played with new wifi kobo

[R2P2]

Originally Posted by JCKobo

I'd love to give you the final answer, but we are still testing it. We want to deliver the full native ePub experience on the original device, but we also need to make sure a) it performs well (the new Kobo Wireless Reader's CPU is about twice as fast) and b) it has enough RAM (the new Kobo Wireless Reader has twice as much RAM as the original).

Once we're satisfied with the performance, we will push it to everyone as soon as we can. I'm not 100% sure this will be in our next firmware release or the one afterwards, but it's a priority for us.

Not to be a jerk, but the original device seems to perform just fine with ePubs loaded through ADE, graphics and all, so why are you guys having such a hard time with files loaded through your app?

I got hit by the missing graphics in Snow Crash like the user in another thread, and I've been sticking to ADE ever since.

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by R2P2

Not to be a jerk, but the original device seems to perform just fine with ePubs loaded through ADE, graphics and all, so why are you guys having such a hard time with files loaded through your app?

I got hit by the missing graphics in Snow Crash like the user in another thread, and I've been sticking to ADE ever since.

I would have to try it again. But last night opening a kobo book on the original was slightly faster than opening the new epub format on the wifi version. It is possible that the original had some thing cached but it did seem quicker.

However page turn speed on the wifi version is much faster.

Tim

[TheJohnNewton]

Sorry, my question was already answered above.

[timlegge]

Originally Posted by TheJohnNewton

What in world is a Kobo-format book?

In the beginning...

The original kobo (both firmware versions) and the desktop app, store books in a sqlite database on the device. The book structure is stored as rows in one table, the pages/chapters are stored in another table. The pages/chapters are very long encrypted text in one of the database fields. This format did not seem to support images.

When someone refers to kobo format that is what it means.

It would seem to me to be a very inefficient design for some things but was likely necessary in the early stages. Part of the problem is likely due to the file system of the device. A FAT (old windows) file system is noted for corruption and having 100+ megs of data in a file that must maintain integrity is probably problematic.

To further muddy the water. The wifi version contains epubs that are delivered and formatted by kobo. They seem to look different than the epubs that you could download from the kobo store. I have not attempted to look at a downloaded epub yet on the wifi device to see whether it looks similar. However, since these new "kobo formatted epubs" look very similar to the original "kobo format" I suspect that they are slightly different.

So:

Kobo format - books stored as rows in a sqlite database
Epub format - books downloaded from the kobo site and other places
Kobo formatted epubs - possibly formatted differently from the epubs you can download from the kobo store - supported on kobo wifi

It's a little confusing I am afraid.

Tim

[JCKobo]

Originally Posted by R2P2

Not to be a jerk, but the original device seems to perform just fine with ePubs loaded through ADE, graphics and all, so why are you guys having such a hard time with files loaded through your app?

I got hit by the missing graphics in Snow Crash like the user in another thread, and I've been sticking to ADE ever since.

That isn't being a jerk at all, it's a very fair question.

We consider Adobe's renderer to be a Plan B, but there is some baggage that comes along with that, such as limitations on our ability to sync bookmarks across platforms.

Without implementing our own renderer, we can't build all the great features we have on our other platforms (at least not in a way that works with those platforms), and would effectively be the same as every other eReader that uses Adobe's platform.

For some users, Adobe's renderer would be enough, but it won't be enough for Kobo to deliver on our full promise, which is what we are targeting.

[dos]

Originally Posted by JCKobo

That isn't being a jerk at all, it's a very fair question.

We consider Adobe's renderer to be a Plan B, but there is some baggage that comes along with that, such as limitations on our ability to sync bookmarks across platforms.

Without implementing our own renderer, we can't build all the great features we have on our other platforms (at least not in a way that works with those platforms), and would effectively be the same as every other eReader that uses Adobe's platform.

For some users, Adobe's renderer would be enough, but it won't be enough for Kobo to deliver on our full promise, which is what we are targeting.

This is a great answer, I am one of the users who would like to have the whole shebang- syncing across platforms and retaining all the graphics and other niceties you see on an ePub, but also with the covers on loading screens and formatting you would see with the Kobo native format.

It's good to know it's being worked on for owners of the original Kobo. Personally I wouldn't mind some slower loading or another kind of performance hit to have these features, but I understand that you want it to run as smoothly as possible. Right now I'm happy with ePubs. I may just end up getting a Kobo Wifi in the future... but why did you guys have to give up the original color scheme of the device? =( The wifi models all seem drab to me, and should Kobo gain in popularity that blue button could have been iconic!

EDIT: Something I've always wondered and wanted to ask someone at Kobo about is what manga is being shown in this press shot?:



I've searched the Kobo store and Borders store but there really doesn't seem to be much in the way of manga at all. It would be pretty neat if we could start getting manga released on the Kobo store.

[zoran]

Originally Posted by JCKobo

We consider Adobe's renderer to be a Plan B, but there is some baggage that comes along with that, such as limitations on our ability to sync bookmarks across platforms.

I've chosen one way and stayed with it. Mixed synchronization makes
people sleepless during night and I avoid it if possible. I was aware of
"quote" at the very first moment. If someone would ask me, I'd go open
source completely from the very beginning. At this point reader shows
books the way I expect and I cannot complain. Art for art sake, it might
be one way or other. I just wonna stress how kindle upgrades: you turn
wifi on, let server contact you and upgrade, when your turn comes. The
end user has nothing with it, except being online.

[taming]

Per the user guide (pp 67-68), Zoran, updates over Kobo WiFi will be much the same as on the Kindle, although there are mandatory, recommended, and optional updates.

[othar]

Originally Posted by JCKobo

Back to billthereader - thanks for the write up. Two notes:



The option is still there - it's just a one more step away. When in your BOOKS library, press the Menu button, and pick Display. The same option in the 1.4 option is there.

You can also use the delete option to remove these books permanently if you want the space back.
....

hello..
there is just a little problem... if you finished some of the free books (or set them as "finished" just to not have them in the "I'm reading" section), they still appear in your library EVEN if you choose to see only YOUR book...

so, a finished "pre loaded book" is no more a "pre loaded book" for the kobo..

[taming]

Well, it is different from the original Kobo's handling, but I am not sure it would count as a problem for me. When a preloaded book is brought into the I'm Reading section, it would have to be pretty much like any other book on the reader in order to sync across devices. It then behaves like any of the free (or paid) books you have downloaded from the website.

[zoran]

Originally Posted by othar

hello..
there is just a little problem... if you finished some of the free books (or set them as "finished" just to not have them in the "I'm reading" section), they still appear in your library EVEN if you choose to see only YOUR book...

Cannot say for wifi version, but after 1.4 upgrade I had to wait till
next recharge to have it all neat.

[VKVK]

I also had a chance to play with thew new Kobo today at my local Chapters.
Took my old Kobo along for a side-by-side comparison.

Time to power on
Measured from the time the LED lights up as opposed to pressing the button as you have to hold it for a bit. Measured several times with a stopwatch and the result is pretty consistent.
New Kobo - 25s
Old Kobo - 29s

Time to open a book
New Kobo - 5s
Old Kobo - 6s

Page turns
Page turns are noticeably faster, but hard to measure. Definitely not 2.5x faster as advertised. Not even 2x.

Screen
The new screen looks identical to the old Kobo screen, I had the two side by side, under consistent lighting in the store.
Perhaps the 16-level gray scale will display images better, but text looks identical.
The background is still grayish, looks closer to a newsprint than a book. It is not brighter or whiter than the background in original Kobo.


Other
The 5-way controller button is now black instead of blue. Looks worse, IMHO.
The Display button has been replaced by the Shop button, requiring more button presses to reach display preferences menu.
Individual books can now be deleted right from the device.


Conclusions
Time to power on has been decreased by about 16%.
Book load time has been decreased by about 20%.
Page turn time has been decreased.
Price has been increased by about 16% ($128 vs. $149).
Addition of WiFi is, in my opinion, is pretty useless.
The screen looks no better (again, my subjective opinion).

I will not be upgrading.

[taming]

@VKVW The $128 CAD was an already discounted price which was instituted first as a four day holiday special and then permanently shortly before the announcement of the new WiFi Kobos. I paid $149 CAD for mine May 4. Tim said that stores in Canada now have the original for $99 CAD.

If speed and display are the biggies for you, and the improvements in these areas and the other differences between models are not compelling, then I hope you continue to enjoy your older Kobo. It's a great eReader and I don't regret buying mine at all.

Other folks though want to sync across devices, have images available by Kobo sync, get updates automatically, and buy books without connecting to a computer.

To each his or her own.

PS: From following the forum, I get the distinct impression that some original Kobos were much slower to load and turn pages than others. I was lucky enough to have a speedy little devil to begin with, so speed has never been an issue for me. I have though wondered to what extent the kind of content, how it was loaded onto the reader, etc mattered in terms of speed.

[sabredog]

No news yet on the release date for the Ko2 here in Oz.

The Ko1 retails here for AU$179. No price change for current models in the lead up to the new model.

[kathrineLiu]

Boy J wants to buy a set of 15 books for weeks. We've searched many source, and found that the price is only 1/3 or 1/4 for ebooks compared to the stock in stores or internet stores. Therefore, we bought the Kobo wifi. And found it's really cool. Now we plan to download as many as we want.
We found that the function is kind of neat but it takes time to get all figure out.
Guess we will give a try and see if we can read as efficient as expected.