It can help with other solutions like Sunshine/Moonlight because a EDID plug advertises all the possible resolutions and refresh rate combinations under the sun so that it can be configured by the stream server to match the remote client display. Your attached monitor(s) may not support the same resolution/refresh rate as whatever client you are trying to stream to. Needing hardware for this is likely because of the graphics stack and virtualization restrictions of your graphics card if it isn't an enterprise one. Otherwise they could just use a virtual display buffer that isn't output on any screen.
All that said, I don't think steam link does this automatically, but there are probably tools that have been made for switching your main display to the dongle and setting the correct resolution for it when you initiate a streaming connection. At least I know there are helper ones for Sunshine so I am assuming it is true for Steam Link as well.
Not that this would fix an encoding issue if that is your problem.
> Well actually some _do_ run Android, but good to see also some of them (like the Era) do not...
I was unaware of this. Looks like they have a couple devices that are "e-note" devices, are larger, and support stylus input that are Android devices. Maybe also a couple readers from a long time ago, saw an article mentioning one running KitKat 4.4.
If I understand your first point correctly, then I have great news. I guess my wording could have been more clear, but PocketBook devices do NOT run Android.
As for the second, if that is a requirement then at least the Era doesn't have an ambient light sensor. I don't have any issue without it because I just have the front light off entirely by default since it is e-ink. Obviously if I need to use it in the dark I turn it on, but that is easy without having to navigate a screen I can't see since you can configure a hardware shortcut to toggle the front light (it is set to long press on the home button by default). While it does support automatic screen brightness and temperature (individually toggled), these are driven by a schedule based on the set timezones.
I can't speak to how their distribution is resulting in selling devices that don't have advertised features enabled. It is weird they would allow this while keeping their branding and same device name (maybe they are working around some trade restrictions?) So that is not good, but I don't know how widespread that issue is. And as I pointed out in my response before the edit, this seems straightforward to resolve if you buy from somewhere that has this issue.
Not to belabor the point, but in my original post I mentioned how PocketBook devices are specifically not Android as an advantage in terms of battery life.
I suspect that what you are experiencing with regards to it being "slow" to resume an in progress book and allow navigation may be due to your settings. The PocketBook has a sleep mode that allows quick resume for reading. How long after it goes to sleep before it powers all the way down is fully configurable from disabling it to waiting your choice of many options between 10 minutes and 48 hours. IMO the cold boot time is acceptable and I did not notice a difference from my 1st Gen Oasis. The power loss if you fully disable its auto power off is still great, although I haven't used it that way much beyond when I first got mine so I don't have a comparison to my Oasis.
That being said, I don't have the same model as you so maybe there is a significant difference between them in performance, but it would be easy enough to check independent reviews if I was trying to decide between them.
Maybe I'm missing something, but those all sound like things that are display layer and shouldn't be dependent on KFX to be able to accomplish. I do know that that you can run preprocessing on epubs to adjust some of the layouting to your preference. The rest should just be determined by the reader application you are using and any shortfall in customization of those aspects would be addressed by improvements to that application.
Regardless, my point was that: A - most of the books already in the library were likely enjoyed/acquired without knowledge of hypothetical improvements from Amazon rolling out a new ebook format and DRM scheme. And B - even if there is some magic that Amazon had to include in KFX to support the improvements you listed and can't be reproduced without them; I personally would not consider those or most any improvements to be worth losing ownership of books that I purchase.
The most valuable part of an ebook is the text and ownership of a copy of that is what I'm paying for. It is fairly easy for me to be principaled on only buying ebooks that I know I can own a copy of due to the diverse distribution that exists for most titles. Even when I had an Oasis, I didn't purchase anything through Amazon and loaded all my books over USB.
I got that manual from the US support page. What region are you in and have you tried installing the US firmware? Search for"Verse Pro" on the US support page[1] after the device list populates.
I also would have been disappointed with my Era if it didn't have PocketBook Cloud syncronization as advertised since it is functionality I care about. That being said, if it is something locked out of your region you could always install Koreader and setup sync through that.
For exporting a library of books you already own/read there aren't going to be many titles that have any improvements in KFX that you would care about. It certainly doesn't hurt to just try it and see what if any of the titles in the library have issues with being deDRMd.
I second buying from Google Play. Outside of a period of time last year where they had a bug that prevented exporting many titles in their catalog (some error in their backend service), I have never had an issue with purchases from there. I will happily continue getting my books from sources that allow true ownership after purchase regardless of any touted benefits Amazon adds to future DRM schemes, just need the words on the page.
Dropbox syncing is seperate from PocketBook Cloud even though the device calls it Dropbox PocketBook. Your device seems to have gotten all the same recent FW updates as mine on a similar timeframe, so as far as I can tell from release notes and the User Manuals they are running the same firmware and support the same features. Not sure why you have the impression it is running Android, but hopefully you don't have some knockoff?
You do have to setup and login to a PocketBook account to use the cloud synchronization. I have not tried the Dropbox integration, but it only supports a synchronized file folder.
In the user manual for the Verse Pro[1], the setup for PB Cloud starts on page 79 and isn't grouped with the Dropbox sync or email endpoint earlier on in the manual.
The only controversy related to PB Software that I am aware of is that it used to be even more open with a published SDK. It was many years ago that they stopped actively maintaining tne SDK. That doesn't seem to have stopped people from continuing to develop for PB devices, and as far as I'm aware PB have not done anything to prevent this or lock down their devices beyond not continuing public development of the SDK. Certainly theur current lineup of devices allow you to run 3rd party applications and are simple to get root shell access on.
The last time I looked into it, you had to have a valid target device or client registered to your account, typically a kindle reader. Then an option to download for transfer with usb would show kn the menu for entries in your library. It will download a kindle format ebook (there are multiple generations and even a new format) that is compatible with that device that and is also DRMd using that devices serial as a key.
So no, I wouldn't say you missed anything obvious, which is a feature not a bug as far as Amazon is concerned.
And I'm not refuting that. I was just pointing out a solution to a problem the GP proposed as intractable when trying to analyze player input data streams for cheating. The points you made are valid as far as the evolution of this cat and mouse game is progressing (probably still closer to the end end of can then do for now).
That being said, the vast majority of cheats are not that sophisticated. "Simple" analysis of player input should still be used to make low effort cheats less or ineffective. Especially if used to compare consistency of mechanical play by a player. I doubt most cheaters want to just turn on a full bot that plays by itself for the whole game. You can build a model of play customized for an individual player to look for changes in mechanical skill during critical plays. Then even if that was incorporated into the cheat client so that its 'actions' can't be definitevly detected against the players baseline, it would at least be limited to cheating as that player always playing like it's their best day. Either that or the cheater would have to go fully hands off for that account which I imagine is not as appealing for most cheaters.
Input analysis, even much simpleler approaches, can still be a valuable tool to make cheating more difficult and less opportunistic. The goal would be to raise the barrier of entry to cheating without immediately getting banned beyond downloading and running a client. If people who consider cheating in a game have to: order, wait for, and setup additional hardware then aquire models trained for the latest version of the game that are also trained on pro play in a way that lets the cheating be humanly plausible to remain undetected; it will reduce the total number of people who cheat in that title. Will needing to aquire additional hardware stop all cheating? No, I had a friend as a kid that owned a GameShark that I used and ended up corrupting the save on one of my Pokemon games. But if all of that is what is required to be able to successfully and consistently cheat, it will raise both the cost of development of cheats as well as their price to cheaters.
For top level professional play, in person tournaments on managed setups will remain the gold standard for the forseeable future (and besides they are attractive as events for their own sake). And for the rest of us, we will continue to be trapped in the labyrinth with both the cat and the mice.
You should be able to limit analysis for this type of detection to only the input leading up to a kill/hit and ignoring everything else. The majority of the time players are not shooting could be used to do the analysis with plenty of time to boot midway in a round let alone a full game.
Also simple analysis of only the input streams as you stated really doesn't have to do with the phys rate of the game server and should be alot cheaper computationally. It can be offloaded to another process even if it was found to be too impactful to run alongside the game server directly. Something all those extra cores might be good for.
Not seemlessly because Amazon has their store locked down to Kindle. But you can export all your books from the Amazon web interface or use the desktop Kindle app to download them all. You would then use Calibre with a couple plugins to deDRM them. At that point you have plain ebook files in Amazon's format to do what you want with. Calibre can convert them to any one of the open ebook formats (I personally prefer epub) and sync them to your device(s)). Those ebooks are treated like any others and fully supported by PocketBook cloud if you use it. The convenience of Amazon's store for Kindle is nice, but it's also how they lock you in to their ecosystem and devices so you keep only buying/paying for a subscription with them.
The process is really not bad at all if you use the desktop Kindle app to download your library before importing to Calibre. Each step is fully automated with the only manual parts being setting it up and doing each step in sequence for the whole library but not each individual book.
I recommended the PocketBook Era to someone who has an Oasis in a sister comment. It supports Bluetooth remotes, keyboards, probably any Bluetooth HID with buttons. You just map any button press you want to reader actions (including ones beyond just page turn). It doesn't support input from them outside the reader interface, but fully usable without the touchscreen (you can map turning it on and off to the button combos too) when reading with a remote or the built in physical buttons.
You should check out the PocketBook Era. It's what I moved to from the Kindle Oasis and I've really enjoyed it. The device isn't as svelte as the Oasis since it isn't subsidized by Amazon, but has an assymetric design and even more physical buttons which you can fully customize the control scheme. Also like the Oasis it gets amazing battery life with it's light weight OS compared to the Android based e-readers.
The PocketBook cloud is just as seamless as the syncing with Amazon if that is something you use. Only time I notice problems is during the weekly maintenance window which just looks like an outage. It has bidirectional sync for your progress as well as syncing new books and has a web interface and a phone app. Also offers the same email endpoint service as Kindle and you can set up Adobe DRM to use with library borrowing as well as other places that distribute ascm. The builtin store probably doesn't have the same availability of titles as Amazon but I haven't used it since I manage my library with Calibre and buy my books from various stores.
Best of all is the customizability. Don't want to use their store or cloud? You can turn off (really just not setup and hide) all the features and integrations individualy to make it an "offline" reader but still bring it online for things like Wikipedia lookup and web searches. You don't even need an account to set it up. You can also load additional dictionaries, fonts, and even applications on it. It has a healthy if small development scene.
There is a new color version but if you don't read things that require color I would get the original; Based on reviews it has the the same downside as Kobo and others that use the Kalaido screen where it's relatively dimmer in ambient light compared to the B/W one and so needs a higher average backlight level to compensate.
Overall I've been really happy with my switch and can't see myself going back to Kindle.
> If 11labs app get to the main service quality and start accepting ePubs, it will be the death of Audible.
The app from this announcement does accept epubs. Just tested a couple and had no issues. Haven't used 11labs before, but the quality was good and didn't have any major issues with an English voice even with some spot checked fantasy names/terms or chemical names.