Touch Poll: what's more important, new features or fix current bugs?

[CdnBloodlust]

Both. Time for serious bugs then when there's only small bugs work on new features. I'm not experiencing any bugs tho so I'm happy.

I'd like bug fixes and improvements on existing features (like, a less clumsy definition/translate UI, or a more complete and bug free English dictionary, or a French dictionary), but personally I have no need for new features. Maybe better organizing features for large libraries.

[arirug]

Fixing the bugs first, must be the most imortant.

[Sound]

I don't know why people make polls like this. Just think for a second, people mostly come to forums to troubleshoot issues or vent/complain. What do you think those people are going to vote for? The sample is grossly skewed.

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by Sound

I don't know why people make polls like this. Just think for a second, people mostly come to forums to troubleshoot issues or vent/complain.

How do you know that?
There's many forums here ereader related. Certainly for me BEFORE I bought an ereader (or pretty muich any product these days) I'l look online to see what it's like first.
There's lots of subjects non-complaint related here.

What do you think those people are going to vote for? The sample is grossly skewed.

Actually the result isn't vastly in favour of bugfixing first. At one points it was split 50/50 down the centre.
I'm not saying this it 100% indicative of the general kobo user opinion. Kobo can read it or not, I don't care. The same goes for you. This is an internet forum, people post what they think might be useful or interesting to them oand/or other people.

[bibahbuzemann]

I don't like bugs.

I still can't get the Kobo Touch here in Europe, but if they expect me to pay €150 = >$200 for a device, then it better be WITH NO BUGS WHATSOEVER.

A few features(relevant to READING) would be nice too, like searching. The whole social networking stuff, well that's not relevant.

Here's just a word of respect:

Kobo Devs did one hell of a great job convincing their bosses to keep paying them good money to do SocNet BS instead of, well, READING stuff.

Good work! I'll bet there's at least a couple of befuddled, canadian board members rubbing their hands gleefully in the certain expectation of becoming the new Masters of the social networking universe.

With their revolutionary, new, eink reading device, no less! Eat your heart out Zuckerberg!

[danskmacabre]

Originally Posted by bibahbuzemann

I still can't get the Kobo Touch here in Europe, but if they expect me to pay €150 = >$200 for a device, then it better be WITH NO BUGS WHATSOEVER.

This isn't going to happen. all electronic devices like these, PCs, Tablets, ereaders.. whatever will have a certain level of bugs.
But there is a point where the level of bugs gets unacceptable, which is from my POV is where the KT is currently at.

[bibahbuzemann]

Devolution

[Psyke]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

This isn't going to happen. all electronic devices like these, PCs, Tablets, ereaders.. whatever will have a certain level of bugs.
But there is a point where the level of bugs gets unacceptable, which is from my POV is where the KT is currently at.

The thing is the bugs aren't generally with the software/firmware on the Kobo itself, but more with the books people are trying to view, particularly sideloaded books. The guys at Kobo really do try to do what they can to accommodate everyone, but there are variables beyond their control; ie - sideloaded book downloaded from somewhere else, converted/edited by 3rd part programs that may introduce unforeseen issues.

This is from my experience with multiple wifi and touch versions that my family own. I've hit one "major" bug that had been brought up here, that being the storage error problem, but it was the result of a problem with a particular book. removed the book, problem never came back. The only other issue was desktop problem with USB drivers, but it ended up being an OS issue.

As an ereader, the Kobo, for me, works as advertised. *shrug*

[SCION]

Originally Posted by Psyke

The thing is the bugs aren't generally with the software/firmware on the Kobo itself, but more with the books people are trying to view, particularly sideloaded books. The guys at Kobo really do try to do what they can to accommodate everyone, but there are variables beyond their control; ie - sideloaded book downloaded from somewhere else, converted/edited by 3rd part programs that may introduce unforeseen issues.

I would buy this reasoning, except I didn't/don't experience these issues on other devices. Specifically the NOOKtouch and Sony 950. Others have no issues on their non-Kobo devices. So, if I own three eink devices, and I'm only having a problem on one of them (with the same stored content), then there's a problem with that device. From the posts in this forum it appears that many are lifelong Kobo users and haven't used anything else or their expectations are minimal and fault tolerance is high.

[Tangent]

Since I bought the KT to use as a reading device all that is important to me involves making the reading experience the best that it can be. So having the bottom line cut-off, double clicking for a dictionary definition, inability to highlight most books, having multiple books open at different spots but losing those spots plus my shortlist every time I have to do a factory reset and now, having to do a factory reset in order to update because of the network error... well, I'd just like these things fixed rather than some goofy announcement about social networks, blah, blah,blah... I'm just trying to read some books, not have a party on-line with my friends. I do that in person which is what a real social network is.

The only thing I like about Reading Life is the stats, which are only as good as the last factory reset, then you lose everything that it kept track of before the reset. Kobo, please fix the bugs, then add new features that make reading more enjoyable! Don't try to turn my reader into a buggy on-line social network hub, that is just so pretentious on your part. You're not that big a part of anyone's life. You are a book store so focus on it please. Dropping agency pricing and adding more discount coupons would have been a more exciting announcement. It would make you more money as well... that is what you want in the end isn't it?

I'm not unhappy I bought my KT but the slow-in-coming bug fixes have become somewhat irritating and that concludes my rant.

[SCION]

Originally Posted by SCION

... From the posts in this forum it appears that many are lifelong Kobo users and haven't used anything else or their expectations are minimal and fault tolerance is high.

I should add that I sold my NOOKtouch after using the Kobo for several days. No one beats the formatting options of the Kobo. However, persistent bugs and continued missing features that are standard elsewhere would have me recommend other devices now. So, yes, I was happy at one time with the device. But I can't stick my head in the sand and be content with what is offered. I always cut my losses short and move on.

[thp1017]

Originally Posted by SCION

Others have no issues on their non-Kobo devices.

Actually, my mom got a Nook last Christmas (I had a Kobo1, but she liked the button placement, shelves, etc better on the Nook), and has had a variety of problems - trouble with some books not loading, and then the battery started dying on her, the charge was dropping like 15% per day, even when she wasn't using it. Also, in the newer version of calibre I just got, there is a great line whenever I convert a book to an ePub (via commandline):
*The cover image has an id != "cover". Renaming to work around bug in Nook Color*

So all of the eReaders have their faults - is the software on others more robust? For all that I love my KT, I'd have to say probably so... But it is a smaller company, and less mature, so that doesn't surprise me.

I guess personally, I would say I do have a fairly high tolerance for faults given my software development background, but also high expectations. But then, with closing in on 500 books and 200 hours on my KT (and many many more on my Kobo1), the only problem I've had was partly my fault, since I had extra periods in the path to new files - they should deal with that better, but that is a common software "feature" and I should know better too!

Back to the original question - I'd say make sure that all of the major and middling bugs are being taken care of, the start adding new features. But there are only so many people that can be attacking a given bug and being useful, so I'm guessing other people are working on new stuff at the same time (and I agree, reading life features are cool, could care less about facebook).

[ScalyFreak]

Having followed this thread, and the Kobo forum in general, I'm starting to reconsider whether I really want a Kobo Touch (I want a back-up reader for my Sony).

Bugs are annoying but a forum filled with complaints about them won't stop me from considering a device. I work in computer tech support. I know that 98-99% of customers have no problems with their device and that's why they stay silent. They're not going to come here and post ecstatically about how they are thrilled that their new eReader works as advertised. The population posting here is not representative of the entire Kobo-using population, and to think that the user experiences posted here are typical is a mistake.

But when I see complaints that a device is lacking in features, that makes me sit up and take notice. Particularly features that existed on the previous generation the company released. I've seen Kobo owners post here and wish for the ability to have multiple bookmarks, or an in-book search function. Unless I've misunderstood, the options to sort and organize the library are very limited, as is the ability to have multiple books open at the same time.

And not having any of those very basic features makes me pause, and start looking at other brands for a back-up reader.

[Psyke]

Originally Posted by SCION

I would buy this reasoning, except I didn't/don't experience these issues on other devices. Specifically the NOOKtouch and Sony 950. Others have no issues on their non-Kobo devices. So, if I own three eink devices, and I'm only having a problem on one of them (with the same stored content), then there's a problem with that device. From the posts in this forum it appears that many are lifelong Kobo users and haven't used anything else or their expectations are minimal and fault tolerance is high.

While I understand the logic, you need to understand that different device/company/OS = different implementation of rendering. I mean, you get this all the time. you used to see this a lot with Web browsers (still do to an extent) where depending on which browser you used, a web page might come up very differently, or very buggy looking. In most cases, it was because a) the standards used by the browser developer were not standard, or b) the website developer only developed it for one browser.

As a prime example in regards to the KT; a sideloaded book downloaded directly from kobobooks will work flawlessly in the KT in terms of formating. However, If I buy the same book from Amazon, de-drm it, run it through Caliber to convert it to epub, Formating options will be flakey, if not non-functional; I know, I've done it. Now, is this Kobo's problem because they can't render something that I've done outside the norm? Personally, I don't believe so.

again, just my opinion