Thread: Every firmware update makes the user experience worse, instead of better
View Single Post
Old 03-14-2018, 11:25 PM   #21
davidfor
Grand Sorcerer
davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.davidfor ought to be getting tired of karma fortunes by now.
 
Posts: 24,905
Karma: 47303824
Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
@nicolas161: I have a lot of problems with your post. It is mainly that there are inaccuracies and personal preferences listed as fact.

Firstly, I'll agree that I prefer the tiled home screen to the current one. What was displayed on it was, overall, more useful to me than the current home screen. But, there were a lot of people who hated the tiled home screen. They found it messy and they didn't understand it. They wanted something simpler, and for these people, the newer home screen is probably better.

Your screenshots of the new home screen and comments show how little you know about it. Firstly, your comment that it is filled with 50% ads when new is accurate, but the tiled home screen is as well. Yes, they could be dismissed, but do you know how many people didn't know how to do that? The big thing is that both the home screens change as they are used. Those ads disappear. When the new home screen came out, people accused Kobo of just trying to sell more books by showing more ads. But, if that was the case, they failed miserably. I see a lot less shop related links on the new home screen than I did on the tiled home screen. Just the main store link and something in the bottom right about a quarter of the time. I actually miss seeing the recommendations tile.

Your mention of Chess is problematic. You list your device as a Glo HD. Kobo never enabled games on the Glo HD. Or any of the devices released since then. If you were playing Chess on your Glo HD, it was because you hacked the device to start it. If that hack stopped working due to some other changes, you don't really have a complaint. Also, all the games have always been listed as unsupported and hence Kobo could remove them at any time.

You mention pinning the browser to the home screen. That was never a supported function. The only way it would stay on the home screen is if you kept opening it. If you pinned it by some other method, that meant you were hacking something, and that is not actually using the firmware as designed.

There are things I cannot comment on in your post. For example, the Browser is something I don't use enough to truly comment on. I mainly use it to test the downloads from a few sites, but I haven't noticed any performance degradation or seen weird reactions to taps.

Quote:
Originally Posted by nicolas161 View Post
So, after three years of updates, what has Kobo improved? Maybe the ereader turns pages some miliseconds faster. Maybe pictures are drawn better on the screen.
And this is another problem I have with your post. You completely dismiss two changes that people had been been discussed. If you look through this forum, there were a lot of people complaining that page turning was a lot slower than on a Kindle. The improvements in this are welcomed by a lot of people. The image display is also something that was commented on as a welcome improvement.
Quote:
And now Kobo will make more money selling ebooks after filling half our screens with advertising.
Which, as I commented above, this just isn't happening.
Quote:
At first sight, nothing more.
I'll take that as a challenge and list off the top of my head the changes I can think of:
  • Performance improvements everywhere. Opening the collections list and importing sideloaded books are the main ones that concern me, but page turning has improved and, based on the comments, that seems to be important to a lot people.
  • Much improved top menu bar and main menu.
  • Authors list.
  • Series sorting.
  • Filters in book lists show counts of books.
  • Manage books page (delete, mark status of multiple books).
  • Removal of the stupid search bar from the home screen and other places.
  • Large print mode in beta section.
  • Browser handles book downloads from more sites.
  • Overdrive support in the Aura ONE.
  • PIN Lock for sleep and power off.
  • Can turn of tap for page turns.
  • Turkish language support.
  • Extra page turning option.
  • Side swipe for brightness control.

Maybe the last three items were added before the 3.15 firmware you are using, but all the rest are much newer and do add useful function. For me, the first few almost make up for the new home screen.

And, I know people won't believe me, but Kobo have actually fixed bugs. And I'm sure they have fixed more than they have introduced.


Overall, the claim you make in the subject of this thread and your post are far to overreaching. There are plenty of improvements in the recent firmware that will improve the user experience. The change to the home screen is one that is arguable about whether it is good or bad. And there has been plenty of discussion here on this.
davidfor is offline   Reply With Quote