Kobo Firmware 2.6.1

[theonna]

DNSB
Here are my notes with new firmware, the syncing time improved dramatically.

Originally Posted by DNSB

I also find it hard to comprehend how you continue to ignore a solution that works for locating books and continue to kvetch about how dumping the database and going to a file browser would cure all your issues.

I don't ignore your solution, more than 70% of my books are not in English, so I can not search for them. Kobo is fine displaying them so is Nook, Sony and Kindle- they all have unicode support. Neither can search them. File manager will not solve all my problems, but it will make my library by far more convenient for me.

Originally Posted by DNSB

OTOH, I have to wonder why you are reloading the books into Calibre each time? Can't you simply load them into Calibre once and then use that library which would save you 40 minutes? And I have to wonder about the computer you are using. On my iMac, it takes far less time to copy the books to the Aura from Calibre, on my Lenovo laptop, it takes a couple of minutes less so 15 minutes instead of your 30 minutes. Then about 10 minutes for the Aura to process the books.

I put my specks under the spoiler. I do not load my books into Calibre each time. I use the same collection. I also did not run epub validity checks on them, but I've loaded those same books on Nook, Sony and Pocketbook readers with no problems or need for extensive syncing, or even need for Calibre. I did relog this time on my Kobo to start with fresh database and deleted all the books from it as well. So all the times are for putting fresh collection of books on the new Aura.

Spoiler:

Mac OS X 10.8.3,I7 3.4 GHz, 16GB 1600MHz DDR 3
Calibre version 0.9.34
Kobo Aura HD Firmware 2.6.1
21.33
started, 2449 books to put on the Kobo Aura,

Uploading books, processing books
10min-12%.
20min-21%
22.10 at 34%…
Calibre said it used 35 min.
22.19 50% Calibre said it used 44 min.
No books were sent to device yet, still processing.
22.33- hour in the job, 70% processing, Calibre says 57min working.
22.56 Calibre worked 81 min 100% processing
Now we transferring books to the device 12% in one min.
23.03 Done with transfer total time with processing 87min33sec
23.04 Calibre is done. Database size on the device 2mb.
23.05 Ejected Aura
It is processing content.
23.10 35% 23.15 64% 23.20 89% 23.25 94%, 23.26 done.
Added 1844 books. Database 159.2mb Occupied space on Kobo 1.53 GB
Total time 1 hour 53 minutes.

[PeterT]

Are you using the default Kobo driver or the Extended Kobo driver?

[theonna]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Are you using the default Kobo driver or the Extended Kobo driver?

Extended one, it was updated yesterday, and so was Calibre.

[PeterT]

That does a lot of processing on the books being sent to the Kobo... Could you maybe try sending some books to the device using the stock driver?

Remember the Extended driver "Kobofies" books each and every time they are sent...

[guma]

Originally Posted by robko

There is nothing wrong with Kobo not meeting your needs, but people seem to think that if it doesn't fit exactly what *they* want it's a terrible reader. Is Kobo perfect - no. Is it wrong for people to want changes/improvements - no. Just realize that there are a lot of people who are generally happy with it and that's the beauty of a competitive market -- there are other options if Kobo doesn't currently meet your needs.

You forget that updates are forced with the KOBO. Thus, with regards to design CHANGES (like the new way epubs are rendered), I cannot accept the 'there are other options'-argument. I don't want to buy a new ereader because a forced update changes things on the KOBO in a way I don't like.

E.g. I'm one of those people who do mind wasted space on the top of every page and would never have bought a KOBO reader if it had displayed books like this when I was trying it out in the store.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Nothing has been forced on me. I'm at 2.5.1 still. I just leave wifi off and connect through Calibre.

[roger64]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Nothing has been forced on me. I'm at 2.5.1 still. I just leave wifi off and connect through Calibre.

Having read this thread. I am still cautiously on 2.5.1. No wifi.

Kobo can modify anything, I don't care, except page display. He should however squash long-lived page display related bugs... (looong paragraphs...)

Originally Posted by EBXY

The title is shown with the actual time when reading for me.
When I tap on the top line both is shown in exchange for some seconds.
It was the same with 2.5.2 for me. So I can't see any difference and am happy.
Also the new first page is better for the handling I think.

You must have missed the copious complaints and thread hijackings over the addition of the title in the epub reader for 2.5.2. A few posters were seriously disturbed by this feature (or misfeature, depending upon how you interpret it). Kobo tried to solve this problem in 2.6.1, but a few of the posters who complained about 2.5.2 believe that Kobo hasn't gone far enough.

[Rand Brittain]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

You must have missed the copious complaints and thread hijackings over the addition of the title in the epub reader for 2.5.2. A few posters were seriously disturbed by this feature (or misfeature, depending upon how you interpret it). Kobo tried to solve this problem in 2.6.1, but a few of the posters who complained about 2.5.2 believe that Kobo hasn't gone far enough.

Well, they solved the problem in a way that doesn't actually do anything to alter the thing people didn't like about having the title displayed (lost screen space). So, yeah.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

You must have missed the copious complaints and thread hijackings over the addition of the title in the epub reader for 2.5.2. A few posters were seriously disturbed by this feature (or misfeature, depending upon how you interpret it). Kobo tried to solve this problem in 2.6.1, but a few of the posters who complained about 2.5.2 believe that Kobo hasn't gone far enough.

To keep the record straight (and it would be nice if everyone was doing the same and not "seasoning" the facts to each own's taste):

• In 2.5.1, the title was shown at the top of each page with kepubs. With epubs it was not and the space used for actual text was optimal.
• In 2.5.2, the title was always shown at the top of the page, and empty lines separated it from the actual text, thus some of us complaining about loss of space.
• In 2.6.1, from what I understand (I have not received it yet), the title is not shown anymore in epubs (what's the story on kepubs?), but the actual text is not back as high on the page as it was on 2.5.1, although Kobo made the effort of reducing the loss of space in the top margin.

Can anyone with an objective mind confirm or correct this please ?

[TechniSol]

Thanks Kobo developers, for what appears a decent step forward. I'm not sure I'm crazy about the tiles yet, but they do say imitation is the sincerest form of flattery, and imitating Microsoft may not be a terrible move. I would like to have more control over what's displayed where, but it's not terrible now, just a little disconcerting that the home screen constantly changes. It'd be cool if we could at least lock certain tiles, or type of tiles, in certain places.

Well, I'll give them this much, if reading an epub they did apparently do away with the extra blank line at the page bottom -that helps! However, they might as well add the titles back at the top if they're going to leave the space blank and start the book's text down a line anyway to make room for the top menu -better yet, give us the option of displaying: the title, the chapter title, alternating title/chapter, blank, or full time top menu, at least the space could have some utility. Or get really radical and combine that information and the page number on one line as an option and get rid of the top or bottom space waster and pop it up over the text, but I suppose that will not happen as the bottom line is needed for annotations...

If they're going to leave the space top and bottom, the next logical thing would be to equally divide the spaces above and below the text so the text at top does not touch the top menu bar when it is called up and the page appears balanced.

Now that they've improved the text layout for epubs, they still have an extra line at bottom in the kepub reader.

Now that we have a lighting control that can be varied by as little as one percent by rolling one's finger, it would be nice to see the same intelligence applied to the text size selection to eliminate odd jumps and gaps.

[ewphoenix123]

Originally Posted by aceflor

To keep the record straight (and it would be nice if everyone was doing the same and not "seasoning" the facts to each own's taste):

• In 2.5.1, the title was shown at the top of each page with kepubs. With epubs it was not and the space used for actual text was optimal.
• In 2.5.2, the title was always shown at the top of the page, and empty lines separated it from the actual text, thus some of us complaining about loss of space.
• In 2.6.1, from what I understand (I have not received it yet), the title is not shown anymore in epubs¨(what's the story on kepubs?), but the actual text is not back as high on the page as it was on 2.5.1, although Kobo made the effort of reducing the loss of space in the top margin.

Can anyone with an objective mind confirm or correct this please ?

Confirmed. The empty space on top, in 2.6.1, is about a top-margin value of 0.5 compared 2.5.1.
In 2.5.2 the loss more like 1.5-2.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by aceflor

To keep the record straight (and it would be nice if everyone was doing the same and not "seasoning" the facts to each own's taste):

• In 2.5.1, the title was shown at the top of each page with kepubs. With epubs it was not and the space used for actual text was optimal.
• In 2.5.2, the title was always shown at the top of the page, and empty lines separated it from the actual text, thus some of us complaining about loss of space.
• In 2.6.1, from what I understand (I have not received it yet), the title is not shown anymore in epubs¨(what's the story on kepubs?), but the actual text is not back as high on the page as it was on 2.5.1, although Kobo made the effort of reducing the loss of space in the top margin.

Can anyone with an objective mind confirm or correct this please ?

In 2.6.1 kepubs keep the title (as always).

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by ewphoenix123

Confirmed. The empty space on top, in 2.6.1, is about a top-margin value of 0.5 compared 2.5.1.
In 2.5.2 the loss more like 1.5-2.

Well, I can live with that.

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

In 2.6.1 kepubs keep the title (as always).

Thanks

[Anak]

Originally Posted by aceflor

To keep the record straight (and it would be nice if everyone was doing the same and not "seasoning" the facts to each own's taste):

• In 2.5.1, the title was shown at the top of each page with kepubs. With epubs it was not and the space used for actual text was optimal.
• In 2.5.2, the title was always shown at the top of the page, and empty lines separated it from the actual text, thus some of us complaining about loss of space.
• In 2.6.1, from what I understand (I have not received it yet), the title is not shown anymore in epubs¨(what's the story on kepubs?), but the actual text is not back as high on the page as it was on 2.5.1, although Kobo made the effort of reducing the loss of space in the top margin.

Can anyone with an objective mind confirm or correct this please ?

It's correct. fw 2.6.1 has the same header size as 2.5.2 but without the book title info text.
This is not a real improvement but I appreciate the effort by Kobo to revert it. I consider this a good first step, and hopefully with the next firmware release Kobo will restore the original margins of fw 2.5.1. Or even reduce the ua margins on all page sides as most epubs do contain page margins.

I don't mind if Kobo rewites, optimizes, improves its firmware features as long as they don't change too much to the reader function of the devices.

If you don't want the top header you should use fw 2.5.1 (for now). Or use fw 2.5.2 with this patch.