Glo Kobo Software Update 2.5.2

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by Anak

Yes, not buying is a choice. But if you just bought one…
When Kobo announced the Aura HD I was very unhappy that they didn't release it simultatiously in North America and Europe. I contacted a local book chain (Kobos local partner in The Netherlands, where I live) that sells Kobo readers and they told me that the Aura HD was available from mid-late May.
This weekend I've cancelled my pre order. I'll wait and see how things are panning out. Pro: better resolution. Con: additional header. When added up, I'm not convinced that the outcome is still positive. The outcome may still be slightly positive but not worth to me to pay a top dollar price for.

Quick question, isn't the header also present on the Glo and Touch (or are you referring to the fact that you can just avoid the upgrade if you wish on your current device, but then if the header wasn't always on the Aura maybe you could install an earlier firmware if it wasn't too buggy).

Originally Posted by Lbooker

I will not buy the Aura if they keep up with this crap !
And what would prevent them from putting ads up there in a future firmware ?
Today's firmware may very well be the first step of an aggressive strategy to pollute our eyes and brains.
Let us not forget that in any corporation, stockholders order managers to be as creative as possible in their mandatory quest to extract always more money from their customers...I always expect the worst from Wall Street.

I don't think this will happen, historically there has been very bad reactions to this kind of action. With the kindle you have all the advertising in the cheap versions but it is understood that it is subsidized by the advertisements before purchase. Adding it for no reason would likely result in a backlash. The header right now can be justified as it is something found in "real" (read: paper) books (I am not saying it is good or that it is bad, just that the decision can be justified from a viewpoint of wanting it to look more like traditional books which has nothing to do with advertising).

Originally Posted by Lbooker

When a firmware limits the freedom of the owners of a device and of its prospective buyers to use this device the way they wanted, those who spin this new limit into a "freedom" are rightly suspected of being paid by the guilty corporation. If your brain spouts this crap out of its own free will, it is even worse.

No one is preventing people from using their device how they wanted if you think about it. When you buy a device you should buy it for what it can do RIGHT THEN, not what it will do in the future. If the device is too buggy at launch for you then wait and buy it when it has firmware that you like and can live with when it comes to existing bugs. Then when updates come out you can choose whether or not it is worth it to you to install them. This is fine as far as functionality goes. It is not like with some blu-ray players (as well as many programs/devices) that refuse to work if you do not install the update or are not connected to the internet. That is something I dislike and abhorr as then what happens if the company goes under and the device/program can't verify its license or if the update actualy removes some functionality that was a deciding factor in my purchase (an excellent example, though it is not a personal one, is the PlayStation 2 and how you could originally install Linux on it and then the functionality was removeed in future firmwaree updates, updates which needed to be installed in order to play certain games).

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

No one is preventing people from using their device how they wanted if you think about it. When you buy a device you should buy it for what it can do RIGHT THEN, not what it will do in the future. If the device is too buggy at launch for you then wait and buy it when it has firmware that you like and can live with when it comes to existing bugs.

You are exactly right. But now you risk being accused by some in the tin-hat crowd of being paid by Kobo.

[JSWolf]

The problem we have here is that when the Aura was released, ePub looked a certain way depending on your device settings and the settings in the ePub. If you were OK with that, then all was well.

Now Kobo has gone and changed things so what you had before is not what you have now. So you bought an Aura and it's not what you bought. It's now different. This is a major issue for a reader that cost $170 and then $50 more if you also bought the cover. This is an expensive reader that's now not as good as it was.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

If only this thread could get back to what's wrong (or right) with the 2.5.2 update instead of everyone complaining about each other's viewpoints on what they don't like about the update.

The wasted space bothers some people to the point that they won't update, no matter what other fixes might have been in 2.5.2. We don't like it. Some of us actually hate it to the point of switching reader brands if it's still on Kobo firmware.

I find it somewhat risible that 2.5.2 not generating cover images for sideloaded books on an SD card gets virtually no mention. That is, IMNSHO, a fairly major bug. The poor quality covers generated by 2.5.1 were bad enough but not generating them at all?

The title bar? Oh, Ghod, I have to move to the next page ~3 more times per chapter! And as has been pointed out several times, this change does makes the screen look more similar whether reading a kepub or an epub.

Do either of these make me want to give up my Aura? No.

Is the Aura expensive? Looking at my book budget for 2012, I spent over $2200 on books (dead tree and ebooks combined). Without an ereader, the same number of books would have driven my budget to at least $2800 -- I do buy a lot of hard covers. For me, the cost of the ereader is a minor part of my reading budget.

Regards,
David

[filmo]

Do a factory reset of your e-reader then let your reader update only to firmware version that is best for you. Then do not let your Kobo sync with Kobo servers until they have acceptable firmware version. You can still buy and load books from Kobo using Adobe Digital Edition software.

This thread might be or interest.
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=212474

[mconh]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I find it somewhat risible that 2.5.2 not generating cover images for sideloaded books on an SD card gets virtually no mention. That is, IMNSHO, a fairly major bug. The poor quality covers generated by 2.5.1 were bad enough but not generating them at all?

We are still trying to recover from the Book Title added "strike one". No sideloaded covers generated is "strike two". That will stun us for a bit longer because I can't believe it was not fixed in 2.5.2. One more sideloaded epub modification and we will start to think of this as a "strike three" design trend! The last thing I would call it is a laughing matter.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mconh

We are still trying to recover from the Book Title added "strike one". No sideloaded covers generated is "strike two". That will stun us for a bit longer because I can't believe it was not fixed in 2.5.2. One more sideloaded epub modification and we will start to think of this as a "strike three" design trend! The last thing I would call it is a laughing matter.

The covers is a bug, not a design change. It generates covers fine for books in the main memory, but doesn't use them for the SD card. Kobo have changed how they handle covers behind these scenes, but they have always intended to display them for most book types. And use them for the sleep cover.

Also, I Kobo have acknowledged the bug and are looking into it.

[JSWolf]

Is Kobo looking into fixing the space wasting on both the top and bottom of the screen?

[ottdmk]

I haven't actually gotten 2.5.2 yet. For whatever reason, it hasn't been deployed to my Touch yet. But I have a few thoughts on the titlebar issue.

The first thing to remember is that by and large any forum does not represent the majority of users. People who go online to discuss issues such as this one tend to be more heavily involved then the average user of a consumer device. We are a fringe element of the larger market.

Now, on to the titlebar issue. One thing we have to remember is that consistency of user experience is highly valuable to a corporation. The more consistent the experience is on a device or range of devices the less hassle (and hence less expense) it is to offer support to customers for that device (or devices.)

As a sidenote, this is one reason why Kobo forces firmware updates. Maintaining multiple versions of software raises complexity and hence costs.

Getting back to consistency of experience: Kobo went with two rendering engines for epubs. Access to handle their user metric enhancements to EPUB, enable their syncing mechanism & to implement several aspects of EPUB3. IE, kepubs. The second they licensed from Adobe to allow for sideloaded content, whether from other stores or from libraries, etc.

I'm very happy they did this. It gives me a lot of choice. I can buy from several e-retailers and the books will work on my Touch. I have library support, which I value highly.

However, two rendering engines = a differing experience between kepub and epub. And this is a problem. I can guarantee you that Kobo gets customer support calls from this. Sideloading is a more advanced activity then just buying from Kobo and syncing. For the average consumer, this is something they will do after buying from Kobo. And I guarantee Kobo has gotten calls saying "Why do my library books look different from the novel I bought from you last week?"

Now, obviously they can't make the epub experience identical to the kepub experience. Certain kepub features are partially meant as drivers towards purchase of books from Kobo (I'm thinking specifically of the advanced font options.) But I firmly believe that Kobo has been wanting to make the experience more consistent.

So, you have to ask yourselves, which engine demonstrates Kobo's vision of how epubs should be displayed? The answer, I think, is obvious: Access. And so when it comes time to make a change to make things more consistent, which way would the company go? Make the Adobe renderer more like Access, or vice versa? Again, I would say the answer is obvious.

So I believe this change was simply a matter of time.

Now, I can understand why people are upset. There is a belief that Kobo has taken away screen real estate with this change. I doubt that Kobo would see it that way. They committed the use of that real estate to a particular purpose a long, long time ago. This is simply getting Adobe to do things they way they think it should always have been done.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

No one is preventing people from using their device how they wanted if you think about it. When you buy a device you should buy it for what it can do RIGHT THEN, not what it will do in the future. If the device is too buggy at launch for you then wait and buy it when it has firmware that you like and can live with when it comes to existing bugs. Then when updates come out you can choose whether or not it is worth it to you to install them.

This isn't actually the case. The only way you can choose to not install firmware updates on the Kobo is to never ever turn the wireless on. This means you can't sync your Kobo books & bookmarks, you can't update Reading Life, you can't buy Kobo books from the device, you can't grab Project Gutenberg books from the device, you can't add books with the Calibre content server, you can't use the browser, and so on. (Well, not unless after connecting you do a factory reset and re-install your chosen firmware version and re-load your books every single time - which is not a practical scenario). That's a fair bit of functionality gone.

[PeterT]

@meeera: Look around this forum and you will find a method that will ensure you CAN turn the WiFi and connect via USB and not get upgrades.

Hint... it involves editing a file on the Kobo where the version info is stored.

[TechniSol]

Gee, it's nice to see people with common interests come together and demonstrate their individual lunacy passion. While I couldn't be bothered to make such a stink deeply understand how some of you feel, I do think a lot of venom has been vomited expelled considering the importance of the issue versus many other issues with The Devil ,himself's Kobo bugs, etc...

I do hope that, you'll stop showing your asses(though lovely donkeys they may be) in the spirit of solidarity, you'll come together and realize the common foe, if any, is Kobo, not each other. Foe, I suspect, is a far cry from what you really think of them stronger word than required, but that is with whom, if anyone, you have an issue. And, boy, do some of us have issues! I strongly suggest that if you are this adamant against changes that even the slightest one causes the white suited men with butterfly nets to help you back into your rubber room and formal jacket for a few days you make that as public as possible and get the support of as many Kobo consumers as possible in an online petition to make a stronger case with the evil tyrants that have stolen your screen space powers that be at Kobo.

Yes, this is a whimsical flight of fancy written by an idiot with far too much time on his hands tonight completely serious suggestion.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by PeterT

@meeera: Look around this forum and you will find a method that will ensure you CAN turn the WiFi and connect via USB and not get upgrades.

Hint... it involves editing a file on the Kobo where the version info is stored.

The only info I could find is editing a file in the .kobo directory. I edited the file named "version" (no extension) to read 2.5.2. Is that the correct place for it?

When I check device info, it still says 2.5.1 after the edit.

[PeterT]

I seem to recall the trick was to update that file to a much higher number than existed; let me see if i can find the thread.

SOrry; can't find that post right now, but I would suggest maybe setting it to something like 2.9.9 or even 3.9.9. I'm quite sure the application will still show the "true" number but the check done for an actual upgrade will see the patched value.

[TechniSol]

As I recall, editing the number to something higher than whatever version you were attempting to avoid was all that was required. But, I imagine changing the most significant digit couldn't hurt. Not sure I ever saw anyone mention that would change the displayed version number in device info?