Touch Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread

[seabee]

Hello,

I expect to buy a Kobo Touch as soon as it becomes available in France. Even if the hardware is almost perfect for the price, I'm missing the following software features (from what I read):
- search inside books' text (to be implemented according to previous posts), at least inside the currently read book but it would be fantastic to be able to search text for multiple books (combined with a filter on tag values, see below), like a character's name occurrences in a saga.
- let the user define pairs of tag=value on each book with standard tags like authors, title, genre, editor, series (for sagas), index (in saga), editionYear... Use them as filters/multiple sort keys, select from a list of known alternatives for a given tag.
- a multi-columns (at least Author and Title, appear as buttons in the top line columns header to select the active sort key) single-text-line-by-book list of books without picture for fast browsing with tens of titles on each page and # A B C...Z quick navigation buttons on the bottom line (depending on what column is the sort key).
- localized keyboard (AZERTY with àÀ â çÇ éÉ èÈ êÊ ëË îÎ ïÏ ôÔ œŒ ùÙ ûÛ üÜ and € for french, possibly using dead-key prefix for ´`^¨). This is probably the easiest feature as the keyboard is virtual.
- choice among multiple dictionaries (free or not), both for translations and definitions, including a way to plug locale Wikipedia. Fast dictionary selector from inside a book. As a French and English books reader, I'd like to have definitions (not translations) for both languages, but this is only my personal choice.
- same features for Kobo and non-Kobo books (annotations, dictionary lookup...)
- dictionary lookup from any text-based document, including the dictionary itself.
- In this thread, I read that raw text documents appear with a blank cover, a simple solution: associate a second file with the same title and a .cover.png, .cover.gif or .cover.jpg (depending on the supported picture formats) extension, processing them as a single document.

I don't agree at all with people thinking that advanced features will necessarily make a reader harder to use, they only have to be implemented in a non-intrusive/disruptive way.

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Danger

It's funny you should mention that. As that is THE main reason I remove the DRM from my books. So that I can change the books Title meta tag so that all my Star Wars books are in sequence. Something easier such collections or series would be preferable.

Actually DRM is usually not applied to the meta data anyway. If you use 7zip to access the data you an change the title without touching anything else.

Dale

[DaleDe]

Originally Posted by Asawi

Disagree! I want page numbers that as much as possible reflects paper book pages. I often change font size and I don't want to have the page count change.
I underestand others think differently, so if it could be an otion to have one or the other, that would be great!

Yes, this is an ADE thing. All eBook readers using ADE have the same page numbering scheme which is an advantage in that it does not depend on font sizing and can be used as a reference between even readers from different manufactures. The best implementation, IMHO, is the one from Sony that as page 2-1, 2-2, etc. where the number after the dash is the screen number that does change with different font sizes and reflects a subpage screen within the ADE assigned page number.

Dale

[Danger]

Originally Posted by DaleDe

Actually DRM is usually not applied to the meta data anyway. If you use 7zip to access the data you an change the title without touching anything else.

Dale

Well that is certainly good to know. Thank you.

[EricDP]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

Have page counts in sideloaded epubs be based on current font & spacing settings rather than some internal number. Having to turn the page 3-4 times before the displayed page number actually advances is getting rather irritating.

Wait, are you saying that side-loaded books use the proper ADE page numbers, whereas books from kobobooks.com don't? (I assume they use kobo's strange pages per chapter). It's odd that the book source would affect how it's paginated.

I don't like the strange kobo pages per chapter, and, since I always strip DRM, I always side-load. This puts kobo back on my list.

[filmo]

When I was first using Kobo touch would some times have double page turns from a bounce double touch. With later updates would have no page turn then double page turn on 2nd try to turn page. I have wondered if there is something suppressing double page turns that is causing 2 page turns after second try.

Kobo touch has really fast page turns it is flash reading with large font. I'm just able to read page as fast each page can be turned.

I really can't see all the problems/complaints people are having with ADE page numbers... these synthetic page numbers are the only useful way of having page numbers at all with something as dynamic as a completely user-formattable ebook combined with a variety of ereader screen sizes. If page numbers would depend on ebook formatting, you could put away with page numbers as well. Page numbers are not some decoration, but a tool to find passages in a book, and ADE page numbers provide that, on every variety of ereader or e-reading app, and for every single ebook on this planet.

I like ADE page numbers! They are useful and practical. They are universal. They work, always.

[Faxwar]

Exactly like Seabee, I'm expecting a french-french dictionnary, the possibility to select text and look for it in Wikipedia and to search into books.

These features would make the Kobo touch perfect for me.

[seabee]

Originally Posted by Benjamin Buford

I really can't see all the problems/complaints people are having with ADE page numbers... these synthetic page numbers are the only useful way of having page numbers at all with something as dynamic as a completely user-formattable ebook combined with a variety of ereader screen sizes. If page numbers would depend on ebook formatting, you could put away with page numbers as well. Page numbers are not some decoration, but a tool to find passages in a book, and ADE page numbers provide that, on every variety of ereader or e-reading app, and for every single ebook on this planet.

I like ADE page numbers! They are useful and practical. They are universal. They work, always.

I can't agree more. this is the only way if you want to give references to locations in a book to someone else reading either a paper edition or on a different reader (5/6/7/9/?" screen) or with different settings: margins, font, line spacing... Even a very faint difference in font rendering can change reader's pagination. I remember a case where line-cut position was different in a Windows application only depending on active anti-aliasing option alone (none, standard antialiasing or ClearType) because some characters were rendered with a pixel more or less.

Those that are irritated when page number don't match screen count don't need page number at all, bookmarks are enough for individual use, and screen number are useless for shared use.

[Danger]

I am one of those that hate the page numbers on the right hand side of the screen. I would have no problem with them if you could turn them OFF. I find the page # / total pages displayed on the bottom of the screen more than sufficient.

[Joe563]

I am one of those that hate the page numbers on the right hand side of the screen. I would have no problem with them if you could turn them OFF. I find the page # / total pages displayed on the bottom of the screen more than sufficient.

With the last firmware release you can turn them off. To do so, tap the center of the screen to bring up the reading menu then tap the options menu (four stacked bars) and you will find it under advanced settings.

[jago25_98]

i lov the kpbo. im typing n it now but wish the keyboard was bigger

its the most accomplished reader and i love its simplicity

i suggest

- screensaver stays as last read page so we can read while waiting to power on

- swipe to scroll through library ,perhaps a search box for wh therea 1000's of bools to look through

- easier to hit buttons, it seems to need much more precison than the ipad. not fair to compare though

thata all.

i alo love that you can just drag books over withoit speciist software. that is fantastic. why not remind the user aboit the hold button to update cpntent trick onn the sync screen

[Joe563]

- swipe to scroll through library ,perhaps a search box for wh therea 1000's of bools to look through

There is a search function. When you select a bookshelf within the Library such as Books you will see a magnifying glass icon at the bottom of the screen at the right. Tap the icon to activate the search function.

[anonymoose]

Thought of another suggestion. When looking at previews, at the end of the book a window pops up with a "buy now" button, which is great. I also wish there was a "delete" button. Right now if I want to delete a preview I have to close it, go back into the library, search for the title and then delete it.

[exNookie]

Not sure if people have suggested a sync feature where the kobo software tracks the current / last page read. When you close a book, enter sleep or shutdown a device your place in the book is saved to your account. Then if you open the same book on a different device it either prompts and asks you if you want to continue from the same spot last read on another device or automatically takes you there.

This feature would save a lot of work for people who read books on multiple devices (laptop, phone, KT).