Kobo Firmware 2.6.1

[DNSB]

Content deleted due to moderatophobia....

Regards,
David

[theonna]

DNSB pointing out shortcomings of Kobo compared to other readers does not mean that the only reason is to put Kobo down, it is amazing to me that coming out later than Kindle, Sony or Nook, having tech stats better, Aura still can not even match the features of its competitors, much less offer something better. I would like to use Kobo and be proud to choose the best reader. Not to make excuses to myself of virtual advantages of hour long syncing or not having a file manager.

[rayhigh]

Duplicate.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theonna

DNSB pointing out shortcomings of Kobo compared to other readers does not mean that the only reason is to put Kobo down, it is amazing to me that coming out later than Kindle, Sony or Nook, having tech stats better, Aura still can not even match the features of its competitors, much less offer something better. I would like to use Kobo and be proud to choose the best reader. Not to make excuses to myself of virtual advantages of hour long syncing or not having a file manager.

I just tried copying 1680 books over to a Nook. Oopps.. couldn't do it since there isn't enough free space for user sideloads. Time to copy 875 books take slightly longer than copying the same books to my Aura using Calibre for both copies. Yes, the Nook was ready about 1 minute after the copy was completed while the Aura took 5 minutes to process all the books. Hmmm.. tried to locate a book on both. Aura took <1 second to locate the book which took 1 tap on the search bar and typing 3 characters then a single tap on the search result for the book to open it. Nook took 36 taps to get to the book by browsing the document library and doing quite a bit of scrolling (about 24 seconds total). Yes, the Nook duplicated the file structure that I store books on on my PC. A bit of a complicated structure but it's worked for me for years on my PCs.

Reset the Aura and copied all 1680 books back to the uSD card. Ejected, and took about 10 minutes to process.

Hmmm... 24 seconds to locate a single book compared to <1 seconds. At a 12 second per book advantage (some books aren't going to need the amount of scrolling that Nine Princes in Amber did), around about 40 books into reading, I'm saving time using the Aura and it's database search. And after all, I didn't sit there while the Aura processed it's files -- that's what cameras are for. I went and enjoyed part of the Kings and Blackhawks game.

Regards,
David

[rayhigh]

I'm pretty new to the Kobo universe. But what kind of sync would take an hour? I sent a couple of hundred books to the Aura through Calibre and it took under a minute to transfer them, then perhaps another minute to parse them after I unplugged the Aura from the Mac.

Originally Posted by theonna

DNSB pointing out shortcomings of Kobo compared to other readers does not mean that the only reason is to put Kobo down, it is amazing to me that coming out later than Kindle, Sony or Nook, having tech stats better, Aura still can not even match the features of its competitors, much less offer something better. I would like to use Kobo and be proud to choose the best reader. Not to make excuses to myself of virtual advantages of hour long syncing or not having a file manager.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As far as I recall, 510x680 is a 3x4 aspect ratio. All the Kobo ereaders use that ratio except for the Glo which is 758x1024 or 3x4.05 so why would they be off aspect ratio? Inquiring minds are eager to know.

Because pBooks are not that aspect and this, the covers are not at that aspect. Just take a look at covers that are 510x680. Some you cannot tell they are off aspect, but most you can.

If this is how Kobo sizes covers, then it's a bug as they should be the correct aspect.

[robko]

Originally Posted by theonna

, it is amazing to me that coming out later than Kindle, Sony or Nook, having tech stats better, Aura still can not even match the features of its competitors, much less offer something better.

To put another point of view on this out there:
It's amazing to me that considering how long they have been around that Kindle, Sony or Nook haven't managed to match the font and margin options of the Kobo.

I have no need for a file manager. I don't have 1000's of book on my Kobo so it doesn't take hours to sync. I like the options I have for changing/adding fonts and margins. Kobo fits my needs nearly perfectly. There is nothing wrong with Kobo not meeting your needs, but people seem to think that if it doesn't fit exactly what *they* want it's a terrible reader. Is Kobo perfect - no. Is it wrong for people to want changes/improvements - no. Just realize that there are a lot of people who are generally happy with it and that's the beauty of a competitive market -- there are other options if Kobo doesn't currently meet your needs.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

What is this widows and orphans thing that everyone is talking about? Did they fix those huge blank spaces where the next paragraph is started on a new page rather than filling up the rest of the current page? So far I'm not seeing any real reason to upgrade from 2.5.1 (unless they've fixed the PDF refresh).

PDF refresh ghosting issue was fixed.

(I state this based on my personal experience with the Glo, which you don't have...I know at least 2 other people confirmed this fix..but I didn't pay attention to which device they had...and I believe someone posted that it wasn't fixed...also didn't pay attention to which device. So I make no promises )

[theonna]

DNSB- you have a very special Aura
I already wrote how long it took to load books and then sync- about 1600- took Calibre 40 minutes to process, then 30 minutes to upload and then after disconnecting from computer another 50 min for Aura to process.
I was learning how to do shelves and so I had to remove all the books and put them back more than once, just removing them takes 30 minutes, and the times were all similar, when I tried to load 1.6g of books, about 3.5K all the time with processing took...2.5 hours.
Now if you want me to compare with Nook- the time it takes to put books on it is similar to Aura and depends on the speed of usb connection, but after that there is no wait time at all, compared with Aura. In fact compared with all of the big names on ereader market, Aura takes longest time to start reading after sideloading books. Yes, Nook does not leave you a lot of space on for your own books, but it supports sd cards. I can stick my library in and be reading in a minute or two, with Aurora, it is impossible, it needs to "process" the books for a good hour.
And in lieu of supporting keyboards for let's say chinese or russian or hindu- good luck using search for those. You counting 20 seconds against Nook search time, and forgetting that it is impossible to find any foreign book on Aurora at all, when on Nook you can do it with more taps, but with well organized library definitely not 36
I will put my card containing 800 books in Nook- I can read in a minute, I put same card in Aurora- I have to wait 40 minutes to even start and then, since I did not use Calibre- I would not be having shelves and would not be able to find a book in 100+pages, to leaf through them will take way more than 36 taps.
I will do testing tonight to see if processing speed improved any, but I think you doing Kobo disservice when you choose to ignore their shortcomings, and praising their extremely inadequate software.
Yes, I can and so can many others to work around the issues, but unless we say about the problems, it is us who'd be wasting time working around them for much longer, that is if we even stay.

[PeterT]

Remember there is no need when using calibre to drop books to change shelving; just disconnect the device, change shelves and reconnect. The shelves will be updated during the automatic metadata management.

[JSWolf]

Why can't the shelves be updated the first time?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Why can't the shelves be updated the first time?

Because the internal database is used for most things, until a book is processed by the device and in the database, the calibre driver can't change that information. But, shelves are set when the books are sent the first time. If the shelves are changed later, they are updated when the driver connects to the device the next time.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Because pBooks are not that aspect and this, the covers are not at that aspect. Just take a look at covers that are 510x680. Some you cannot tell they are off aspect, but most you can.

If this is how Kobo sizes covers, then it's a bug as they should be the correct aspect.

Do you even read the messages you are responding to?

So once more for the hard of reading:

The thumbnails on the tiles have a minimum aspect ratio of 3x4. If the image being used for the thumbnail has an aspect ratio greater than 3x4 (3x5 for example), the image on the thumbnail will be the same width as a 3x4 image but will be taller to maintain it's aspect ratio. If the aspect ratio is lower than 3x4 (3x3 for a square image), the lower portion of the 3x4 thumbnail will be left blank. Since it appears the border around the tile is the same width, a taller thumbnail will require a taller tile.

Nothing to do with the aspect ratio of a physical book which can vary all over the map. Nothing to do with the aspect ratio of any ereader screen. Nothing to do with any of your oh so touching concerns about how a Kobo ereader should work. Simply how a Kobo ereader with a tiled interface generates it's tiles and why the height of the tiles can vary.

Why do I keep thinking about a Doug and the Slugs album from 1983?

Disdainfully,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by theonna

DNSB- you have a very special Aura
I already wrote how long it took to load books and then sync- about 1600- took Calibre 40 minutes to process, then 30 minutes to upload and then after disconnecting from computer another 50 min for Aura to process.
I was learning how to do shelves and so I had to remove all the books and put them back more than once, just removing them takes 30 minutes, and the times were all similar, when I tried to load 1.6g of books, about 3.5K all the time with processing took...2.5 hours.
Now if you want me to compare with Nook- the time it takes to put books on it is similar to Aura and depends on the speed of usb connection, but after that there is no wait time at all, compared with Aura. In fact compared with all of the big names on ereader market, Aura takes longest time to start reading after sideloading books. Yes, Nook does not leave you a lot of space on for your own books, but it supports sd cards. I can stick my library in and be reading in a minute or two, with Aurora, it is impossible, it needs to "process" the books for a good hour.
And in lieu of supporting keyboards for let's say chinese or russian or hindu- good luck using search for those. You counting 20 seconds against Nook search time, and forgetting that it is impossible to find any foreign book on Aurora at all, when on Nook you can do it with more taps, but with well organized library definitely not 36
I will put my card containing 800 books in Nook- I can read in a minute, I put same card in Aurora- I have to wait 40 minutes to even start and then, since I did not use Calibre- I would not be having shelves and would not be able to find a book in 100+pages, to leaf through them will take way more than 36 taps.
I will do testing tonight to see if processing speed improved any, but I think you doing Kobo disservice when you choose to ignore their shortcomings, and praising their extremely inadequate software.
Yes, I can and so can many others to work around the issues, but unless we say about the problems, it is us who'd be wasting time working around them for much longer, that is if we even stay.

I don't ignore Kobo's shortcomings and I complain rather vociferously on occasion. What I find hard to comprehend is why your ereader requires so much more time to process books than mine does. In my experience, 1600 books takes about 10 minutes to process. Admittedly, these are all clean epubs (Flightcrew says no problems, Epubcheck has very minor complaints) which may be a factor. Perhaps you can name a few of those "many others to work around the issues"? Perhaps you can try running your epub book collection through Flightcrew and EpubCheck? I also find it hard to comprehend how you continue to ignore a solution that works for locating books and continue to kvetch about how dumping the database and going to a file browser would cure all your issues.

As for browsing the library, as I said, I use the search function. Works like a charm and takes far fewer taps than any other method I've tried. Perhaps you use a far simpler directory structure than I do -- flat by author perhaps. My structure breaks up into fantasy, science fiction, mystery, miscellaneous and 4 other categories, then I get into the sub-categories. Under Fantasy for example are folders for Sword and Sorcery, Urban, Sidhe, Paranormal, Steampunk, Dying Earth, and 4 more. Yes, I know Dying Earth is rather specialized but enough books to make it worthwhile to give them their own folder. Within those folders are the various authors, collaborations, anthologies and so forth plus series folders inside some of them. It's a structure that has been growing for quite a few years -- most of the early books were flat text files.

I just redid the Aura after doing the comparison with the Nook so I had the same number of books on each. The total time to factory reset, update the firmware, copy the books over and have them processed was less than the time you state just to copy the books. OTOH, I have to wonder why you are reloading the books into Calibre each time? Can't you simply load them into Calibre once and then use that library which would save you 40 minutes? And I have to wonder about the computer you are using. On my iMac, it takes far less time to copy the books to the Aura from Calibre, on my Lenovo laptop, it takes a couple of minutes less so 15 minutes instead of your 30 minutes. Then about 10 minutes for the Aura to process the books.

Total time is about 30 minutes. If I do a factory reset, add 15 minutes.

As for not being able to find a foreign book on the Aura (or is that Aurora?) What exactly do you mean by a foreign book? A book in a format that the Aura does not handle? I've never been enthused about storing those on any ereader. Once a book is processed into the database, it shows up on the search. Checking on my daughter's Glo, search for 'pix'. Hmmm... 5 results when I type the x, all of which are her cbz versions of Pixie 1 to 5. Total time about 1 second.

Now on your Nook, locate all books that have Eric Flint as author, co-author or editor. On the Aura, takes 1 tap to open the search bar, 3 taps to enter 'fli', tap on Eric Flint in the search results, hmmm... now I have to browse 13 pages of result (76 at 6 per page) so a max of 13 swipes and 1 tap. Total taps/swipes maximum is 18 to open one of those books. If I remember the book title I want is at the end of an alphabetic sort, I swipe backwards to reduce the number of swipes. Total time to the results page about 1 seconds -- I was watching the Blackhawks beat the Kings in OT at the same time but the results come up immediately and refined as I entered more characters. Total time to locate a random book, around 6 seconds.

Please let me know how long it takes to generate a similar book list on your Nook. I'm not even going to try on the Nook I have here. And yes, I did use Eric Flint as he is a prolific writer, collaborator and editor as his bibliography shows: http://www.ericflint.net/index.php/bibliography/

As for reading books with fonts other than Latin or Japanese on a Nook, I seem to remember items such as having to root the Nook, copying font files over and renaming them, all kinds of fun.

And please let me know how well it works for Arabic and Hebrew? Tategaki? Perhaps a mixed book with right to left and left to right mixed on the same line?

Not using Calibre? That has no effect on the search function which you should know. Search does not care if you use Calibre, copy the books manually using an USB cable plugged into your ereader, copy them using ADE, pop the uSD card into your computer and copy the books to it directly or whatever other method turns your crank. The only requirement is that your ebooks have decent metadata otherwise search is GIGO. After all, if you've spent 40 minutes multiple times adding the books to Calibre, why not use it?

Shelves and folder browsing are just so 20th century.

Regards,
David

[EBXY]

Originally Posted by moffattm

GONE!?!

But that was the best feature of 2.5.2! The whole reason I upgraded to 2.5.2 in the first place!

This is totally unacceptable, Kobo should not give us something and then take it away without my permission! They didn't even ask me, just unilaterally made the decision that I didn't need to see the title of the book that I'm reading. Well, Kobo, I DO need to see the title!

I demand that Kobo reinstate this feature immediately! This is going to turn the Kobo world upside down, I can hear the screams of agony all around the world, even from way down here in New Zealand! I can't imagine any Kobo user being pleased about this development!

I suggest we start an email campaign to bombard Kobo with messages telling them just how upset we all are that they've removed this awesome functionality and how we will all boycott their products until they bring back book titles in the page header!

Please tell me how to revert back to the previous firmware that showed the book title, and how to stop being INFECTED by any future firmware that doesn't show the book title!!!

**** All of the above has been said in sarcasm to poke fun at the people who said the end of the world had arrived when the last firmware release displayed book titles in the page headers ***

The title is shown with the actual time when reading for me.
When I tap on the top line both is shown in exchange for some seconds.
It was the same with 2.5.2 for me. So I can't see any difference and am happy.
Also the new first page is better for the handling I think.