pause between lines when Pause
is 0 (None) during Smooth Scrolling. (It is still there somewhat,
but improved.)
- Improved screen refresh speed (title/toolbar)
- Improved secondary refresh speed of text in hi-res.
- Added grey-scale icons.
- Fixed bug causing crash on Sony S320
1.03 -- online 10/17/01
- Added full extended ASCII character support,
meaning accented characters for French, Spanish, German, Danish,
etc. texts are now completely readable. (On the minus side, the
program is a bit larger (335K) and is actually missing the previously
included font Pakenham. The extended language support will likely
be a version option as of v1.1. Note that there is sometimes a
slight but noticeable delay when accessing extended characters
when in hi-res or color mode at large font sizes.)
- Added "Delete eBooks" menu and feature.
- Auto-off timer should no longer happen while scrolling.
- Added a preference for "Full-screen top-rt; Scroll bot-left."
These corners now become hot-spots for quick toggles. The top-right
corner switches between full-screen and not, the bottom-left starts
and stops scrolling.
1.031
(bug fix)-- online 10/17/01
- Fixed
"Full-screen top-rt; Scroll bot-left" for HandEra. Now works
correctly.
1.032
(bug fix)-- online 10/18/01
- Bottom-left scrolling toggle no longer resets speed to zero
(fastest).
-
Auto-off
timer actually works as advertised!
- My previous beta testers are officially fired! ;-)
1.1
beta 3 (public beta) - online 5/23/02
- Added VFS support
- Added OS5 double-density compatibility
- Added Sony Clie NR70 silkscreen (virtual grafitti) support
- Added expanded eBook browser
- Added lots of frills, including Quik-Menu, Quik-Find, Quik-Bookmarks
- Upgraded refresh speeds and more complete screen refreshes.
KNOWN
BUGS / CONFLICTS
EXISTING
BUGS
- Cosmetic: There is a rare instance of a missing letter and
a broken word continuing from top of one line onto next line.
(The combination must be a broken word at the end of a record
in the doc-format structure AND placement at the end of a line
by spacing in a specific font.) This bug is only cosmetic. Switching
fonts or sizes will show the word properly. (To be fixed in a
future release.)
EXISTING
CONFLICTS
- ClockPop: causes screen corruption when activated.
Please
report any other conflicts
or bugs!
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