Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 1.9.12

[IxiaAurea]

Hm, not liking how 'definition' is moved further up after selecting a word in a book. It 's position should be switched with 'search in book' as I think definition would be used more often?

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by Xennex1170

taming
JD Gumby
register512

What class is the microSDHC card you are using?

Not a clue. Cheapo NexxTech (The Source/Radio Shack store brand) 4GB micro SDHC. (though bought in-store)

[novou]

Thanks for the new update! I'm happy that the 'back to page 1' bug is fixed. I noticed a regression however. In the shortlist and book-list each shortlisted book has both add & remove from shortlist options. Inside the book the wrench menu appears fine.
The 'Mark as Finished' option appears for finished books too, but I'm not sure if that bug is new in .12.

Aside: I know the browser isn't supported, but since archive.org was mentioned in the changelog a while back I figured I'd mention that with .11 & .12 (the only ones I tested) epub downloads from Archive.org didn't work. Judging by router activity, it downloads but no dialog box appears. (PDF downloads work fine)
Demo link: http://www.archive.org/details/satch...feinn001956mbp
Instapaper's epub feature displays a seemingly identical issue.
(Of course, after I write this I realize the changelog mention may just've been about sideloading compatibility. Oops.)

Originally Posted by IxiaAurea

Hm, not liking how 'definition' is moved further up after selecting a word in a book. It's position should be switched with 'search in book' as I think definition would be used more often?

I understand your point, less finger travel etc. I think they're putting the most used at the top: define/translate/ToC/search. (If that's the goal I'd place ToC last, since it's most general)
Edit: After a bit of reading, I agree with your suggestion. My ideal order is now: (from the top) ToC, search, translate, define.

My dream UI is the "Book" menu launching as a context menu next to the word after selection. (But that would interfere with text selection in Kepubs.. so it's not optimal)

Is it just me or is the keyboard a smidgen snappier?
PS: The browser's top bar no longer says Kobo Web Browser...

[JD Gumby]

There. Tried updating again and it went to 1.9.12. Seems to work properly, though it's a shame about Kobo's insistance on making features exclusively for their own kepubs rather than for all supported ebook formats.

1) 24h time format and time zone setting are fixed.
2) Reading life cut off screen is fixed.

Thank you

3) The translation of "Release Note" to German is completely wrong. It was translated in the sense of "write a note", but not "note concerning this software release" as would be correct. So, for German, instead of "Notizen verfassen" there should be "Versionshinweis" or "Versionshinweise".

P.S.: I'm just wondering if I am dumb or something... doing other people's work for free

[novou]

Update: A patch for this issue is currently being tested.

Adding myself to Xennex's list:

Not affected by "2 page auto-close problem" with .11, .12
Xennex1170 - SanDisk, Class 4, 8GB µSDHC
taming - Lexar, Class 2, 4GB µSD
JD Gumby - generic, 4GB
novou - generic (Nokia), ?? - it's cheap, 2GB µSD
markemark Transcend, Class 4, 16GB µSDHC, TS16GUSDHC4
Psyke - San Disk, ??, 2GB µSD
SF&F Reader - Kingston, Class 4, 4GB µSDHC
moorejl57 - generic, ??, 512MB µSD
The Terminator - Sandisk, ??, 8GB µSDHC

"2 page auto-close problem" with .11, .12
register512 - Patriot Memory, Class 10, 16GB µSDHC #PSF16GMCSDHC10
markemark - Transcend, Class 6, 8GB µSDHC, #TS8GUSDHC6
viduliya - 3x PNY, Class 4, 2GB µSD
p_a_smith - Dane Elec, ??, 2GB µSD
viktor_haag - Adata, Class 10, 8GB µSDHC
moorejl57 - generic (Borders), ??, 4GB µSD
Tangent - Lexar, ??, 4GB µSDHC

Wild fantastical conjecture: Some cards need more current to run. (?) (sometimes due to more speed & capacity?)
If they're under-supplied they screw up/reset
(a reset looks like an eject & insert, which triggers a home-screen return. RE: markemark, that return is by design AFAICT)
Perhaps .11 reduced the current serving the µSD card & controller?
(maybe indirectly, through more intensive processes, eg: better page layout algos)

Can someone with this issue pan around on a webpage (or do something else to draw current) and see if it occurs?

Full disclosure: I have no experience with embedded systems or electrical eng., I just mess with computers.

Even more insane: What if the Kobo is caching µSD epubs in ram/onboard flash and then putting the card & controller to sleep to save power? (issue: not enough sleep current supplied to keep stability)
Viduliya's post seems to support the sleep hypothesis, their cards only display the issue if you wait 1min.+ (sleep timeout?) between page turns. Though if the card wakes up every page turn, it means they aren't caching the data from the card.

tl;dr FJames summarized this better than me.

[markemark]

I remembered I had another sd card in my mp3 player. So I took that sd card out of my mp3 player, erased it, and put some epubs on it (including the ones I linked to here). Inserted it into my KT with .12 and had no issues with it in. So I'm adding this card to the "good" pile:
Transcend 16GB Micro SDHC (class 4) TS16GUSDHC4

[illiterate]

Originally Posted by markemark

I noticed another problem with .12. I set my KT to go to sleep after 15 minutes. After 15 minutes, my KT does go to sleep but then it immediately wakes back up. Another minute later, it does the same thing. Then it freezes

Hello, markemark. Do you also have SD card problem? The last time I tried .11, I have SD card issue and encountered a similar problem like you mentioned. My theory was Linux (Kobo's OS) somehow unmounted the SD card, and when it go into sleep it detects the SD card again, think it was newly inserted so it wake up trying to process it... and when the same happen again, KT just freeze... but that's just my theory.... I haven't tried .12 and I will stay on .10 until Kobo get to the bottom of this.

[markemark]

Originally Posted by illiterate

Hello, markemark. Do you also have SD card problem? The last time I tried .11, I have SD card issue and encountered a similar problem like you mentioned.

The two may indeed be related. I have my "good" sd card in with .12 and it just went to sleep without issue.

[ekster]

Out of curiosity, those who have trouble with the sd cards, have you tried reformatting it or checking it for bad sectors? Maybe there's such a couple of bad spots on the card itself that's screwing it up.

[viduliya]

Hi,

MicroSD card problems for me too. We have two Kobo Touch readers at our home and both readers are updated to the newest 1.9.12 firmware and the returning to home screen on page turns on reading any epub or kepub still happens on both devices.

I already did reset one device and went through a full update process and even reformatted my one of my SD cards and loaded the books on it to to have no luck resolving this issue.

My cards are cheap PNY cards which I got from amazon last week.

http://www.amazon.com/PNY-MicroSD-Cl...8597298&sr=8-1

I have three of these "PNY 2GB Class 4" MicroSD cards and all cards will cause the same problem.

All you need to do in-order to reproduce the problem on either device is:

1. Inert a MicroSD card in the device.

2. Open a book on the MicroSD card or on the device internal storage. (kepub or epub).

3. Wait approximately 1 minute. ** The delay is important, otherwise the pages will turn as long as you keep tapping next page or previous page.

4. Tap next page and the book closes and brings me back to the home screen. Every time on both devices at my home.

I have smaller than default font size and line spacing on my setup. My slow and dyslexic reading requires at least a minute to read the page. I can not read and turn even one page without being kicked out to the home screen.

If I read a book that is on the SD card, it is even worse. Sometimes all the books on the SD card disappears from the device. I have to unplug and re-plug in the SD card to see the books again. It is horrible. I am thinking of downgrading one device to 1.9.10 to see if I can survive with it and still use the books on my SD cards.

On another note, does anyone else find having to go through a menu to access the dictionary annoying? I may be just the lazy type who dislike extra tapping. I liked the way you could simply tap a single button and access the dictionary on 1.9.9 and earlier firmware, prior to the introduction of the translation feature. Just a thought: if we must go through a single menu every time to do something to a selected word why have the menu closed once the word is selected. It would make much more sense to have the menu kept open.

I still love this device. The feel and clarity of this unit is very nice. That is why we have two in our home. Hopefully this really crippling SD card problem will be fixed soon.

[Psyke]

I just tried with a generic SanDisk 2GB SD card I had lying around. Had no problems with it, and that's reading a chapter, putting it down for 10 minutes, and coming back..it was a short 4 chapter book and was able to get through it no problems.

I hadn't used an SD card since I think 1.9.9 mainly because I found access to be slow, and not to mention that I had more than enough room on the device itself for the number of books I had; this has been improved it seems since then as I can open a pretty huge 3 book collection with very little delay. Now, I had been using a 4GB generic SanDisk before when I had the slowness issues, but I can't find it, so I can't really compare the same setup I had then.

[therealjoeblow]

Originally Posted by Xennex1170

I believe they only work with kepubs right now..

Well, that's misleading in the "What's New" notice - what's the point in advertising great new features that people have been asking for without them actually working in the formats people want them to work in??? Kobo devs just don't seem to get it :-(

[JedV]

Originally Posted by therealjoeblow

Well, that's misleading in the "What's New" notice - what's the point in advertising great new features that people have been asking for without them actually working in the formats people want them to work in??? Kobo devs just don't seem to get it :-(

Selling an e-reader = One time transaction. Selling content = The real income for Kobo.

They do get it. If you really want all the bells and whistles, you have to pay for it.

[FJames]

Just to support the theory that the brand and model of microSD card might be part of the problem, I have some other devices that play well with some of my microSD cards and not others. I can use a given card just fine in one device, but it constantly causes problems in another (nothing to do with the speed or the format). Perhaps the microSD card spec was a little too loose - or maybe some of the rock-bottom-price suppliers have cut corners.