Quote:
Originally Posted by FJames
Let's not get crazy here. There's nothing wrong with offering recommendations or suggestions for other books you might want to read.
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Correction:
There is nothing wrong with offering recommendations or suggestions in the "shop" section of the Kobo, but NOT on the home screen. Home screen should be used only for navigation and managing the Kobo, NOT for advertising.
I just recently got BN Nook Simple Touch. I didn't want a Kindle so it was a choice between NST and KT. I spent probably close to 4-5 hours researching NST and KT, reading reviews, forums, watching youtube reviews. And in the end I chose Nook. Technically I think the Kobo is superior to Nook in every way, it has a lot more options to customize text, it allows to change full screen refresh rate between 1 and 6 pages, it supports more formats, and I like the physical shape better.
However, I'm primarily a "leftie" and I didn't want to do a swipe motion on Kobo every time I wanted to turn the page while holding device in my left hand. The physical buttons on the Nook won me over.
I have had my Nook for about two weeks and while I love it there we small things that bothered me somewhat. For example occasional text artifacts due to 6 page screen refresh, downloading sample books into my library without me asking for it, inability to download free public domain books from BN website without inputting my CC information first (what for? the books are free!), and cluttered home screen.
Yes, all of those things are pretty minor, but combined with other strengths of the Kobo ereader I started seriously considering giving Kobo a try and see if I like it better than the Nook. And then I came across the news of new firmware.
Let me say, I think the new firmware is a huge problem...
- I'm very anti-ad everything, I do not want any ads on my devices. I got my nook for $80, and aside from recommendation on the home screen it is more or less ad free (unlike Kindle which has the most intrusive ads of all 3). Now, why would I pay $130, or $50 more than what I paid for my NST to have the same kind of advertising? No way.
- Even if there is a way to disable or change the second list to "shortlist", the home screen functionality is still impacted, whereas previously to go to settings all one had to do was push physical home button, and then tap settings icon, now one has to do an extra step, he has to push physical home button, tap Home, and then tap Settings. Same with Library. I like my devices fast and responsive, I don't want wasting time getting to the settings or library, and ereaders are already slow, adding one extra step in order to go to the library is stupid.
That's not to mention other problems with the new firmware such as:
- double tap problem
- text rendering problems
- reports of slowdown compared to last version
And worst of all, it appears the Kobo is set to automatically update if you ever connect to WiFi. WTF? So the only way to avoid an upgrade is to permamently disable WiFi? WTF? This is beyond stupid.
End point to this rant being:
I was willing try give Kobo a try until they pushed out this firmware, now I'm not buying it until they sort it out, including reverting back to normal home screen without extra advertising.