Glo A clock that stays on? and Wifi

Catsnkites · 02-13-2014, 03:27 PM

One of the things I liked about my Nook was the clock in the upper corner .... then I could tell how much past bedtime I was reading.

I know the Glo has a clock ...and I know it appears when you bring up the menu stuff while reading ... but is there any way to have the clock stay "on"?

There is nothing in the upper margin when I read sideloaded books (but I LOVE the total pages in the book at the bottom) and the few Kobo books I have do have the title in the upper margin, but no clock. (and is there any way to get total pages in the book rather than in the chapter?)

With my Nook, the battery life was so short (charged 2-3 x week) that I rarely turned on the Wifi. Most of my books were sideloaded using either ADE or Calibre ... I would turn on the Wifi when the clock was more than 5 minutes off and if I bought a Nook Book and didn't want to use Calibre.

I know the Glo has a better battery life ... and I still have to plug it in to use Calibre... and the Kobo bookstore would not necessarily be my first choice (I have two Amz gift cards and one B&N from Christmas ....) .... so do you all keep the Wifi on? Turn it on a few times a week? Use it rarely or not at all?

And ... I know this will get better... last night was the first time I read with this type of lighting ... but I found even 1% to be a bit bright ... I'm sure I have to get used to it ... but, am I just crazy?

peachiekene · 02-13-2014, 04:23 PM

The light: I found the 1% to be a bit too bright as well, but there is a nightmode mod on these forums that fixed it right up. (It allows you to reverse the colors. Much easier on the eyes when it's dark.)

Wifi: I rarely use it. I do sometimes look things up and then I just turn it on, look up what I want, and then turn it off again. But I do that with all my devices-not just ereaders so it's more of a habit than anything else.

Clock: That was the hardest thing to get used to when I switched from a 1st Gen nook to a nook ST. I've been without the permanent clock since May 2012 and have since gotten used to it. I'm guessing the clock takes up more battery usage if it is constantly displayed. No idea if there is a mod for keeping it on or not. Might be worth a look.

I've only had my kobo glo since xmas - so hopefully someone will be able to help you with these better than I can.

davidfor · 02-13-2014, 06:08 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

There is nothing in the upper margin when I read sideloaded books (but I LOVE the total pages in the book at the bottom) and the few Kobo books I have do have the title in the upper margin, but no clock. (and is there any way to get total pages in the book rather than in the chapter?)

I don't know of a way to get the clock permanently displayed. I always assumed it was not displayed because of the way e-ink screens work.

To have full book page numbering for kepubs, add the following to the "Kobo eReader.conf" file. This is in the directory ".kobo\Kobo" when connected to the PC.

Code:

[FeatureSettings]
FullBookPageNumbers=true

If a "FeatureSettings" section already exists, add the other line after it.

Catsnkites · 02-14-2014, 11:40 AM

davidfor: can I adopt you? Maybe for four hours? I made chocolate cookies!

I also have an endless supply of Girl Scout Cookies!
{I now see that you are in Australia ... sorry

}

Anyway, I appreciate your patience in working with us newbies ... I do know that I can search in the forums .... my main thing is that I find a thread with 20 pages and I never know if the info in the first message ... like the first message of Kevin Short's Nightmode hack dated nine months ago and the links within it are current for my version of Firmware (or your threads related to Calibre when it says "only works on version X.X.X" and my Calibre version is newer ...)

Thank you for taking the time to help!

I'm working on:
**Nightmode
**The Kobo Utilities Plug-in (that's not the same as the driver ... I can use both the Touch driver (with others disabled AND the Kobo utility plug-in, right?)

And generally getting my library up to date before sending it to the device.

How does one back up the device and Calibre before doing anything major? I'll poke around in the forums ....

Again, much thanks!

Darth_Bane · 02-14-2014, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

One of the things I liked about my Nook was the clock in the upper corner .... then I could tell how much past bedtime I was reading.

I know the Glo has a clock ...and I know it appears when you bring up the menu stuff while reading ... but is there any way to have the clock stay "on"?

I don't know how adventurous you are, but if you install CoolReader from the link in the Developer's Section, you will get a permanently displayed clock in the upper right-hand corner of your screen. Note that the clock only refreshes when you turn the page, which is good enough for most people.

davidfor · 02-14-2014, 10:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

davidfor: can I adopt you? Maybe for four hours? I made chocolate cookies!

I also have an endless supply of Girl Scout Cookies!
{I now see that you are in Australia ... sorry

}

I'd better not comment on that or I might get into trouble with my wife. Or Willa.

Quote:

Anyway, I appreciate your patience in working with us newbies ... I do know that I can search in the forums .... my main thing is that I find a thread with 20 pages and I never know if the info in the first message ... like the first message of Kevin Short's Nightmode hack dated nine months ago and the links within it are current for my version of Firmware (or your threads related to Calibre when it says "only works on version X.X.X" and my Calibre version is newer ...)

Most of the for the hacks and plugins keep the first post updated. Some will update the info and others will have a link to the post in the thread for the current version. I just checked the Nightmode hack thread, and the first post is up to date.

As to my references to calibre versions, it is usually the cut-off point. I'm usually referring to the version where something changed. For new function or firmware support, it means the version that function or support. All versions after that will have the same function.

Quote:

Thank you for taking the time to help!

I'm working on:
**Nightmode
**The Kobo Utilities Plug-in (that's not the same as the driver ... I can use both the Touch driver (with others disabled AND the Kobo utility plug-in, right?)

Th KoboTouch driver is needed to communicate with the device. The utilities plugin is separate, but relies on function in the driver to do a lot of its work.

Quote:

And generally getting my library up to date before sending it to the device.

How does one back up the device and Calibre before doing anything major? I'll poke around in the forums

For calibre, backup the directory that has your library. For the device, you either backup the whole drive, or just the device database. The utilities plugin can do the database backup.

Ripplinger · 02-15-2014, 02:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't know of a way to get the clock permanently displayed. I always assumed it was not displayed because of the way e-ink screens work.

I really miss seeing a clock permanently displayed too, especially when I stop to read waiting before heading to appointments, etc., which I do often. The Sony X50 line with PRS+ was able to permanently display the clock at the right side of the bottom bar with the page info. It only changed the time display when you turned the page, so there was no extra drain on the battery at all.

ShellShock · 02-15-2014, 03:50 PM

The Sony and Kobo epubs both use Adobe RMSDK for displaying epubs; AFAIK the status bar is external to RMSDK. So if it possible to get a status bar clock on the Sony, maybe someone can figure it out for the Kobo?

Catsnkites · 02-15-2014, 10:29 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

Th KoboTouch driver is needed to communicate with the device. The utilities plugin is separate, but relies on function in the driver to do a lot of its work.

SIGH .....

OK, I "think" I have the Kobo Utilities installed correctly.

I used Calibre itself to get the plug-in.
I added four new columns:
Percent Read ( lookup="percentread", type = integers, Format = blank)
Kobo Rating (lookup = "koborating", type = ratings, shown with stars NOTE, I didn't use this when setting up the column matches)
Last Read Timestamp (lookup = "lastreadtime", type = date, format = blank)
Current Reading Location (lookup = "readinglocation", type = Text, column shown in the tag browser the "show checkmarks" box is unchecked

I then used "Customize Kobo Utilities" and matched the custom columns.
I used the regular rating column for the Rating Column.
Store on Connect boxes are all unchecked
I wasn't really sure what to put in the Other Options and I didn't set up any keyboard shortcuts.

Anyway .... my Kobo Glo is connected, but when I select a book that is on the device and right click and choose the Utilities menu, the "Change Reading Status in Device Library" choice is greyed out.

This was specifically what I was looking for ....

So what did I do wrong?
Oh, I'm using the Kobo Touch driver, the other two are disabled. (Kobo Reader and KoboTouchExtended)

TechniSol · 02-15-2014, 10:52 PM

I can't imagine it would be a huge problem for Kobo to implement such a "clock", but in my mind at least it is a strange implementation as you are reducing it's accuracy to the last page turn, not even a set interval... For those of us truly concerned with time it would be an affront as clocks go.

Maybe a better feature is the X amount of time to finish the current chapter indication...

Frankly, if I was developing for Kobo, my worry would be the increased calls from people who never read about features and who would be calling to say their reader's clock stopped until they turned the next page...

davidfor · 02-16-2014, 02:16 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

SIGH .....

OK, I "think" I have the Kobo Utilities installed correctly.

I used Calibre itself to get the plug-in.
I added four new columns:
Percent Read ( lookup="percentread", type = integers, Format = blank)
Kobo Rating (lookup = "koborating", type = ratings, shown with stars NOTE, I didn't use this when setting up the column matches)
Last Read Timestamp (lookup = "lastreadtime", type = date, format = blank)
Current Reading Location (lookup = "readinglocation", type = Text, column shown in the tag browser the "show checkmarks" box is unchecked

I then used "Customize Kobo Utilities" and matched the custom columns.
I used the regular rating column for the Rating Column.
Store on Connect boxes are all unchecked
I wasn't really sure what to put in the Other Options and I didn't set up any keyboard shortcuts.

All that looks good. The other options can be set later as you become more comfortable with the plugin.

Quote:

Anyway .... my Kobo Glo is connected, but when I select a book that is on the device and right click and choose the Utilities menu, the "Change Reading Status in Device Library" choice is greyed out.

This was specifically what I was looking for ....

So what did I do wrong?
Oh, I'm using the Kobo Touch driver, the other two are disabled. (Kobo Reader and KoboTouchExtended)

You aren't doing anything wrong. You're just missing something that I probably haven't explained well anywhere. THe utilities plugin has three types of functions on the menu:

Functions that work on books that are in the calibre library and on the device. These are only enabled when you are looking at the calibre library list. Most of these functions use some information from the library when acting on the books in the device.
Functions that work on books that are on the device. These are only enabled when you are looking at the device list. These will work on books that are in the calibre library. They do not use any information from the calibre library.
Functions that don't act on books but on the device as a whole. These should be enabled if for either list.

The "Change Reading Status in Device Library" option is the second type. It is enabled when you look at the device list so that you can change the status for books that are not in the calibre library. Thinking about it, there isn't any real reason it should be like this. I'll change it when I'm next in that part of the code. In the meantime, from the calibre library list, you can use the "Update metadata in Device Library" option. This has options to change the reading status of the selected books at the bottom of the dialog. You can set these without changing the rest of the metadata.

Ripplinger · 02-16-2014, 02:33 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TechniSol

I can't imagine it would be a huge problem for Kobo to implement such a "clock", but in my mind at least it is a strange implementation as you are reducing it's accuracy to the last page turn, not even a set interval... For those of us truly concerned with time it would be an affront as clocks go.

Maybe a better feature is the X amount of time to finish the current chapter indication...

Frankly, if I was developing for Kobo, my worry would be the increased calls from people who never read about features and who would be calling to say their reader's clock stopped until they turned the next page...

Amount of time to finish current chapter would be totally useless to me. I know some people love that feature on some readers, which I just don't get.

The limitation of it being accurate only on page turns isn't ever a problem, since you're actively reading. It's not like anyone would use it for an alarm or countdown clock and just leave their reader turned on to see a clock. I have turned on my reader to check the time though. And I can't remember ever reading anything that took longer than 60 seconds per page. Even if a technical manual in really miniscule print, so it's off a minute or 2 isn't a problem for its use.

I rely on the Sony clock always even though it requires a page turn to update and it's never an issue.

Catsnkites · 02-16-2014, 12:33 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

[LIST]

The "Change Reading Status in Device Library" option is the second type. It is enabled when you look at the device list so that you can change the status for books that are not in the calibre library.

The issue is that I have the Glo connected to the computer, Calibre is open, and I'm right clicking on a book that has "Main" in the "On device" column, ... no where can I change the reading status to "finished" ... I'm sure I missed a step ...

I'm attaching (hopefully), screen shots ...

PeterT · 02-16-2014, 01:16 PM

You're in library view. Click on the device icon at the top to switch to device view.

It's possible that you might not see the menu entry for Kobo utilities in device view. If that's the case, head to preferences and select to edit menus, and add Kobo utilities to one of the menus that says it is displayed when a device is connected.

DUH Of course you will see the menu entry in device view! You already ARE seeing it with the device connected. Sorry to be so DENSE!

TechniSol · 02-16-2014, 04:54 PM

I guess that having lived with a watch on my wrist since childhood, and having to make the great effort of actually rotating my wrist when I need to know the time, I find it less than objectionable to have to actually bring up the menu by touching the center of the screen to see what time it is...

I think Kobo implemented the clock in the best way they could without wasting unnecessary power to refresh the display once a minute -likely for no need whatever. You don't need to see the time change every minute, in fact most people do not literally "watch the clock", so why waste power refreshing the screen? Instead they implemented the time display on "an interrupt" or event basis, just as one would look at a watch only when one wanted to know the time. From an engineering and usability stance it makes sense. The science of engineering is much concerned with the art of compromise.

02-13-2014, 03:27 PM	#1
Catsnkites Connoisseur Posts: 91 Karma: 8198 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Kansas Device: Kobo Libre	A clock that stays on? and Wifi One of the things I liked about my Nook was the clock in the upper corner .... then I could tell how much past bedtime I was reading. I know the Glo has a clock ...and I know it appears when you bring up the menu stuff while reading ... but is there any way to have the clock stay "on"? There is nothing in the upper margin when I read sideloaded books (but I LOVE the total pages in the book at the bottom) and the few Kobo books I have do have the title in the upper margin, but no clock. (and is there any way to get total pages in the book rather than in the chapter?) With my Nook, the battery life was so short (charged 2-3 x week) that I rarely turned on the Wifi. Most of my books were sideloaded using either ADE or Calibre ... I would turn on the Wifi when the clock was more than 5 minutes off and if I bought a Nook Book and didn't want to use Calibre. I know the Glo has a better battery life ... and I still have to plug it in to use Calibre... and the Kobo bookstore would not necessarily be my first choice (I have two Amz gift cards and one B&N from Christmas ....) .... so do you all keep the Wifi on? Turn it on a few times a week? Use it rarely or not at all? And ... I know this will get better... last night was the first time I read with this type of lighting ... but I found even 1% to be a bit bright ... I'm sure I have to get used to it ... but, am I just crazy?

02-16-2014, 01:16 PM	#14
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,449 Karma: 78880114 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	You're in library view. Click on the device icon at the top to switch to device view. It's possible that you might not see the menu entry for Kobo utilities in device view. If that's the case, head to preferences and select to edit menus, and add Kobo utilities to one of the menus that says it is displayed when a device is connected. DUH Of course you will see the menu entry in device view! You already ARE seeing it with the device connected. Sorry to be so DENSE! Last edited by PeterT; 02-16-2014 at 02:38 PM.

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02-13-2014, 04:23 PM	#2
peachiekene Fanatic Posts: 572 Karma: 1972282 Join Date: Apr 2011 Location: Hampton Roads, VA, USA Device: kobo aura one, htc 10, kobo glo hd	The light: I found the 1% to be a bit too bright as well, but there is a nightmode mod on these forums that fixed it right up. (It allows you to reverse the colors. Much easier on the eyes when it's dark.) Wifi: I rarely use it. I do sometimes look things up and then I just turn it on, look up what I want, and then turn it off again. But I do that with all my devices-not just ereaders so it's more of a habit than anything else. Clock: That was the hardest thing to get used to when I switched from a 1st Gen nook to a nook ST. I've been without the permanent clock since May 2012 and have since gotten used to it. I'm guessing the clock takes up more battery usage if it is constantly displayed. No idea if there is a mod for keeping it on or not. Might be worth a look. I've only had my kobo glo since xmas - so hopefully someone will be able to help you with these better than I can.

02-14-2014, 11:40 AM	#4
Catsnkites Connoisseur Posts: 91 Karma: 8198 Join Date: Jan 2011 Location: Kansas Device: Kobo Libre	davidfor: can I adopt you? Maybe for four hours? I made chocolate cookies! I also have an endless supply of Girl Scout Cookies! {I now see that you are in Australia ... sorry } Anyway, I appreciate your patience in working with us newbies ... I do know that I can search in the forums .... my main thing is that I find a thread with 20 pages and I never know if the info in the first message ... like the first message of Kevin Short's Nightmode hack dated nine months ago and the links within it are current for my version of Firmware (or your threads related to Calibre when it says "only works on version X.X.X" and my Calibre version is newer ...) Thank you for taking the time to help! I'm working on: Nightmode The Kobo Utilities Plug-in (that's not the same as the driver ... I can use both the Touch driver (with others disabled AND the Kobo utility plug-in, right?) And generally getting my library up to date before sending it to the device. How does one back up the device and Calibre before doing anything major? I'll poke around in the forums .... Again, much thanks!

02-15-2014, 03:50 PM	#8
ShellShock Wizard Posts: 1,178 Karma: 2431850 Join Date: Sep 2008 Device: IPad Mini 2 Retina	The Sony and Kobo epubs both use Adobe RMSDK for displaying epubs; AFAIK the status bar is external to RMSDK. So if it possible to get a status bar clock on the Sony, maybe someone can figure it out for the Kobo?

02-15-2014, 10:52 PM	#10
TechniSol GranPohbah-Fezzes r cool! Posts: 1,056 Karma: 3151024 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Nook STRs, Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo	I can't imagine it would be a huge problem for Kobo to implement such a "clock", but in my mind at least it is a strange implementation as you are reducing it's accuracy to the last page turn, not even a set interval... For those of us truly concerned with time it would be an affront as clocks go. Maybe a better feature is the X amount of time to finish the current chapter indication... Frankly, if I was developing for Kobo, my worry would be the increased calls from people who never read about features and who would be calling to say their reader's clock stopped until they turned the next page...

02-16-2014, 04:54 PM	#15
TechniSol GranPohbah-Fezzes r cool! Posts: 1,056 Karma: 3151024 Join Date: Jul 2010 Device: Nook STRs, Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo	I guess that having lived with a watch on my wrist since childhood, and having to make the great effort of actually rotating my wrist when I need to know the time, I find it less than objectionable to have to actually bring up the menu by touching the center of the screen to see what time it is... I think Kobo implemented the clock in the best way they could without wasting unnecessary power to refresh the display once a minute -likely for no need whatever. You don't need to see the time change every minute, in fact most people do not literally "watch the clock", so why waste power refreshing the screen? Instead they implemented the time display on "an interrupt" or event basis, just as one would look at a watch only when one wanted to know the time. From an engineering and usability stance it makes sense. The science of engineering is much concerned with the art of compromise.

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