New Home Screen vs Old Home Screen

[Stevex]

It seems that the new homescreen is not customisable
That's pretty bullshit since 70% of it is wasted space but obviously since the firmware moves forward also in terms of the reading experience which is after all 98% of my usage I have to live with it. It seems though absurd to actively annoy a significant part of the userbase in this way,

[LucyOne]

Even though I liked the old home screen, I went with the new update which makes the new home screen mandatory. I like the fast access to the books and collections. I'd like to be able to customize the author tile. At the moment it shows an author of Pocket articles. At least it doesn't show recommendations but some of my own content.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

This is my situation as well. The only thing I'll miss is the search not working with certain books (that's assuming they ever get it fixed), but if I can figure out which lower version of the firmware where it was working, I'll go back to that.

Not that I've ever been a fan of Kobo's jumbled homescreen, it definitely could use a redesign, but I really don't see putting up with half of my screen being totally useless to me as a usable alternative.

I agree that the full screen of dynamic tiles was better for the home screen, I think the new Home Menu that gives quick access to almost everything is worth it. As for search, you can fix the affected books by using the TOC editor and Calibre, and pressing the "Generate TOC From Files" Button. (you don't have to delete the old table of contents, the new one will simply be appended.. Looks ugly, but works around the Kobo Epub limitation.)

[davidfor]

Sorry, but a lot of you are still assuming the new home screen works exactly like the version in the 4.3 firmware. It doesn't. It looks like the same but there are changes. I'm pretty sure that if you never connect to Kobo, the only thing about the store you will see is the link in the bottom left. That takes about the same amount of space as the store link in the old home screen. I do sync with Kobo and I do buy books from them. But, right now my Glo HD only has something store related in the bottom two places. The store link on the left, and the number of "Super Points" I have on the right. That is LESS Kobo stuff on the home screen than I typically saw on the old tiled home screen.

Of the store related items, there are several that won't appear for people who don't buy books from Kobo. "Related Books" only appears if you read books from Kobo. The "Wishlist" only appears if you have put books in the Wishlist. Super points only appear if you have bought books. Recommendations will probably appear if a sync happens.

I'm not trying to say that the new home screen is better than the old tiled home screen because I don't think it is. But, things are not as bad as the recent posts here make out.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That is LESS Kobo stuff on the home screen than I typically saw on the old tiled home screen.

All I see on my home screen are the four or five books I'm currently reading and about 15 category tiles. No Kobo stuff at all.

I admit it; I could live with the new screen if something happens that mandates it. But I'd be unhappy, for a while. My current regret is that all of my devices are registered to my account. If I had it to do over again, I'd use a null email and cut most of the marketing off.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm pretty sure that if you never connect to Kobo, the only thing about the store you will see is the link in the bottom left. That takes about the same amount of space as the store link in the old home screen.

That seems to be so with KA1 onto which I sideloaded the update. However, that was not so with my original Aura onto which I had also sideloaded the update.

On the Aura, I was seeing the covers for unsolicited books where on my KA1 it just shows a random author. Not sure where the covers came from since I never had anything remotely like them on my Aura and since I hadn't attached my Aura to the internet to do the update. That area seemed to be rotating through different headings such as "Recommendations", "Top Picks" and "Good Reads for Under $5". (Wish I had copied down the exact headings.)

What I think happened was that, because all my books were on my external micro SD card, there were only a couple of them and they were only epubs, I suspect that the device was just trying to plug something into that spot because it couldn't find an author to fill it with.

Originally Posted by davidfor

I'm not trying to say that the new home screen is better than the old tiled home screen because I don't think it is. But, things are not as bad as the recent posts here make out.

Agreed. Not ideal, but I can live with it (on my KA1) for the increased responsiveness, despite all my previous whining about the new screen.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by issybird

All I see on my home screen are the four or five books I'm currently reading and about 15 category tiles. No Kobo stuff at all.

Do you mean collection tiles? The old home screen did show show tiles from the store for their categories if you visited them. I would consider that to be "Kobo stuff", so I'm just checking your terminology.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Do you mean collection tiles? The old home screen did show show tiles from the store for their categories if you visited them. I would consider that to be "Kobo stuff", so I'm just checking your terminology.

Sorry. I mean my own collection tiles.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by issybird

All I see on my home screen are the four or five books I'm currently reading and about 15 category tiles. No Kobo stuff at all.
.

Same: current books, and the eight collections I've pinned there (by "Managing" them).

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by graycyn

If you never connect with wifi, you won't face an upgrade, hence no new homescreen to ever worry you.

But it means I won't get the real firmware updates either.

Originally Posted by davidfor

Sorry, but a lot of you are still assuming the new home screen works exactly like the version in the 4.3 firmware. It doesn't. It looks like the same but there are changes. I'm pretty sure that if you never connect to Kobo, the only thing about the store you will see is the link in the bottom left. That takes about the same amount of space as the store link in the old home screen.

But the rest of the space won't be usable by me. And thus stay empty and useless. Which means only about 1/4th of the screen will show what I actually want, the other 3/4th is either empty or showing something that I don't care about. And yes, I have seen screenshots of the latest homescreen.
Compared with my current homescreen which has about 90% of screen that I can actually use and and want (I only would want to get rid of that search bar on top)

[anacreon]

What I like about the new home screen

• direct access to my books
• better looking book tiles without the superfluous info about annotations
• one icon for search instead of a big bar
• no useless tile for finished books - and now you have the choice between eliminating just the tile, or the book from the reader too

What I don't like

• all the items relating to the kobo bookstore: even though I buy kobo books exclusively from my PC, even the right hand tile rotates kobo bookstore related topics (wishlist or discover books similar to those you read presently)
• the fact that I can have only one collections tile to the right of the book tile - all this because these tiles are much too big: the choice of covers shown is no use to me, more small tiles would be much better

Incidentally, my words (reachable through activity in the top left menu) has improved: I can now access dictionaries from the words, and sort them alphabetically or by most recent, but there is a new problem: trying to access a book from which I chose the word had the reader restarting.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by anacreon

What I like about the new home screen

• direct access to my books
• better looking book tiles without the superfluous info about annotations
• one icon for search instead of a big bar
• no useless tile for finished books - and now you have the choice between eliminating just the tile, or the book from the reader too

What you point out as likes for the new screen, are dislikes for me:

I want the info about annotations
I want to show my finished books
I don't want to delete the book from the reader, I even don't want the option (I know I'll accidentaly delete books from my reader that way...)

And I don't want an icon nor a search bar. About direct access to my books, ok, I have to select a menu item.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

But the rest of the space won't be usable by me. And thus stay empty and useless. Which means only about 1/4th of the screen will show what I actually want, the other 3/4th is either empty or showing something that I don't care about. And yes, I have seen screenshots of the latest homescreen.
Compared with my current homescreen which has about 90% of screen that I can actually use and and want (I only would want to get rid of that search bar on top)

The rest of the space WON'T stay empty. It will be populated with things that are on your device. It will be populate with collections or authors or the other items that do not need any interaction with the Kobo server.

And I've just looked at the home screen on my Glo HD. The only thing on it that is remotely advertising is the store link in the bottom left. EVERYTHING else is a book, a collection, an author or something that opens an action that does not need the WiFi on.

You have simple choice: Go back to a previous firmware, probably 3.19.x, or put up with it and actually learn how it works.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by davidfor

And I've just looked at the home screen on my Glo HD. The only thing on it that is remotely advertising is the store link in the bottom left. EVERYTHING else is a book, a collection, an author or something that opens an action that does not need the WiFi on.

You have simple choice: Go back to a previous firmware, probably 3.19.x, or put up with it and actually learn how it works.

That's I am trying to do. It sounds like Kobo has already responded positively to some feedback about the first new home screen they rolled out.

Are you allowed to say how many collections can be pinned to the home screen?

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The rest of the space WON'T stay empty. It will be populated with things that are on your device. It will be populate with collections or authors or the other items that do not need any interaction with the Kobo server.

And I've just looked at the home screen on my Glo HD. The only thing on it that is remotely advertising is the store link in the bottom left. EVERYTHING else is a book, a collection, an author or something that opens an action that does not need the WiFi on.

You have simple choice: Go back to a previous firmware, probably 3.19.x, or put up with it and actually learn how it works.

I don't want to show everything that is on my reader on the first screen, I want to show the things I am reading or have recently read on the home screen. The rest is useless screen filler. And how does it know what books or collections I might want to read next, if I don't even know that...

And I don't need to go back to a previous firmware as I never updated the firmware in the first place. The first firmware I was actually considering using was the one that contained the new and "improved" homescreen... And thanks to that new and "improved" homescreen, I'll never update my firmware either.