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Originally Posted by vintodrimmer
On a Kobo Elipsa in the lower-left corner for the brand new user.
They did disappear eventually, but initial impression was pretty bad.
I'll look into the Kobo Patcher to see if any of this can be changed.
Following is a rant about me not liking the interface.
Generally, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed in the interface.
Bottom-left was occupied by the aforementioned TOP-50 picks with the largest image being quite unpleasant to me. I tried pressing "not interested", but it didn't change anything, it was still one of the largest elements on the screen.
Bottom-right was just wasted space, since I'm not really interested in recommendations (they are quite bad in my experience). I did give it a try, but now they just contain some books I'm not going to be interested in.
The worst part is how non-interactive they are.
This is literally a dedicated advertisement space.
You can't browse through the elements from the screen, you can't dismiss or open them from here.
The only thing you can do is use them to open the store (for which there already is a dedicated, always visible button at the bottom of the screen).
To be fair, once I uploaded some books instead of just research PDFs, it did disappear, but the space is still wasted. As the top row I have my recent books.
In the bottom left I have some other books. By pressing on any of the books in the lower-left they don't open, but bring you to the other page entirely with all of your books. So I can just press "my books" button with the same effect.
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Huh? That is a serious "Huh?" because what you say doesn't match with the Kobo home screens that I have seen. Including the copy of 4.28.17826 that is for the Elipsa that I put on my Glo HD. Maybe the Elipsa is different, but, but I haven't seen comments that suggest it is. I did wonder if you had simply swapped left and right, but, that doesn't explain it all.
For example, in the lower left corner, there is "Find your next great read"/"Shop Kobo". Tapping that takes you to the store. It doesn't show recommendations or anything else, and it doesn't change. In the bottom right, there is one that changes. It can show a link recommendations, reading stats, your wishlist, the help and about six other things.
The home screen is divided into five sections vertically: The info bar with icons across the top; current books; My Books and a collection/author; the bit described above; and the button bar across the bottom.
For a new user, current books will show, on the left, an outline with a message about getting books. The right might show recommendations or top50 or something like that. As soon as you add books and start reading them, you get up to four currently opened books show across here.
The middle section has My Books on the left and a changing section on the right. At the right shows something like recommendations or top 50. But, again, when you add your books and start reading, it changes to either an collection or an author related to what you have been reading.
And the next section is described above.
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I just think the UI is terrible, honestly.
I'd prefer it to always default to the "my books" page with the "currently reading" ones at the top and have the ability to disable everything else.
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The "My Books" always opens to the book list you last used. With the same filtering and sorting options you had last used.
No, the interface isn't very user configurable. But, it does listen to what you do and changes exactly what is on the screen as you use the device.
And you did mention the recommendation, which are "are quite bad in my experience". Of course they are. You state you don't buy books from Kobo. How can Kobo recommend books if you don't tell Kobo what you like? In fact, isn't that a good thing? It demonstrates that Kobo is not spying on your sideloaded books or using other sources to work out what they should sell you. I mean, this is a thread about privacy, and you seem to have demonstrated that Kobo is treating your privacy seriously.
And for the record, my recommendations are quite good. I do buy books from Kobo. Most of the books I see are books I would consider. And they frequently lead me to buying a book, or putting one on my wishlist for later (meaning that I get a good promo code). It doesn't mean I get the recommended book, but, it will frequently lead me to another in the same series (Kobo rarely recommends book one in a series I haven't read) or the same author (I frequently try a free book from an unknown author). The problem I have is that I frequently grab a preview because of discussion here to test something. Those previews are rarely something I want to read, but, they do impact Kobo's recommendations for a while. But, that is my fault, not Kobo's.