Quote:
Originally Posted by nogle
Why do you assume that:
1. There is only one beta test group, and
2. That beta testers know about each other?
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I don't know how many beta test groups Kobo has. But it isn't enough, judging from the last two releases (1.9.17 and 2.0.0).
And frankly, it doesn't matter, as whatever Kobo is doing with testing isn't working. There is no excuse for two public releases in a row to just not install. Do they even try to install the release package on a physical device from every manufacturing change?
What is different about the Australian hardware batch that makes firmware updates not work on it? Why isn't Kobo specifically testing for this in new firmware releases?
Either the problems we've been having installing the new firmwares on the Touch is hardware related or it is software related. If it is hardware related, then Kobo is obviously not doing the most rudimentary of testing, if one can make the basic assumption that they have physical samples of their manufactured hardware. If the problem is software related, then the same applies.
There is no excuse for a firmware release from a consumer electronics company to brick the device. None.
We have seen that the Kobo firmware is not firmly abstracted from the hardware (in that the particular hardware seems to have a major effect on whether or not the firmware works). We have also seen that Kobo seems to concentrate their testing on the kepub side of the software. Given all of this, if Kobo is using their employees (as someone here claims) to test the new hardware, then there are going to be gaps in the testing. Beta employees will tend to test the Kepub side, as they will be getting cheap (or even free) kepubs to do the testing with. Few of the employees will be using sideloaded books.
Of course, these are all guesses on my part. But you can guess a lot from a company's actions. Then again, Kobo may surprise us and have a release that actually works.