When's the Next Firmware Release???

[viviena]

I've been lurking in the Kindle forums for the past few days, and there's been complaints of crashing, freezing, and rebooting for what seems to be a fair amount of users. Good things to fix quickly. Bill's point about Amazon being a larger company and thus having more resources is also relevant.

[Pookeysgirl]

I totally agree that it's a new company and we need quite a few things fixed so it would take a but longer to get an update. I was just frustrated, I'm better now. I do love my Kobo

[Wet Coast]

I hope that something about the margins is included in the release; there's a lot of wasted real estate on the kobo screen


Ditto: I'm reading a book now that is almost all margins! First time that has happened to me with my Kobo

[hpjrt]

I'm not sure that the margin thing is a firmware problem.

I borrow books from the library ... and some have just about filled the screen ... others have wide margins. Some load quickly ... others load slowly. I know the latter problem is a software/formatting problem that lies at the publisher's door ... not having a separate file for individual chapters etc.

I'm thinking that the margin width is also a software/formatting problem?

Mary

Originally Posted by hpjrt

I'm not sure that the margin thing is a firmware problem.

Yes it is not a firmware problem but the folks who don't care for margins want the firmware to be able to override the CSS margin settings.

Of course there could also be padding specified so that would have to be overridden too.

see: Box Model

[SameerH]

Originally Posted by viviena

I've been lurking in the Kindle forums for the past few days, and there's been complaints of crashing, freezing, and rebooting for what seems to be a fair amount of users. Good things to fix quickly. Bill's point about Amazon being a larger company and thus having more resources is also relevant.

I've heard Amazon has whole buildings/labs dedicated to the Kindle.

A little before we launched we barely had a desk dedicated to the Kobo eReader.

Me and a large part of the Kobo eReader team shared a pod designed to fit 4 people, we fit 6 people in there, plus me with all my boxes of prototypes and beta units, there was barely any room to even put my laptop down much less have a decent work station.

We've come a long way since then, each of us has our own desk now.. although no more pods, it's all open concept.

Re: the firmware update. There is another one coming "soon" and will address a couple of issues that people have.. ah.. voiced concern.. about, but it's primarily to deliver some key new features.

I can't say exactly when though (yet), you know how it is.

[sabredog]

I do hope the power issue is one. Instant power on is a big plus.

[Gordo29]

Excellent, I knew Sameer wouldn't let us down! I'm anxiously awaiting the new firmware.

[SameerH]

Originally Posted by Gordo29

Excellent, I knew Sameer wouldn't let us down! I'm anxiously awaiting the new firmware.

I just post here. There is a lot more people involved in bringing it to you!

[digital_steve]

Originally Posted by hpjrt

I'm not sure that the margin thing is a firmware problem.

I borrow books from the library ... and some have just about filled the screen ... others have wide margins. Some load quickly ... others load slowly. I know the latter problem is a software/formatting problem that lies at the publisher's door ... not having a separate file for individual chapters etc.

I'm thinking that the margin width is also a software/formatting problem?

Mary

A new firmware can deliver a new 'feature' enabling you to dick around with the margins.
I went through the process of stripping DRMs, trying to format and convert books in calibre just to get something that was readable and using most of the space available on the KOBO.
It was time consuming and usually ended badly, as my conversion knowledge is lacking and basically i was going to have to use Sigil as well. So 3 programs just to get a book on the KOBO was taking the piss; i'd like to see the KOBO be able to adjust the margins 'in the box'.
We'll see... eventually.

[zoran]

Originally Posted by digital_steve

A new firmware can deliver a new 'feature' enabling you to dick around with the margins.
I went through the process of stripping DRMs, trying to format and convert books in calibre just to get something that was readable and using most of the space available on the KOBO.
It was time consuming and usually ended badly, as my conversion knowledge is lacking and basically i was going to have to use Sigil as well. So 3 programs just to get a book on the KOBO was taking the piss; i'd like to see the KOBO be able to adjust the margins 'in the box'.
We'll see... eventually.

Who says things in life are easy to handle? In fact, you use right apps
and get correct output. What more one might want?
Just let me stress that css file serves it's role. It make the way you see
the document. It is set in the way you see it. If you want to change that,
you change css file. Kobo cannot read minds. And it should not.

[digital_steve]

Originally Posted by zoran

Who says things in life are easy to handle?

Err... isn't that the whole selling point of ebooks and digital media; ease of use and access?
I can see a whole argument developing over your points, so i won't bother and we can all save the hassle... it's a waste of time arguing with company fanboys/girls on any front (i see the same sort of comments on just about every forum i go to in reference to their particular brand favourite).

In the end, it boils down to the end user... which i am. I want certain things and if they aren't, or cannot, be delivered then i vote with my feet and wallet and go elsewhere. This is true for all products.

by the way, no one should really need to learn to modify CSS or program anything to get a product to utilise its whole screen

[sabredog]

Margins set on some purchased ePUB's are terrible and the Kobo is no orphan with issues displaying poorly formated ebook purchases.

I recently had to fix the margins with two purchased ePUB's. I had to remove DRM before Calibre could sort out the issue.

They actually displayed on my PRS-300 inside the middle third of the screen until margins were fixed.

Even the best ereader in the world cannot cater for badly formatted ebooks that agency 5 publishers foist upon us on a regular basis, expecting us to pay top dollar for such dross.

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by digital_steve

Err... isn't that the whole selling point of ebooks and digital media; ease of use and access?...

by the way, no one should really need to learn to modify CSS or program anything to get a product to utilise its whole screen

I think you need to remember that this is a new product and all software needs exposure to its user community to get the feature set sorted out.

In this case, I get the impression that the Kobo developers have been genuinely surprised at some of the issues that were raised as pain points with actual customers. While I think that was a bit naive of them, I have to give them credit for listening and responding to the concerns that we raised.

Personally, though, I'd prefer that they'd gone with smaller, more frequent firmware upgrade releases.

[JPenguin]

Originally Posted by HamsterRage

Personally, though, I'd prefer that they'd gone with smaller, more frequent firmware upgrade releases.

I think that may have been their development plan but they've either found testing to be much more critical than expected or they've just ended up tagging features/fixes on and it slows the process down. With the first firmware upgrade for example with a new company it's quite possible that the dev and QA teams weren't experienced with dealing with firmware as opposed to software.

I wish the first firmware update had come quicker, I found several of the issues fixed then to be real show-stoppers while now I'm still relatively satisfied with the reading experience. Plenty of room for improvement but I can wait.