Onyx Boox has just released their new 3.2 update that shipped out on their new generation devices a month ago. The company stated that they would bring this firmware upgrade to their previous generation hardware in late November, but it took a few extra days. The 3.2 update is now available for the Onyx Boox Note Air, Max Lumi, Note 3, Poke 3, Nova Air, Nova 3, Nova 3 Color and the Leaf.
There are dozens of new features and enhancements. Each of these older devices now have optimization for Evernote, Onenote and WPS Office. When you download these apps from the Onyx App Store, they have improved latency when using a stylus. During our tests, it is really responsive and now make these viable alternatives to the stock drawing app that ships with the tablets.
The powerful visual V2 engine can display more specific styles of ebook formats. So you can see the original font, font size and margin settings, and get a better reading experience. With the new built-in BOOXDrop, you can easily transfer ebooks and notes back to PC and send files to BOOX. And it’s way faster. The split-screen used to be displayed horizontally, but now you can choose the vertical split to make the screen more suitable for your workflow. By exporting handwritten notes as vector PDFs, you can edit them on PC and NeoReader. No matter how large you magnify your hand-drawn strokes, they won’t lose a bit of pixel.
You should be able to fetch the new update in the settings menu. If it is not available yet, you can manually download and install it. You can visit the Onyx Downloads page and click on the hardware you own and download the latest 3.2 update. When the download is complete, you can plug your device into the your PC/MAC with the USB cable, copy the file over to the root directory, unplug it and hold down the power button on the Onyx, there will be an option that says something like “update” and you can click on that option, it will reboot, and install it.
Here is the full changelog
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e system drop-down menu has been divided into Notification Center and Control Panel. Swiping up from the screen bottom will pop up E Ink Center.
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Add BooxDrop (two-way file transfer between BOOX and other devices such as PC). BooxDrop only supports Wi-Fi in the same local area network. (This replaces Transfer Books including WifiTransfer and Push.)
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Add the feature of “Automatic collapse when next to the screen edge” and “Automatic collapse when not in use for 5s” to Navigation Ball.
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Add Area Screenshot, which allows users to screenshot the selected area only instead of the whole screen. (Call out from Navigation Ball.)
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Add more options for system full-refresh frequencies (0–1–5–10–15–20–30. The default full refresh is 5. V3.1 was 6 by default.)
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Add multiple accounts management. (This is to solve the problem of notes sync issues under multiple accounts.)
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Improve handwriting speed of OneNote\Evernote\WPS.
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Optimize Feedback interface.
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Optimize the update process and interface.
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Adjust the settings of App Optimization.
Library and NeoReader
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Add custom scan path settings to the Library and optimize the process of refreshing the Library;
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Adjust the data sharing method of a file’s copy. The data is identified by saving path. (Old version was identified by the file ID.)
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Support copying and cutting handwritten content between documents.
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Expand the formats that V2 engine supports: Epub\mobi\azw3\txt\word\jeb\html;
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Optimize the main menu of reading and adjust the levels of some main menus.
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Add reflow feature to text-based PDF documents that allow “long press to select text” or are recognized by OCR.
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Long-press-to-select-text supports to share to third-party apps in image formats. Up to 1000 characters can be shared.
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The look-up on the internet after long-pressing to select text supports open via third-party browser.
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TOC supports “expanding/collapsing all with one click”
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PDF bookmarks filter the headers and the footers.
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Fix the issue of inaccurate selection of long-press-to-select-text.
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The reading status bar can display chapter names (supported by V2 engine)
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The inserted text box can be switched between vertical and horizontal styles.
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Split-view in NeoReader supports Article\ Comic modes.
Notes and Synchronization
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Add the feature of combining multiple notepads into one.
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Add automatic saving by a set time.
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The exported PDFs from Notes are in vector format, which can be edited in Reader.
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Add custom brushes (max 5 brushes.)
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Add page tags, which generate a level 1 directory when exporting a notepad to a PDF file.
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Fix the issue that the strokes on the template can not be erased cleanly.
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Add the feature that allows you to insert a picture directly to a notepad by long-pressing a picture( Share > Insert to a Notepad)
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Associate Notes with accounts. Notes under anonymous accounts are automatically classified into login account. The notes under the logout account will no longer appear locally and will appear again after you log in to the same account; (This is to resolve the sync issues under multiple accounts)
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Local backup of version 3.2 or above supports combining new backup with existing backup files. ( This backs up notes at different stages to the same backup file).
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Cloud backup is not available anymore.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.