Kobo Touch morphs from "with offers" to full version?

[TechniSol]

The other night I was fooling around creating some shelves and transferring some books to my Touch with Calibre and not really paying attention, but eventually noticed my Touch had gone into sleep mode after being disconnected, but was displaying the current book's cover rather than the usual advertising screen. It didn't seem to last past a power cycle, but I'm sort of wondering if I just had a memory error in RAM or if something got whacked elsewhere? It appears as one might expect, that the difference between a full touch and a with offers model is but a bit twiddle or two apart.

I wouldn't care much, but the option of leaving my Touch in sleep mode would be nice as I have no option to disable automatic power down apparently because the Kobo Touch I bought second hand through EBay was originally sold as a "Special Offers" unit. Why they don't allow the power down function to be disabled is a mystery to me as the "special offers" are displayed for both Sleep and Power down...

Any thoughts?

[murg]

Well, according to the Kobo legal stuff, every Kobo device is a 'With Offers' device. So maybe this is just the pre-cursor to all of us getting the advertising on our Kobos.

[TechniSol]

Nah, re-read what I posted... My Kobo has always been a special offers device, but switched to displaying the ebooks covers and staying in sleep mode the other night instead of powering down after an hour -it was acting like a regular Kobo Touch. As soon as I power cycled it, it went back to special offers behavior... Wish I'd have left it alone, I was kinda curious about how much power it would use in sleep mode. Oh, well.

I just can't figure out why as a "special offers" device it doesn't allow me to set it so it doesn't automatically power down and just stay in sleep mode. There is really no advantage as an ad is displayed in sleep or power down. Unless Kobo somehow gets paid every time a new ad is displayed, so then it makes sense to force the unit to power down and swap the ad being displayed?

[murg]

Nah, I got what you wrote and meant.

What I meant was that Kobo might have been adjusting everyone's device, those With Offers and those Not. So that they can then send ads to everyone's device.

If this was the case, then your device would have looked like a Not With Offers until such time as they started to send out the ads.

[TechniSol]

I suppose anything is possible, but that would require something in the way of a firmware update or at least a command passed through wireless, and I had WiFi off... Far more likely that some routine accidentally switched a bit or byte or seven so that the firmware thought it was running on a non "with special offers" device.

If they started displaying ads on everyone's devices after charging more for units where that was not the norm I think they'd be on pretty iffy ground legally... Irregardless of what any agreements might contain, unless they disclosed that policy prior to purchase they'd probably get clobbered the world around, especially offering a lower priced unit for the express purpose of displaying ads.

Frankly, the ads don't even make it onto my radar, but I'd like the ability to set the power down mode off so I can see just how much power sleep mode sucks up.

[John F]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

...

I wouldn't care much, but the option of leaving my Touch in sleep mode would be nice as I have no option to disable automatic power down apparently because the Kobo Touch I bought second hand through EBay was originally sold as a "Special Offers" unit. Why they don't allow the power down function to be disabled is a mystery to me as the "special offers" are displayed for both Sleep and Power down...

Any thoughts?

i had the same problem, it started once I visted the power options settings. I did a factory reset, and never visit the power options screen, and now my reader never powers down (it just stays in sleep mode).

I have touch with offers, version 2.1.1.

[tshering]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

I just can't figure out why as a "special offers" device it doesn't allow me to set it so it doesn't automatically power down and just stay in sleep mode.

If they really did this on purpose I would not suspect that one can change it by editing the configuration file. Anyhow, does your "Kobo eReader.conf" contain the first power option as does a "normal" KT?

[PowerOptions]
AutoOffMinutes=0
AutoSleepMinutes=15
showBookCoverWhenOff=false
showBookCoverWhenSuspended=true

[robko]

Originally Posted by murg

Well, according to the Kobo legal stuff, every Kobo device is a 'With Offers' device. So maybe this is just the pre-cursor to all of us getting the advertising on our Kobos.

I realize you are negative toward Kobo as company but come on. Get over the fact that it is in the Kobo terms of service, because the chances of Kobo putting full fledged on a non-special offers version is so low as to be non-existent. The outrage and legal challenges that would follow if they tried would sink the company. I have no doubt it was in the terms of service to cover the ones that came with special offers.

[TechniSol]

Thanks guys.

I tried twiddling the conf file and got nowhere. I assume(look out for the rampaging conjecture -they can put a horn clean through you!{think John Wayne in Hatari strapped into that chair on the front of the truck, but trying to lasso a rhino}) that the firmware reads the conf file on boot and then upon discovering it is running on a "special offers" unit handily ignores the (ir)relevant settings.

If I get really bored I may try the factory reset, but I will need to be REALLLLLLLLY bored.

[murg]

Originally Posted by robko

I realize you are negative toward Kobo as company but come on. Get over the fact that it is in the Kobo terms of service, because the chances of Kobo putting full fledged on a non-special offers version is so low as to be non-existent. The outrage and legal challenges that would follow if they tried would sink the company. I have no doubt it was in the terms of service to cover the ones that came with special offers.

I'm not negative towards Kobo. I have a realistic attitude toward them, as reflected by their actions since I've become a customer of theirs. I want Kobo to succeed, for the same reasons that I bought the Touch in the first place: I like their features, and I want there to be some competition to Amazon.

Furthermore, Kobo as a company doesn't bug me. I believe that Kobo could strongly use some management with experience in producing consumer electronics devices as well as management that has some experience in software development lifecycles. Kobo's testing is horrible, there is no way that some of the bugs that get released weren't found in alpha testing. I also firmly believe that Kobo has to stop screwing things up.

But, getting back to the topic in question, while my post in this thread as tongue-in-cheek, it does have some seriousness to it.

Kobo has shown that they will place marketing considerations above technical considerations when developing the software of their devices.

As at the latest release, the Home screen has six distinct menus on it, two of which are related to my books (Reading and Library), three are related to marketing (Discover, Find Books and Wishlist) and the last is Reading Life, and I'm not sure which category that belongs to (but since I have it turned off, I'm quite happy to put it into the marketing category).

I can easily see Kobo management deciding to pump ads onto the sleep/power down screens. The language in the Terms & Conditions (or whatever they are calling it) allows for this. I don't think Kobo would be that stupid, though. But if they did do it, the howls would be relatively short-lived, and Kobo could weather that storm, considering who the alternatives are (and people have already laid out the money for the devices).

[TechniSol]

Well, color my face red... I changed AutoOffMinutes=60 to 0 and thought it made no difference. After paying more attention, my Touch now sleeps without automatically powering down.

I also added:

showBookCoverWhenOff=true
showBookCoverWhenSuspended=true

at the same time just to see what happened, which didn't work, and thought all three were being ignored because after checking the sleep settings screen it still indicated 60 minutes for AutoOffMinutes... Apparently the conf file overrides, but it's setting, or at least 0, does not appear on the sleep settings screen? I wonder if it's because the firmware displays "none" or "off" or something similar in the dropdown list for those who get a zero choice in the firmware? Maybe I need a negative one(-1) or it just does not allow the zero or off setting to display for some other reason either buggy or intentional? Odd.

Anyhow, it works and I have a full on extended sleep mode. My thanks!

[tshering]

Originally Posted by TechniSol

I changed AutoOffMinutes=60 to 0 and thought it made no difference.

I know, its difficult to keep one's hands off the KT for more than an hour.

[TechniSol]

Heh, heh... You got me. Even worse for some reason when the covers failed to display I guess I gave up, read for a while, and habit took over and I powered it off instead of leaving it to see what would happen. I always powered off when done until now.

Anyhow, thanks again for the posting of the config file.