Onyx Boox is going to be shipping the Lumi 2, Note 5 and Note Air 2 with some new software, that will dramatically increase the functionality of the new hardware. When you pre-order it from Good e-Reader on October 27th, all of the new features will be available out of the box. Onyx will then port over the update to the previous generation Note Air, Max Lumi 1 and Note 3 sometime in November.
The company has firstly improved the Neoreader ebook reading software. The document layout engine now has better support for faster page turns for sideloaded EPUB/TXT/DOC/DOCX files. They have also introduced a new feature called Boox Drop, which makes it easy to transfer ebooks and notes from the device to your PC and from your PC to your Boox device.
The note taking app also has some new improvements, which helps make it a better creative tool. There is customized pen brush slot, which you can establish your own pen layout and save it to the toolbar. There is also vector export, after you finish drawing, you can export it as a vector quality layout, for further editing on your PC with professional design software.
Onyx Boox has made some software optimizations to some third party drawing apps. They have reduced the latency and improved stylus interactions with Onenote, Evernote and WPS, which now make them an extremely viable alternative to Onyx’s own drawing app. This is sort of what they did with the Kindle app a couple of years ago, where they eliminated the animated page turns, making it easier to use the app.
Finally, the UI has been revised, making it more simple and user friendly. Including new options to change the display settings.
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.