New Literati 2.0 Firmware Update Adds Many Features

On January 19, 2011, Sharper Image released the 2.0 firmware upgrade for the Literati. This upgrade adds quite a few new features that are both useful and convenient. The added features are the ability to make multiple bookmarks in an eBook, delete books directly from your library, and annotation. The following will describe how to use each feature in more detail.

Multiple bookmarks are a great feature, especially if you want to review an element of a book at a later time. To place a bookmark, press the "Menu" button on the Literati and select "Add Bookmark." You will know that the action was successful when the page has been "dog eared." To review and revisit your bookmarks, press the "menu" button again, and select "Bookmarks." Each bookmark will be shown, indicating the approximate location in the eBook, as well as the date and time it was created.

To delete eBooks from the Literati, navigate to the "Library" tab and find the book you wish to delete. Once it is highlighted, press the "Menu" button and select "Delete This Book." This is a nice feature, as you can remove books once you are done with them, making your Literati's library less cluttered.

While an annotation feature has been added to the Literati as well, it doesn't work with all books, only those downloaded from the Kobo store as far as I can tell. To add an annotation, press the "Menu" button while reading an eBook, and select "Annotate." You will then select the text you wish to highlight with the directional buttons, then click the center button. Now you can type your annotation.

The main feature the Literati still needs, and I can't believe it wasn't included in this firmware release, is a "jump to page" option, where you can type in a page number and automatically go there. The keyboard on this device is drastically underused, and this feature should be more than easy for the designers to implement. We can only hope that they are still developing for this device, but due to the drastic price reductions, I highly doubt it.

*Notes on Updating

Prior to updating, I recommend that you backup all eBooks and anything else stored on the internal memory card of the Literati and remove the SD card. Then connect to your WiFi connection and the device will begin the update process automatically. Once the update is completed, perform a factory reset as well, to ensure that all settings are cleared. This has been needed by many to ensure the proper operation of their Literati, so it is best to do it from the start. Once the update is complete, copy everything back onto your Literati and reinsert your SD card if you have one. Keep in mind that this process will delete all of your bookmarks, so you may want to wait until you are finished with whatever you are reading.

For those of you without a home WiFi connect, you can perform this update manually. First, you will need to download the Literati 2.0 firmware file by clicking HERE. Now, ensure that hidden files and folder are visible on your computer by cliking on "computer" or "My Computer," depending on your version of Windows, then press the "alt" button on your keyboard and select "Tools" at the top of the window, and click on "Folder Options." Select the "View" tab and ensure that "Show hidden files, folders, and drives" is selected. Now, plug your Literati into your computer using the mini-USB cable and copy the downloaded firmware file to the ".kobo" directory on your Literati. Once done, eject or "safely remove" the Literati from your computer and turn it off. Wait about 30 seconds, then turn the Literati back on. It may take up to 10 minutes for the update to complete.