Touch Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread

[PeterT]

@Jam29: Are you using calibre? If so, look at the topics there on metadata plugboards

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by jam29

I really, really want to be able to see what series my books are in and what number in the series they are!

Me too!

Originally Posted by PeterT

@Jam29: Are you using calibre? If so, look at the topics there on metadata plugboards

Yes, but, that gives the reader hassle. I think Kobo should have it built into its books already so I don't have to go through Calibre. I found an interesting looking series the other day and I looked up one of the titles on Kobobooks.com... and four other books with similar titles came up. So, part of the series then? In what order? Which should I buy first? I have no idea. I had to go through goodreads.com or amazon to find out where to start, and there I saw the five books were from two different series. Stupid to have to use another site, I might as well buy my books somewhere else, especially if I have to go through Calibre anyway.

[Mrs_Often]

Kobo, please please please implement the possibility to switch page number per chapter to page number per book total of pages. I realised I am NOT using kepub books just because they don't tell me how far into the book I am and how far I have left to go. (50% done just doesn't cover it, there's a huge difference for a book of 100 pages compared to one of 500 pages if you're 50% done.)

This nuisance, together with not being able to see series structure in kobobooks.com and the HORRIBLE HORRIBLE drama of not being allowed to browse English books from a foreign IP address (seriously, bugger off with the Dutch in my face! I don't want to already have to know what title I'm interested in, I want to look around and find out!)... where was I, right, all this mess causes me to not buy books from Kobo. Which also means whatever books I read from wherever I buy them, I cannot use the bookmark syncing functionality from one device to another. Put together, I think I might just actually need a different device.

[stewacide]

I'll echo not liking the way Kepubs are numbered. I can't remember ever much caring how far I am through a chapter: I'd rather Epub type book totals.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by stewacide

I'll echo not liking the way Kepubs are numbered. I can't remember ever much caring how far I am through a chapter: I'd rather Epub type book totals.

I like the pages per chapter because they are actual page turns (unlike ePubs).

An additional information on how the total book pages would be nice, though (but I don't know if that would be possible)...

[Brainfrz]

I've recently got the kobo touch, and i'm really content with it Though i have 2 suggestions/requests:

- The option to show exactly how many pages are left in the chapter. I often find myself browsing forward and back to find how many pages are left, to see if i can continue reading, or have to stop halfway through the chapter

Not really necesary, but it think this takes off the rought edge:
- On the option screen when browsing an e-book there's this "progressbar" that shows chapters and how much you've read so far. As you read more, the bar becomes completely black, covering the chapter markers. It would be nice if the chapter markers would be a couple of pixels lower, so you could still see them if you've read past them, or maybe the bar could be made a bit less opaque to still show the chapter markers through.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Brainfrz

I've recently got the kobo touch, and i'm really content with it Though i have 2 suggestions/requests:

- The option to show exactly how many pages are left in the chapter. I often find myself browsing forward and back to find how many pages are left, to see if i can continue reading, or have to stop halfway through the chapter

This is already the case for kepubs (books you buy from Kobo). They show page numbers per chapter, so at the bottom of the screen you'd see: Chapter 3: page 24 of 26. So you know you can keep reading to the end of the chapter before you go to sleep

The downside of this is that you won't be able to see how many pages the book itself has in total, so you won't know how many pages left to the end of the book.

Not really necesary, but it think this takes off the rought edge:
- On the option screen when browsing an e-book there's this "progressbar" that shows chapters and how much you've read so far. As you read more, the bar becomes completely black, covering the chapter markers. It would be nice if the chapter markers would be a couple of pixels lower, so you could still see them if you've read past them, or maybe the bar could be made a bit less opaque to still show the chapter markers through.

Oh, nice idea. Or maybe make the chapter markers 'white' when the black progress bar covers them...

[stewacide]

Originally Posted by Jaden

I like the pages per chapter because they are actual page turns (unlike ePubs).

An additional information on how the total book pages would be nice, though (but I don't know if that would be possible)...

I'd imagine calculating the page turns remaining for a whole book would be extremely computationally expensive. They can only 'afford' to do it for a single chapter.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by stewacide

I'd imagine calculating the page turns remaining for a whole book would be extremely computationally expensive. They can only 'afford' to do it for a single chapter.

That's what I thought... I'm quite okay with the progress bar and pages per chapter, since I normally know roughly how many pages my book has - or don't really care.

[Brainfrz]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

This is already the case for kepubs (books you buy from Kobo). They show page numbers per chapter, so at the bottom of the screen you'd see: Chapter 3: page 24 of 26. So you know you can keep reading to the end of the chapter before you go to sleep

Unfortunately, i'm not using kepubs (yet). I would really like that option for normal epubs

The downside of this is that you won't be able to see how many pages the book itself has in total, so you won't know how many pages left to the end of the book.

Before i start a book, i quite know how many pages there are in it

Oh, nice idea. Or maybe make the chapter markers 'white' when the black progress bar covers them...

i'm affraid that wouldn't really work when you are "on" a chapter marker. That way, the chapter marker would disappear, and the bar would be 1 pixel too short, and again you wouldn't be able to see the marker

[jfca283]

Linux support via calibre. Really annoying managing kobo under linux.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jfca283

Linux support via calibre. Really annoying managing kobo under linux.

I though calibre could already talk to Kobo ereaders under linux. What is wrong that it doesn't?

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by Brainfrz

i'm affraid that wouldn't really work when you are "on" a chapter marker. That way, the chapter marker would disappear, and the bar would be 1 pixel too short, and again you wouldn't be able to see the marker

Not if you just color those white that you have already passed. Chapter marker you're on stays black, all the others turn white.

[Brainfrz]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Not if you just color those white that you have already passed. Chapter marker you're on stays black, all the others turn white.

in that case you wouldn't be able to distinguish being right in front of the chapter marker, or on it.

I can really be a nitpicker

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Brainfrz

in that case you wouldn't be able to distinguish being right in front of the chapter marker, or on it.

I can really be a nitpicker

Me too

If you make the marker thin enough to be able to distinguish "in front", "right on" and "just over", you won't be able to see the difference between either of those three if you have the progress bar lower and the markers higher like you suggest, as you won't be able to see exactly how it is aligned.

In fact, you can't see exactly if you're just in front or on it the way it is now either. But, magically, you CAN see that right on the page of your book... if you see no chapter change, you'll be right in front of and not on it

If you'd have the marker turn white as soon as the progress bar reaches it, but have the marker only half the vertical height of the progress bar, you'd see the bottom of the progress bar all the way to the side of the marker, and the top bit of the progress bar would be coloured white (ie. the marker)... so you would be able to distinguish if you're on it or not (even if you can't see your book's page for some odd reason)...