New Firmware 1.8 for Original Kobo is here! - Page 2

viviena · 12-13-2010, 09:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taming

Page turns are very fast now--again, not a new feature, but a big improvement. You still have to wait a bit for chapter changes, but the page turns are great.

Oh so cool!

After reading about the faster page turns in the Cool-er firmware, I was wondering if it was a software, rather than hardware limitation, and the former seems to be the case. The new firmware took some time, but I'm really glad that Kobo is still listening to its original customers, and that our good faith is being rewarded.

taming · 12-13-2010, 09:22 PM

The purpose of this update was to fix known problems and match the features found on the WiFi version as closely as possible (well except for the whole WiFi part). It was challenging because the processor on Kobo-O is not nearly as good/fast as the new processor.

When the WiFi version came out, many people who had just recently bought Kobo-O were very concerned that the original Kobo would not be updated and have the features offered on the new device. Down the road, there will no doubt be updates to WiFi which won't make it to the older Kobo--but right now, they are pretty much the same.

From my perspective, the big deal is that the feature set and performance seems really rock solid. I'm sure that over time, we will see areas that could use some tweaking, but the whole Kobo experience is now much improved for Kobo-O users.

sabredog · 12-13-2010, 09:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by digital_steve

You can grab a card reader from Dick Smith for next to nothing at the moment and it reads like, a million different cards.
Just a lightweight USB device... easy as.

I have a card reader as well as a built-in one on my netbook.

What I did mean is updating via USB whilst connected to the Kobo desktop software. The last update (1.0 -> 1.4) caused a lot of issues for a lot of Ko1 owners.

taming · 12-13-2010, 10:06 PM

The deal with the SD card install is that Kobo reader is a Linux device. Now, I am not the brightest bulb in the box, but I was able to create a working SD card using a temporary install of Ubuntu from a USB drive. When JC gives us the download link for the file, Tim can post his most excellent directions.

OTOH, although the beta test group didn't get to check the install from the desktop, it is supposed to be much smoother than last time.

sabredog · 12-13-2010, 10:15 PM

I went through Kobo support in the end even after I managed to successfully request and post SD card image links from Borders Australia.

They supplied me with an firmware update SD card quite readily.

I am hoping they will do the same for the upcoming update.

taming · 12-13-2010, 10:21 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabredog

They supplied me with an firmware update SD card quite readily. I am hoping they will do the same for the upcoming update.

Maybe they can send you a whole bunch of them and then you can distribute from there,

. How about you watch and see how folks are doing with the update, and then decide. It may be smooth as silk.

digital_steve · 12-13-2010, 10:37 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by sabredog

I went through Kobo support in the end even after I managed to successfully request and post SD card image links from Borders Australia.

They supplied me with an firmware update SD card quite readily.

I am hoping they will do the same for the upcoming update.

Taming is right, it's dead simple to boot up a linux build (ubuntu for example) via USB if required.
All it takes is a 2gb usb stick and a program
Check out the ubuntu site for details... i'm using it as my sole OS on my laptop now; linux convert!

timlegge · 12-13-2010, 10:42 PM

As taming said this release seems to be targeted at bringing the firmware close to the WiFi version. It is pretty close and in some cases probably has a couple of extra features.

What that means, is that some of the often requested features did not make it. While that may be disappointing and might look to be a small change, it was in fact a huge changed.

The biggest part of it was replacing the sqlite database books with real epubs. That means, that as with the wifi version images are fully supported in the books. I have a couple of books that have graphic letter as the first character of a chapter and they look great.

This also had the biggest impact on performance. In its initial release chapter changing speed and book opening speed for kepubs (the new desktop supported format) was, quite frankly, horrible. However, normal ePubs opened quickly. In addition, changing the font size was slow to the point of maddening.

The Kobo developers released an update a week or two ago that really improved the performance. The time to open a book and change a chapter is still a little faster on the original firmware but not by much. The page turn speed feels faster than on the original. Poorly formatted books with large chapters were really bad but in this release they display pages are they are still formating them in the background. That approach works well.

Being able to read while charging is nice and the latest feature of giving the user the choice as to whether to auto power off should please almost everyone.

The change from the old format also means that a 15 page chapter in the original (at the smallest font) is probably a couple of pages shorter in the new version.

The dictionary is a nice feature I guess. I simply pretend I know what all words mean and carry on. The reason given for why it only supports the kobo desktop loaded books as to do with the parser that display the books. It uses their own parser instead of the Adobe parser. That is all I know...

Finally, the news papers and magazines. With all the clamour caused by the missed deadlines on this one I assume Kobo will be racking up the profits from a bunch of new subscriptions ;-) (Thats a joke please don't reply with "That not the point..."). The magazines are usable and work like they do on the WiFi version.

If all I had was the Kobo original to read them on I don't know whether I would subscribe. It is readable, but plugging in to USB to get the latest version would be a hassle for me. I get between 2 and 4 hours of downtime a day depending on whether I go to bed at 10 or 12. The paper is already old news by then.

Newspapers really shine on the kobo iPad app. I have neither the time nor the money to continue but I have enjoyed reading the New York times every couple of days.

All in all a solid release and Kobo really listened to our feed back during the multiple beta releases. The issues we found were addressed (or the new functionality was explained). I was impressed that a number of Kobo people responded to questions or issues even on evenings and weekends.

I provided Taming with instructions for creating a properly formatted SD card that she or I will post once the links to the SD card zip goes up. It is not for the faint of heart but if you can follow a recipe you can probably follow the directions.

For Windows users it involves downloading Ubuntu Linux and UNetbootin and making a bootable USB drive to start. If none of that makes sense, the instructions may scar you ;-)

Beta testing was interesting and a fair amount of work.

sabredog · 12-13-2010, 10:59 PM

Tim

Could you re-up those instructions again please? Perhaps the mods can sticky it!

3d0g · 12-13-2010, 11:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by jimr

Only problem I can see is that the desktop application still syncs ALL books even when I purchased just one...takes forever to sync with the number of books I have.

It's not really syncing book content - it's syncing the bookmarks across the desktop and other kobo readers (Android, iPhone, etc.) That's the other nice feature of this release - bookmarks work!

Oh and Poker's back, along with ANOTHER goodie - up to you all to find it though. Us betas were sworn to secrecy!

kiwipippa · 12-13-2010, 11:19 PM

Yahoo - looks like we are going to get this by Christmas. Good on kobo for fronting up and admitting they found a problem. Andyberry, how is the new firmware going so far?

plaid · 12-13-2010, 11:39 PM

I just got the new kobo update, too soon to tell on any performance and features. Just as what happened with the desktop update that came out with the wifi model, it seems like I have to do a reset and reload as none of my regular epubs will open, only the kobo kpubs. Would be nice if they could get that sorted out - I've around 200 books to reload. Actually now that I think about it, there will be quite a few less books to reload as I'll go back to using the kpub versions now that they should show images etc.

ltr · 12-13-2010, 11:54 PM

Quote:

I provided Taming with instructions for creating a properly formatted SD card that she or I will post once the links to the SD card zip goes up. It is not for the faint of heart but if you can follow a recipe you can probably follow the directions.

For Windows users it involves downloading Ubuntu Linux and UNetbootin and making a bootable USB drive to start. If none of that makes sense, the instructions may scar you

I'm confused. Why is an SD card required? Does the original Kobo not update the firmware when you connect to the desktop app like the Kobo-WiFi?

ltr

taming · 12-13-2010, 11:54 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by timlegge

I provided Taming with instructions for creating a properly formatted SD card that she or I will post once the links to the SD card zip goes up. It is not for the faint of heart but if you can follow a recipe you can probably follow the directions.

For Windows users it involves downloading Ubuntu Linux and UNetbootin and making a bootable USB drive to start. If none of that makes sense, the instructions may scar you ;-)

Tim, you also provided a link to a page on the Ubuntu site that included an alternative to UNetbootin, and I ended up using that. It seemed easier. Your instructions were very, very good, and, as you said, one of us can post them as soon as we have the file we need.

timlegge · 12-13-2010, 11:57 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by ltr

I'm confused. Why is an SD card required? Does the original Kobo not update the firmware when you connect to the desktop app like the Kobo-WiFi?

ltr

It's not required. The new desktop is supposed to update the device just fine.

Some people like the sd card option.

Tim

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12-13-2010, 09:22 PM	#17
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	The purpose of this update was to fix known problems and match the features found on the WiFi version as closely as possible (well except for the whole WiFi part). It was challenging because the processor on Kobo-O is not nearly as good/fast as the new processor. When the WiFi version came out, many people who had just recently bought Kobo-O were very concerned that the original Kobo would not be updated and have the features offered on the new device. Down the road, there will no doubt be updates to WiFi which won't make it to the older Kobo--but right now, they are pretty much the same. From my perspective, the big deal is that the feature set and performance seems really rock solid. I'm sure that over time, we will see areas that could use some tweaking, but the whole Kobo experience is now much improved for Kobo-O users.

12-13-2010, 10:06 PM	#19
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	The deal with the SD card install is that Kobo reader is a Linux device. Now, I am not the brightest bulb in the box, but I was able to create a working SD card using a temporary install of Ubuntu from a USB drive. When JC gives us the download link for the file, Tim can post his most excellent directions. OTOH, although the beta test group didn't get to check the install from the desktop, it is supposed to be much smoother than last time.

12-13-2010, 10:15 PM	#20
sabredog Geographically Restricted Posts: 2,630 Karma: 14933353 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Perth, Australia Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2	I went through Kobo support in the end even after I managed to successfully request and post SD card image links from Borders Australia. They supplied me with an firmware update SD card quite readily. I am hoping they will do the same for the upcoming update.

12-13-2010, 10:42 PM	#23
timlegge Addict Posts: 305 Karma: 78651 Join Date: May 2010 Location: New Brunswick, Canada Device: Kobo, Kobo Wifi, Kobo Touch	As taming said this release seems to be targeted at bringing the firmware close to the WiFi version. It is pretty close and in some cases probably has a couple of extra features. What that means, is that some of the often requested features did not make it. While that may be disappointing and might look to be a small change, it was in fact a huge changed. The biggest part of it was replacing the sqlite database books with real epubs. That means, that as with the wifi version images are fully supported in the books. I have a couple of books that have graphic letter as the first character of a chapter and they look great. This also had the biggest impact on performance. In its initial release chapter changing speed and book opening speed for kepubs (the new desktop supported format) was, quite frankly, horrible. However, normal ePubs opened quickly. In addition, changing the font size was slow to the point of maddening. The Kobo developers released an update a week or two ago that really improved the performance. The time to open a book and change a chapter is still a little faster on the original firmware but not by much. The page turn speed feels faster than on the original. Poorly formatted books with large chapters were really bad but in this release they display pages are they are still formating them in the background. That approach works well. Being able to read while charging is nice and the latest feature of giving the user the choice as to whether to auto power off should please almost everyone. The change from the old format also means that a 15 page chapter in the original (at the smallest font) is probably a couple of pages shorter in the new version. The dictionary is a nice feature I guess. I simply pretend I know what all words mean and carry on. The reason given for why it only supports the kobo desktop loaded books as to do with the parser that display the books. It uses their own parser instead of the Adobe parser. That is all I know... Finally, the news papers and magazines. With all the clamour caused by the missed deadlines on this one I assume Kobo will be racking up the profits from a bunch of new subscriptions ;-) (Thats a joke please don't reply with "That not the point..."). The magazines are usable and work like they do on the WiFi version. If all I had was the Kobo original to read them on I don't know whether I would subscribe. It is readable, but plugging in to USB to get the latest version would be a hassle for me. I get between 2 and 4 hours of downtime a day depending on whether I go to bed at 10 or 12. The paper is already old news by then. Newspapers really shine on the kobo iPad app. I have neither the time nor the money to continue but I have enjoyed reading the New York times every couple of days. All in all a solid release and Kobo really listened to our feed back during the multiple beta releases. The issues we found were addressed (or the new functionality was explained). I was impressed that a number of Kobo people responded to questions or issues even on evenings and weekends. I provided Taming with instructions for creating a properly formatted SD card that she or I will post once the links to the SD card zip goes up. It is not for the faint of heart but if you can follow a recipe you can probably follow the directions. For Windows users it involves downloading Ubuntu Linux and UNetbootin and making a bootable USB drive to start. If none of that makes sense, the instructions may scar you ;-) Beta testing was interesting and a fair amount of work.

12-13-2010, 10:59 PM	#24
sabredog Geographically Restricted Posts: 2,630 Karma: 14933353 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Perth, Australia Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2	Tim Could you re-up those instructions again please? Perhaps the mods can sticky it!

12-13-2010, 11:19 PM	#26
kiwipippa Fanatic Posts: 578 Karma: 613022 Join Date: Aug 2010 Location: New Zealand Device: kobo glo, kobo touch (dead), kindle touch, android phone	Yahoo - looks like we are going to get this by Christmas. Good on kobo for fronting up and admitting they found a problem. Andyberry, how is the new firmware going so far?

12-13-2010, 11:39 PM	#27
plaid Zealot Posts: 100 Karma: 5434 Join Date: Sep 2004 Device: Kobo eReader	I just got the new kobo update, too soon to tell on any performance and features. Just as what happened with the desktop update that came out with the wifi model, it seems like I have to do a reset and reload as none of my regular epubs will open, only the kobo kpubs. Would be nice if they could get that sorted out - I've around 200 books to reload. Actually now that I think about it, there will be quite a few less books to reload as I'll go back to using the kpub versions now that they should show images etc.