Firmware 2.6.1 Pass or Fail?

[TechniSol]

It's always nice to be asked first, or so I was taught...

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

It's always nice to be asked first, or so I was taught...

I would have to agree with you there. Asking is definitely an option we all want first and foremost.

regards

JAck

[mahal48]

ok I know canadians are closer to Brits than the USA, but, please, what the hellwas kobo thinking with the home screen for 2.6.1 ??? last time i saw anything that bad was in.. well gutter? sewer?
who the hel has approved this this?

[mahal48]

apologies for spelling and grammar, it is post Sunday lunch time here. Just seen my mistypes. Comment stands though.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by mahal48

ok I know canadians are closer to Brits than the USA, but, please, what the hellwas kobo thinking with the home screen for 2.6.1 ??? last time i saw anything that bad was in.. well gutter? sewer?
who the hel has approved this this?

As far as I am concerned, the new home screen is an improvement. I get more tiles so placing a 6 book series on the screen is easy, adding books does not push my current reads off the screen, I can long press most of the tiles and dismiss them. Finished books remain on the screen until they are pushed off by newer tiles or I choose to dismiss them -- again, when reading a series, that makes it a lot easier to refer to an earlier book. I have a little tile for the web browser making it easier to open for a quick look up unless I do so much that it gets pushed off the screen.

I've seen the carousel on an Aura when I was doing some experimenting and left it on 2.4.1 after a factory reset. That interface does not compare to the tiles introduced with 2.5.1 in making my Aura easier to use. My wife seems very happy with the tiled interface on her Glo as well and she is not one who takes easily to interface changes.

Overall, a step forward from the carousel display.

As you have made obvious, your opinion is not the same as mine. Please feel free to express that opinion. However, I'd like to suggest that when you write in this forum, you try to achieve a politer level of writing by leaving out the profanity.

I do wonder why you appear to believe that Canadians are closer to Brits than Americans and what that has to do with interface design?

Regards,
David

[guma]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As far as I am concerned, the new home screen is an improvement. I get more tiles so placing a 6 book series on the screen is easy, adding books does not push my current reads off the screen, I can long press most of the tiles and dismiss them. Finished books remain on the screen until they are pushed off by newer tiles or I choose to dismiss them -- again, when reading a series, that makes it a lot easier to refer to an earlier book. I have a little tile for the web browser making it easier to open for a quick look up unless I do so much that it gets pushed off the screen.

I've seen the carousel on an Aura when I was doing some experimenting and left it on 2.4.1 after a factory reset. That interface does not compare to the tiles introduced with 2.5.1 in making my Aura easier to use. My wife seems very happy with the tiled interface on her Glo as well and she is not one who takes easily to interface changes.

Overall, a step forward from the carousel display.

Functionally the tile interface might well be an improvement over earlier firmware versions. With the addition of some tweaks I can see it offering the possibility to tailor the home screen to each user's individual preferences.

Visually though it leaves a lot to be desired. (The same goes for the new sleep cover display.) With some effort at design a tile based home screen sure could be made to look a lot better. Until this happens I fear there will be no consensus whether an increase in functionality outweighs a decrease in visual appeal. Thus, in general, whether one considers the new home screen an 'overall step forward' depends, IMHO, a lot on which features/functions one uses on the device.

When I bought my KOBO some time ago, one thing that made me choose it was the simple and elegantly designed home screen interface. But with almost every firmware update it lost some of this visual appeal. First by adding all sorts of shop and 'social reading' related GUI elements and now by seemingly foregoing every attempt at visual design whatsoever for the new tile based interface. If I had to describe the new home screen aesthetic in one word I'd call it unmotivated.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by guma

Functionally the tile interface might well be an improvement over earlier firmware versions. With the addition of some tweaks I can see it offering the possibility to tailor the home screen to each user's individual preferences.

Visually though it leaves a lot to be desired. (The same goes for the new sleep cover display.) With some effort at design a tile based home screen sure could be made to look a lot better. Until this happens I fear there will be no consensus whether an increase in functionality outweighs a decrease in visual appeal. Thus, in general, whether one considers the new home screen an 'overall step forward' depends, IMHO, a lot on which features/functions one uses on the device.

When I bought my KOBO some time ago, one thing that made me choose it was the simple and elegantly designed home screen interface. But with almost every firmware update it lost some of this visual appeal. First by adding all sorts of shop and 'social reading' related GUI elements and now by seemingly foregoing every attempt at visual design whatsoever for the new tile based interface. If I had to describe the new home screen aesthetic in one word I'd call it unmotivated.

I'd have to be the first to admit that I often prefer industrial designs over their over-designed cousins. Simple, efficient and even intuitive works for me.

The carousel might be prettier than the tiles. That is about the only "advantage" of the carousel. Functionally, the tiled interface is parsecs ahead.

Moving on to the box on the full screen sleep and power off screens -- unlike some people, I remember the screams of anguish from those who could not tolerate the banner across the top of the sleep and power off screens that often blocked their view of book title and/or author name. I remember some of the comments when I stated that I seldom spent any time looking at the sleep or power off screens so really didn't care what they looked like. One PM suggesting that I was missing a major portion of my cerebral cortex if I didn't grok the enjoyment of having the book cover fully visible on a sleep or power off screen, visible the way it was meant to be seen with nothing blocking the view.

Lastly I can't resist including this video on design:



Regards,
David

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Moving on to the box on the full screen sleep and power off screens -- unlike some people, I remember the screams of anguish from those who could not tolerate the banner across the top of the sleep and power off screens that often blocked their view of book title and/or author name. I remember some of the comments when I stated that I seldom spent any time looking at the sleep or power off screens so really didn't care what they looked like. One PM suggesting that I was missing a major portion of my cerebral cortex if I didn't grok the enjoyment of having the book cover fully visible on a sleep or power off screen, visible the way it was meant to be seen with nothing blocking the view.

I don't spend much time looking at the sleep screen, but I do like to display the covers. And when I pick up my Glo and see that big box, it irks me. It's just wrong. But, I could never understand the hate for the banner. It wasn't pretty, but the status should be displayed. I always thought it was in the wrong place. It should have been against the top or bottom edge of the screen. For most covers, that would have caused the least interference and was a natural spot to look at to check the state.

As to the PM you received, the criticism would put me off, but if they used "grok" correctly, I might have forgiven them.

[Willa]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't spend much time looking at the sleep screen, but I do like to display the covers. And when I pick up my Glo and see that big box, it irks me. It's just wrong.

Can I join you in your 'irking' ?

I like the tiles and how you can play around with them - the only thing I would like added would be a push-pin function to keep chosen tiles in place . .

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Willa

Can I join you in your 'irking' ?

Definitely.

I like the tiles and how you can play around with them - the only thing I would like added would be a push-pin function to keep chosen tiles in place . .

Pinning tiles would be nice. I can already ban them forever if I want to, but, pinning them isn't as easy.

Hmm, actually, that would work, but it wouldn't be practical.

[TechniSol]

Yeah, "Persistent" should be an option when long pressing an icon.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't spend much time looking at the sleep screen, but I do like to display the covers. And when I pick up my Glo and see that big box, it irks me. It's just wrong. But, I could never understand the hate for the banner. It wasn't pretty, but the status should be displayed. I always thought it was in the wrong place. It should have been against the top or bottom edge of the screen. For most covers, that would have caused the least interference and was a natural spot to look at to check the state.

As to the PM you received, the criticism would put me off, but if they used "grok" correctly, I might have forgiven them.

I suspect that "grok" was being used in the sense R.A.H. created it to mean as I did not share his way of thinking about the importance of the sleep and power off screens. And I can forgive another R.A.H. fan quite a bit. OTOH, he was the only author who literally cost me a pint of blood for an autograph.

Regards,
David

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I suspect that "grok" was being used in the sense R.A.H. created it to mean as I did not share his way of thinking about the importance of the sleep and power off screens. And I can forgive another R.A.H. fan quite a bit.

Which is why I am so forgiving of your foibles

OTOH, he was the only author who literally cost me a pint of blood for an autograph.

It does sound like him.

[guma]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't spend much time looking at the sleep screen, but I do like to display the covers. And when I pick up my Glo and see that big box, it irks me. It's just wrong. But, I could never understand the hate for the banner. It wasn't pretty, but the status should be displayed. I always thought it was in the wrong place. It should have been against the top or bottom edge of the screen. For most covers, that would have caused the least interference and was a natural spot to look at to check the state.

Since I don't use a cover the device is lying around most of the time in sleep mode. Thus I can't avoid looking at the sleep screen from time to time. I found the previous banner (in what is called 'full screen cover display' mode) pretty unattractive for a quite a number of books. Personally I find the new box even more distracting and aesthetically offensive.

KOBO should just make the info box overlay for the sleep cover display an option. That cannot be overly complicated to implement and would make all people happy.

[moffattm]

Originally Posted by guma

KOBO should just make the info box overlay for the sleep cover display an option. That cannot be overly complicated to implement and would make all people happy.

Yup, that's another thing that should be an option that defaults to ON but that more advanced users would probably switch to OFF. Making it an option would satisfy everyone, I don't know why Kobo don't make more things optional.