Kobo Firmware 2.6.1

[Danger]

My first thought on that "Sleeping" square was... SERIOUSLY? I actually find myself wanting to try this firmware but what was somebody thinking when they redesigned how it shows the Kobo sleeping? I actually preferred the banner although I would rather it at the bottom than the top but it's not a big thing. This is just ugly.

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

If that is your number 1 and only important priority, keep 2.5.1. I opened other books and all seem to have more space than in 2.5.1, but less than 2.5.2. I even changed the margins to see if they had just made the margins equal all 4 sides, but it only changes the side margins, as before.

Thank you, Uschiekid. I'm just trying to hang on to as much text as possible.

[guma]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Or better yet, give us an option to completely turn off their sleep banner or box or whatever they think up next for it so we just see the book cover only. I already posted how ugly I think it is.

That box on the 'full screen' sleep cover looks terribly ugly indeed. (And the banner already was not exactly aesthetically pleasing.)

What's the purpose of indicating sleep mode in such a crude way? A cover is displayed while looking at the first page of a book that includes a cover or in sleep mode. Do they really worry about users confusing these two states? The old banner at least had the % read info, the new one is just a useless, awkwardly dimensioned and awkwardly placed box.

The new home screen too seems to be a step backwards from an design point of view. But it might well be more ergonomic than the old GUI in some use cases.

One wonders what motivates KOBO to implement such - arguably pointless - design changes when they could make use of their resources to implement some useful features and/or fix known bugs instead ...

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by guma

That box on the 'full screen' sleep cover looks terribly ugly indeed. (And the banner already was not exactly aesthetically pleasing.)

What's the purpose of indicating sleep mode in such a crude way? A cover is displayed while looking at the first page of a book that includes a cover or in sleep mode. Do they really worry about users confusing these two states? The old banner at least had the % read info, the new one is just a useless, awkwardly dimensioned and awkwardly placed box.

The "box" does display the % read info.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by guma

That box on the 'full screen' sleep cover looks terribly ugly indeed. (And the banner already was not exactly aesthetically pleasing.)

What's the purpose of indicating sleep mode in such a crude way? A cover is displayed while looking at the first page of a book that includes a cover or in sleep mode. Do they really worry about users confusing these two states? The old banner at least had the % read info, the new one is just a useless, awkwardly dimensioned and awkwardly placed box.

The new home screen too seems to be a step backwards from an design point of view. But it might well be more ergonomic than the old GUI in some use cases.

One wonders what motivates KOBO to implement such - arguably pointless - design changes when they could make use of their resources to implement some useful features and/or fix known bugs instead ...

Out of curiosity, have you ever handled an Aura in sleep mode with the covers set to full screen? The only way to get a book cover without a % read is to not have selected a book to open.

In the real world, after you have selected a book to read, the box on the screen which, in my opinion, seems to be set so it will miss the majority of book titles and author's names, does display the % read and, if the reader is connected to a power source, the battery %. In light of your criticism above, this suggests that you have not seen a sleeping Aura with a book cover displayed in full screen mode. If you don't use the full screen mode, you get sleeping and, if connected, the battery % above the book cover and the % read below it. Powering off the Aura changes the background for the box in full screen mode otherwise the portion of the screen around the book cover to black making it very easy to determine which state it is in.

As for the new GUI, it is a definite step forward. You get more information displayed compared to the carousel, adding 5 new books doesn't push all your current books (in progress and finished) off the screen and most of the tiles are dismissable. I'm not that impressed being able to go to a location in the library by inputting a page number since I use search to locate books but some people have indicated a liking for that option. I like seeing a single tile that says I added 7 books which I can use to open the library in recent mode without having to open the library and switching to recent mode every time just to find the book I was reading when I decided to add some new books.

As for worrying about the user confusing the states? Yes, it's a valid worry. Most the ebooks I buy open on the cover. If there is no indication as to which mode it is in, how do I visually determine whether my Aura is waiting for me to tap the screen, sleeping or powered off? If I put it to sleep, how can I be certain that it is sleeping and not powered off or still waiting for me to tap the screen?

Regards,
David

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by guma

That box on the 'full screen' sleep cover looks terribly ugly indeed. (And the banner already was not exactly aesthetically pleasing.)

What's the purpose of indicating sleep mode in such a crude way? A cover is displayed while looking at the first page of a book that includes a cover or in sleep mode. Do they really worry about users confusing these two states? The old banner at least had the % read info, the new one is just a useless, awkwardly dimensioned and awkwardly placed box.

The new home screen too seems to be a step backwards from an design point of view. But it might well be more ergonomic than the old GUI in some use cases.

One wonders what motivates KOBO to implement such - arguably pointless - design changes when they could make use of their resources to implement some useful features and/or fix known bugs instead ...

i think it is to show whether the device is powered off or in sleep mode, i mean which of these two states. one could argue that the default could be sleep mode and that only powered off would state that, but then the people who always power off mightnt be pleased. not to mention all the people out there who would be calling support saying "my kobo is broken, I can't turn the pages...I keep trying but nothing happens!!" In other words, they have to have something showing it's asleep or the less endowed (brain-wise) would be confused.

And as skydog has pointed out, the box does show the %.

[PeterT]

I apologize in that the pictures I took included a book on the cover I had not even opened. Yes; the square box does show the % read (as does the text at the top if you're not in full-screen mode).

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

i think it is to show whether the device is powered off or in sleep mode, i mean which of these two states.
...

The simple solution is when the device is powered off, it displays just a blank screen. The only readers that ever get to the power-off state are my extra 5 Sony 350s, since I only use 1 or 2 at the most, and that's how they function which is very nice to know the difference between sleep or full off.

[DNSB]

For what its worth, the links to the 2.6.1 firmware files have been posted in the Direct Links to Kobo Firmware thread in the Kobo Developer's Corner.

Regards,
David

[filmo]

I must be 3 times mentally deficient to buy 3 Kobo readers.

Maybe buying 3 T1 readers compensates?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is the wasted menu space at the bottom of the screen gone as well?

What wasted menu space? When I long press to do a dictionary lookup on a word on the last couple of lines of the screen, I find rather nice that the text is not covered by the menu. Admittedly, with my preferred font size, line height, margins, etc. I only get 30 text lines per page but it could be worse. Heck, if there is more than 1 paragraph per page, I loose a fraction of a line to the space between the paragraphs -- a space that I inserted in the stylesheet.

BTW, the space at the top of the page is ~2mm wider than with 2.5.1. Oh, the horror of it all! Civilization as we know it is about to vanish into chaos!

Regards,
David

[Danger]

Originally Posted by filmo

I must be 3 times mentally deficient to buy 3 Kobo readers.

Maybe buying 3 T1 readers compensates?

Got you beat. Bought a Kobo Wifi, cracked the screen after 1 month, bought another, was very hard to find one as it was around christmas time, then bought a Touch when they came out, passed the Kobo Wifi to the wife, then bought a Glo, passed the Touch to the wife, dropped my Glo after about 3 months and broke the screen and had to buy another Glo. Thankfully they had them at Costco with Sleep cover for $129.99. That's 5 Kobos in about a two year period.

[mr_nihilism]

Originally Posted by DNSB

BTW, the space at the top of the page is ~2mm wider than with 2.5.1. Oh, the horror of it all! Civilization as we know it is about to vanish into chaos!

Regards,
David

You're telling me that space wastage has actually increased? Well that just totally makes perfect sense.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It was answer buy a guess. Not actual information. That's why I'm asking again.

Thanks for that. Now if Kobo wants to sell another Aura, all they have to do is get rid of the wasted bottom space and I'll buy.

Yawn. That statement of yours is getting rather boring. Kobo has had that reserved space at the bottom of the screen since the original Kobo. It now serves the purpose of allowing me to bring up the menu bar without having it cover two lines of text. You may not agree with the need to do so. An opinion to which you are entitled. On the other hand, my opinion is that you are a one-trick pony and that trick has been seen too often to be amusing anymore.

So do us all a favour and stop your repetitive* posting in the Kobo forum while waiting for Sony to release their updated reader. I wouldn't recommend holding your breath while doing so -- purple is just so not your colour.

repetitive: Containing or characterized by repetition, esp. when unnecessary or tiresome.

Regards,
David

[jackastor]

Thanks to DNSB

Download links can be found here

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...185660&page=24


Remember use at your own risk...

regards

Jack