Boox Tab Ultra Questions

[BanditoB]

I just received my Boox Tab Ultra and have a few questions about it so I thought that I'd check here to see if anyone has any answers for me.

1. I have downloaded and copied a few dictionary files with a .dict.dz file extension and placed them in the dicts directory as shown in the dictionary app, but it's not seeing any of them and reports that no dictionaries have been downloaded. I tried rebooting the Tab Ultra, but this made no difference. Am I doing something wrong?

2. When I first set up the Tab Ultra, under Accounts, it had two sections, one for linking to Note apps and one for linking to file sharing services. Under the file sharing services, it listed Dropbox, OneDrive, Google Drive and so on. I then found that there were firmware updates for the device, so I ran the first one and after it updated, the file sharing services were no longer listed in Accounts. There were two additional firmware updates that it wanted to do, so I updated it two more times and checked Accounts again, but the file sharing account set up links are still gone. Does anyone know how to enable and use them?

3. I cannot find any way to rotate the screen either into landscape mode or to turn in upside down and have the wider bezel on the right side of the device instead of the left. Any thoughts on this one?

4. On the right side of the top information bar on the screen that has several icons/indicators, there is a round icon that looks like a pressure guage. It is between the backlight indicator and the WiFi indicator. Does anyone know what this icon represents?

That's it for right now, but I'm sure that I'll be back with more questions as I try more features on the device.

Thanks!

[pepcok]

3. enable auto-rotate, it will do what you want it to do.



4. it's the currently set refresh mode

[pepcok]

sorry for the large pics, I can't edit the post anymore.

[BanditoB]

@pepcok, thanks for your responses. I did eventually stumble onto the rotate settings and changed them to auto rotate. Rotate was not available under Display Settings, but was in the Control Panel.

So, that’s the refresh setting. Not very obvious in my opinion.

Do you know much about the fingerprint sensor? I have registered my fingerprints, but each time I wake up the device, it is asking for my passcode to unlock it.

I am enjoying getting to know the Tab Ultra, but I’m finding that it’s not as intuitive as other devices such as the Kindle Scribe.

[pepcok]

Fingerprint sensor works fine for me, no issues. I only have one finger registered and when I press the button with the correct finger, it's unlocking without showing the passcode screen.

And yes, boox devices have a steeper "learning curve" compared to something like a kindle, but it's kinda rewarding, in the end they are way more powerful.

[BanditoB]

I checked on my fingerprint enrollment and they were all gone. So, I re-enrolled and now it's working as expected. I'm not sure, but it appears that a firmware update may remove the fingerprints.

I also added a micro SD card to the Tab Ultra and I'm not sure it that did the trick or not, but right after I did that, it recognized the dictionary file that I had copied to the device earlier and now that's working as expected.

So, things are looking up.

I figured out another icon in the Display Settings for the frontlights. On the right side of the brightness popup, there's an angled open rectangle. Touching it turns on a bar in the middle of the icon. This is kind of a lock for the brightness sliders. When enabled, the first change that you make to the brightness changes both the cool light and the warm light to the middle setting and ties them together. When you make brightness adjustments after that the two lights are locked together and move in unison.

This feature isn't that useful, in my opinion, because both lights have to be at the same level. It would be more useful if the lock would lock them together at their current settings so that you could get the color balance just the way you wanted it and then simply adjust the locked settings together to brighten or dim the frontlights. It would also be a nice upgrade if the Tab Ultra had a light sensor so it could automatically dim and brighten the frontlighting as necessary. Maybe they'll add this to the next version of the hardware.

Now, on to discover more things!

[norweger]

Hope it's fine I ask: What's your first impression / thoughts on the device thus far? Satisfied, dissatisfied? I'm pondering buying one.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by norweger

Hope it's fine I ask: What's your first impression / thoughts on the device thus far? Satisfied, dissatisfied? I'm pondering buying one.

I like it - except for the fact that you can't run Calibre Companion on it and transfer books even once.
This corrupts the device by slowing down the file system by hundreds of times.
I don't know if other applications cause something similar.
Boox is informed about this problem:
/sdcard/Test is a folder with 26,000 empty files.

[pepcok]

@BanditoB, regarding your original questions.

1. the guide at this link works perfectly - basically copy the folders with your dictionaries to the /dicts folder, then enable them in the dictionary app. I just tested it with a dictionary from here.

Can't answer question #2, I don't see 'share accounts' either.

[BanditoB]

Ugh! This is the third time I’ve written this reply as I keep losing them due to an issue with the Tab Ultra and the mobileread website. It’s getting to be frustrating.

At any rate, I’ll try this one more time.

@pepcok, I found the same instructions that you linked to on a Reddit thread and copied my dictionary files to the Tab Ultra as prescribed, but the Dictionary app wouldn’t recognize them. I even rebooted the Tab Ultra to see if that would cause it to reread the dicts folder, but it made no difference.

I was in the Files app to look around the device, but it didn’t show anything. I thought that this was strange, but moved on to other things. Eventually, I decided to add a microSD card to the Tab Ultra and after sliding it in, I went back to the Files apps to see if I could see it there. Lo and behold, this time the Files app showed me all of the files on the built-in storage as well as the microSD card. Because of this, I went back into the Dictionary app and this time it recognized my dictionary files. A very odd situation, but at least it resolved itself.

@norweger, so far, I am generally liking the Tab Ultra. It definitely has some quirks, but seems like a pretty powerful device overall.

I have found the user manual to be quite lacking. It seems to list all of the features and functions of the Tab Ultra, but doesn’t define what most of them mean or do. For example, on the Brightness panel there is a tilted rectangle icon that you can tap on and it will place a bar in the middle of the icon. Tapping again turns off the bar. What does this do to or for the Tab Ultra? It’s not obvious, but through trial and error, I found that the icon is used to lock the two brightness sliders together to that you can adjust both the cool and warm frontlights simultaneously. There is no mention of this in the manual. Here, I think that a lock icon would have been much more informative, but they chose an angled rectangle. There are lots of these little gems throughout the system.

The screen isn’t quite as nice as I was hoping for. I also have a Kindle Scribe and I find that the blacks are quite a bit darker on it. The Tab Ultra is more grayish than black. The screen is okay, just different. I was also thinking the that lower resolution of the Tab Ultra, 227 ppi vs. the Scribe’s 300 ppi, would be an issue, but I haven’t really found it to be a problem.

I just recently started playing with the handwriting recognition and have found it to be pretty good. It’s much better than other devices that I’ve used in the past and my chicken scratch is sometimes hard for even me to read. I haven’t yet tried scanning any documents, but I expect that that will be just as good or better than the handwriting recognition.

I sent a couple of questions off to Boox support and they responded to both within their stated time of 48 hours with useful and helpful information, so that’s pretty good. It would be much nicer to be able to call them and work directly with another human being, but I know that they are a small China-based company so I think that they are doing the best that they can.

I received the Keyboard Cover yesterday and have been trying it out. I’m not terribly impressed by it, but it is of course very useful to have. The cover extends about ¼” out from the edges of the Tab Ultra, so while it is attached you can’t really use the fingerprint scanner as your fingertip can’t really get into the sensor. Also, the keys are a little janky. I can type fairly quickly and rely upon feeling the key click to confirm that I’ve pressed the key. I am finding that on the Tab Ultra Keyboard, I can feel the click, but nothing actually gets entered on the device. I have to purposely press harder to ensure that all of my typing gets entered on the device. Also, the pins that connect it to the Tab Ultra are very short and if you you move the unit around very much with the keyboard attached it will disconnect. Every time it disconnects, the Tab Ultra returns to its previous screen orientation so you get to watch the screen go through its gyrations to do so. This happened once while I was typing this reply earlier and when the screen rotated, it must have also refreshed and it lost all of the text that I had entered.

As for the onscreen keyboard, I have found that the spacebar is a bit wonky, too. You can press it quickly and it will make a click sound (if you’ve enabled this in the settings) and the outline will get darker to indicate that you’ve pressed it, but no space gets entered in your text. You have to really watch this or you end up with a bunch of your words all run together.

Still, overall, I find the Tab Ultra to be a powerful device that has a great deal of built-in functionality. With the ability to add other Android apps it is also very expandable. So, I’ll continue to experiment with it and explore what it has to offer. I’m pretty sure that i will keep it, but have until the end of January to make a decision.

[Renate]

Originally Posted by BanditoB

This feature isn't that useful, in my opinion, because both lights have to be at the same level.

You might try the (updated) Lights-1.0.apk at http://www.temblast.com/android.htm
Yes, it's a separate app, not tied to quick settings, but at least you can adjust the brightness without changing color or change the color without changing the brightness.

[BanditoB]

@renate, thanks for the suggestion. I'll check it out.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

I like it - except for the fact that you can't run Calibre Companion on it and transfer books even once.
This corrupts the device by slowing down the file system by hundreds of times.
I don't know if other applications cause something similar.
Boox is informed about this problem:
/sdcard/Test is a folder with 26,000 empty files.

Its not Calibre Companion.

test.sh
----------------------------------------------------------------
echo
echo Test started
for a in a b c d e
do
echo
echo start create +5000 files
date
i=0; while [ $((i)) -lt 5000 ]; do touch $a$i; i=$(($i+1)); done;
echo finished
date
time ls -l | wc
done
echo
date
echo Test finished
echo
----------------------------------------------------------------

----------------------------------------------------------------
Factory reset
----------------------------------------------------------------
Microsoft Windows [Version 10.0.22621.1105]
(c) Microsoft Corporation. Alle Rechte vorbehalten.

d:\_Reader-Smartphone\ADB>adb push test.sh /data/local/tmp
test.sh: 1 file pushed. 0.0 MB/s (225 bytes in 0.031s)

d:\_Reader-Smartphone\ADB>adb shell
BOOX:/ $ am start com.android.settings/.Settings
Starting: Intent { act=android.intent.action.MAIN cat=[android.intent.category.LAUNCHER] cmp=com.android.settings/.Settings }   -> stay awake on
BOOX:/ $ cd /sdcard
BOOX:/sdcard $ mkdir test
BOOX:/sdcard $ cd test
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ chmod 755 /data/local/tmp/test.sh
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ /data/local/tmp/test.sh
----------------------------------------------------------------
Create folder "test"
----------------------------------------------------------------
Test started

start create +5000 files
Wed Nov 23 15:26:26 CST 2022
finished
Wed Nov 23 15:29:06 CST 2022
   5001   40002  263898
    0m00.17s real     0m00.08s user     0m00.10s system

start create +5000 files
Wed Nov 23 15:29:07 CST 2022
finished
Wed Nov 23 15:33:57 CST 2022
  10001   80002  527788
    0m00.35s real     0m00.13s user     0m00.22s system

start create +5000 files
Wed Nov 23 15:33:57 CST 2022
finished
Wed Nov 23 15:38:58 CST 2022
  15001  120002  791678
    0m00.51s real     0m00.24s user     0m00.29s system

start create +5000 files
Wed Nov 23 15:38:59 CST 2022
finished
Wed Nov 23 15:45:07 CST 2022
  20001  160002 1055568
    0m00.65s real     0m00.34s user     0m00.32s system

start create +5000 files
Wed Nov 23 15:45:08 CST 2022
finished
Wed Nov 23 15:51:48 CST 2022
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m00.82s real     0m00.32s user     0m00.51s system

Wed Nov 23 15:51:49 CST 2022
Test finished

BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m00.82s real     0m00.36s user     0m00.47s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m00.82s real     0m00.28s user     0m00.56s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m00.83s real     0m00.34s user     0m00.50s system
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Reboot
----------------------------------------------------------------
d:\_Reader-Smartphone\ADB>adb shell
BOOX:/ $ cd /sdcard/test
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m06.38s real     0m00.40s user     0m01.67s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m02.63s real     0m00.40s user     0m00.50s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m02.86s real     0m00.39s user     0m00.54s system
----------------------------------------------------------------
WLAN On, connected
----------------------------------------------------------------
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m03.02s real     0m00.35s user     0m00.57s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m03.22s real     0m00.44s user     0m00.51s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    0m02.79s real     0m00.40s user     0m00.50s system
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
Reboot
----------------------------------------------------------------
d:\_Reader-Smartphone\ADB>adb shell
BOOX:/ $ cd /sdcard/test
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    1m35.36s real     0m00.54s user     0m00.80s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    4m32.10s real     0m01.79s user     0m09.23s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    6m57.78s real     0m01.94s user     0m14.08s system
----------------------------------------------------------------
----------------------------------------------------------------
WLAN off, Reboot
----------------------------------------------------------------
d:\_Reader-Smartphone\ADB>adb shell
BOOX:/ $ cd /sdcard/test
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    1m23.01s real     0m00.57s user     0m01.18s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    6m52.22s real     0m02.99s user     0m14.82s system
BOOX:/sdcard/test $ time ls -l | wc
  25001  200002 1319458
    6m51.73s real     0m02.76s user     0m15.12s system
----------------------------------------------------------------

It is connectig to WLAN that performs these awful times

[chrisridd]

Did Boox ever comment on your bug report?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

Did Boox ever comment on your bug report?

Yes - see attached screenshot