Kobo Firmware 2.6.1

[Anak]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Well, the Aura at least is supposed to be a 'limited edition E-reader for serious readers', or something like that.

If we here at MR aren't the target audience, then who is?

An average user doesn't contact the company, posts on the internet, fora or blogs.
An average user simply stops using the product if it doesn't meet up to its expectations regardless if it is (relatively) easy to fix (e.g. by a firmware update) or not (e.g. hardware limitations/constrains).
And probably also tell their friends about their product experience ("don't by product X of company Y".)
But never contact the company to inform is their negative user experience can be solved.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Well, the Aura at least is supposed to be a 'limited edition E-reader for serious readers', or something like that.

If we here at MR aren't the target audience, then who is?

Originally Posted by taming

I always figured that the extras were things that some people, but not most, perhaps, would use and enjoy but that were not needed or related to reading ebooks. More then that, Kobo support would not be problem solving or answering questions on the "extras".

Anak, tell me more about the "official RMSDK" and how support for PDF reflow is mandated in it.

My pleasure, it's just a link.

Adobe Reader Mobile SDK (PDF reflow)

[larrymohr]

Originally Posted by Danger

...

- don't really like the new wifi icon, just not what I would think of as representing wifi
- The search bar on the home screen just seems out of place, perhaps a 4th option on the bottom of the screen that just says "Search" which brings up a search window rather than having a whole bar across the top of the screen.

- Don't need to see a finished book on the home screen.

The new icon (at least on the Aura) looks kind of like the WiFi icon on my Nexus.

I actually found the search bar useful once I got used to it being there.
(don't like that is defaults to STORE searches though)

I thought it was silly to have a finished book's tile stay on the home screen but it turns out to be useful. If I have just finished reading a book in a long series and I don't remember which number it is, it is much easier find the next book in the series without having to search by author and scroll through the series.(my memory sucks!)

Larry

[taming]

Originally Posted by Anak

My pleasure, it's just a link.

Adobe Reader Mobile SDK (PDF reflow)

It's nice that the SDk can support PDF reflow, but the epub2 standard did not require that device manufacturers program for it. Very few of them chose to do it. My understanding has been (and please correct me if I am not getting this right) that it didn't work all that well for things with large images, illustrations, tables etc. when viewed on smaller devices.

I don't expect that Kobo will make any additions to epub2 support, at this point. I think that we are pretty much stuck with what we are seeing now until epub2 goes away and whatever is in the pipeline for epubs with the new standard replaces it. There may be some fixes possible through the driver for folks who use calibre--though I'm betting not reflowable PDFs.

Maybe this is one "problem" that is best solved by using a bigger device. Maybe that 13 inch Sony that is being talked about?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by taming

PS: I really don't think that anything "we" want on MR necessarily represents what most people want.

My wish list that I put in is something that everyone wants. I put in that I wanted all the bugs/flaws fixed before a single feature gets modified other then bug fixing. That includes long standing bugs going back to the original Kobo Readers that still exist.

[FJames]

"all the bugs/flaws"? You could be waiting an awful long time. One man's bug is another man's feature

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

My wish list that I put in is something that everyone wants. I put in that I wanted all the bugs/flaws fixed before a single feature gets modified other then bug fixing. That includes long standing bugs going back to the original Kobo Readers that still exist.

Perhaps you can supply us a list of those bugs from your long experience with the Kobo line of ereaders.

Do us one small favour though and don't include what you consider as design flaws under bugs. So no whinging about the reserved area at the bottom of the screen as one example.

Regards,
David

[ne0rmatrix]

Still waiting for update to Kobo Aura HD and Kobo Touch here. In Delta, B.C. and neither device have been asked to update. Tried connecting to PC and Wifi updates. Multiple times. Last three days tried each day at different times.

[PeterT]

If you really want the upgrades load them on by hand. Go to the Direct Links to Kobo Touch Firmware thread. Remember we believe Kobo release the upgrades by reseller, and tend to start with smaller resellers first.

Just be careful to select the correct download.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by PeterT

If you really want the upgrades load them on by hand. Go to the Direct Links to Kobo Touch Firmware thread. Remember we believe Kobo release the upgrades by reseller, and tend to start with smaller resellers first.

Just be careful to select the correct download.

I am wondering if Kobo may have pulled the updates due to possible issues.... just speculation on my part but I have a strong feeling that is the case. If I am wrong then I will happily accept that I was wrong.. but somehow I don't think so!

regards


Jack

[Ripplinger]

If they ever would pull an update, I'm sure they would at least have the brains to remove the direct download in that event. But the 2.6.1 download is still active.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by taming

Top Bottom margins may not be just a style sheet choice as things happen in that space that are part of the device's functions. More than that, perhaps the one or two things you want would not be a big deal, but what about the one or two things I want, and the one or two (or dozens of things) someone else wants, ad infinitum?

Nothing will get around the fact that this is a relatively low priced commercial product that is designed to meet the needs of most people, not all people.

I set the top and bottom margins to 0 in my stylesheet. The text displayed does not magically cover the whole screen. Instead, it fills as much as possible of the space allocated for text leaving the bottom menu area and the top menu/blank space/whatever alone. Visualize little signs at the top and bottom of the screen reading "Reserved system area, DO NOT ENTER".

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ne0rmatrix

Still waiting for update to Kobo Aura HD and Kobo Touch here. In Delta, B.C. and neither device have been asked to update. Tried connecting to PC and Wifi updates. Multiple times. Last three days tried each day at different times.

My daughter's Touch updated over WiFi, my co-worker's Glo updated over WiFi and then again with the desktop app when I rolled the firmware version back so I could capture the update URL. My wife's Glo still has not updated and, for whatever strange reason, she doesn't want me to manually update it. Sheesh, one blown update on an iPod Touch and you're treated like you always crash her electronics.

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by taming

It's nice that the SDk can support PDF reflow, but the epub2 standard did not require that device manufacturers program for it. Very few of them chose to do it. My understanding has been (and please correct me if I am not getting this right) that it didn't work all that well for things with large images, illustrations, tables etc. when viewed on smaller devices.

PDF reflow works fairly well for text only pages. Graphics do not reflow. For most ebooks, reflow is okay but since virtually all the ebooks I'm picking up come in epub versions for which reflow is natural, I've been going that route. Actually, I shouldn't say reflow is natural to epub since epub3 adds support for fixed layout documents. I seem to among a fairly decent sized group whose PDF file tend to be technical and not very reflowable.

When I looked at the Datalogics page for the RMSDK, it mentioned language direction support. The Windows DL reader does not seem to support the epub3 directives required to implement anything other than LTR horizontal text. Arabic and Hebrew display left to right and I'm not sure what it did to a sample document in tategaki (Japanese written vertically with the columns being read from right to left) with furigana save to say that it looked very, very odd and nothing like the display from an epub3 text direction conforming renderer such as Azardi.

Regards,
David

[jackastor]

Is it just me or is 2.6.1 processing covers in the background? I have noticed the tile will show x number of books added, display 3 non covers randomly then add the covers as i go to the home screen on my glo. Anyone else notice this?


Regards


Jack.