Touch Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread

[robko]

Originally Posted by ballfresno

Strange. What you want is exactly what my Touch does. How are you turning yours off? Most of the time, mine simply goes to sleep or else I put it to sleep with the slider switch at the top.

With sleep it does go back to the page you were reading. If you power it down (as the original poster seems to be doing) it goes to the home screen.

[ballfresno]

Originally Posted by robko

With sleep it does go back to the page you were reading. If you power it down (as the original poster seems to be doing) it goes to the home screen.

Which is why I asked what the OP was doing!

I don't think I've ever powered off my Kobo. Should I be doing so? Seems much more convenient, as the OP notes, to simply put it to sleep (or let it go to sleep itself as mine usually does). The power consumption difference must be small, if any? (I have mine usually in airplane mode, by the way)

Thanks.

[Arefkay]

Yes, I do power off my Kobo. When I put it to sleep it used to consume a lot more power. Turning it off consumes no power. Of course it has been a while since I put it sleep instead of turning it off. Perhaps the newer versions of firmware don't consume power when in sleep mode? But if that were the case, what is the difference between sleep mode and powering off?

[jguinart]

+1 for being able to add/change dictionaries depending on the book language.

Also, to be able to see a quick definition of a word with just one touch as in the Kindle.

[voom]

Also, to be able to see a quick definition of a word with just one touch as in the Kindle.

I second that I dont know how the Kindle does it, but if a quick definition popped up with the marker and I could maybe even in that popup tap further options directly, that would make for a much better flow. It could also, in respect to the function of extending the marker, be a second short tap on the marked word that would bring up that popup, having it right away with the longpress could be disturbing...

[GHG]

Originally Posted by Arefkay

Yes, I do power off my Kobo. When I put it to sleep it used to consume a lot more power. Turning it off consumes no power. Of course it has been a while since I put it sleep instead of turning it off. Perhaps the newer versions of firmware don't consume power when in sleep mode? But if that were the case, what is the difference between sleep mode and powering off?

The difference in the two modes is what you have already stated. There is a small power hit when in the sleep mode, but that's the price for being returned to your last page. The power off mode is exactly that, power to the unit is shut off. The screen uses no power even with the image displayed so I find the battery life is excellent when using the power off mode. Of course it takes a bit of time while the unit goes through the power on cycle and you have to re-select your book, but thats the price for excellent battery life. You have control over how long the unit stays "awake" and you can also set the unit to never go into the power off mode.

I have mine set to sleep after 5 minutes and power off after 10 minutes of inactivity and get weeks of daily reading from a single charge.

One thing I have noticed is that I do not get the advertised low battery warning which was supposed to be in one of the last software updates. It just goes off still.

On the other hand the latest update seems to have fixed the double page turn issue, which I found quite annoying and I really like having access to the time display. The Touch just keeps getting better technically.

I don't like the new advertising feature at the bottom and don't really see the need to have your favourites displayed there either. If I have read the book already and it was a favourite I don't really need to have fast access to it. I filled up the 5 spaces with the same books that are in the now smaller home screen, which tend to be the books pending to be read, just to have something there. I would be quite happy to have that feature an option.

As I mentioned, I get almost daily emails from KOBO advertising the latest sales and book picked "just for me". I don't need them on my reader too.

[voom]

In a different user-setting the shortlist makes much sense, e.g. if several reference-books are being used. I have turned my own oracle into a reference ePUB so I can quickly look up the drawings. There could be recipe-collections for cooking and so on. These would obviously never be finished, would not necessarily appear automatically - but it would be nice to have them in direct access.

Anyway, maybe there could be a "versatile shortlist"-option, where I could put not only books but also shortlinks to internal functions like the browser or library-search or even URL-favorites to open in the browser or often needed searches with searchword filled in or whatever else I individually like to have direct access to.

[nogle]

I read a fair bit of non-fiction. Every once in a while I will be reading a book and wonder when it was written/published as it can colour an author's or readers view. reading a paper book, I will quickly flip to the copyright page and flip back.

What I would like is to have some sort of 'properties' option in the menu that could include information from the copyright page. It could include tags, publisher, author, date added etc.

[SF&F Reader]

Could also be useful for maps in fantasy novels. . .

[Thra11]

Another +1 for different language/just different dictionaries. At the moment I seem to have American and German, while English, French and various etymological dictionaries would be more useful to me. One possibility would be to allow users to load custom dictionaries, although I have to admit I don't know what format these would have to be in, or if any exist, so it could be that this is a nice theory, but not really practical until the internet is awash with suitably formatted open dictionaries. (Maybe there are lots I don't know about?)

A more plausible idea is this: Once the kobo web browser is no longer an experimental feature, it could be called on to look up words from within a book. Users could navigate to a page with some sort of search function e.g. google, wiktionary or etymonline, then choose a menu option to add the search field to a list of websites to look things up. Then next time they're reading a book, they select a word as usual, but have an option, "Look up using..." with the user's list of sites. The browser then pops up with the selected site showing the results of searching for the word.

Finally, I understand there are very good reasons why kobo keep the code for the UI closed-source, so I won't dwell on it, just to mention that if ever things should change such that it were feasible to open-source the code, I, as a user who likes tinkering and tweaking, would welcome it.

[Wendy]

Another thing that sort of bothers me right now is that not all Reading Life Awards are available on all devices.
I don't own and iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch and I don't want to feel like I have to get one just so I have the same opportunities as others when it comes to Reading Life.

This may sound silly but it's a very nice feature that I enjoy a lot. However, if only half of the stuff works on the actual Kobo, I don't see what's the point!?

And I really can't stress enough how annoying the HOME-Button is. Everything that used to be one klick is now at least two, sometimes more. Why? Just so they could sneak in the ads (when I specifically got the more expensive Kobo so it would NOT have ads!)?

+1 on the "Look up on..." function. The Sony has it - you can google words or look something up on Wikipedia. Which is very useful when you don't just want a definition of some vocab but a little something about the subject. It makes reading a whole new experience. In paper books you may be too lazy to go and look something up but if it just takes one touch with your finger - awesome!

[John F]

I would like to see a couple of more choices for margins on the low side.

Also, please speed up navigation and refreshing. In particular, table of contents and book deletion comes to mind.

Also please make link traversal better (and let us know how it is supposed to work).

Thank you. This could be a great device if some small things were fixed.

[filmo]

List of book titles your reading as used on Kobo Wifi home screen was always better than showing 5 book covers your reading on Kobo touch home screen. Now showing smaller book covers of books your reading and even smaller book covers for recommended books is only useless blur. This new home screen might be ok on high resolution color screen with pinch zoom but is only stupidity on kobo touch. This useless home screen will block Kobo Touch sales to comparison shoppers in stores and when shown in reviews.

[Akerbos]

I have been using the Kobo Touch for a week. I am sure many things have been mentioned already, but these are my thoughts.

1) Library has absolutely not structure. Please allow us folders (maybe use structure from file system?) and/or give filtering options by tags/author/series/...

2) Tags are not supported at all. It would be very userful to show them in library and enable searching by them. This could very well replace item 1).

3) EPUB offers metadata about series. I can not see that Kobo Touch exploits that. For instance, when finishing book one of a series, the device could offer to directly go to book two (if available).

4) I like the newly introduced clock. It reduces to the icon after a few seconds, however; please make it stay there (maybe as an option?). Also, please ofer 24h clock.

5) Definition and dicitionary lookup is great. Please allow us to add new dictionaries in whatever format. For instance, I learn Swedish so having a Swedish dictionary built in my Kobo would increase its value manyfold.

6) Many tools break down when viewing PDF (I guess because touch input is reserved for panning?). Please enable us to follow links and select text in PDF, too. Skipping to chapters also seems to be broken (sometimes?); maybe it depends on the PDF, though.

7) I searched for a word in a 70 page PDF. It took minutes, literally. Please improve that, if possible. I have had no such problems in EPUB so far.

8) Please add the option to disable page turn by tap. I use swiping and every accidental tap turns a page -- annoying!

9) On 1.9.11, home screen allowed fast library access. As of 1.9.16, all I can access are a few recently read and shortlist books. It takes far too many clicks to access something from library now. There is lots of space next to the big HOME menu item; please (re)add links to library and search there.

10) Please allow us to delete a book while reading it. Currently, we have to close and find it in the library again.

11) I tried the books from http://www.hindawi.com/epub/ to check SVG support. While everything shows up nicely, the books take awefully long to open compared to simpler EPUB books. Please improve that. (Do you layout all SVG on load?)

12) You can apparently no longer connect Kobo Touch to a low-powered USB port with the new firmware. Why is that? Any chance to revert that back? It is ok if it does not charge (as quickly) but we should be able to transfer books on the device even from a USB hub without own power supply.

13) When turning the last page, Kobo Touch automatically returns to the library. This is particularly annoying when viewing one page documents (a map for roleplaying, some diagram...) as an accidental tap causes me to search for the document anew. Therefore, I propose that the device should ask what to do when the last page is turned; possible options: Go to library? Go to home screen? Stay here? Delete book?

Thank you for listening to your customers for your firmware development process!

[voom]

You write "1.9.18" - I suppose you mean 1.9.16 as of now, or is there a new update I have not noticed yet?

12) You can apparently no longer connect Kobo Touch to a low-powered USB port with the new firmware. Why is that? Any chance to revert that back? It is ok if it does not charge (as quickly) but we should be able to transfer books on the device even from a USB hub without own power supply.

I connect my Kobo to a USB-Hub w/p power-supply alle the time (1.9.16) no problem here...