Wish list for first firmware update

[artificial]

We would like to provide a definitive date for the release of our update but at this time we can only aim for a mid-June window.

Damn. I can understand that they want to get it right and ensure quality control, but if they do a mass launch in the US with the same firmware bugs as their Aus/Canada/NZ launches, that may cause a lot of grief! Oh well, not my problem. I'll just wait patiently for the new firmware to drop in June.

[Bismar]

Heh so much for the comment on their twitter page. It seems that everyone at kobo has a different idea on when they will release their firmware update. This does not inspire much confidence at all.

@madgoat Not sure where you heard that, but 1st #kobo firmware update is coming much sooner than that. Think days/weeks, not weeks/months
11:08 AM May 11th via CoTweet in reply to madgoat

I have to say, the kobo team has been a real let down, not only in their lack of quality control (software & hardware (battery)), but also their lack of support thereafter.

I wish they at least give us a definite list of whats coming in the firmware update, rather then feeding us tidbits of promises. Hell, we don't even know if they read this thread at all. For all we know our efforts and feedback are totally wasted.

[artificial]

Originally Posted by Bismar

Hell, we don't even know if they read this thread at all. For all we know our efforts and feedback are totally wasted.

They do. Initially they were posting in this thread, but as things have dragged out they seem to have stopped posting here. My guess is that at this point in time they are probably under instructions not to make any promises, hence the radio silence.

[Bismar]

Originally Posted by artificial

They do. Initially they were posting in this thread, but as things have dragged out they seem to have stopped posting here. My guess is that at this point in time they are probably under instructions not to make any promises, hence the radio silence.

Well, the last time JCKobo logged on to his account was the 16th. Seeing as that 'seemed' to their official voice in mobileread, that doesn't bode well. That said, one does not need to log in to read the threads, but i would still like to know if we are actually being listened to.

[Turt99]

JCKobo and SameerH both commented on the forums, and are Kobo employees. Or atleast said they are.

Personally, I think it is great that Kobo was searching out forums to get feedback, but now that they have the feedback they need they have no reason to continue to comment. I would much rather them work on the update then to continually update us on the progress.

I don't think they should tell us anything no guesses at the date no list of changes, just focus on getting the update out the door effectively.

[DKazzed]

Quit your whining people, I'm trying to read!

The Kobo was advertised as a basic ebook reader and other than the lack of Goto Page, I've been absolutely happy with mine. Granted I don't have any of the issues some of you have but that's what the warranty is for. Any extra features would simply be the icing on the cake. (Kobo: Features I do expect to be implemented eventually so don't get smug! lol)

[juiceless]

Originally Posted by DKazzed

The Kobo was advertised as a basic ebook reader and other than the lack of Goto Page, I've been absolutely happy with mine. Granted I don't have any of the issues some of you have but that's what the warranty is for. Any extra features would simply be the icing on the cake. (Kobo: Features I do expect to be implemented eventually so don't get smug! lol)

Agreed - EXCEPT for the font resize problem. That's a major broken bit that needs to be fixed ASAP. Otherwise, very pleased.

[Turt99]

Originally Posted by juiceless

Agreed - EXCEPT for the font resize problem. That's a major broken bit that needs to be fixed ASAP. Otherwise, very pleased.

EXACTLY, the font resize is something that is Broken.

Personally if the only thing that was ever changed was the font sizing I would be perfectly happy with my reader.

GoTo Page, Collections and stuff like that... it would be nice but it I knew about all that before I bought the Kobo so it doesn't bother me one bit.

[Bureaucromancer]

Originally Posted by Turt99

EXACTLY, the font resize is something that is Broken.

Personally if the only thing that was ever changed was the font sizing I would be perfectly happy with my reader.

GoTo Page, Collections and stuff like that... it would be nice but it I knew about all that before I bought the Kobo so it doesn't bother me one bit.

Agree completely with the addition of bookmarking loss on sync also being something broken. There are some other legitimate bugs like cover art disappearing, but generally they are about as important as that.

[Bittybye]

Originally Posted by Turt99

EXACTLY, the font resize is something that is Broken.

Personally if the only thing that was ever changed was the font sizing I would be perfectly happy with my reader.

GoTo Page, Collections and stuff like that... it would be nice but it I knew about all that before I bought the Kobo so it doesn't bother me one bit.

I'm the same. I love my Kobo and am so grateful that I waited and didn't pay a bucket load of money for a ereader. With the money I saved buying the Kobo I'll have enough to buy myself something special.

[DKazzed]

Yea I didn't want to spend an extra $30 + tax on a Sony PRS-300 with a smaller screen and less memory. Coupled with the fact that I bought a Chapters gift card worth $134.40 for only $100, I saved a bit of money on my Kobo.

[FrankKau]

If hasn't already been said:

Better Navigation - something better than flipping through countless pages.
If possible navigation by directory.
PDFs not separated from other files rather than in an unorganized list.
PDFs that are useable and scalable without having to run off the screen (if possible)
.txt of course (should be a given)

[reed]

My wish list--

- make the full system open source; at least publish DB and bluetooth details to make it easier to get content onto the machine

- a clock, maybe place it on the menus next to the batter indicator so it only needs to update when a menu opens

- menu option to drop a book from the I'm Reading list

- menu option to delete a book

- meaningful bluetooth connectivty (blackberry thing is cool idea but way way way not useful to me compared to syncing from my desktop machine)

- keep up the linux support, this has been really great to see, thanks

- better support for the rss feed in an epub reading use case where you tend to skip around and good TOC nav becomes suddenly more important that with a long read book

- a friend just asked me to test a Chinese epub and it seems to not deal with that (lot's of ?'s instead of content), I can imagine just adding more fonts could sort that

- landscape mode

- a way to update the firmware w/out the desktop app

- keep up the kobo employee presence here in the forums, it's much appreciated


--

Also, just a note. Maybe I'm special but my reader has worked great. Reading the comments on this thread I'd think the machine was a disaster but that's certainly not been my experience.

[terifili]

Is it even possible to fix the battery issue on a firmware update?

[Stinger]

Is it even possible to fix the battery issue on a firmware update?

That depends on what issue in particular you're talking about...

They can definitely fix the issue of the battery gauge only updating on power-up, which I suspect is the reason plenty of people are complaining their battery charge drops suddenly.
I also have a strong suspicion that the gauge itself is not all that accurate, again leading people to believe there are problems with their battery.

Beyond fixing stuff like that, there are likely quite a few things they could change in the firmware so the Kobo is more efficient with power consumption overall; Tweaking the power-up process, optimizing the caching of pages maybe to avoid unnecessary memory reads, etc.