What's new in 1.8?

[brownieboy]

Many thanks for the update.

Some great new stuff in there; the ability to read while powering up is worth the upgrade on its own!

Still, I can't help but be disappointed by what's still missing:

* no "go to page number" feature
* no search
* no auto-flowing of PDFs

Any of those features would have been far more useful than the new dictionary (which only seems to work when it feels like it, anyway).

[taming]

brownie--the purpose of this update was NOT to introduce new Kobo features, but rather to make the original reader match as closely as possible, given the hardware limitations, the feature set in the WiFi reader. This was a herculean task--much more difficult than anyone thought it would be--because of the need to optimize everything to work within those limitations. While this was going on, future changes were put on hold.

The dictionary works with kepub files (kobo formatted books loaded on the reader through sync). It does not work with sideloaded ePUB files. It may be that at some point, non-drm ePUBs will also work with the dictionary, but it would require some fancy server footwork by the Kobo folks, and this may not be a priority.

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by brownieboy

Still, I can't help but be disappointed by what's still missing:

* no "go to page number" feature
* no search
* no auto-flowing of PDFs

Any of those features would have been far more useful than the new dictionary (which only seems to work when it feels like it, anyway).

Go to is largely pointless as there's no numeric pad to enter numbers with. Entering the date on the kobo is good example of the pain involved.

PDF reflow will probably never happen as the format simply doesn't support it worth a crap. Limitation of the format, not the kobo.

Search however is definitely an intriguing idea...

[brownieboy]

Originally Posted by taming

brownie--the purpose of this update was NOT to introduce new Kobo features, but rather to make the original reader match as closely as possible, given the hardware limitations, the feature set in the WiFi reader.

And who got to decide what was in the WiFi version if it wasn't Kobo themselves? So, my point still holds. I wouldn't find the dictionary a particularly useful feature even if it did work on all books.

Originally Posted by 3d0g

Go to is largely pointless as there's no numeric pad to enter numbers with. Entering the date on the kobo is good example of the pain involved.

Fair point. But it would still be less painful that having to push the page turn button 400+ times, like I'm having to do now to get back to my place in just one book.

Originally Posted by 3d0g

PDF reflow will probably never happen as the format simply doesn't support it worth a crap. Limitation of the format, not the kobo.

Other eBook readers, e.g. Sony, seem to manage this feature okay. And I'm sure that I read in this forum that this feature was - and hopefully, still is! - in the plans for a future Kobo upgrade, so I think it can be done. Whether it will be done is another matter.

[ltr]

Fair point. But it would still be less painful that having to push the page turn button 400+ times, like I'm having to do now to get back to my place in just one book.

You could just jump to the last chapter and then click through the chapter.

ltr

[The Terminator]

brownie boy why don't you use the table of contents to go to your page

[brownieboy]

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

brownie boy why don't you use the table of contents to go to your page

I do, when possible.

ToC is not always set up correctly for every book though. This is especially true of books that are converted from PDF.

Even when set up correctly, some books may have only three or four chapters, containing over 100 pages each! So, even if you land in the right chapter, you can still have a lot of page turning to do afterwards.

[taming]

One of the advantages of using the kepub format (as opposed to ePUB) is that it is very easy to use the desktop application to move through the pages and then sync with the reader. Folks using mobile applications can do that as well. For example, Android has a slider that you can use to select a page (by %), then one syncs, and it propagates.

I don't know much about Kobo's future development plans, but I believe go-to is on the list.

[3d0g]

Originally Posted by brownieboy

Other eBook readers, e.g. Sony, seem to manage this feature okay. And I'm sure that I read in this forum that this feature was - and hopefully, still is! - in the plans for a future Kobo upgrade, so I think it can be done. Whether it will be done is another matter.

Really? Which model? I've personally used a prs 700 and it was no better at PDFs than the kobo. Not that it's Sony (or kobo's) fault. Reflow features were added to the PDF format as an afterthought and are practically non-existent in the real world. That's why the Sony eReaders use zoom, just like the kobo.

[viviena]

Originally Posted by 3d0g

Really? Which model? I've personally used a prs 700 and it was no better at PDFs than the kobo. Not that it's Sony (or kobo's) fault. Reflow features were added to the PDF format as an afterthought and are practically non-existent in the real world. That's why the Sony eReaders use zoom, just like the kobo.

Er, the new *50 models all support reflow, and their PDF handling capabilities are better than the original Kobo's, in my opinion. It depends on the complexity of the document, but the majority of my library PDFs, all novels, have reflowed very well. I don't usually have to use zoom on these PDFs, which is good because I find zoom cumbersome. Reflow is one of the features that pleases me very much about my 350.

That said, I'd much rather my library stop buying PDFs altogether -- their collection of PDFs is double their collection of EPUBs. I hate PDFs as an ebook format, and I don't really see the point of even PDFs formatted specifically for a 5" or 6" screen... *grumbles*

[3d0g]

Interesting. Does the 350 compensate for hard line breaks? Where are your PDFs from (I know you said library, but what publisher)? I wonder if they're the rare beasts that are done right with reflow instructions.

[viviena]

By hard line breaks,
you mean when
breaks are artificially
inserted like this?

I don't remember any of my library PDFs having hard line breaks between sentences in a paragraph, so, well, I'm not sure how to respond to your question. Below I've included some screenshots I took for somebody else once. I don't recall all of the publishers who put out the library PDFs I read, but I think some recent ones were from Allen & Unwin (a lot of them, actually), John Wiley and Sons, and Random House Australia.

A typical reflow looks like this:



Pretty good. Typically my library PDFs would reflow so that I might get two full pages of text, then half a page. Repeat. Left-justified, I usually prefer full justification, but no big deal.

Then there are PDFs which are usually somebody's personal conversions, or at least not typically sold commercially. Such as, er, the occasional torrent I've checked out. Whether reflow looks good or not on those is 50/50.



It's horrible. Absolutely horrible. Luckily I haven't had too much of these, and if I still wanted to read one, I could always zoom. Or just search really desperately for an EPUB version, because I never have any luck at converting PDFs.

[3d0g]

The PDF format terminates each line with a hard break. That's a big part of what makes reflow so difficult.

That example isn't terrible, but still shows weirdness like breaking on apostrophes. Ultimately, PDF is a horrible format for eReaders and there are much better options, like EPUB.

[viviena]

That example of reflow is probably a poor one because it's actually breaking where there's a space, and whoever's produced that particular PDF has inserted a space before each apostrophe. In other PDFs, I haven't had problems with it breaking at apostrophes. (By that, I mean it's not breaking in other places already as well.) That said, agreed that EPUB is much better anyway.

[KoboNo]

Originally Posted by taming

the purpose of this update was NOT to introduce new Kobo features, but rather to make the original reader match as closely as possible, given the hardware limitations, the feature set in the WiFi reader.

The purpose of this update was to give original users a device that they thought they were buying when it originally launched.

On a positive note, good job with the dictionary addition, Kobo, however why does it only work for specific books? Will this be corrected soon?

Originally Posted by taming

....It may be that at some point, non-drm ePUBs will also work with the dictionary, but it would require some fancy server footwork by the Kobo folks, and this may not be a priority.

Care to elaborate what fancy server footwork you are referring to? Stop posting nonsense that you are not qualified to talk about. Are you actually familiar with the Kobo architecture and comfortable discussing the device's software and database structure?