Related
Now that you've rooted your NookTouch what do you install onto it?
I've been trying out loads of apps and I've found plenty that work well but also quite a few that make a lot of sense on an eink ereader.
First the ones that I personally find very useful and match the NookTouch well:
1) ReaditLater: Let's say you're browsing on your laptop while eating your breakfast in the morning. You don't have time to read it now so you click a button in Firefox or whatever and that marks the page. You then hit sync on the Nook and you can then read that webpage on the Nook at work in your lunchhour or whatever. I've only checked out ReaditLater and it doesn't always sync all images properly and css styles... is there any alternatives... perhaps opensource?
2) RSS Readers. Subscribe to Slashdot, sync while at home and then read it on the move. Can anyone get the ability to read the more interesting comments?
3) VNC Viewer. Eyes go squiffey after reading for hours on the ipad or computer? Setup a quick link to this.
4) MapDroyd. No GPS but having a map with a long battery life might be more useful than a mobile phone. MapDroyd isn't that great without pinch to zoom but it works.
5) Kindle. Being able to read .mobi is obviously pretty handy.
6) OperaMobile, connecting to a Caliber server. Caliber organises books really easily and it has a server function so you can connect to your library on your computer.
7) Dropbox. A really handy way to share and sync files to the Nook. Can act as a library but unlike the Opera & Caliber example it can sync rather than only viewing live.
8) There's more than ebooks. Check out VU Viewer for comics. Various better PDF viewers. Try putting work documents on it. Try putting guitar tab notation on it. Anyone know how do we view music notation?
Things that are pretty essential after rooting:
Startup Auditor. After installing a load of stuff things can startup at boot and drain your battery. This prevents that.
n Button tweak. There's a thread on here somewhere, it's almost essential. Either that or use buttonSaviour
Some things that work well but just as good on a mobile phone:
- WiFi Analyser. You can see wifi strength in realtime.
- calculator. Handy if you don't have a phone with you
- unit converter. Convert metres to feet.
- currency exchange app. If you take the Nook on holiday a currency app is handy.
- encrypt your passwords in a file.
- backup your mobile phone contacts
- ssh tunnel for open wifi networks where you need to check your bank balance
Hope you find this useful!
-j
Jago:
What apps are you unable to block with Startup Auditor?
Does Startup Auditor stay loaded (as an app or as a background process) after startup or do you have to kill it manually?
Thanks in advance,
Sebastian Armas
Avid reader, Spanish Interactive Fiction Author
As far as I can see StartupAuditor doesn't load on startup or stay resident so I presume it edits startup scripts.
You have 2 options for each thing you want to kill - kill it now and not allow it to start again now and block it from starting up on startup as well.
I was able to get a great deal on a Nook Glowlight. It's coming in the mail soon. I'm trying to get prepared.
I have an Android phone, and an HP Touchpad. I'm looking at using my e-reader as an e-reader and not as a tablet or phone substitute.
1. Should I root using Glownooter or should I root using minimal root?
I don't want to add Gapps to my Nook because I won't need anything other than a source for APKs. I'm okay with sideloading apks. (For purchased apps, I can backup the APK file on my rooted phone with Titanium and restore it on my Nook, right?)
2. I will be putting Amazon Kindle 3.2 and FBReader+FBSync on. Are there any other e-readers I should consider?
2. Aside from e-reader apps, what do most people put on their tablets?
I already plan on adding a web browser, file manager, Dropbox, and Titanium Backup. What else is recommended?
3. For complex PDFs, what app is recommended?
IBNobody said:
1. Should I root using Glownooter or should I root using minimal root?
I don't want to add Gapps to my Nook because I won't need anything other than a source for APKs. I'm okay with sideloading apks. (For purchased apps, I can backup the APK file on my rooted phone with Titanium and restore it on my Nook, right?)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The only real nooter for Glow is the Glownooter, but it does have Gapps and the such, what you could do is open up the zip for Glownooter and remove all the Gapps related stuff from /system
IBNobody said:
2. I will be putting Amazon Kindle 3.2 and FBReader+FBSync on. Are there any other e-readers I should consider?
2. Aside from e-reader apps, what do most people put on their tablets?
I already plan on adding a web browser, file manager, Dropbox, and Titanium Backup. What else is recommended?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I imagine with a regular tablet people install their games and video players and the such, but since the screen isn't setup for a refresh rate decent for videos, and it has no sound, it's unlikely that any of those types of things would work nicely with the Glowworm.
One of the ereaders I've heard works well is called Cool Reader, but I personally use the built in reader and have never bothered with anything else.
IBNobody said:
3. For complex PDFs, what app is recommended?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
ezPDF it works wonderfully for PDFs and supports Landscape/Portrait modes, along with special "zoomed reading" mode where it'll zoom in around the text blocks which I personally think makes it easier to read/navigate PDFs.
IBNobody said:
[...] 2. I will be putting Amazon Kindle 3.2 and FBReader+FBSync on. Are there any other e-readers I should consider?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I recommend Mantano Reader for both epub and PDF formats. It works well on the NST, and handles both formats very well. I have completely replaced the NOOK Library with the Mantano home screen, and the NOOK Reader with Mantano's reader. I like viewing covers for both formats on one screen.
2. Aside from e-reader apps, what do most people put on their tablets?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Other than reading, mine's mostly set up to allow quick checks of work stuff when I'm on the road. I put on email (maildroid, which handles MS Exchange well), calendar (Calendar Pad) and Astrid Tasks, plus a few other travel programs (TripIt, mainly). Evernote for synchronized notes with my various computers. Google Voice to read transcriptions of voice mail. I use Dropsync to pull down daily newspaper and magazine feeds I have my desktop generate daily using Calibre, then import them into Mantano. I use ES File Explorer (nice Dropbox and other cloud integration). Folder Organizer lets me set up quick access menus on the notification menu for often-used programs. Nook Touch Tools to remap QuickMenu to show Mantano, maildroid, calendar pad, astrid and dropsync.
[...] 3. For complex PDFs, what app is recommended?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mantano is definitely worth a look. I like that it maintains page zooms between pages, so I don't have to fiddle with each page.
Thank you both.
I have a copy of ezPDF Pro from Amazon's FAOTD that I can try out on the Nook.
I'll try out CoolReader and Mantano, too. But the two biggest sellers of FBReader is the FBSync synchronization feature and the ability to remap FBReader page-turn keys with an XML file on the SDCard. Will those other two readers let me flip pages with the side buttons?
IBNobody said:
[...] I have a copy of ezPDF Pro from Amazon's FAOTD that I can try out on the Nook.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I also have ezPDF, and quite liked it. I just prefer using Mantano as one reader than can display and read my entire (pdf and epub) library in one app.
I'll try out CoolReader and Mantano, too. But the two biggest sellers of FBReader is the FBSync synchronization feature
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mantano offers a cloud service, but it's not free. I've gone for the $20/year 5 GB, 2000 title option that lets me sync among 4 devices. In addition to reading positions, it also syncs categories, metadata and tags, which I find useful.
I've read good things about FBReader and will try their sync option someday. As I recall, it didn't handle some of my document formatting as well.
Will those other two readers let me flip pages with the side buttons?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Mantano will, yes.
---------- Post added at 10:34 AM ---------- Previous post was at 09:58 AM ----------
IBNobody said:
[...] What else is recommended?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Some tips on battery life:
The NST can maintain very good battery life if you stick to your "primarily a reader" philosophy. In particular, avoid anything that polls in the background. While I do use maildroid, I have it set to only poll manually. I don't have any sort of background sync running (e.g. facebook, newsfeeds). No widgets.
I do have Tasker set up to wake the device once daily and force a sync with Dropsync to download my Calibre-generated news from Dropbox. I also have Tasker set to only enable wifi when a short list of specific apps runs (e.g. maildroid). Wifi is shut off when the screen goes off. I enable wifi manually for things like reader sync that I only do occasionally.
While I haven't done any scientific testing, my battery life seems as good as on a non-rooted device. I recently left my NST on my coffee table unplugged when I left town for a week, and on my return, it was still at 90%.
Being on older Android 2.1 Eclair, the NST will benefit from a task manager. I tried a few, including Advanced Task Manager, but I finally settled on System Tuner Pro. I get very few warning messages now (< 1 daily), and no memory problems. I have it set to only kill tasks when the screen goes off, and when actually low on memory using the "Light" preset. I have it ignore Mantano and Tasker.
With these settings, I haven't had any particular problems with the Google stuff loaded. If I don't use it, it doesn't affect battery life. I did freeze Gmail since I just don't like it.
tinynooter works on the glow, also. (and on the NST without the glowlight.)
If you're comfortable sideloading apk files via adb either glownooter or tinynooter will do the trick. Once you're shelled in over adb, you need to su to get an adb root shell - most of the time I'm ssh'ing into my device in any case
What tinynooter doesn't do is install any of the google apps, a modified framework or kernel - it's very much the base device but with root rights. For convenience the Amazon appstore is on board.
I'm curious what makes a nooter and what does not? I'd been thinking that nooter was a generic term for 'nook rooter?'
If you've got a glow nook, my advice to you as one newbie to another is to WAIT. There is almost no newbie support for the glow nook as I rather unfortunately discovered today. Even if you've rooted an android device before, the odds are slim that you've ever side-loaded an apk and there is not a guide to be found on this forum for the GlowLight. Not that it matters, because adb won't pick up a rooted glowlight. Additionally, do -not- try to install norefresh or multitouch.
I'm restoring my glow nook to factory tomorrow morning myself and just waiting it out. Besides, using it unrooted for awhile will help you figure out what you do and don't want out of a rooted device (for example you -are- going to need a separate pdf reader, but it might turn out that everything you read on your nook will already be .epub or easily converted to .epub).
For IRC, AndChat works excellent.
http://www.andchat.net/index.php
Mini vMac If you are a mac person, this is something to check out. I bought the paid version and unlike the free version, the paid one conforms to the screen resolution perfectly on the nook.
http://dolfin.github.com/minivmac4android/
Bacon reader-
http://baconreader.com/
It's not necessarily newb stuff, just some things I put on mine for fun that work quite well
sswoozooss said:
For IRC, AndChat works excellent.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I dunno how well it works on NST, but on the glowlight, AndChat has a problem with autoscrolling unless you manually clear your buffer every few lines.
AndChat is good on my non-glow nook. I don't have any scrolling issues. I really really want a glow nook but I guess from what I read here, not everything is sorted out yet.
serupento said:
If you've got a glow nook, my advice to you as one newbie to another is to WAIT. There is almost no newbie support for the glow nook as I rather unfortunately discovered today. Even if you've rooted an android device before, the odds are slim that you've ever side-loaded an apk and there is not a guide to be found on this forum for the GlowLight. Not that it matters, because adb won't pick up a rooted glowlight. Additionally, do -not- try to install norefresh or multitouch.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
What's wrong with norefresh please ?
It's been a long while since I've played with the Nook. Can you update me. Last I looked I had on the todo list:
1) a lightweight email client that only runs when you ask it - is k9mail good enough nowadays?
2) a filemanager. Astro didn't display the filenames in portrait for me last time I checked.
3) Is there any less animated apps that have been found now - like an non animated launcher?
4) got any wallpapers that play nice eink and fit perfectly?
5) what would be a nice way to share files to and from the nook? I remember something for windows that goes via adb allowing a gui to directory browse. needs to be completely lightweight so scp, ftp, dropbox sound like either battery wasting or inconvienient to start and then stop after use. what's your preferred way other than eject the sdcard, samba?
jago25_98 said:
It's been a long while since I've played with the Nook. Can you update me. Last I looked I had on the todo list:
1) a lightweight email client that only runs when you ask it - is k9mail good enough nowadays?
2) a filemanager. Astro didn't display the filenames in portrait for me last time I checked.
3) Is there any less animated apps that have been found now - like an non animated launcher?
4) got any wallpapers that play nice eink and fit perfectly?
5) what would be a nice way to share files to and from the nook? I remember something for windows that goes via adb allowing a gui to directory browse. needs to be completely lightweight so scp, ftp, dropbox sound like either battery wasting or inconvienient to start and then stop after use. what's your preferred way other than eject the sdcard, samba?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
1) I use k9mail and kill it whenever it bothers me using TaskXP
2) 'Es File Exlorer' or 'Rhytm file manager'
3) ReLaunch
https://github.com/yiselieren/ReLaunch/downloads
4) There is a whole thread devoted to wallpapers. Look it up.
5) Don't know about that. I use ADB 'push' and 'pull'
ReLaunch is exactly what we all needed - thanks for letting me know!
Hi,
First of all, thanks for great set of resources! I was rooted an up and running with market in no time.
I am planning to use the Nook as a home automation controller, where the interface is presented through a webpage. For that, I am going to have it mounted and constantly powered-up.
So, my question is - how can I disable screensaver to have the Nook show the browser 24/7?
Also, is there any simple way to show contexts of the browser window without the navigation buttons? (If not, no worries - I can put something together quickly in PhoneGap or similar).
Thanks!
Bumping for interest - has OP/anyone found a solution to this? I'm going to have a tinker with the sys files in the next few days to see if I can manipulate those, will post any positive results.
I'm looking for always-on functionality as part of a live bus timetable / weather station project I'm 75% through.
For those interested, I'm running a simple PHP server pulling data from London's TFL API and the UK MetOffice's Datapoint API and displaying the page in Dolphin.
julianfox said:
Bumping for interest - has OP/anyone found a solution to this? I'm going to have a tinker with the sys files in the next few days to see if I can manipulate those, will post any positive results.
I'm looking for always-on functionality as part of a live bus timetable / weather station project I'm 75% through.
For those interested, I'm running a simple PHP server pulling data from London's TFL API and the UK MetOffice's Datapoint API and displaying the page in Dolphin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
http://forum.xda-developers.com/showthread.php?p=29113425 (found by googling "nook screensaver disable sqlite3").
julianfox said:
Bumping for interest - has OP/anyone found a solution to this? I'm going to have a tinker with the sys files in the next few days to see if I can manipulate those, will post any positive results.
I'm looking for always-on functionality as part of a live bus timetable / weather station project I'm 75% through.
For those interested, I'm running a simple PHP server pulling data from London's TFL API and the UK MetOffice's Datapoint API and displaying the page in Dolphin.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, I am quite interested in your project and was wondering how you got on with this.
Basically I am looking to have a calendar + weather page up constantly on in my rooted Nook Simple Touch. I have managed to get rid of the screensaver but it still goes into sleep mode after a while. Also would like to get some direction on how I could do my own PHP based page because most of the calendar apps out there dont seem to report weather
Jayyzee said:
Hi, I am quite interested in your project and was wondering how you got on with this.
Basically I am looking to have a calendar + weather page up constantly on in my rooted Nook Simple Touch. I have managed to get rid of the screensaver but it still goes into sleep mode after a while. Also would like to get some direction on how I could do my own PHP based page because most of the calendar apps out there dont seem to report weather
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I implemented the server side part of this weather app
http://www.mpetroff.net/archives/2012/09/14/kindle-weather-display/
also made the following changes
http://www.shatteredhaven.com/2012/11/1347365-kindle-weather-display.html
Getting the image on the nook is a different story. I tried using crond to wget or curl the image from the server to the screensaver folder so I could have other info graphics rotated throughout the day. I was unable to get the image via wget and unable to get cron working. Any suggestions... (besides having a browser open 247)
here is another example
http://origami.phys.rpi.edu/~jimenc/public/pjs/weather_kindle/server2/weather.php
Refresh?
larryflynt said:
Getting the image on the nook is a different story. I tried using crond to wget or curl the image from the server to the screensaver folder so I could have other info graphics rotated throughout the day. I was unable to get the image via wget and unable to get cron working. Any suggestions... (besides having a browser open 247)
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Hi, kudos for the progress so far.
I take it you couldn't just use another device to FTP the file to the nook every so often?
I was hoping to do a very similar thing with my spare NST but unfortunately my coding skills are not up to that level. You mention that you were trying to populate the screensaver folder with the image to be displayed, would there be any way to automatically make the NST wake up every few hours to refresh this image (assuming you can get the image there in the first place)?
I think that the better way to do this all is to write an app.
The app could use either an ImageView or a WebView.
You could easily make this work directly without a proxy or a server.
You wouldn't have to play around with screen timeout/wakeup,
This is going to be hard wired powered?
Renate NST said:
I think that the better way to do this all is to write an app.
The app could use either an ImageView or a WebView.
You could easily make this work directly without a proxy or a server.
You wouldn't have to play around with screen timeout/wakeup,
This is going to be hard wired powered?
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
The more I think about this, the nook simple touch might have to be charging.
I've done something very similar with my nook showing a custom weather listing in a fullscreen Dolphin browser. Though I have a problem with it not running for more than a day or so before the browser stops refreshing anymore. Have you experienced this? I'm currently looking into some way to kill/restart the browser on schedule perhaps.
Also, how did you get the browser in landscape mode? I can't find that anywhere.
neonpolaris said:
Also, how did you get the browser in landscape mode? I can't find that anywhere.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
I use this to set the orientation: https://play.google.com/store/apps/details?id=com.mah.screenrotationlock
OB
Sent from my HTCEVOV4G using Tapatalk 2
Another way to set orientation is if you have an application that only does landscape.
Switch to the landscape app, home out of that, go to the application that does both.
It should stay in landscape mode.
I have an assortment of apps, some portrait only, some landscape only, some both orientations.
By jumping briefly to a landscape only or portrait only app you can set the orientation for subsequent apps.
Thanks for the help guys!
I've got a web server running on my NAS serving a custom page for me. The browser launches fullscreen on boot up via some auto start app. After 5 min, the page redirects to an all black page for a second, then an all white page for a second (to clean up the display), then back to the original page with any new information on it.
This works well except for two issues.
1. On boot up, there's no way to avoid the first lock screen. After unlocked, it doesn't come back, but it's always there on startup. This wouldn't really be an issue except...
2. The browser stops loading the page after a while. I can hit refresh and it goes through the motions, but the page isn't updated. It can take a couple of days for this to happen. Restarting the nook solves this. I confirmed that the page is still served normally to other devices (not a web server problem). I would just have the device auto restart at 3am or something, but then the lock screen would always be there.
Do you guys have any ideas about how to correct this or at least work around it?
I can't even try other browsers because this is the only one I've found that displays full screen.
Any updates on this?
I wonder if there's a way to have a cron job kill and relaunch the browser every once in a while to get past the freezing issue you'd mentioned. Or just have the cron job kill the browser every once in a while and relaunch it, pointed at a new information display page.
Even better would be if there was way to bypass the need for a web browser and interact directly with the e-ink screen buffer as can be done on rooted kindle devices. (I can't post a link, but google search "Tools Eink Framebuffer Update Trigger" to find the kindle framebuffer commands)
Yeah, I worked directly with the screen output on my kobo, which worked well, but it was more of a pain to make changes. That might be because I'm more familiar with php and css than python and screen blit-ing. Having android to work with makes it much easier to expand functionality by just downloading an app and using my fingers, instead compiling software and ssh-ing in for everything.
Speaking of which, it looks like my problem is solved. I installed tasker and set it to kill the browser at 3am and start the browser at 3:01am. Thanks all.
What about google play apps for weather? Most of the apps I have used so far have had contrast issues since they are designed for color screens. Does anybody know of good apps that display the current weather info and forcast data in an eink friendly color scheme?
As far as the going to sleep issue, the apk listed in the second comment here: http://forum.xda-developers.com/nook-touch/general/fridge-calendar-t3057759
worked without issue for me, so that problem has mostly been solved.
Try this: electricsign app
Apologies for the resurrection, but for those looking for a digital low power / e-ink info display this might just do it.
This app will do the trick if a static jpg of a web page updated at an interval will do (set to output a jpeg in the custom screensaver folder on rooted nook)
Electricsign android app: (search electricsign on the play store - I can't post a URL here yet).
Leave the WiFi on and set the screensaver timeout.
The source code is on github also (google.it ).
I can never find the app because I always think it's called electricsheep.
Hope this helps someone...or me in the future.
Hi future me, the app is called electricsign, not electricsheep. You'll thank me next time you forget. From your past self bored at a ceildh BC your gf doesn't want to dance.
electricsign looks like the ticket!
While looking for something completely different, I stumbled across this and thought some people might find it interesting:
Turn an old eReader into an Information Screen (Nook STR) – Terence Eden’s Blog
shkspr.mobi
I wouldn't fixed NST to a wall and think that I have read here about app used here to do that job. Either someone is gonna fix TLS issue or maybe if we assume using NST as display it could be possible to use home Wi-Fi router or mobile phone as secure server or part of VPN that will negotiate TLS issue for NST. I always doubted slightly that NST can offer full internet browser experience but something in line of htttp web grab in reader mode might be good enough for some application. News (RSS), weather and I believe that maybe EPG TV guide are not impossible to accomplish. Only question about this remains will NST embedded HTML browser will be good for the job of showing the grab from web pages or is Opera in reader mode better for such job. Time to look up for a good web grabber...
SJT75 said:
I wouldn't fixed NST to a wall and think that I have read here about app used here to do that job. Either someone is gonna fix TLS issue or maybe if we assume using NST as display it could be possible to use home Wi-Fi router or mobile phone as secure server or part of VPN that will negotiate TLS issue for NST. I always doubted slightly that NST can offer full internet browser experience but something in line of htttp web grab in reader mode might be good enough for some application. News (RSS), weather and I believe that maybe EPG TV guide are not impossible to accomplish. Only question about this remains will NST embedded HTML browser will be good for the job of showing the grab from web pages or is Opera in reader mode better for such job. Time to look up for a good web grabber...
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Curl can often bypass SSL checks and grab web content. It runs on the NST. I've used it in a few of my apps. Whether the data it gets can be used by the app the blogger mentions is something else.
@nmyshkin that is nice idea! And seems exactly in line of what I wrote. I do not know is curl accessible from Android layer. I pondered the same thought more in line of trying to use port of Lynx to Android I have seen someone did although who knows is that possible to do on this version of Android?
I've written a status app (that I never use).
It polls two different servers for JSON info and displays it using regular Android graphics stuff.
It uses Retrofit for polling.
And one more! (although this one uses a Sony PRS-T1)
Reusing my ebook reader – Fluffyelephant
Hmm, you got me thinking about this stuff.
There's the whole let the Nook poll some data service and display it on a web browser sort of thing.
I don't really need or want that.
I was thinking more of like as a status output device for a headless Raspberry Pi.
No, not as a terminal, more like status for a solar/home/whatever system.
The Nook doesn't poll anything, it just sits there waiting for text or graphics.
But here's the part I like, you don't use any WiFi.
You just plug your Nook into the Raspberry Pi.
Of course it has adb.
You can get adb for Raspberry Pi: sudo apt-get install android-tools-adb
Now you can set up port forwarding:
Code:
[email protected]:~ $ adb forward tcp:6666 tcp:6666
Then all you need is something on the RPi to connect to port 6666 and spit out stuff.
On the Nook you need an app to serve port 6666 and do display stuff.
I've already made a clock as proof of concept and it works fine.
You could just use text fields or compose a whole graphic frame on the RPi and send that over.
Heck, if you send whole frames you wouldn't even need to run the Android subsytem.
I could probably get that working on a Kobo.
A very sophisticated example follows.
It allows you to individually update separate fields.
These could be in tables with borders or labels or whatever.
Edit: Okay, a better screenshot.
You know, the thing I like about this is that the NST is the server.
It's a bit like running X11, but much more lightweight.
And if you want you can still run this over WiFi instead of ADB forwarding.
This electric sign app is really close to something I'm looking for. What I'd like to do is, instead of a screenshot of a URI, to take a screenshot of what I've got open in the device.
I'd like to use this with Google Calendar, and Opera Mini surprisingly seems to work with the HTML version. I think Opera Mini keeps the calendar updating with AJAX or something, so all I'd need an app like this to do would be to, when it's running, take a screenshot of what's on the screen right before sleeping and set that as wallpaper, then wake every X minutes, screencap what's there and go back to sleep with that as the new wallpaper. The end result should be an always-on, low power Google Calendar.
EDIT: For anyone looking later, I was wrong. Opera Mini does not keep updating Google Calendar, you have to refresh it manually, which makes this slightly more complicated...
jptiger said:
This electric sign app is really close to something I'm looking for. What I'd like to do is, instead of a screenshot of a URI, to take a screenshot of what I've got open in the device.
I'd like to use this with Google Calendar, and Opera Mini surprisingly seems to work with the HTML version. I think Opera Mini keeps the calendar updating with AJAX or something, so all I'd need an app like this to do would be to, when it's running, take a screenshot of what's on the screen right before sleeping and set that as wallpaper, then wake every X minutes, screencap what's there and go back to sleep with that as the new wallpaper. The end result should be an always-on, low power Google Calendar.
Click to expand...
Click to collapse
Somewhere on the site there is a discussion of a setup that copies the current screen into a screensaver folder so that, for example, a map remains visible when the device sleeps. Search for it.
Edit: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/q-fridge-calendar.3057759/#post-59527882
Edit: https://forum.xda-developers.com/t/...uestion-o-noob-friendly.2941262/post-57216860
Eh, I'm not fond of browser-based anything,
For plain HTML stuff you could throw something together with Webkit instead.
For the adventurous you could use the Google Calendar API
Renate said:
Eh, I'm not fond of browser-based anything,
For plain HTML stuff you could throw something together with Webkit instead.
For the adventurous you could use the Google Calendar API
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I tend to agree with you. As I already wrote above something akin to Pocket/ReadItLater and similar might be accomplished using simple web grab I presume and offline HTML browser. I have thought that it looks odd that beside "hidden" (and sadly for us practically unusable) browser NST have another HTML viewer. Reason for that might be it was intended to be used for B&N "browsing" through their shop that they periodically download to NST or maybe for presentation of e-book material of older type that was for all intents and purposes just web archived HTML page or perhaps for viewing magazines purchased through B&N.
In essence even epub use elements of CSS/HTML but that is another story. Maybe it could be possible to make some poor man Pocket like offline browser if we somehow find the way to cobble together parts of some RSS, bookmarks syncing, e-mail listing, forum/blog viewer and approach that me or nmyshkin proposed here. In my opinion hardest part if some web grab is possible would be to render it in usable form for this device. That mean turning of ads, flash/video, loading pictures only on demand (or better in on/off way) and show only text information. Now what "browser" is suitable for this is yet to determine. I know that very old Opera could turn off animation an pictures but as I remember it did that in such way that it didn't download them at all to save bandwidth. Maybe it could be somehow set to load web archives in such manner? Think about it as giving an command that some web page be "printed as epub". It might be to large task to accomplish. Pocket worked if I remember right in such way that selected page was sent to dedicated server which did the trimming part for user and allowing him/her to download that content on other device to be read later on. Here I think that if we could sync for example one of bookmark folders from a computer with NST and achieve web grab of those links in usable form we might have something. It is a matter for the debate isn't Opera mobile and style management already wrote on here in forum same or even better. Problem would be that page reformat/rendering would be tasked to NST itself and I am not sure if it is up to the task or am I capable to cobble such thing alone for that matter. Something flashed in my mind didn't Calibre had some news reader? If it does then I am inventing the wheel here. Still it would be nice to be able to have some even limited ability to open a link to a news story from RSS feed or a forum/blog we follow or e-mail listing etc.
For Calendar I hope that some kind of dedicated app combining Calendar, planner and to do list can be found to already exist for this device.
Did anyone inspected this option? https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/ It might be interesting
SJT75 said:
Did anyone inspected this option? https://greycoder.com/a-list-of-text-only-new-sites/ It might be interesting
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Thanks for these! The ersatz Google News is amazing in that even the external links are text-only! It makes my Google News app obsolete! Great with Opera Mini. Many, many things to look at there
nmyshkin said:
Thanks for these! The ersatz Google News is amazing in that even the external links are text-only! It makes my Google News app obsolete! Great with Opera Mini. Many, many things to look at there
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I am glad that I have contributed with something useful. As have already guessed from mine posts in this thread I have contemplated heavily about what could be more useful for NST some text-only browser akin to old trusty Lynx or some rewrite/redefinition of working Opera. One thing lead to another and at first I thought to maybe open and disclosed source for firefox readability extension/addon ported for working version of Opera somehow is a way to go but as I always check all aspects of mine quirky ideas I stumbled upon this. It is poor man solution but as I remembered that you follow NPR and they have text mode only site felt obliged to mention it here.
In line with nmyshkin's idea of using curl if some information display akin to the one linked in the first post is needed does something like cron from Linux can be run on NST?
"Print as epub" exist as web form. Here is the result of that one. https://dotepub.com/ I tried to use online form there and results were mediocre but as I understand they also offer their API to developers etc. That I presume might draw attention from someone on xda.
In defense of the intended idea for using NST as info screen arguably touch technology it uses is best for those screens. Mine guess is that its deemed as such because it is most easily scalable from the currently available techniques. This also raise the question why B&N did not already made readers of much larger format like A4 paper size screen. Is the display cost really that high and prohibitive? On the other news rumors have spread that they have partnered with Lenovo not only for the new generation of tablets but also for new e-readers. Has anyone find some leek about possible specifications?
SJT75 said:
... rumors have spread ...
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Say, what? After my buying a Poke3?
Edit: See https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no...ovo-barnes-noble/1139012795?ean=9780594080503
1200 x 800 for a 10" = 144 DPI, not drop dead impressive.
I agree. Cheap bastards! I can't say is that 149DPI good for LCD screen but is sub par for e-reader. They obviously targeted minimum resolution comparable to low resolution printing and hope to get away with it. Considered that I expressed criticism to level of development of current color e-ink technology being bellow resolution of NST by about 60% you can bet I find this to little question is does it comes to late for B&N. Still I am more interested about e-ink display device that rumor say is also planned but nothing is revealed so far.
Renate said:
Say, what? After my buying a Poke3?
Edit: See https://www.barnesandnoble.com/w/no...ovo-barnes-noble/1139012795?ean=9780594080503
1200 x 800 for a 10" = 144 DPI, not drop dead impressive
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Nothing to report that is mine work now still in the spirit of this thread I want to post few links with things people did with e-ink screens that might be done with NST also.
1. Raspberry Pi powered news scrapper - something Renate might like as she as I understood work on something similar
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/ksgomp
2. Weather display that I believe was made using software already mentioned somewhere on forum
https://www.reddit.com/r/homeassistant/comments/lcyos9
3. Something completely different! Device made as platform to enable development many things e-ink made. Link shows RSS implementation.
4. In the old days when e-readers were unobtainable on my location I was in desperation contemplating the idea to convert available photo frames to a e-reader. This is as you guess the other way around.
https://www.reddit.com/r/raspberry_pi/comments/liadda
5. Someone developed site for games for e-ink screen as I understood browser only
https://e-ink.club/index.php There is in my opinion plenty of room for some sort of games on e-ink and this is not comprehensive list but it is nice someone started a dedicated page/project for that.