What will February 28th mean?

[rcentros]

Okay. I currently own five older Kobos. Two WiFis, two Touches and a Mini. I understand that, after February 28th, the WiFis and (apparently) the Mini will no longer work on Kobo's Store or with any of their services (no syncing either). What I don't quite understand is the mandatory updates. Currently my Mini and the one Touch are at 3.19.5761 and the other Touch is at 5.12.12111. I kept the Mini's WiFi on for syncing and downloading from the bookstore, as well as the one Touch. But I liked having the one Touch at the 3.19.x firmware, since I liked how it worked with the 3.19.x patches.

Now we have mandatory updates. Question(s); since the Mini won't work with Kobo's Store anyhow, is there any reason to worry about the mandatory update? Or is that update still required to use the Mini, even with side-loaded books and not using Kobo's services? Same questions apply to the Touch that I don't want to update. By the sound of it, these will work UNTIL you have to factory reset them for whatever reason, then (if you haven't updated them) they won't work at all? Is this right? Does the same go for the WiFis? I don't know if they're at the right update or not but (even though I'll probably be getting rid of them, it would be nice to know if they'll work when (if) a factory reset is required).

So, is the choice upgrade now if you want to use your Kobo (even for side-loading) in the future?

[RobertJSawyer]

As the Kobo notice says:

Without this update, your Kobo Mini eReader will no longer be able to exit the setup process after a factory reset is performed.

That's the reason to upgrade. Mind you, I've only once in all my years of Kobo usage, with more than half a dozen different units, had to do a factory reset. But the update will save you from bricking your Mini if one becomes necessary in the future.

[darryl]

Interesting. The last company that bricked a device in a software update was Apple when someone had had particular repairs done by a 3rd party. This is different, but not that much. I assume that there will be a mechanism to update the firmware after the deadline even if a device is stuck in a setup loop? Does anyone have a definitive answer?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by darryl

Interesting. The last company that bricked a device in a software update was Apple when someone had had particular repairs done by a 3rd party. This is different, but not that much. I assume that there will be a mechanism to update the firmware after the deadline even if a device is stuck in a setup loop? Does anyone have a definitive answer?

According to the letter posted in the other thread, they will be able to use the desktop application to do the setup. But, we won't really know until after the deadline and someone tries.

[barryem]

I called Kobo support when I first got the email, 2 or 3 days ago. Maybe 4. The support guy I talked with insisted that the only way to get the update was to use the desktop software, which I didn't want to install. I asked for a download link and he said none was available. I asked to talk to a supervisor and he wouldn't let me. I never got past any of this.

Based on that I decided to let what happens happen. I only have a Kobo Mini that someone gave to me to give to someone at my retirement home. I had already given away the 2 of them I used to have and I haven't found anyone who wants this one. Everybody wants a front light these days, including me.

Anyway, after reading this and the other thread I decided to connect to Wifi and sync and see what happens. Sure enough it updated. The support guy told me that wouldn't happen.

Actually what he told me was that the update was too big to send as a download. So I'm wondering if this update, 3.19.5761, is not the update needed to get past February 28 and still be able to reset it.

When I do find someone to give this to, if I do, I'll have to put it on their account to protect myself. Now I'm wondering if I'll be able to do that.

I'm not going to install the Kobo Desktop.

[edit]I've been looking at the Kobo Clara HD and wondering if I want to get one. I hadn't decided but now, after this kind of uncooperative support from Kobo I'm less sure that I want one. I like the small size. I enjoy my original Aura for that reason but it's getting old. At least the support was easy to get to this time. The last time I tried to contact their support was a few years ago and it took about 3 weeks, trying every day.[/edit]

Barry

[Ken Maltby]

Makes the ability to change out an internal micro SD even more worth while. Where you can do that, you can get around Kobo's deliberate sabotage.

Luck;
Ken

P.S.; You can keep updating the reader and reading experience using KOReader.

[robko]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Makes the ability to change out an internal micro SD even more worth while. Where you can do that, you can get around Kobo's deliberate sabotage.

Seriously? Deliberate sabotage? Deliberate sabotage would be Kobo saying that after Feb 28 your device was screwed if you had to reset it and that was that. Kobo is making sure you can still use the device after that time even though security protocols have changed. I don't think it's unreasonable for them to not do an update of the older devices just to keep up with changing protocols.

[Ken Maltby]

Deliberate, in that they make an unrecoverable situation out of the failure to make the "sync" connection. I think it is unreasonable to handle the situation as they appear to have.

Luck;
Ken

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Deliberate, in that they make an unrecoverable situation out of the failure to make the "sync" connection. I think it is unreasonable to handle the situation as they appear to have.

The device is over six years old and is a total dinosaur in terms of its specs. I think it is unreasonable to expect a company to support a device indefinitely, myself, and I say that as one who still has and uses her Mini. I'm disappointed but this doesn't rise to the level of sabotage.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by issybird

The device is over six years old and is a total dinosaur in terms of its specs. I think it is unreasonable to expect a company to support a device indefinitely, myself, and I say that as one who still has and uses her Mini. I'm disappointed but this doesn't rise to the level of sabotage.

And the Kindle 3 (Keyboard) is over a year older and still fully supported. And the Nook Simple Touch is a couple months older and it's still fully supported. But mostly, it's not that they are going to drop support (there hasn't been an upgrade for four years anyhow) it's that they're going to brick the device if you don't apply a seemingly useless upgrade. The nicer thing to do, for those who want to continue using the Mini for sideloaded books, would be to revert the factory reset to what it was originally. No registration required unless you want to use Kobo's Book Store. Then you could still use whatever firmware you wanted.

The other thing that's bothersome about this is that the original Kobo Touch is a year older, yet it will continue to get full support, including syncing and access to the Kobo Book Store. (You have to wonder for how long, though.)

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Deliberate, in that they make an unrecoverable situation out of the failure to make the "sync" connection. I think it is unreasonable to handle the situation as they appear to have.

It does seem heavy-handed, at the very least. I'm already at 3.19.5761, is this the final upgrade? Or is something still coming? (Or, probably the case, do we know yet?)

[issybird]

Originally Posted by rcentros

And the Kindle 3 (Keyboard) is over a year older and still fully supported. And the Nook Simple Touch is a couple months older and it's still fully supported. But mostly, it's not that they are going to drop support (there hasn't been an upgrade for four years anyhow) it's that they're going to brick the device if you don't apply a seemingly useless upgrade. The nicer thing to do, for those who want to continue using the Mini for sideloaded books, would be to revert the factory reset to what it was originally. No registration required unless you want to use Kobo's Book Store. Then you could still use whatever firmware you wanted.

The other thing that's bothersome about this is that the original Kobo Touch is a year older, yet it will continue to get full support, including syncing and access to the Kobo Book Store. (You have to wonder for how long, though.)

I'm not persuaded by hierarchies across platforms. Amazon knows full well how many Kindle Keyboards are still in use and it's worth their while to support it; once it isn't, they wont. I suspect the Mini was always the red-headed stepchild at Kobo, hence the lack of updated firmware for lo, these many years. I just don't feel any moral obligation on the part of the supplier to keep supporting a device that's antediluvian, as these things go. Again, I own and use my Mini, so I'm not best pleased, but I don't feel as if I've been traduced and betrayed, either.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rcentros

It does seem heavy-handed, at the very least. I'm already at 3.19.5761, is this the final upgrade? Or is something still coming? (Or, probably the case, do we know yet?)

At this point, I would say that is the final upgrade for the Mini. The Rakuten affiliate has been receiving 3.19.5791 since it's release.

I did some testing against https://howsmyssl.com and it reported TLS 1.2 was being used. Firefox and Chrome reported TLS 1.3 connected to the same site.

Please try to remember that SSL 3.0, TLS 1.0 and even TLS 1.1 are no longer considered to be secure protocols. For instance, if you want to use credit cards on your site, the PCI DSS deprecated TLS 1.0 as of June 30, 2018 and strongly recommended a minimum of TLS 1.2 as a replacement.

Also I had to factory reset my Mini to do this testing. I had long since upgraded to v4 firmware though it is not officially supported on the Mini.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

Deliberate, in that they make an unrecoverable situation out of the failure to make the "sync" connection. I think it is unreasonable to handle the situation as they appear to have.

Deliberate sabotage, no. If anything, this is probably going beyond expectations for a six year old device.

Firstly, Kobo needs to update their servers to remove what are now considered to be insecure protocols. This is probably just as much from pressure elsewhere to get the servers "safe". I mean, with some of the ranting about security seen everywhere, if Kobo's servers are found to be running these protocols, how long would it be before this is brought up as a reason not to trust Kobo?

The problem for the Mini is that during the setup, it attempts to contact the Kobo servers at least twice. Once to see if there is a firmware update, and then to sign into the account. Once the support for the older security protocols is removed, these will fail. And the device will no longer be able to be used.

There is no sabotage intended here. Maybe there was bad design in the setup routine as there is no consideration for doing setup without a connecting to the server. But, they were sold as connected devices with the expectation that they would connect at least once to the server.

And, Kobo have explicitly stated that the desktop application will be able to be used to setup these devices after the deadline. Kobo are making sure that the device can continue to be used in the manner it was designed to be. How is that sabotage?

[marianico]

Probably we can not call it sabotage, but it looks pretty much like planned obsolescence.