Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 1.9.17

[HarleyB]

Originally Posted by cyvros

Well, like most of the bigger bugs with previous firmware versions, this bug isn't showing up for everyone at once.

Or perhaps if it is showing up it is only sporadic.
Of the 6 books I have read in the past week the lack of top margin was only a slight annoyance in 1 book. In 3 books the top margin was definitely smaller than the bottom margin and couldn't be adjusted but as I read with small margins it didn't bother me (and I only noticed after people started complaining about it which made me look for the issue) and in 2 books the top margin was fine.
I side load all of my books through Calibre however I do tend to adjust the margins so they are as small as practical.

While I don't discount that this is a major problem for some people for me it is a complete non event.
I still love 1.9.17

[murg]

Another bug:

Sideloaded book. No margins in the book. 0.3 em bottom margin in paragraphs. The paragraph break is such that the end of the paragraph is on the second (or third) line of the screen.

Selecting the last word of the sentence/paragraph causes a center handle to appear in the upper left corner of the screen, with the 'highlighted' word being above the first line on the screen. Only one handle can be seen, and due to its location, it cannot be moved.

I had not seen this in previous versions, which doesn't mean that it wasn't there.

Originally Posted by murg

Selecting the last word of the sentence/paragraph causes a righthand handle to appear in the upper left corner of the screen, with the 'highlighted' word being above the first line on the screen. Only one handle can be seen, and due to its location, it cannot be moved.

This one I saw a fair bit in .16, but haven't seen yet in .17. It only happened with one ebook, too.

[beautifulsoup]

I've got that small top margin issue with sideloaded books, too. Oh, well. So I hold the Kobo at a different angle now.

And, as Tasmin said, black does seem more black now. Or maybe I just think it is.

[dioioib]

Originally Posted by meeera

I had a problem with sideloading (Processing Content freeze) after the upgrade - but I think I've traced it to a hinky, cheap-arse 4G microSD card. I went and bought a name-brand 2G one, and things went smooth as butter after that. 2G is plenty big enough for me, so I'm satisfied for now.

However, it would be great if the Kobo was smart enough to break itself out of these sorts of freezes, and give a more appropriate error message.

I know but the device advertises much higher capacities.

If you buy a car that advertised 100mph and it could only do 20mph you would be upset. I bought a device that is suppose to support up to 32gb. The way the device processes content I doubt both the internal memory and a 32gb SD could be used at the same time. As you add books the device adds parsed cover images in 3 sizes, and database entries with lots of redundant data. They could have saved a lot of space by using SQL table joins rather than just creating a huge spreadsheet style datafile.

I am much happier now that I have some content on the device and can get back to reading again. But would feel a lot better if I had confidence that the advertised specifications were fact rather than theory.

[John F]

After using 1.9.17 for a while, I don't think the missing taps problem is any better then 1.9.16. I'd say I'm seeing missed taps about 1 out of 10 page/screen advances.

[Rainer Zenz]

Originally Posted by panda53

converting the epub or pdf in calibre to a specifically Kobo layout? ...If you side-loaded the ebook.

I do not want to convert books just for fixing a bug. It's much easier for Kobo to restore the old margin in general.

[Sound]

Originally Posted by Rainer Zenz

I do not want to convert books just for fixing a bug. It's much easier for Kobo to restore the old margin in general.

Some of my books are doing the same however on some further inspection the books are settings their top margin to zero in their css. This isn't so much as a bug as its bad CSS and Kobo now respecting it. I'm not sure which I like more though.

[GvilleBridge]

I think Kobo's major problem, with newest version or previous ones, is inability to do quality checks and either accept a new ebook or reject it nicely. I suppose this means inadequate error checking and messaging to the user. Below I suggest the Kobo team consider putting a virtual device in the desktop app so that titles can be vetted before loading into one's device.

No matter how many times I have done a reset (either with a pin in the back of the KT, or via Settings), and no matter how carefully I sideload books in small batches (via drag and drop or Calibre), and no matter how small the SD card (only a 2GB now), eventually the KT (1) refuses to recognize added ebooks, even as Calibre and Windows Explorer shows them; or (2) goes into the endless processing loop that can't be cured except with a reset.

I suspect that the KT database gets corrupted too easily. It will add the data on new titles badly or not at all, thus effectively ceasing to add books, and essentially becomes an ereader with a limited number of titles.

Now, for example, KT says I have 92 books, Calibre says it's 88 (but shows titles that KT doesn't), and Windows says I have fully 125. (These totals account for multiple titles in some authors' folders.) KT isn't showing anything on the SD card, Calibre likewise shows 0, but Windows says there are actually 5 ebooks there.

When Kobo stops accepting books, it's frustrating. It is galling when I want to quickly add some relevant titles even as I'm reading a book. Daniel Kehlmann's novel Measuring the World prompted me to try sideloading the public domain epub of Humboldt's Personal Narrative of Travels to the Equinoctial Regions of America, During the Years 1799-1804, so I could sample it and perhaps use the maps. But KT won't let me. It might have added it once upon a time, but not after a database blockage occurs.

Here's an idea for the Kobo development folks: put a virtual Kobo device in the software for the Kobo desktop app, with a function to vet selected ebooks. I would ask it to take a look at the Humboldt volume before I try to sideload it to the Kobo device; it would say, OK, looks good to Kobo; and soon it would be on my ereader. The user who has used, say, Calibre to view 100 books can get Kobo's OK for all of them (or put aside any malformed epub) before sideloading begins

Right now, the only way I can check 100 books would be to load one, eject, let KT process, see what happens. Inefficient!

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

Oh, and I honestly, really could not care LESS about being able to tell people on Facebook what I'm reading, let alone use my Kobo to do it. What a waste of development time and effort when other features are still pending.

Surely features like this are the whole point of using Kobo rather than - cough! - other e-reading platforms? If you just want a barebones e-reader, why not just buy a Kindle?

[Cameronpaterson]

Originally Posted by Jaden

+1

If I wanted to tell people on Facebook what I was reading, I could simply post about it - not that I want to or feel that other people would be interested. Didn't care about it before, don't care about it now.

Being able to opt out of the recommendations and stuff would be nice. Yes, I can hide it, but I just don't want advertising to take up space on my device. And there recommendations are so much rubbish that it will not make me buy one book.

I'd be much more inclined to buy books from Kobo if they would make my reading experience more comfortable. That would make me feel like a valued costumer which would make me want to support the company by purchasing books.

That's not to say, of course, that other people won't use and even like the Timeline feature.
I am not madly enamoured of the recommendations either - they're rather pushy and in-ya-face - but not totally off-base in terms of being books I might actually read. In my experience, anyway.
I'm curious to know how you'd define 'comfortable' in this context. Free armchair with every ten books? I could go for that!

[mconh]

Originally Posted by GvilleBridge

Right now, the only way I can check 100 books would be to load one, eject, let KT process, see what happens. Inefficient!

You can load the 100 books at one time via Calibre. They are loaded alpha sort.
Then after reboot go to the images folder and find the last book loaded with all it's images. The next missing book in Alpha order is the bad one.
I have used this method to find and remove bad epubs.

If all the books and images are in the Images folder then you have a different problem.

[ageinghoody]

Originally Posted by Cameronpaterson

Surely features like this are the whole point of using Kobo rather than - cough! - other e-reading platforms? If you just want a barebones e-reader, why not just buy a Kindle?

In my case, because I wanted epub support.

That and my congenital antagonism to anything that smacks of monopoly.

Of course, if Kindle had gone with an open system from the beginning, I suspect that they would now have a monopoly of the e-reader market.

I can't decide if I'm glad or not that they seem to have missed the boat on that.

I do find the Facebooky/sharey stuff bizarre though! Thankfully it can be ignored.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by Cameronpaterson

That's not to say, of course, that other people won't use and even like the Timeline feature.
I am not madly enamoured of the recommendations either - they're rather pushy and in-ya-face - but not totally off-base in terms of being books I might actually read. In my experience, anyway.
I'm curious to know how you'd define 'comfortable' in this context. Free armchair with every ten books? I could go for that!

Sure, some people will like it - but why implement a feature like that before making the reading experience better? Free armchair - well, I would not need one every ten books, but one in awhile would be nice.

No, really... read through the recommendations thread and there are tons of wishes that would make reading with the touch much nicer. As for me, I'd first of all wish to have horizontal tap zones, not only vertical. And being able to set all screen to go page forward.

But shelves would be nice, too, even though that's rather "book management". Better dictionaries, better dictionary navigation... the ability to set top and bottom margins seperately, not only left and right... or center the text... And there's so much more...

Oh, and how about the option to not have these advertisings loaded to the Kobo Touch? Isn't it enough that it's on the Desktop, homepage and in the emails? Not that it matters that much, but it would be nice anyway.

Especially since the recommendations are totally useless in my case and have always been. Most books I bought from Kobo were fantasy books and they recommend romance novels or craft books or erotica - none of which have anything to do with what I bought or want to read.

Timeline or any other Facebook gimmick or other advertising should not be first priority.

[ottdmk]

Thing is, improvements don't draw reviews, attention and publicity. Distinctive features do. The Facebook integration is all about distinguishing the Kobo from all the other ereaders out there.

Now, I've been having my fair share of problems with 1.9.17. Although I don't mind the missing top margin, I had a rather large ebook (Dresden Files Collection 7-12) lock the reader on me a number of times. It also seemed to cause problems with my ADE authentication. Finally, the web browser is a lot less stable. It crashes the device regularly now.