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t.kruse · 05-29-2013, 11:22 AM

Hi all,

got my Kobo Aura HD a week ago, running now on 2.5.2. It has 2 glow spots (pixels bright when frontlight is on), but I wont bother sending the device back for just that, they are hard to notice.

I generally like the device, but still I noticed many things I'd like to change. Not sure whether writing them down in this forum will help, but who knows.

Bugs / Suggestions:

BUG: One of the first books I read had small graphics at the beginning of each chapter (e.g. see http://dev.epubbud.com/uploads/1/3/3..._pdf/page1.jpg ), and when I flip to the next page, the text in the area where the graphic was black display a bit "thinner" (probably the letters are less "black" than on the rest of the page). While still readable, this distracts me more than the bright pixels. This is more noticeable with smaller fonts. Though most ebooks probably come without graphics. Flipping forth to another text page and back then shows the same text normal. Not sure whether there is an easy cure.

Bug: Highlighting text makes it practically unreadable (black on almost black).

Bug: Highlightings and annotations are not permanently removed. To reproduce, open book, add annotation / hightlight, save highlight, return to homescreen. Book should be top left tile, showing annotation and highlights. tap on this lower section, delete annotation and hightlight after long tab, return. Annotation and highlight should now appear gone. Open other book. go back to home screen. open first book again, return to home screen. Annotation and highlight should are back again on my Aura HD (2.5.2).

Suggestion: When zooming into a PDF, then flipping to the next page, I'd like the zoom area to remain where it was, XY position-wise. I understand that resetting it to upper left corner makes sense if you want to zoom read pages, but in my case I just wanted to crop away the margins. Could also be a different setting/button than zoom. I had to resort to changing the PDF files to crop the margins.

Suggestion: Tapping the screen before a Menu screen is displayed should never activate anything on the screen to be displayed. It's bad enough that the UI is sluggish, but then having to revert back out of an accidentally opened book makes matters MUCH worse. Inside a book, advancing two pages for tapping twice is fine.

Suggestion: A .mobi file with a comic book converted by Calibre to epub displayed images in original size, which was using just half of the Aura display. This relates to the zooming problem, again I would have liked a fixed zoom area / margin cropping). Using a 1 Ghz processor, I imagine the Kobo could really also just heuristically crop away white areas to all sides of a page (Auto-zoom).

Suggestions: Cbz files with picture numberings (1, 2, 3, ... 10, 11, 12 ...) displayed in poor alphabetical ordering (1, 10, 11, 12, ... 2, ...), see http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/200...ort-order.html
I understand that maybe this should be fixed in the respective cbz files anyway and could do so myself, still it is annoying.

Suggestion: Sorting in any list of books / items in the Kobo menu should be sortable in either direction. E.g. when sorting by size, I want to be able to have smalles or largest first. Currently I can only have largest.

Suggestion: When organizing books into shelves, I want to be able to filter out boks that already have shelves. E.g. when there are 200 books on the device, and 9 new ones, and I need to add the 9 new ones, I want a list showing all books which have no shelf yet.

Suggestion: I always want the library tile on the homescreen, right now it is kind of random when it is there or not. (it is there after adding books, I believe)

Suggestion: When I am offline, then search should not default to results from the bookstore, there ain't never going to be results.

Suggestion: Searching "Delaney" in my collection gave me two results:
Delaney, Joseph (1 book)
Joseph Delaney (4 books)
That could be smarter (though partly the metadata is at fault).

Suggestion: Apps / Games should not be hidden as last entry in "Settings". Why not put them at the bottom of homescreen after "Library | Bookstore | Reading Life"?

Suggestion: For the fast reader, it would be nice if finishing the book of one series / shelf could open or at least easily access the next book from the series / shelf.

Suggestion: Buttons in the menus should be visible as buttons (E.g. did you know you can tap on "Page x to y" to quick jump?)

Suggestion: I am unable to get what this screenshot shows:
http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/imag.../15/362250.jpg
Article:
http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/45...iew-images.htm
But looks like a nice feature.

Suggestion: (Accidentally) opening a book on cover page and returning from it should not set stats to 0% read. It should remain unread / finished.

Suggestion: Default sorting for books should be improved. Showing finished books early because they were "recently read" is useless, the user will have little interest in reading them again usually, will they. Default sorting should show unfinished recently read first, then unread books, then finished books.

Suggestion: Filtering book lists by type would help a lot, a large comic book set in my collection just annoy me in the list when I only care about novels at a given time, and vice versa.

Suggestion: When reading novels from a series of books, it would help to have quick access to metadata about the book, such as which number in the series it's in. E.g. when having a book called "Stephen King: Wolves of the Calla" on the device, it would be nice to be able to quickly search the internet for that title to know it's the 5th out of the dark tower series and next up is "Song of Susannah".

Suggestion: Showing page numbers in the margins additionally to those at the bottom should not be a default.

Suggestion: Header row (book title) and bottom row (Page x of y) when displaying epubs should be optional. The title row should be displayed once, when opening a book, because the tiling of the home screen sometimes is no help in knowing the title (nondescript covers). That probably has been said before, this is just my +1.

Suggestion: It should be easily possible to get the title of a book on any tile in the homescreen without opening the book. Some files have bad covers.

Suggestion: Sleeping / poweroff screen should be configurable, I might not want everybody to know which book I am reading, similarly, locking the device should be an option. No need for anything ultra-secure, people will just forget passwords, but simply something so that I can leave the kobo unattended at a desk without a passerby being able to pick it up and browse thought my collection quickly.

05-29-2013, 11:22 AM	#414
t.kruse Junior Member Posts: 5 Karma: 10 Join Date: May 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	Hi all, got my Kobo Aura HD a week ago, running now on 2.5.2. It has 2 glow spots (pixels bright when frontlight is on), but I wont bother sending the device back for just that, they are hard to notice. I generally like the device, but still I noticed many things I'd like to change. Not sure whether writing them down in this forum will help, but who knows. Bugs / Suggestions: BUG: One of the first books I read had small graphics at the beginning of each chapter (e.g. see http://dev.epubbud.com/uploads/1/3/3..._pdf/page1.jpg ), and when I flip to the next page, the text in the area where the graphic was black display a bit "thinner" (probably the letters are less "black" than on the rest of the page). While still readable, this distracts me more than the bright pixels. This is more noticeable with smaller fonts. Though most ebooks probably come without graphics. Flipping forth to another text page and back then shows the same text normal. Not sure whether there is an easy cure. Bug: Highlighting text makes it practically unreadable (black on almost black). Bug: Highlightings and annotations are not permanently removed. To reproduce, open book, add annotation / hightlight, save highlight, return to homescreen. Book should be top left tile, showing annotation and highlights. tap on this lower section, delete annotation and hightlight after long tab, return. Annotation and highlight should now appear gone. Open other book. go back to home screen. open first book again, return to home screen. Annotation and highlight should are back again on my Aura HD (2.5.2). Suggestion: When zooming into a PDF, then flipping to the next page, I'd like the zoom area to remain where it was, XY position-wise. I understand that resetting it to upper left corner makes sense if you want to zoom read pages, but in my case I just wanted to crop away the margins. Could also be a different setting/button than zoom. I had to resort to changing the PDF files to crop the margins. Suggestion: Tapping the screen before a Menu screen is displayed should never activate anything on the screen to be displayed. It's bad enough that the UI is sluggish, but then having to revert back out of an accidentally opened book makes matters MUCH worse. Inside a book, advancing two pages for tapping twice is fine. Suggestion: A .mobi file with a comic book converted by Calibre to epub displayed images in original size, which was using just half of the Aura display. This relates to the zooming problem, again I would have liked a fixed zoom area / margin cropping). Using a 1 Ghz processor, I imagine the Kobo could really also just heuristically crop away white areas to all sides of a page (Auto-zoom). Suggestions: Cbz files with picture numberings (1, 2, 3, ... 10, 11, 12 ...) displayed in poor alphabetical ordering (1, 10, 11, 12, ... 2, ...), see http://www.codinghorror.com/blog/200...ort-order.html I understand that maybe this should be fixed in the respective cbz files anyway and could do so myself, still it is annoying. Suggestion: Sorting in any list of books / items in the Kobo menu should be sortable in either direction. E.g. when sorting by size, I want to be able to have smalles or largest first. Currently I can only have largest. Suggestion: When organizing books into shelves, I want to be able to filter out boks that already have shelves. E.g. when there are 200 books on the device, and 9 new ones, and I need to add the 9 new ones, I want a list showing all books which have no shelf yet. Suggestion: I always want the library tile on the homescreen, right now it is kind of random when it is there or not. (it is there after adding books, I believe) Suggestion: When I am offline, then search should not default to results from the bookstore, there ain't never going to be results. Suggestion: Searching "Delaney" in my collection gave me two results: Delaney, Joseph (1 book) Joseph Delaney (4 books) That could be smarter (though partly the metadata is at fault). Suggestion: Apps / Games should not be hidden as last entry in "Settings". Why not put them at the bottom of homescreen after "Library \| Bookstore \| Reading Life"? Suggestion: For the fast reader, it would be nice if finishing the book of one series / shelf could open or at least easily access the next book from the series / shelf. Suggestion: Buttons in the menus should be visible as buttons (E.g. did you know you can tap on "Page x to y" to quick jump?) Suggestion: I am unable to get what this screenshot shows: http://img.ibtimes.com/www/data/imag.../15/362250.jpg Article: http://www.ibtimes.co.uk/articles/45...iew-images.htm But looks like a nice feature. Suggestion: (Accidentally) opening a book on cover page and returning from it should not set stats to 0% read. It should remain unread / finished. Suggestion: Default sorting for books should be improved. Showing finished books early because they were "recently read" is useless, the user will have little interest in reading them again usually, will they. Default sorting should show unfinished recently read first, then unread books, then finished books. Suggestion: Filtering book lists by type would help a lot, a large comic book set in my collection just annoy me in the list when I only care about novels at a given time, and vice versa. Suggestion: When reading novels from a series of books, it would help to have quick access to metadata about the book, such as which number in the series it's in. E.g. when having a book called "Stephen King: Wolves of the Calla" on the device, it would be nice to be able to quickly search the internet for that title to know it's the 5th out of the dark tower series and next up is "Song of Susannah". Suggestion: Showing page numbers in the margins additionally to those at the bottom should not be a default. Suggestion: Header row (book title) and bottom row (Page x of y) when displaying epubs should be optional. The title row should be displayed once, when opening a book, because the tiling of the home screen sometimes is no help in knowing the title (nondescript covers). That probably has been said before, this is just my +1. Suggestion: It should be easily possible to get the title of a book on any tile in the homescreen without opening the book. Some files have bad covers. Suggestion: Sleeping / poweroff screen should be configurable, I might not want everybody to know which book I am reading, similarly, locking the device should be an option. No need for anything ultra-secure, people will just forget passwords, but simply something so that I can leave the kobo unattended at a desk without a passerby being able to pick it up and browse thought my collection quickly.