Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 2.0

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by frankieGom

Because Kobo wanted more control, or more predicability, on the rendering of books they sold? Or maybe add a mechanism to protect the included intellectual property? In any case, what we know is that the formats are somewhat different and the FW uses a separate renderer for each.

François

I think you will find it is because the Adobe Reader software was not available for Kobo to implement on all platforms, so they developed their own format / rendering solution / DRM solution that they could implement on whatever platform they wanted; ie iSomething / Android / Mobile Phone / Web Interface / Blackberry; and yes, the format is based very closely on the ePub standard.

[clsdclsd]

Originally Posted by frankieGom

Because Kobo wanted more control, or more predicability, on the rendering of books they sold? Or maybe add a mechanism to protect the included intellectual property? In any case, what we know is that the formats are somewhat different and the FW uses a separate renderer for each.

François

I still think they could use the same renderer, but develop (and test) a "home-standard" epub structure which is always rendered perfectly. The protection of their intellectual property is based on their DRM-system - as far as I know it is unbroken (not like Adobe's), so it works.

[clsdclsd]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I think you will find it is because the Adobe Reader software was not available for Kobo to implement on all platforms, so they developed their own format / rendering solution / DRM solution that they could implement on whatever platform they wanted; ie iSomething / Android / Mobile Phone / Web Interface / Blackberry; and yes, the format is based very closely on the ePub standard.

Does a different DRM system require totally different rendering mechanism? If yes, that explains everything, but i doubt it.

[clsdclsd]

(I think they use their own DRM only because of the high price of the Adobe's)

[Urdu]

I've installed the new desktop software and after sync with my Touch is completed it stops. There is no option to download the new 2.0 firmware. Is the firmware only available in certain countries or am I doing something stupid over here..?

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by clsdclsd

I still think they could use the same renderer, but develop (and test) a "home-standard" epub structure which is always rendered perfectly. The protection of their intellectual property is based on their DRM-system - as far as I know it is unbroken (not like Adobe's), so it works.

They could but it's a question of how you get there from here.

In particular it's about the existing kepub titles. You'd want to convert all of those. If it's a purely automatic process it'd still take a lot of computer time, which is cheap but not free. But you'd hope they'd have some manual checking which would be labour intensive and not cheap.

Then you have all the existing kepub titles in people's libraries. Do you replace their copies in the cloud? Force them to re-download? What about files already on devices or sd cards or in calibre libraries? For that reason even if you phase out kepub as a format going forward you'd want to keep it for existing customers. You don't want them installing an update and finding they can't read half their books without re-downloading them all.

And by "existing customers" I really mean current devices. If they drop support for kepub I'd expect them to do it in a new device. Then any associated costs can be part of the development budget of that device rather than a support cost of the current ones. And you don't piss off existing users. (as much as you would)

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by latepaul

And you don't piss off existing users. (as much as you would)

Nah, then people would say, "What? A new format! Those money grubbers just want me to buy all my books again!"

[taming]

Something sorta neat. I made a shelf for one on my favourite authors. i bought the books in the series one at a time. When I chose by date added, this made the list sort the same as a series sort. I suppose this was because, as I said, I bought the series one book at a time in order. Interesting that it reads more than the day, too, as i bought in order, but several books on the same day.

Nifty.

EDIT: It is more properly thought of as adding the books in the series order. This means that if for some reason, I want to have a complete list of books and I no longer had all of them on the device I would have to play with them by deleting them on device and then adding all of the books in to I'm Reading (that whole book marking bit) one at a time in the order I wanted to appear on the reader.

Maybe more work than someone would want for older books, but very kewl as we find new series.

[GvilleBridge]

The problem of having Shortlist coming toward the end of the alpha-sorted list of shelves can be resolved by creating your own list with a name starting with a punctuation mark, like
!Shortlist
That shelf will sort ahead of a-z shelves. Of course, you'll have to manage your own shortlisting as the Kobo will, when it offers you the opportunity of adding to the Shortlist, add to its list, not yours. (Maybe hackfolk can suggest a way of renaming Kobo's Shortlist or making it sort on top?)

BTW in terms of creating shelves, does Everyone know that
--the little up arrow on the keyboard = Shift
--tapping the up arrow twice = Caps Lock
--after which, tapping it once will then default to unshifted

[GvilleBridge]

The keyboard doesn't have either an ampersand or an underline. The first can be spelled out in, eg, a shelf name, but the underline is still necessary in entering URLs in the still-unsupported web browser*.

*If you haven't found it: tap the cogwheel icon / Settings / Extras / Launch Web Browser

[RareBird]

Originally Posted by Urdu

I've installed the new desktop software and after sync with my Touch is completed it stops. There is no option to download the new 2.0 firmware. Is the firmware only available in certain countries or am I doing something stupid over here..?

Try just syncing your Touch over wifi completely disconnected from your pc. I've never updated through the kobo desktop program so I'm unsure of the process.

[RareBird]

Originally Posted by rashkae

Interesting difference. I've only tested with 1 book so far. I'll have to add more and see if I can find a difference. For those reporting improved page trn speeds, is that with an Epub or a Kepub?

In my case it is with 2 kepubs and a sideloded epub in my library. I tested both to make sure it was not a format thing.

[GVC2031]

With much trepidation (leaving on vacation in two weeks), I upgraded to V2.0 last night. All went well and I settled in to continue reading my current library (epub) book.

Two observations:

1- Page turns are a little slower, enough to be a little annoying.

2- Checking into Annotations, I notice that the bookmark set at Chapter 23 is identified as "Bookmark: 5302% into chapter". When in Sleep Mode the screen says 53% Read. Sloppy math, me thinks...

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by taming

Are we actually using the same device?

• The advertising related content used to take up a whole bunch of the screen all of the time in the desktop. You can now avoid it in one click by clicking on library.
  
• What is now the most wonderful thing in the entire world (AKA shortlist) used to be a much maligned part of the dreaded carousel that took up significant screen space on the home page.
  
• People screamed for a wish list. Oh crap we have one now, and you can get to it from the home screen.

Strange. On my desktop, there was the small advertising pane on the right-hand side of the library screen. You didn't need to click to get away from a full page of spam in order to see your books like you have to do now...

It wasn't the shortlist on the screen that people were complaining about - it was it defaulting (and staying there, for some) to advertising (euphemistically called "recommendations").

Dunno why anyone'd want a wishlist, personally, since there isn't any way to publicize it to your friends & family and have them buy it for you... Really, the only use seems to be to give Kobo marketing data.

[Urdu]

Originally Posted by RareBird

Try just syncing your Touch over wifi completely disconnected from your pc. I've never updated through the kobo desktop program so I'm unsure of the process.

Well, after my seventh(!) try my Touch suddenly started updating...!
I'm going to have a look now.