Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 2.0

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rjcroy

Given the formatting problems I find with purchased epubs and kepubs I edit them and sideload them more often than not.

That seems to be a common attitude amongst the posters here. If it doesn't look good, reformat/edit the sucker and sideload it again.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by cyvros

Is that the one from earlier in the thread? If so, I'd been using it since it had been posted, but couldn't find the post again to thank you. The only problem I've had with it is that italics come up as bolded, but they don't with the original Charis SIL. I double-checked to make sure I had the files named correctly on the Kobo, and the italicised one is the italicised one, so I'm putting this down to a Kobo problem.

I found find that I had to name the font files as:

Charis SIL2.ttf (Charis SIL2-Regular.ttf seems to work as well)
Charis SIL2-Bold.ttf
Charis SIL2-BoldItalic.ttf
Charis SIL2-italic.ttf


The SIL2 matches that name the fonts show when I look at them on my desktop, when I tried SIL alone, I got some odd looking results. I suspect that using the i, b and z end characters in the file names would work as well since the Kobo's Georgia font uses that convention but since the one above works, I haven't gotten around to trying that convention.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by taming

I think Kobo would be really, really dumb to have a long list of fixes and release interim builds as they are addressed one at a time. Can you imagine 10 or so rollouts in a short period of time? Why would they do that? And can you imagine the s-storm here when the next release addressed only one of the issues people are so focused on.

I am going to repeat the edit I made to my previous post:

I'm basing it on what I have read from others on the 2.02 firmware.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by cyvros

Is that the one from earlier in the thread? If so, I'd been using it since it had been posted, but couldn't find the post again to thank you. The only problem I've had with it is that italics come up as bolded, but they don't with the original Charis SIL. I double-checked to make sure I had the files named correctly on the Kobo, and the italicised one is the italicised one, so I'm putting this down to a Kobo problem.

I did not realize that changing the name would screw things up for some readers. They do work as they should on my 650 and on the T1 as well as ADE for Windows. I've put up a new set (with the regular name). Please give the new ones a try.

http://www.mediafire.com/download.php?64cse2dshispx08

[pxlcore]

Originally Posted by libeluratio

Hello everybody, did anyone encountered the same problem with pdf that I have, since updating to 2.0 ?

I've created a thred here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185571

Thanks

Yes, I do have the same problem. Really annoying.

pxlcore

[taming]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I'm basing it on what I have read from others on the 2.02 firmware.

I think it is important to indicate whether we are giving an opinion based on our experience with the device or if we are making a (hopefully educated) guess or when we are passing on something we have read or been told by Kobo developers or Kobo support staff.

We often have inexperienced people stop by. They have no way to evaluate the quality of the advice they read here.

[rjcroy]

Originally Posted by DNSB

That seems to be a common attitude amongst the posters here. If it doesn't look good, reformat/edit the sucker and sideload it again.

Yes, but I don't just mean stylistic or preference issues with ebooks. I have purchased ebooks that have major performance issues on the KT when using the native file. Take the last two I have bought;

a) epub from O'Reilly -- The large images in the book did not display properly, and everytime you opened the book with KT would freeze for literally ~20 seconds. Re-writing it with Calibre fixed it. The book would open at the normal speed, and the images would display properly.

b) epub from Kobo (not a kepub) -- ~650 pages of text was all presented in single chapter file in the epub. It's been documented in another thread the performance issues this causes. here. This was problematic on the previous firmware, not just 2.0.0

My experience is that ebook publishing is still quite new and not that robust in terms of quality. That's fine, as long as it's recognised that side loading is an important and supported method.

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by register512

I wish for once that things would actually work the way they're advertised.

To wit -- wonderul new feature -- shelves. However, if you upgrade the software, your shortlist disappears. [...]

This brings us to problem 2 with shelves. To enable shelves correctly, you basically have to factory reset your KT. [...]

And thus we come to problem 3 with shelves. [...] There is no way to change the order of the list [of books to add], so now we have to try to remember the title of each new book to add to the list.

Oh, and now we come to problem 4. There is no way to easily jump through the list of books, [...]
Norm

Norm/Register512, you make it sound like your problems are everyone's problems. I understand how frustrating it is to have a new update break your device, but really, not everyone experienced problems. For me, things do work the way they're advertised; my shortlist didn't disappear; and I didn't have to do a factory reset. As for 'problems' 3 and 4, these aren't actually problems. They're just the way things were designed, and I do agree, the design isn't exactly perfect. But hey, that's why there's more updates coming up...

I just wanted to clarify for people wanting to upgrade so they wouldn't get scared away.

[Kop]

Originally Posted by taming

What font are you using? If Georgia, you may want to try Times Roman, Ryumen, or Gothic MB10. The full diacritical set is (temporarily) missing in 2.0.

Thank you for your advice. I was using "Document Default" as a font, and did try to change it to Times Roman and Gothic (for some reason Tyumen is not available on my device). Unfortunately changing the font did not make any difference. The device did still crash (reboot) when trying to open any Finnish EPUB.

Then I realised that those problematic books were "side loaded" (I have understood that this is how the books that are not transferred through Kobo Desktop are called). Interestingly enough, some other side loaded EPUB books (via Calibre, downloaded from Project Gutenbeg so no copy protection) did work ok, so problem was limited to protected, side loaded EPUBs that were in Finnish. Now, I do not know if the language or copy protection was the issues.

Solution: As I picked up from this thread, and was advised by Kobo Support (thanks, they responded in 3 hours, which is great) I performed factory reset and re-downloaded the book. Now they seem to work ok.

The difference with "original update" and the one I performed via factory reset is that:
1) Books were re-downloaded, and obviously library was re-built.
2) Adobe Digital Editions (that I use to side load my Finnish books) required re-authorization of the Kobo Touch.

I think that the item #2 may be key to the issues I was experiencing. I hope that this description may help Kobo to iron out some of the bugs.

The re-boot problem was the "main issue" that I was experiencing. Other that that, I have not tried pdf-files, so I can not comment on those. However, the page turn appears to be a tab slower compared to 1.9.

Now I can contnue my reading, but I still do hope that Kobo can push out the official, fixed version, as soon as possible.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by DNSB

That seems to be a common attitude amongst the posters here. If it doesn't look good, reformat/edit the sucker and sideload it again.

I'm glad that the tools exist to do this but I don't do it often because I don't want to be spoiled. I suppose if I had books I re-read a lot or if I had lots of non-fiction books I might spend more time editing them but I'd rather suffer a few typos and less-than-perfect formatting than accidentally find out about a plot twist.

[Xennex1170]

Originally Posted by taming

I think Kobo would be really, really dumb to have a long list of fixes and release interim builds as they are addressed one at a time. Can you imagine 10 or so rollouts in a short period of time? Why would they do that? And can you imagine the s-storm here when the next release addressed only one of the issues people are so focused on.

I am going to repeat the edit I made to my previous post:

I don't expect them to put out a release every time they fix 1-2 items on their features/bugs list. But I would like them to release an update about once every 4-6 weeks or when about 5-7 items on their list works properly (whichever comes first). That way we have a comfortable settling period as well as somewhat regular updates to further improve the device. As it is the lack of certainty really detracts from the impression that any progress is being made.

[Mrs_Often]

Okay, I gave in and had a little tiny look at the Recommended part of the KT.

I can't see an option to say "I'm not interested." I'd really appreciate being able to say "no" to a book. The option's there in Desktop version, why not on KT?

And, why are there so many Dutch books in my recommended on the KT? I have NEVER bought a Dutch book. Yes, I live in The Netherlands, that doesn't mean I want to read Dutch.

So I went to have a look at the Desktop to compare. There aren't any Dutch books in my recommended there! How strange! There are however Dutch books in "Featured" and "New Release"... so I suppose the Recommended on KT is a mix of all of these. Humph. Wait, "Featured" and "New Release" on the Desktop show ONLY Dutch books! No! Agh!

I'd like an option to set which "Featured" and which "New Releases" I want to be notified about, please (not the Dutch ones [and *certainly* not Dutch ones that are translated from English!])...

Also strange (Desktop): why can you only rate or say "not interested" in the book information pop-up on the main screen showing the whole list of books? You can't rate or say "not interested" after clicking on a book to read what it's about... That's not very practical, as when I've read what it's about, that's when I know whether I'm interested or not...

EDIT: Hah, I see the Kobobooks.com site has the option to say "already read it." And it works, the book disappears right away (the ones I rated in Desktop to get rid of them stayed there.) Right, I'm not using Desktop any more.

[Mrs_Often]

I'm contemplating updating my 2.0.0 to the Japanese 2.0.2... I'd do it mainly to be able to turn my pages faster, but especially to be able to easily sideload a huge bunch of epubs without having my KT delete them and having to put them back again and losing my bookmarks and stats on books I'm currently reading...

But, I don't recall any reports on the latter being fixed in 2.0.2. Anyone?

[exodont]

One feature of 2.0.2 that I've come across that will definitely keep it installed on one of my KT readers can be found as follows:
Go into library view and touch the four lines to the right of a book, then touch View Details from the drop-down menu. Under Synopsis you'll find the entire synopsis metadata relating to that book. Touch Synopsis and from a further menu you can choose Details giving file size, format, when published and language. A final choice of Similar Books will take you to the Kobo Bookstore if connected.

I've been waiting years for ereaders to display a synopsis of a book - essential for any owner of a large library. Well done Kobo! I simply love that feature. Now I can see at a glance all the details I've painstakingly inserted into Calibre regarding each book without actually accessing Calibre on a laptop. There doesn't appear to be a size limit either. BTW, all my epubs are sideloaded, none are Kobo in origin.

The page-turn is slower than 1.9.17 but not unbearably so for me - it's similar to the Sony 505 which I used for years so I'm used to it. The hyphenation, even in non-justified, is a pain but I think they'll fix that, and the font-tweaking facility for the installed fonts is terrific. I use my own version of Caecilia on all my readers and that can't be tweaked by the software, but it renders perfectly in 2.0.2.

A final plus point: I keep all my epubs on SD and after installing 2.0.2 I put in an SD with 1350 epubs. I was amazed to find it took no more than about five minutes before it was up and running. Much, much faster than 1.9.17. Still too many books for the Kobo though - paging through the library is too slow so it's now been reduced to a more manageable 500.

[latepaul]

Originally Posted by exodont

One feature of 2.0.2 that I've come across that will definitely keep it installed on one of my KT readers can be found as follows:
Go into library view and touch the four lines to the right of a book, then touch View Details from the drop-down menu. Under Synopsis you'll find the entire synopsis metadata relating to that book. Touch Synopsis and from a further menu you can choose Details giving file size, format, when published and language. A final choice of Similar Books will take you to the Kobo Bookstore if connected.
...
BTW, all my epubs are sideloaded, none are Kobo in origin.

That sounds good. I like the similar to feature but it only seems to work on kepubs - but then I'm not getting to it from an individual book but from the Discover menu item (or possible Find Books I can't remember).

Still I'll probably wait for an official non-Japanese 2.0.2.