Desktop App Kobo Desktop discontinued?

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I prefer epub than kepub.

Did the first two kobos have eink?
Are the batteries/cells likely to be working in them?

The Kobo Wireless is from before 2011 (The Kobo Touch came out in 2011) and is visplex eink. At over 14 years old the battery will be dead or nearly dead.

So almost no-one, i.e. very few people, need the PC windows desktop app and they would have needed it from when they got those kobo models, over 14 years ago.

Yes, they're from 2010 and eInk. I've personally had lithium batteries work for over 15 years. Not impossible if treated right. It's not impossible to replace the battery either. Costs less than $7!

https://www.aliexpress.com/i/1005005463266385.html


The Kobo Wireless is the 2nd model that added Wifi.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Oddly, it seems that BadeReader has also learned that Kobo has discontinued all their ereaders other than the Libra Colour, Clara Colour and Clara BW. This comes as a bit of a suprise to Kobo's customer service which seem to be under the impression that the Sage and the Elipsa 2E are still being sold.

I think that's too boldly stated, what I read is

One of the reasons the Desktop Software was discontinued was that it did not work with the Kobo Libra Color, Kobo Clara Color, and Kobo Clara BW. These are the only e-readers that Kobo currently sells.

And my local Kobo store also stills sells the Kobo Sage and the Kobo Ellipsa 2E.
It remains to be seen whether the firmware support for all known Kobo devices will continue, or will be limited to the most recent ones, though. Time will tell.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you have a Kobo with a firmware that's too old and you don't know about downloading newer firmware and/or manually updating, then you do need Kobo Desktop to get your Kobo updated. There are lots of people who don't know this and don't use MR.

Also, customers in Japan oddly don't have download option for ADE-protected books (not sure why). If they don't want to fake their address, they can use obok and desktop app to get their books.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by ownedbycats

Also, customers in Japan oddly don't have download option for ADE-protected books (not sure why). If they don't want to fake their address, they can use obok and desktop app to get their books.

Well for starters, Kobo's ePub renderer doesn't properly support right to left Japanese vertical writing. So maybe they're trying to avoid customers using ADE and having a bad experience on their devices?

Didn't they at some point though? Or did you have to do that on books.rakuten.co.jp? Could have sworn I've done that before. Ah, looks like it's gone and replaced with a read in browser option for comics and magazines. So perhaps an omen of things to come.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

As I already explained it is needed to put DRMed Kobo Books on an original Kobo. Well I guess ADE can be used too, but that won't get the KePub. The original Kobo doesn't have WiFi at all.

The original non-touch Kobos have only RMSDK to read ebooks so no kepub support.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I think that's too boldly stated, what I read is

Could you explain the difference between Kobo discontinuing all but their three newest models and currently selling only their three newest models? Given that BadeReader is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, they would be accessing the Kobo Canada store by default.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Well for starters, Kobo's ePub renderer doesn't properly support right to left Japanese vertical writing. So maybe they're trying to avoid customers using ADE and having a bad experience on their devices?

The original ePub3 renderer used by Kobo in their ereaders was the ACCESS NetFront BookReader v1.0 EPUB Edition which was added to allow the use of complex layouts and Japanese typography including furigana when the Kobo ereaders were officially sold in Japan. The oldest Kobo device that received this as part of an update was the Kobo 905 Touch ereader. The Kobo and Kobo WiFi simply did not have the space, RAM and CPU power to be able to use that renderer.

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The original ePub3 renderer used by Kobo in their ereaders was the ACCESS NetFront BookReader v1.0 EPUB Edition which was added to allow the use of complex layouts and Japanese typography including furigana when the Kobo ereaders were officially sold in Japan. The oldest Kobo device that received this as part of an update was the Kobo 905 Touch ereader. The Kobo and Kobo WiFi simply did not have the space, RAM and CPU power to be able to use that renderer.

Sure. But the current ePub renderer on the current firmware of new devices doesn't do it properly either. The Kepub one does. The ePub one does not.

[ownedbycats]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Well for starters, Kobo's ePub renderer doesn't properly support right to left Japanese vertical writing. So maybe they're trying to avoid customers using ADE and having a bad experience on their devices?

But I would think that be apply to books in Japanese rather than Japanese customers?

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Could you explain the difference between Kobo discontinuing all but their three newest models and currently selling only their three newest models? Given that BadeReader is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, they would be accessing the Kobo Canada store by default.

Certainly. BadeReader stated the following:

One of the reasons the Desktop Software was discontinued was that it did not work with the Kobo Libra Color, Kobo Clara Color, and Kobo Clara BW. These are the only e-readers that Kobo currently sells.

He nowhere explicitly states that reader devices are discontinued.

[Cactus Chef]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Could you explain the difference between Kobo discontinuing all but their three newest models and currently selling only their three newest models? Given that BadeReader is headquartered in Vancouver, Canada, they would be accessing the Kobo Canada store by default.

"Sold out" versus "No longer selling," perhaps?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cactus Chef

"Sold out" versus "No longer selling," perhaps?

In Canada and the US, the Sage is sold out. The Elipsa 2E is available.
In the UK, the Sage and Elipsa 2E are available.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by salamanderjuice

Sure. But the current ePub renderer on the current firmware of new devices doesn't do it properly either. The Kepub one does. The ePub one does not.

The kepub renderer which is now ACCESS => Readium via WebKit is an epub3 renderer. The RMSDK renderer is an older version intended solely to allow reading ePub2 ebooks with Adobe's ADEPT DRM. See JSWolf's whinging that Kobo has not updated RMSDK to it's ADE 4.5 equivalent version.

If you want Japanese typography, you need to use ePub3 which means using the kepub renderer.