Glo Kobo Software Update 2.5.2

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by taming

As it says in my MR profile and which I have said from time to time here, I'm a mental health educator in Alberta, Canada. As I have also said, I have been a beta group member since the beta group was first established and an enthusiastic Kobo device user since the day the first one was released.

I have no other relationship with Kobo. I do have a whole lot of experience with Kobo in these totally unpaid and informal ways and I am pretty good at reading between the lines. I also read voraciously and widely and research topics that interest me. I enjoy sharing what I consider interesting and relevant to discussions here when I find them.

Is it your plan to ask anyone who says something positive about Kobo, or who speculates without damning, if they are undercover Kobo plants, or am I special?

PS: As for the comment you quoted (and bolded), it is not rocket science, nor does it take insider knowledge, to think that bugs will be fixed (though often not as soon as any of us would like).

Nope, I was wondering whether you had information that were not public yet and whether you knew a bit more, because right now I am more than angry at Kobo. Since my device synced to 2.5.2 Calibre won't communicate with it and the trick of logging out and again in does not work, instead it reboots if asked to log out. I was hoping for a move to 2.5.3 (but should I really) because 2.5.2 is disastrous for me, and I was hoping you might know when that would happen. But hey, thanks anyway .

[taming]

Originally Posted by aceflor

Since my device synced to 2.5.2 Calibre won't communicate with it and the trick of logging out and again in does not work, instead it reboots if asked to log out.

Using kobo .52, I had problems with the extended driver and last week's calibre build (0.9.30), so I reverted to 0.9.29. It can take a week or two for calibre drivers and kobo builds to play nicely together. It can be really frustrating when there are frequent kobo updates in a row that require driver adjustments.I decided to try to revert to .29 after reading the plugin thread on calibre.

[FJames]

So it seems that adding extra dictionary files directly to the .kobo directory doesn't fully work with the Aura running firmware 2.5.1. The dictionary becomes available for looking up words in a book, but the general Dictionary lookup function still claims that the dictionary is not installed and a Sync is required to get it. All the dictionary files are in the Kobo Desktop program folder on my PC, but the program won't sync with the reader unless it has an internet connection, in which case it will try to force the 2.5.2 update. Catch-22!

So, I understand there are two methods for preventing a firmware update:

a) Connect to PC, sync, delete the firmware update .tgz file from the .kobo folder before disconnecting from PC.

b) Change the firmware version number on the reader to one later than the update you are trying to prevent.

Has anyone verified method a) with the Aura? Are there any other files to be deleted other than the .tgz? (all the instructions are quite old, and might be a little out of date) Will the dictionary updates stick if the firmware update is not done?

I can't remember seeing any details of method b), just a mention of it. Can anyone point to the details?

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by FJames

So, I understand there are two methods for preventing a firmware update:

a) Connect to PC, sync, delete the firmware update .tgz file from the .kobo folder before disconnecting from PC.

b) Change the firmware version number on the reader to one later than the update you are trying to prevent.

Has anyone verified method a) with the Aura? Are there any other files to be deleted other than the .tgz? (all the instructions are quite old, and might be a little out of date) Will the dictionary updates stick if the firmware update is not done?

I can't remember seeing any details of method b), just a mention of it. Can anyone point to the details?

Method "b" has been mentioned by others here and involves opening the version file and editing the current version number to something higher. I do remember reading a post from someone who tried this on the Aura and reported that the edit subsequently would not stay edited and reverted to its previous state. I have no firsthand experience of this on the Aura nor have I recently read any other reports. You can test it yourself before actually syncing with Kobo.

Perhaps the more experienced folks here will offer further information.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by taming

Using kobo .52, I had problems with the extended driver and last week's calibre build (0.9.30), so I reverted to 0.9.29. It can take a week or two for calibre drivers and kobo builds to play nicely together. It can be really frustrating when there are frequent kobo updates in a row that require driver adjustments.I decided to try to revert to .29 after reading the plugin thread on calibre.

That's why I normally don't update Calibre immediately. I'll stay on the older version if there's a Kobo update and it works with Calibre until it's confirmed that the newer version works with Kobo as well.

By now I have the 2.5.2 update as well (both on my Kobo and my Touch). Finally I can use the dictionary as it was supposed again (no text overflow and the back arrow takes me back to word selection).

But like I suspected I strongly dislike the "last sync" tile that's not dismissable anymore - especially since the space below isn't used anymore, either. There would be enough space for at least two "shelf" or "extras" tiles.

Not that it's that important, but it looks ugly to me (sorry if I now hurt someones feelings again but I still think forcing to keep that sync tile is unnecessary - to word it more politely). And it's a waste of space.

The same wasted space is on the right side. Only the middle column goes down to the bottom, so I'm not sure if that's not a bug. (If it's that way by design... than it's a strange kind of design, again trying to be polite).

I'd love to be able to dismiss all tiles again and have all the space on my homescreen used for tiles like it used to be before.

Also I don't really see how that sync tile helps me any. For someone like me who has no WiFi that tile does nothing. And the information (last sync date) can be found when opening the menu, so where's the good in forcing me to keep the tile? I still don't get it.

Please, Kobo, make the sync tile dismissable again!

[taming]

Originally Posted by Jaden

But like I suspected I strongly dislike the "last sync" tile that's not dismissable anymore - especially since the space below isn't used anymore, either. There would be enough space for at least two "shelf" or "extras" tiles.

...

I'd love to be able to dismiss all tiles again and have all the space on my homescreen used for tiles like it used to be before.

...

Also I don't really see how that sync tile helps me any. For someone like me who has no WiFi that tile does nothing.

I understand your POV, for sure. I guess as someone who does use sync--often every day-- and would never dismiss it, and like to know when my last sync was done, having it there all the time is convenient.

If it were to not appear, for example, if something else could bump it, I'd find it really annoying to have to go into that menu thing and do a sync to have it appear again.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by taming

I understand your POV, for sure. I guess as someone who does use sync--often every day-- and would never dismiss it, and like to know when my last sync was done, having it there all the time is convenient.

If it were to not appear, for example, if something else could bump it, I'd find it really annoying to have to go into that menu thing and do a sync to have it appear again.

It would be great if there was another option along the way of "always show on homescreen" (until you'd dismiss the tile yourself). That way we would be able to keep the tiles we want. But I guess they wouldn't want to do that because that way advertising tiles like "recommended" or "related to" would never appear - unless they will only allow that for a certain amount of tiles.

It would also be okay if some tiles would never get bumped off the screen unless they get dismissed. "Last sync" could be one of those tiles: never bumped but dismissable. I just want to be able to decide wether I need the tile to stay on the screen or not.

More important (for me) than being able to dismiss the sync tile would be that all available space would be used for tiles (like before).

[taming]

I just looked at my home screen, I have 7 open books, three shelves, and the sync tile. I think the old screen had 5 book tiles, and that was it. I am not disagreeing with your proposed solution, but the new home screen, on the Aura, has more in terms of choices/books than before, from my perspective,

[icallaci]

I emailed Kobo regarding the wasted screen real estate in 2.5.2 and suggested they take a look at the posts in this forum to gauge their customers' reactions. I also mentioned that because Kobo is known for offering flexible reading options, I was requesting that Kobo implement a full-screen reading mode. Their response was, in part: "You said that you would like for your device to have the option that enables you to read in full screen mode. This feature request has been sent to our feedback department to make note of."

This seems a reasonable first response, and I suggest that others, like me, who want the option of using the entire screen for actual reading, should email Kobo to ask for it. Perhaps if Kobo gets enough direct requests, they will implement it.

I used feedback@kobo.com but the reply came from help@kobobooks.com. I imagine either one of those email addresses would work.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by taming

Using kobo .52, I had problems with the extended driver and last week's calibre build (0.9.30), so I reverted to 0.9.29. It can take a week or two for calibre drivers and kobo builds to play nicely together. It can be really frustrating when there are frequent kobo updates in a row that require driver adjustments.I decided to try to revert to .29 after reading the plugin thread on calibre.

I too went back from calibre 0.9.30 to 0.9.29 a few days ago already, due to 0.9.30 not working with the kobo plugin, and 0.9.29 played nicely with 2.5.1. But now, with 2.5.2, calibre (0.9.29) does not want to "speak" with my Aura. I don't think it's a plugin problem this time. I'm dead tired so I won't play too much with it tonight, but I will try to clear this tomorrow.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by icallaci

This seems a reasonable first response, and I suggest that others, like me, who want the option of using the entire screen for actual reading, should email Kobo to ask for it. Perhaps if Kobo gets enough direct requests, they will implement it.

With all due respect, I would refrain from excessive e-mail before we see what the next release will do about the screen use in the reading mode.

It is obvious that they do monitor this forum, our bug reports are addressed, and I am assuming that the message about the screen real estate was clearly sent. It takes time to go through the testing phase and issue a new release in any software development environment.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by taming

I just looked at my home screen, I have 7 open books, three shelves, and the sync tile. I think the old screen had 5 book tiles, and that was it. I am not disagreeing with your proposed solution, but the new home screen, on the Aura, has more in terms of choices/books than before, from my perspective,

Of course there are more options/items than there used to be before on my Touch. (I have 5 books, 4 shelves, 2 extras plus the sync screen at the moment.) But I'm comparing the "old" Aura screen with the new one.

And I know I'm nitpicking.

What I'd love to have, too, would be a list of tiles that got bumped or dismissed and select them to be on the screen. But of course all of that is just "cosmetics" more or less.

[icallaci]

Originally Posted by Ankh

With all due respect, I would refrain from excessive e-mail before we see what the next release will do about the screen use in the reading mode.

It is obvious that they do monitor this forum, our bug reports are addressed, and I am assuming that the message about the screen real estate was clearly sent. It takes time to go through the testing phase and issue a new release in any software development environment.

Except that people have been complaining for a while in this forum about the wasted space and nothing has been done. In fact, Kobo went in the opposite direction and took away even more space in the last release. So either they are not listening or they don't think it's a big deal. Talking directly to the company is likely to do more good than simply complaining in a forum.

[PeterT]

FYI. Kobo do read these forums and are aware of the discussions. However, they choose not to reply here in the main due to a lot of the negativity that is displayed.

[ShellShock]

Compared to a lot of forums on the Internet these days, I think Kobo are dealt with pretty fairly here. It is also normal for companies not to post in forums, because whatever they say is usually misconstrued by someone.