Firmware 2.10.0 Released

[RZetlin]

The firmware update came on my Kobo Glo, but I did not get any update on my Kobo Aura HD.

Anybody know if the Kobo Aura HD got an update as well?

[meeera]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Personally, I think they listen and decide what they want to use. Sometimes they tell us why, but mostly not.

In this case, they explained what was happening. Apparently people did not understand how to bring up the menu. They were tapping where the home icon gets displayed expecting to see the menu or go to the home screen. The UI/UX team decided it was better to make the change we are seeing. They said it made for a more consistent interface.

So why not just make the top left corner bring up the menu, instead of the entire top strip?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by meeera

So why not just make the top left corner bring up the menu, instead of the entire top strip?

The home icon was the example. There are also the icons on the other side. The problem with this is that tapping the top right corner creates a bookmark, and that makes an inconsistency in the UI.

The other problem is with PDFs in landscape and zoomed in. The black bars for turning the page appear where the menu would be displayed. In the last beta, you couldn't go to the previous page because tapping that area displayed the menu. The release is a different build, so maybe they fixed this.

[murg]

It might also help if Kobo announced the changes to the UI, rather than their customers just discovering that things work differently.

[Joques]

I personally like that the top of the screen goes straight to the menu, and lambasting that design desicion as "stupid" is taking it a bit far. Before, you first had to tap to bring up the top and bottom bars, and then tap the top bar to get to the menu. This way saves a tap - and speaking as someone who has been heavily afflicted with the "freeze on blank screen" bug, this saves a whole lot of taps. Also, it saves a tap whenever you want to change brightness.

I say keep it like this!

[Caramon77]

The UI is more trained-user-only from firm to firm. It seems Kobo just want their ereaders to be bought from already koboed people.

It's simply stupid to remove easy icons and moves and replace with fancier, more modern and minimal ones, getting a worse user experience. For example the basic, perfect light icon... now it takes more time to change light level and an unexperienced user has to remeber that it's on the menu. Why? To remove an icon in a rarely seen bar...

I read that in 2.10 to get to the TOC you have to tap page number... why? how can i know it if I am a non geek, if i don't read forums, if i have a Kobo and I am used to tap a useful, dedicated icon?

Minimalism sometimes get you to an elegant and uncomfortable world. To sell better and use worse.

I am on 2.8.1 with patcher and night mode and i think i will not update.

[Nightyume]

Originally Posted by Caramon77

The UI is more trained-user-only from firm to firm. It seems Kobo just want their ereaders to be bought from already koboed people.

It's simply stupid to remove easy icons and moves and replace with fancier, more modern and minimal ones, getting a worse user experience. For example the basic, perfect light icon... now it takes more time to change light level and an unexperienced user has to remeber that it's on the menu. Why? To remove an icon in a rarely seen bar...

I read that in 2.10 to get to the TOC you have to tap page number... why? how can i know it if I am a non geek, if i don't read forums, if i have a Kobo and I am used to tap a useful, dedicated icon?

Minimalism sometimes get you to an elegant and uncomfortable world. To sell better and use worse.

I am on 2.8.1 with patcher and night mode and i think i will not update.

I think you can blame some of this on the Aura. With the Aura the menu option for brightness becomes an afterthought due to the multi-touch functionality.

As for the TOC, it's logical even if a bit less convenient. You get the table of content option inside the navigation submenu which makes its own kind of sense.

The problem is that you can't please everybody and that "simple dedicated icons" aren't always sooo clear. There are icons on my phones and tablets which are meant to be intuitive and easy to understand that took me months to learn how to use since I was used to the menu options with acutal words. There are still icons which I have no idea what they do.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Nightyume

I think you can blame some of this on the Aura. With the Aura the menu option for brightness becomes an afterthought due to the multi-touch functionality.

That change happened with the Aura HD. It didn't worry me as I haven't changed the light level for several months.

As for the TOC, it's logical even if a bit less convenient. You get the table of content option inside the navigation submenu which makes its own kind of sense.

I think it is the correct place. Firstly, to answer Caramon77 comment, you don't tap the page number; you tap whatever area of the screen brings up the menus. The page number is always part of this area. Once the menus are display, you now tap the double-arrow navigate button instead of the book icon. On the next menu, you tap "Table of contents". Exactly the same number of taps. And were it is now makes sense to me as it is part of the navigation options.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by RZetlin

The firmware update came on my Kobo Glo, but I did not get any update on my Kobo Aura HD.

Anybody know if the Kobo Aura HD got an update as well?

Yes, according to Kobo France.

[bernard.ryefield]

Originally Posted by samhy

Yes, according to Kobo France.

Well, I'm in France and FW 2.8.1 for Kobo Glo was available only a few days ago. I don't expect FW 2.10 before a couple of months.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Joques

I personally like that the top of the screen goes straight to the menu, and lambasting that design desicion as "stupid" is taking it a bit far. Before, you first had to tap to bring up the top and bottom bars, and then tap the top bar to get to the menu. This way saves a tap - and speaking as someone who has been heavily afflicted with the "freeze on blank screen" bug, this saves a whole lot of taps. Also, it saves a tap whenever you want to change brightness.

Fair enough to have some part of the top screen bring up the menu, but why not the middle top and keep consistency with the bottom (because their consistency argument doesn't hold water as it is)? I argued this unsuccessfully. The change they made has made 1 handed reading for myself and others that also argued against it in beta impossible. That's why I call it a stupid decision.
I agree with David that the developers do listen to the beta, but at a higher decision making level our arguments fall on deaf ears (they do fix lots of things we find). It's happened before that they ignored us and ended up backtracking after the backlash we predicted happened which is why I recommend contacting customer service.
And we have begged and pleaded for more description of changes/new features to go out with the firmware, but that doesn't happen either.

[jeather]

Originally Posted by Joques

I personally like that the top of the screen goes straight to the menu, and lambasting that design desicion as "stupid" is taking it a bit far.

The thing is, there's a little picture of what parts of the screen you tap to do certain things, and you choose based on that picture. One of them, the one where the screen is chopped in thirds, shows that touching the top centre brings up the menu. The other two (both of which I have tried in this update), show that touching the top centre moves to the next page, which it does not.

Maybe it's a smart design decision in general; maybe I hold the book in a weird way. But the fact is that the device itself says it does one thing and actually does something else, so if they want to keep this decision -- I hope they don't, obviously -- then they need to update the icons because they are wrong.

[thomasn75]

As someone who have recently come from a Sony t1 to a kobo aura i had no problems finding my way round rhe kobo and find the menus fine to navigate and logical. Love the double finger light adjustment.
Also there seems to be a lot of complaints about firmware updates. At sony the only update i got on my t1 actually removed functionally. And they never update older models. One of the many reasons why I am now a very happy kobo customer

[samhy]

Originally Posted by bernard.ryefield

Well, I'm in France and FW 2.8.1 for Kobo Glo was available only a few days ago. I don't expect FW 2.10 before a couple of months.

Sometimes there is merely a few weeks between two releases (around 2.5 if memory serves) and following Kobo's past in a couple of month our ereaders will be hit by the firmware 2.13 if not higher
As for 2.10, the French statement named clearly the Aura, the Aura HD and the Glo. That same day the roll out began in Canada.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jeather

The thing is, there's a little picture of what parts of the screen you tap to do certain things, and you choose based on that picture. One of them, the one where the screen is chopped in thirds, shows that touching the top centre brings up the menu. The other two (both of which I have tried in this update), show that touching the top centre moves to the next page, which it does not.

Maybe it's a smart design decision in general; maybe I hold the book in a weird way. But the fact is that the device itself says it does one thing and actually does something else, so if they want to keep this decision -- I hope they don't, obviously -- then they need to update the icons because they are wrong.

I pointed this out during the beta. I could understand it not being done in early beta's, but it needed to be done before the release. Also, as the word "consistency" was used as a reason for this change, I felt it showed the lack of consistency.

As to the actual change, I can understand it as a design choice. But, I think that near the edges of the screen are the best places to tap for turning the page. Especially one handed. That makes using that area for anything else questionable.