Touch Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread

[EldRick]

I know it's been said by many others, but we Really need the ability to search and do dictionary look-up on non-KoboStore books.

The Nook manages to do this - it can't be that difficult, and if a marketing person says that's not strategic, he should be fired.

[JohnMorris]

Three days into my new Kobo experience (liking it so far), my top firmware improvements would be:

1) When browsing the library, have a mode that squeezes as many entries as possible onto the screen. Only title and author are needed - the icon is too small to be of much benefit.

2) Folders would be great: I have so many ebooks (and PDFs) that a flat list is unmanageable. Everything _is_ nicely hierarchically organized on my PC: it would be so much easier if the the same hierarchy could be on the Kobo.

3) Faster update when adding content. 450 books took well over an hour of waiting for just a moment. Is it doing something, such as extracting images for iconification, that could be postponed until the icon is actually needed?

4) Change the page number display to delete "PG". I can work out that "3 of 229" - or even "3 / 229" is the page number and don't need the "PG" hint. Make it more book-like.

5) Add - perhaps as an option - the time and the battery status along the bottom of the screen.

6) Controversial: add a configurable option so that when reading a book, a short press press on the button turns to the next page. Home would then be reached by a long press (or maybe a double click). This came to me last night when I found it not possible to read using just my left hand to both hold the book and to page forward, something I had got used to with the Sony PRS650.

7) The right margin has, at the start of each logical page, the page number in very small print. With margin cut this collides with the text distractingly. Take it away, or make it optional.

John Morris

[EldRick]

I'd also like to see a preference for which side of the screen is Forward or Back.

I can hold the KT in my right hand and page forward by wrapping my thumb over the edge of the screen, but I'm right-handed, and my right hand is usually busy with something else, like a fork, while eating.

I'd like to be able to read using only my Left hand, instead.

P.S. - This feature would be worth bonus points as an accommodation for anyone unable to use their right hand for any reason...

[viviena]

Originally Posted by EldRick

I'd like to be able to read using only my Left hand, instead.

You can already do that though. Granted, you have to swipe and not tap, but as a right-hander, I find the KT easy to use with my left hand.

I would like to see:

1) Collections / tags (not the same as folders);

2) the numbers removed from the right margin, so I agree with JohnMorris. IIRC, this might depend on the ADE renderer or something, so I don't know what Kobo can do about this, but it's a distraction all the same, especially as I like to set my margins pretty small.

[EldRick]

You can already do that though.

I'd sure like to see a video showing that. My thumbs only have two joints, and don't curl under like tentacles.

I find that swiping is not particularly reliable even when using one hand to hold the KT and the other to swipe - one area where the NT is more reliable is swiping. It is particularly problematic when you swipe along the bottom edge of the screen, which is a reliable page-turn on the NT. I suspect a KT software issue in discriminating a swipe.

[viviena]

Originally Posted by EldRick

I'd sure like to see a video showing that. My thumbs only have two joints, and don't curl under like tentacles.

Your reply seems a bit hostile and honestly unwarranted in its tone, and I'm afraid to say I can't help you out here; no, I'm not able or inclined to record a video just to allow you to gaze at my tentacular left thumb in action.

I just want to helpfully share that I've turned pages on the KT only with my left hand and left thumb before and haven't had problems. Having used a 350 extensively too, I'm familiar with the act of swiping. Of course, I'm sure that part of the difficulty in swiping for various people has to do with immutable characteristics such as the size and length of one's palms and digits, etc.

[John F]

Originally Posted by viviena

Your reply seems a bit hostile and honestly unwarranted in its tone, and I'm afraid to say I can't help you out here; no, I'm not able or inclined to record a video just to allow you to gaze at my tentacular left thumb in action.

...

Reread his full original post, and what you quoted, and you'll probably realize your reply comes across as ill-conceived.

[Asawi]

No video, but a picture. I guess it depnds on how you hold it, but this is how I would hold it with my left hand. Obviously I don't have a Touch, but I'm sure swiping would work fine this way if the screen is reasonalby responsive (as it should be with IR).

[viviena]

Originally Posted by John F

Reread his full original post, and what you quoted, and you'll probably realize your quote comes across as ill-conceived.

If by ill-conceived you meant my honing in on that sentence? I'd like to be able to read using only my Left hand, instead. I wasn't meaning to put down the rest of his post, and I do apologise if I came across as doing this.

I was addressing this quote however because I wasn't sure if EldRick was aware that these IR screens could be operated with the left hand via swiping. I don't pay a lot of attention to which MR posters are more savvy about these things than others, and it's a common enough misconception I've seen elsewhere on MR, that left-handers can't use these type of ereaders. Since his reply suggests that he's aware of left-handed swiping but but is rather focusing on tapping, fair enough, but my initial remark was only intended to provide a helpful alternative in lieu of hypothetical firmware updates, and the flippant reply took me aback.

[EldRick]

No hostility intended - just a joke.

The picture makes it apparent why you can do a left thumb swipe, while it doesn't work well for me; I prefer to hold the KT with my fingers spanning the back and curling over the opposite edge, rather than just having it lie flat on my hand. This makes a thumb-swipe pretty much impossible unless you hands are large.

I tried your methoid, and was able to swipe left-thumbed, but it does not permit a very firm grasp on the Kobo while doing it. I'd hate to drop it due to holding it loosely.

Also, I have arthritis developing in my thumb, so the left-thumb swipe is not very comfortable for me - I don't think I'll be doing it regularly for that reason.

And that's why I'd like a preference item for swapping left and right Tap areas.

[deeby]

I got my kobo touch yesterday. I had a Kobo wifi previously so I'm aleady a believer.

So far I really like what I see. There are just a few fit and finish items that I have to complain about (I'm using version 1.9.5 software):

• Cursor-back/forward keys on the keyboard, or touch to place the cursor. Just a way to move the cursor around to fix typos.
• Some explanation about the consequences of changing the number of page turns that cause a full page refresh (and what is a full page refresh anyway?)
• When viewing the list of books, the page navigator control is too close to the search button. If I accidentally hit the search button again while next-paging, I'll scream.
• I'm not crazy about having a web browser on the kobo. The web is a distraction that I don't need. I have a laptop for webbing. Please put fewer resources on the browser rather than more.
• Make the stuff on the Reading Stats page 'clickable', like, click the Books Finished stat to see a list of the books, then you can click a book in the list to open it.

Stuff that I want that others have already mentioned:

• Dictionary and highlighting for all epubs

deeby

[EldRick]

Aha! I finally puzzled out why page-turns on the KT seemed to be unreliable!

Much of my reading recently has been outside, catching some rays on the deck.

In direct sun, the (Black) NT warms up considerably, and it seems to diminish its ability to notice a touch or swipe - I had to repeatedly tap or swipe, when the first try didn't work.

When I began reading inside more, the tap/swipe turned the page much more reliably, so I construe that the infrared sensors probably get overwhelmed when the KT heats up from the sun.

I hadn't noticed this effect with the NT, because I tend to use its buttons instead of swiping, while reading one-handed or sitting without a table to rest the e-reader on.

So if you are working on your tan, try to keep the KT cool and out of direct full sun - it will work better...

[Mithradyr]

Yeah, I've noticed that when it's hot outside and I'm reading in the sun, the touchscreen response becomes much slower. There is a noticeable delay between a tap or swipe and the page turn. (black KT)

[taming]

It's not just the touch screen. My husband left his Kobo WiFi in the sun for awhile and all his books were "content locked". When it cooled off, all was well. I have no idea what part of the reader was impacted or if a longer exposure to even brighter/hotter sunlight would have permanently damaged the reader.

[EldRick]

Interestingly, the K3 had an almost identical issue with the display slowing down in hot sunlight. They were able to address the issue with a firmware update.