MS Reader 2.2.3 Released

[Janak Parekh]

<div class='os_post_top_link'><a href='http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.asp' target='_blank'>http://www.microsoft.com/reader/downloads/ppc.asp</a><br /><br /></div>Ken Mattern writes in, letting us know the latest version of MS Reader has been released. Importantly, it fixes the problems that prevented users from reading books from <a href="http://esspc-ebooks.com">his </a> and others' sites. I'm not sure if there are any other changes.

[Jonathon Watkins]

Right - duly downloaded & installed. Nothing too different so far.

[Kevin Daly]

I suppose it's too much to hope that this version will ever find its way into a ROM update.

I'm starting to lean towards the view that everything other than the core OS should be in RAM, since chances are you're going to end up installing a version there anyway.

[kcwester]

I just went to the site and the English won't allow you to download. All the other languages do have a hot link. I wonder what happened to caue this?

[Duncan]

I just went to the site and the English won't allow you to download. All the other languages do have a hot link. I wonder what happened to caue this? That would be because if you follow the link you are already on the English page - the link is at the top right...! :)

[Ken Mattern]

Right - duly downloaded & installed. Nothing too different so far.

Make sure you have version 2.2.3 build 3205 or greater. Microsoft sent me this build and it works perfectly. I'm looking at it right now.

Ken

[arbitrajeu]

I suppose it's too much to hope that this version will ever find its way into a ROM update.

I'm starting to lean towards the view that everything other than the core OS should be in RAM, since chances are you're going to end up installing a version there anyway.
I'm with you on that one. This should include all the inbuilt MS apps too, as Pocket Word and Pocket Excel are a waste of space once TextMaker and PlanMaker are installed...

Surely this is akin to the great debate over IE being bundled with Windows? They're basically prejudicing users' choice of applications by putting them in ROM? Unless, of course, this is the OEM's decision, rather than Microsoft's insistence...

Anyone know?

[kcwester]

Thank you-I feel real stupid right now :D
I have now installed on my Pocket PC. One of these days I'll read an entire page before responding to something. :lol:

[ctmagnus]

Any idea what the differences between this and the previous version (or even the ROM version) are?

[Ken Mattern]

Any idea what the differences between this and the previous version (or even the ROM version) are?

There was a problem with the fonts. At one point it appeared that the font sizes for my eBooks were very large, hence the enormous number of pages. Not only that but the font color was white on a white background :? There was also apparently something wrong with the way embedded graphics displayed.

BTW: I also now have 166 MobiPocket formatted eBooks. I'm in the process of automating the generation of all of the current library to Mobi format.

New eBooks are on the way. Now that MS Reader is fixed I can get back to work.

[ChristopherTD]

There was also apparently something wrong with the way embedded graphics displayed.

There still sems to be a problem with graphics on the PPC reader (2.2.3). When the size of the image is not specified, the Pocket PC version of MS Reader doesn't behave very well. It tries to display the image full screen, resulting in an unpleasant pixellated image. I have done a little investigation and found the following.

The chapter images in "Fools Fate" by Robin Hobb display correctly, as small thumbnails, whereas the little decorations in "Lirael" by Garth Nix
don't because the size is not specified in the HTML source, i.e.

img src="ornament.jpg" alt="ornament"

merely putting in the size of the image corrects this

img src="ornament.jpg" width="28" height="25" alt="ornament"

This only applies to the Pocket PC version of Reader, the desktop version works correctly. While this is a bug in Reader, if the publishers also encoded the size in the HTML source then it would help!

[kamikun]

BTW: I also now have 166 MobiPocket formatted eBooks. I'm in the process of automating the generation of all of the current library to Mobi format.

New eBooks are on the way. Now that MS Reader is fixed I can get back to work.

I too like the MobiBook format, so much so I bought the reader even though I use it only for reading free material and downloading news to read off-line. If you haven't noticed, MobiBook Reader has also been upgraded. It's at version 4.8.

They've also released a Mobipocket eNews Creator (ver. 1.00 ...and you know what that means). It sets up a graphical interface for designing your own news channels for the Mobi Reader either from PPC optimized pages, RSS feeds or - ANY web page.

Cool.

The system doesn't quite work as advertised yet. I wasn't able to set up an RSS page (even after RTFM) but found a workaround going through normal HTML and having the program treat it as RSS. Anyways, I was able to add a couple of my favorite blogs to the Mobipocket news update.

They've also added about 120 more pre-fabbed eNews channels of their own to the program. So if you don't want to go to the trouble of rolling your own you should be able to find something off the shelf that intrigues you.

Haven't had a chance to use the Creator on any heavy graphical / link-ladden sites yet but I think I'm gonna purchase this software as well.

/plug

[rocky_raher]

I noticed that part of the upgrade instructions include going to the activation page and activating your reader. I recall that the last time I activated Reader on my new PPC, I was told that at most 6 devices can be activated on the same username (email address). I've now activated 3 desktop PC's and 2 PDA's, and will probably upgrade my PDA in a few months. Will upgrading to the new Reader use up one of my six permitted activations?
What does happen when I've used my maximum activations? My concern is that someday soon, I'll get a new computer, be unable to activate Reader on my current username, and all the protected books I've bought but haven't read yet will instantly become inaccessible! Is this a valid concern, or do I misunderstand Microsoft's activation policy? Has anyone else reached the max-number-of-devices limit?

[keelinlee]

...
The system doesn't quite work as advertised yet. I wasn't able to set up an RSS page (even after RTFM) but found a workaround going through normal HTML and having the program treat it as RSS. Anyways, I was able to add a couple of my favorite blogs to the Mobipocket news update.



If you have any problem with eNews Creator, you can contact their Tech support. They are very efficient. And they really want to improve the soft.

Of course v1.00 is not perfect. But you must admit it does a good job.
I have already posted several eNews (from RSS feeds or mobile websites and standard websites), and I already sent few remarks.

I think I will purchase this soft, and Mobipocket Reader to read eNews sent by email.

[baker]

I noticed that part of the upgrade instructions include going to the activation page and activating your reader. I recall that the last time I activated Reader on my new PPC, I was told that at most 6 devices can be activated on the same username (email address). I've now activated 3 desktop PC's and 2 PDA's, and will probably upgrade my PDA in a few months. Will upgrading to the new Reader use up one of my six permitted activations?
What does happen when I've used my maximum activations? My concern is that someday soon, I'll get a new computer, be unable to activate Reader on my current username, and all the protected books I've bought but haven't read yet will instantly become inaccessible! Is this a valid concern, or do I misunderstand Microsoft's activation policy? Has anyone else reached the max-number-of-devices limit?

I upgraded last night. Uninstalled the previous upgrade then installed the new. For some reason it shows my ppcReader as activated and is working fine.

As far as exceeding the number of acivations, supposedly you have to call Microsoft and they'll get you going again. They've got an FAQ on this on their Reader site.

[rocky_raher]

Thanks for mentioning the FAQ. I'd missed that when I checked www.microsoft.com/reader before posting my comments. The URL is http://www.microsoft.com/reader/info/support/faq/activation.asp#5. This paragraph is most relevant:
"How many copies of Microsoft Reader can I activate?
You are entitled to activate Microsoft Reader on up to eight different devices using the same Microsoft Passport account. However, certain actions such as reformatting your hard drive and resetting a Pocket PC require you to reactivate your device, which will count against this initial quota. You can activate more copies of Microsoft Reader if you use a different Passport. However, if you purchase an eBook title on a device where you activated Microsoft Reader with your first Passport, you won't be able to read that title on a device where Microsoft Reader was activated using your second Passport, and so on. "
On the one hand, I'm glad to see the actual limit is 8. I've already used 5, so I can replace my desktop and PPC in the next year, and be OK for a few more years.
On the other hand, it looks like my initial concerns are valid. Reformatting or resetting requires another activation, which counts against your quota, and starting over with a new Passport means you lose your current library.

[beq]

Hmm, just to mention, I haven't upgraded the MS Reader on my iPAQ 2210, which I'm using solely for ebook reading and nothing else these days. I didn't even upgrade to the last security fix version that came out a few months back that was supposedly mandatory to read any secure ebooks going forward (and I've still been able to read the secure MS Reader ebooks I bought from Fictionwise successfully)...

Regardless my policy now is to choose Palm format for any future secure ebook purchases (I haven't considered Mobipocket but I'll take another look).

[willierodriguez]

Will updating to this version affect your ability to view the free e-books from MS's summer promotion. Will one have to re-activate the reader? :?:

[John C]

Will updating to this version affect your ability to view the free e-books from MS's summer promotion. Will one have to re-activate the reader? :?:

I updated my J568 yesterday, following the instructions on MS's web page - on the PPC, uninstall the old version (2.2.2), then install the new one. I had no problems, did *not* have to re-activate, and so far can read everything - including the free books.

John

[rocky_raher]

I recently sent my Jornada 568 to HP to repair a broken screen. They sent me a new one. Of course, I'd done a full backup shortly before sending it in, and did a full restore with the new one.

I've used Reader since then, but just realized that I'd only been reading non-protected eBooks recently. I just tried to open a half-read secure eBook. (One of those offered free on MicroSoft's ebook website, in fact.) I got this message: "The digital security software that protects this eBook has been updated. You must re-activate in order to activate this title. Please go to www.microsoft.c... for additional information." [The msgbox was too narrow for the full url.]

The backup/restore didn't lose my activation, because when I start Reader, the opening splash screen still says, "Activated for [email protected]". Apparently, Reader wanted me to upgrade to 2.2.3. My current version had no trouble reading this eBook last month. Is this something new with MicroSoft? If they produce a new version of Word next month, will your present version of Word refuse to read your old documents until you upgrade? For that matter, how did my current Reader install "know" that an update was available??

I probably set of a few "Anti-Microsoft Paranoia" alarm buzzers with that last paragraph. Halfway through writing it, I checked the Help option on Reader on my PPC; I wanted to mention the version number of my current install. I didn't find it. (Reader apparently doesn't have a Help->About feature telling you the version number; if I'm wrong about this, please correct me.) Anyway, it did have a quick tutorial about activation, and mentioned that the activation server uses "A Hardware Identification code, computed using serial numbers and other information unique to your device." Therefore, my problem is probably that I have a new device, not that there's a new version of Reader out.

But I'm not letting MicroSoft off the hook yet. The message I get doesn't say, "Reactivate because you have a new computer," or "Reactivate because your old activation won't work on this hardware," it specifically states that I must re-activate because the security software has been updated. So, is my paranoia in the third paragraph valid, or is this just a very badly worded and misleading error message?

Some feedback would decide this question. Has anyone who has not upgraded to 2.2.3 and not changed his hardware (as I did) received the above warning message? Are you able to read protected eBooks with the old Reader version?

[/img]

[bbarker]

I recently sent my Jornada 568 to HP to repair a broken screen. They sent me a new one.
What did they charge you for the repair? The digitizer is going out on my 568.

[dequardo]

Thanks for mentioning the FAQ. I'd missed that when I checked www.microsoft.com/reader before posting my comments. The URL is http://www.microsoft.com/reader/info/support/faq/activation.asp#5. This paragraph is most relevant:
"How many copies of Microsoft Reader can I activate?
You are entitled to activate Microsoft Reader on up to eight different devices using the same Microsoft Passport account. However, certain actions such as reformatting your hard drive and resetting a Pocket PC require you to reactivate your device, which will count against this initial quota. You can activate more copies of Microsoft Reader if you use a different Passport. However, if you purchase an eBook title on a device where you activated Microsoft Reader with your first Passport, you won't be able to read that title on a device where Microsoft Reader was activated using your second Passport, and so on. "
On the one hand, I'm glad to see the actual limit is 8. I've already used 5, so I can replace my desktop and PPC in the next year, and be OK for a few more years.
On the other hand, it looks like my initial concerns are valid. Reformatting or resetting requires another activation, which counts against your quota, and starting over with a new Passport means you lose your current library.

interesting. they must have recently increased this number. until just recently it was six.

[rocky_raher]

I recently sent my Jornada 568 to HP to repair a broken screen. They sent me a new one.
What did they charge you for the repair? The digitizer is going out on my 568.
The charge was $199. They have a number of plans, like one where they immediately send you a replacement and you send in the broken one, a plan where they simply swap PPC's (withing either 3 or 10 days, IIRC), all of varying prices.