Introducing the new TomeRaider 3.5 Pocket PC Beta

Last summer we released a new version of TomeRaider that had a very innovative new interface. We took out the toolbar and made the scrollbar do all the work. In terms of design ergonomics is was state, but, it seems, that people didn't like the way it looked so bland. And you know, with hindsight, they are right.

So we went back to the drawing screen and now are happy to announce the all new redesigned TomeRaider 3.5, available first for Pocket PC and WM5.


Really we should call this TomeRaider 4 but we like the TR3 icon too much and don’t want to confuse by naming, or not naming, .tr3 files to .tr4 files.

With TomeRaider 3.5 we have simplified the interface at the front and made good use of Drop up menus and scroll lists – in this version you should never need to leave the page view.

What’s new:

• Total Interface rewrite. We have come up with what we think is the close to perfect interface for big file browsing. It still works great on smaller ebooks but on the 1.3 million entry Wikipedia or the IMDB TR3 file it really shines.
• Aesthetic Improvements. The last version worked well but nobody liked it stark UI. We are back to pretty with 3.5.
• In page index list. This is a huge advance. No more zipping back between page view and index view. You can now navigate the file from within the page using the pop up index list.
• Elastic Scroll bar. This is like in Picassia, it works really well on large files. There is no point having a traditional scroll bar when you have a million plus entries because one pixel equates to tens of thousands of entries.
• In page find. Sadly missing from the last versions you can now jump to any page just by typing the name. This was in version 1 and 2 of TomeRaider and its reintroduction changes the app quite significantly.
• Much better ergonomics. Try it, you will see what we mean.
• In page history view. Like the in page index list ect.

You can download the TomeRaider 3.5 beta from here or the non beta older uglier and less cool version from www.tomeraider.com

Introducing the new Wikipedia TomeRaider file.

Hooray!

We have just finished the first cut of the new Wikipedia TR3 file and it really rocks. A few years ago Eric Zachte converted the entire Wikipedia text to TR2 and then to TR3. You can still download or get on CD the files from Eriks website (see below).

But as the wiki grows it becomes more and more cumbersome to handle and the returns of relevance diminish with this growth, it is also now over that SD important 1 gigabyte mark. So, last month we made a decision which is to supply regular cuts of the full Wikipedia text but only the introductory paragraph and then a link to the online article for those who want to read.

It works really well:

• The files is less than 250 megs so it will fit on most SD cards.
• It is super fast to browse and index search, even with 1.3+ million entries.

There are some text errors in the file, and to be honest there probably always will be – that’s a drawback of a content source written by so many people. But we will be doing regular updates and constantly removing glitches ion the text. If you find and “significant repeaters” then drop us an email at the Yadabyte support address.

We currently have these cuts of the Wikipedia data, all available for immediate download:

1. Wikipedia (226 MB) - This is the new file which holds the first paragraph of the articles, all 1.3+ million of them. For most people this will be the most useful. (File Version 01)
   
2. Wikipedia Complete (1.1 GB +) - various cuts made by Erik Zachte. Its, contains the full wikipedia with full articiles
   
3. Wikipedia Compact (49MB) - For this one we took a number of indexes from various encylopedia sources, merged them and then compared against the wikipedia. Close to a traditional encyclopedia in terms of scope.

Download TomeRaider for Pocket PC, palm OS, WM5, Windows etc at www.tomeraider.com
Email support issues to support at www.yadabyte.com.

Thanks:)

The Forthcoming Wikipedia TomeRaider File

To accompany TomeRaider 3.5 we are going to release a new cut of the Wikipedia as a TomeRaider file.

The Problem With The Wikipedia from a Portable Point of View

When Erik Zachte first spent month converting the Wikipedia to TomeRaider format a few years back the Wiki was a huge but manageable beast. But in that time its grown exponentially both in terms of articles and individual article content. It’s a wonderful thing, but its pretty cumbersome, even when powered by the TR engine.

We did do some various reduced size versions but when your dealing with 1.3 million articles and you want to cut that down there is no clear point at which to “yay or nay” any given data.

What our research found for the vast majority of Wikipedia uses is that most “day to day” uses of the Wikipeda involve that first paragraph, the abstract that every article has. The bit that sums up the article in a nut shell. The new TomeRadier wiki uses just this initial summary with a link to the full article online.

It is hard to express just how blindingly fast and cool this is. All 1.3 million entries in your pocket and, in the new TR 3.5 interface, browsing is close to addictive.

The new TomeRaider Wikipedia will be released within days and comes in at a super compressed 270 Megs.

A New TomeRaider PPC Is Imminent

We started this blog a few weeks ago because there were imminent changes afoot that we thought might be cool to put down in a public blog. As always in software development things take about 3.8 times longer than expected, but, those imminent changes are getting their shoes and socks on and will soon be afoot.

The first thing we are going to do is release TomeRaider Pocket PC 3.5 at some point this week.

What’s going to be new in TR PPC 3.5?

The last version of TR on the PPC had a new kind of handheld interface that prized screen real estate over the aesthetic. It didn’t look very in interesting because it was just a “smart” scrollbar. I really liked it, some of us didn’t and the general consensus from the users was a thumbs down. In fact it was so badly received that the editor of Pocket PC Mag refused to publish a review that a PPCM journalist had written essentially on the grounds that the screen grabs would look bland in the mag.

So we went back to basic and came up with what we now feel is a close to perfect compromise. The new UI is very simple, focussing the use on browsing rather than the sundry features like bookmarks, categories and the like.

It makes good use of “drop up” menus, which on the small screen size of a PDA or Smartphone are very useful features. You can have the core feature, say Index find, on the tool bar prime and then the features that are related but less used in the drop up, such as Full text search.

Stay tuned….