Glo Kobo Firmware 2.3.1

[murg]

Originally Posted by buffaloseven

Knew that was coming That's a case more of "the book you're reading" isn't very good, as opposed to the tool you're using to read the book. Apple's map data sucks, but the actual Maps app is quite nice, and functions reliably and as expected.

That's kinda like saying that the navigation on the Titanic was spot-on.

[spud357c]

After upgrade things were good on the book I was reading but when i finished it and started a new one wrong cover is showing on sleep screen....
A simple bug like this should have been identified in testing...very annoying,

[Danger]

Regarding testing... We've gone over this before with v2.0.0+. Kobo seems completely content to keep passing us half-assed firmware and unable or unwilling to change their beta testers or at least open up the beta testing to the public for those of us who want to willingly beta test as opposed to their current testing model.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by Danger

Regarding testing... We've gone over this before with v2.0.0+. Kobo seems completely content to keep passing us half-assed firmware and unable or unwilling to change their beta testers or at least open up the beta testing to the public for those of us who want to willingly beta test as opposed to their current testing model.

I think it's more like they ignore what their testers find to get out their new firmware before a certain event.

First annoying and buggy firmware (that I remember) was before Christmas last year, then release in Japan, now Christmas again...

I guess the next updates will be better (again) when they have more time to fix it and don't have to include new or revamped marketing tools until a certain date...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Danger

Regarding testing... We've gone over this before with v2.0.0+. Kobo seems completely content to keep passing us half-assed firmware and unable or unwilling to change their beta testers or at least open up the beta testing to the public for those of us who want to willingly beta test as opposed to their current testing model.

They listen to what the beta testers say. And they ask questions about the problems. But things aren't always reproduce-able. As an example, this problem with changing chapter and the font suddenly getting smaller, I have not seen it. That includes when I had both my Touch and Glo open with the same book and just kept tapping the screens to page forward in the book. I went through the book twice on one and three times on the other. I didn't see a single incorrect font change. In my normal reading, I haven't seen it as well. I rarely read for less than two hours a day. And since this firmware was released, I have not seen this problem on any of my epubs.

The same goes for the reopening a book problem. I occasionally see the book opening to the wrong position. But, that is under bad conditions. I don't use a cover. I read on my commute. When I finish, I slide the ebook into my backpack on top of my laptop. In all version of the firmware, I have reopened the book after this and been on a different page. Or selected a word and had the dictionary popup. But in more controlled conditions where I know nothing touched the screen, reopening a book has never gone to the wrong page.

As to the beta testers, if you want to join, there has been several posts here about what to do.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The same goes for the reopening a book problem. I occasionally see the book opening to the wrong position. But, that is under bad conditions. I don't use a cover. I read on my commute. When I finish, I slide the ebook into my backpack on top of my laptop. In all version of the firmware, I have reopened the book after this and been on a different page. Or selected a word and had the dictionary popup. But in more controlled conditions where I know nothing touched the screen, reopening a book has never gone to the wrong page.

But that is not was is happening with this new firmware.

You open an ePub, read a few pages, hit the homescreen button (on the Touch), then reopen the book - wrong page. Everytime with every single ePub I've tested.

It's a bug, not a user failure...

And I'm not the only person with this problem, so I can't really believe that it couldn't be reproduced.

KePubs work well, BTW. If I wasn't reading KePubs at the moment, I'd return to a previous firmware version.

Also double and even triple shelve entries that can't be deleted... can't be reproduced? I know several people who have that problem...

I really don't buy that "we can't reproduce it so it must be just you".

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Jaden

But that is not was is happening with this new firmware.

You open an ePub, read a few pages, hit the homescreen button (on the Touch), then reopen the book - wrong page. Everytime with every single ePub I've tested.

It's a bug, not a user failure...

And I'm not the only person with this problem, so I can't really believe that it couldn't be reproduced.

For what it's worth, I can't reproduce it either. Nor the shelf duplication problem. That doesn't make it "user failure", but it also doesn't mean that people are fibbing when they say they're not seeing it.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Jaden

You open an ePub, read a few pages, hit the homescreen button (on the Touch), then reopen the book - wrong page. Everytime with every single ePub I've tested.

Also double and even triple shelve entries that can't be deleted... can't be reproduced? I know several people who have that problem...

So are you using a DRM'ed epub, a "liberated" DRM'ed epub or a non-DRM'ed epub? I just tried a number of non-DRM Guttenberg epubs and I can't reproduce it.
The multiplying shelves is a server issue that AFAIK is being worked on.

On a more general note, not everything people experience here is a generalized problem, and if it only effects a small subset of users it's going to be lower down on the priority list for fixing. That really sucks for people with the problem (and believe me I sympathize, I've been there with a number of newspaper issues) but that's the reality of what you're going to get with any device. And related to that, just because a bug comes out in firmware may not mean it didn't get caught in testing. It may be something that gets broke in the final tweaking of the release firmware that the external beta group don't see until everyone else (like the wrong cover issue that's been fixed, but seems to reappear out of nowhere). OR it could be a known issue but for whatever reason is far enough down priority list and they feel it doesn't effect enough users to hold back a full release. I have no idea what the thinking and logic that gets used in making these decisions and I know I don't always agree with them, but that's the way it is.

All of this isn't to say that bugs shouldn't get fixed. As I said, I've had issues with Kobo (specifically newspapers) that took forever to get fixed and drove me nuts until they did. Just realize that sometimes these are bigger issue business decisions that come down to how much time/people they have to fix things.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by meeera

For what it's worth, I can't reproduce it either. Nor the shelf duplication problem. That doesn't make it "user failure", but it also doesn't mean that people are fibbing when they say they're not seeing it.

I'm sorry, that was easy to misunderstand.

I wasn't talking about the users but about the beta tester group and especially the developers.

They have to be able to reproduce it and find out how and why it happens.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by robko

OR it could be a known issue but for whatever reason is far enough down priority list and they feel it doesn't effect enough users to hold back a full release.

Well, not returning to the right page should be top priority - at least that's what I think.

I am one of the lucky persons with that problem. It's only one page back for me. For others it's three pages or even random.

For me it happens with all epubs I've tried so far except for one. All of them DRM free and all of them have been formatted by me to be able to set margins, justification, line spacing... but on that one book the same routine doesn't generate a problem whereas on all the others it does.

But it didn't happen with 2.1.5, though, that's for sure.

I really love my Kobo. But it's hard for me to go on recommending a device that you can't be sure will work properly with the next forced update...

[GadgetMan]

It should reset automatically.. I just bought a Kobo Glo and registered and within a minute I had the update.. maybe you need to do a hard clear/reset and you will be good to go..

[GeoffR]

I am affected by the opening at wrong page problem, but it doesn't occur with every book, and it seems to depend on where I stop reading the book. If I stop reading on the first page of a new chapter then the book will usually be reopened at the correct page, but if part way through a chapter, especially a long chapter, then often it opens a few pages before the correct page..

I also noticed that when starting to read a new book, if I close the book after only reading a page or two then that book is still listed as unread in my library. If I then put the Glo to sleep it does not use the cover of that book, but instead uses the default sleep mode image.

Overall though I think firmware 2.3.1 has fixed more problems than it created for me. Being able to adjust linespacing and margins in most books without needing to run them through calibre first is great. Some other (badly formatted) books caused my 2.1.5 Glo to crash when trying to adjust the linespacing, and while I still can't adjust the linespacing in those problem books, at least with 2.3.1 attempting to do so no longer causes a crash.

[GadgetMan]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I am affected by the opening at wrong page problem, but it doesn't occur with every book, and it seems to depend on where I stop reading the book. If I stop reading on the first page of a new chapter then the book will usually be reopened at the correct page, but if part way through a chapter, especially a long chapter, then often it opens a few pages before the correct page..

I also noticed that when starting to read a new book, if I close the book after only reading a page or two then that book is still listed as unread in my library. If I then put the Glo to sleep it does not use the cover of that book, but instead uses the default sleep mode image.

Overall though I think firmware 2.3.1 has fixed more problems than it created for me. Being able to adjust linespacing and margins in most books without needing to run them through calibre first is great. Some other (badly formatted) books caused my 2.1.5 Glo to crash when trying to adjust the linespacing, and while I still can't adjust the linespacing in those problem books, at least with 2.3.1 attempting to do so no longer causes a crash.

I have Kindle and Kobo .. but I think Kobo has to reach out and get some Hi-Tech engineers on board to compete with Kindle and others.. but as far as reading a book, I like the Kobo the best.. but as far software etc.. they need to STEP IT UP.. they need to hire some better engineers.. maybe some ex Apple, Google or Microsoft folks.. what ya think?

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by GadgetMan

I have Kindle and Kobo .. but I think Kobo has to reach out and get some Hi-Tech engineers on board to compete with Kindle and others.. but as far as reading a book, I like the Kobo the best.. but as far software etc.. they need to STEP IT UP.. they need to hire some better engineers.. maybe some ex Apple, Google or Microsoft folks.. what ya think?

Yes I agree, I think the Kobo Glo hardware is great, probably the best e-ink device available at the moment.Certainly the best screen/frontlight combination. Once I have a book opened and the settings adjusted to my liking the reading experience is almost perfect (except for one niggle, which is the large/inconsistent amount of whitespace at the bottom of some pages). It would be great if the rest of the firmware was as good as the hardware.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Well, not returning to the right page should be top priority - at least that's what I think.

I am one of the lucky persons with that problem. It's only one page back for me. For others it's three pages or even random.

For me it happens with all epubs I've tried so far except for one. All of them DRM free and all of them have been formatted by me to be able to set margins, justification, line spacing... but on that one book the same routine doesn't generate a problem whereas on all the others it does.

But it didn't happen with 2.1.5, though, that's for sure.

I really love my Kobo. But it's hard for me to go on recommending a device that you can't be sure will work properly with the next forced update...

But it does return to the right page. Or at least that is how I interpret some of the reports. The problem is the definition of page.

Note: The following is a bit rambling and contains thoughts as I went along. Some are rubbish, some might be worth following up. The problem as always is working out which are which. I decided to post it all just in case it helped someone.


The page number down the bottom of the screen is calculated based on 1024 characters per page. Exactly how much text is on the screen depends on the font, size, line spacing margin and formatting. This means that a page can go over several screens. To see what I mean, turn on the page numbers in the margin (Settings, Reading Settings, top of page 2). Then as you read, watch the difference between the number in the margin and at the bottom of the screen. The number in the margin is the start of each new page of text.

My first theory was related to this difference. When the book is reopened, it goes to the page represented by the line at the top of the screen, but it goes to the start of that page. That could be several screens of text earlier and with a different page number at the bottom of the screen. Of course, I'm probably wrong. I haven't seen the problem, but my settings mean that a screen is very close to a page of text. Some quick tests with a bigger font didn't prove the theory for me. It opened to the right spot each time.

Another thought was that it is opening to the start of a paragraph. In this case, if a paragraph was split over the top of the screen when you closed the book, the previous screen would be displayed. This would make sense in another way. I have looked at how the reading position is stored in the database. It is a set of numbers describing the position relative to the current chapter. It wouldn't surprise me if the numbers described the paragraph, not the word. Of course, my quick testing doesn't prove this.

GeoffR's post while I have been writing this (and supposedly working, though someone has just given me a glass of wine) and the inaccuracy of the reopening position going up with distance from the beginning of the chapter, makes me wonder about the numbers in the stored position. Maybe someone rewrote the code for either calculating the numbers or the position from the numbers but didn't make sure the other way matched.

And for someone who has this problem: If you set a bookmark by pressing the top right corner, is it on the right page when you come back? If you bookmark the page and close the book, what happens to the bookmark and the page you reopen to?