Are Kobo devices and software still extremely buggy?

[corroonb]

I stopped using my Kobo Touch because of incessant issues with bugs, firmware updates and the abysmal desktop software. I looked at the Aura in a shop and I was impressed with how sharp and responsive the screen was. I decided to dig out my Kobo Touch and after battling for hours to get it to work, I'm not exactly reassured. I know Kobo's customer service is worthless but have they improved the software of their devices, the Aura in particular? Do kepubs still have terrible formatting with no indents and just a space between paragraphs? It looks that way with the latest firmware on the Kobo Touch.

I enjoy reading on a tablet but the battery is not really sufficient.

[GeoffR]

There is no need to use the Kobo desktop software at all, everything can be done via wifi from the device without ever installing the desktop software. It does have lots of bugs, but who cares? Just don't use it.

(Edit: Actually, some of the earlier Touch models did need the desktop software to do the initial setup, but later Touch models and all Mini,Glo,Aura,AuraHD models can be setup via wifi without ever installing the desktop software.)

Some kepubs have space between paragraphs, some don't. This is nothing to do with the device, but with the way the individual book is formatted. You can always edit the book and sideload it if the formatting is not the way you like it.

As for other bugs, which ones were a problem? There are still some bugs in the current 3.3.0 firmware, nothing that inteferes with reading of kepubs or sideloaded epubs on my Glo, but it will depend on which features you use.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by corroonb

Do kepubs still have terrible formatting with no indents and just a space between paragraphs? It looks that way with the latest firmware on the Kobo Touch.

kePub formatting, like ePub formatting is on a book by book basis. I'd say most kePub's I've downloaded to my Aura HD, when I was using it, were not of the no indents/space between paragraph variety although some were.

[cybmole]

buggy or not, what other maker of epub reader hardware still exists, now that Sony are gone & Nook are almost gone?

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by cybmole

buggy or not, what other maker of epub reader hardware still exists, now that Sony are gone & Nook are almost gone?

Bookeen, Onyx-Boox, Pocketbook...

[Rand Brittain]

Kobo software has some bugs. It's also fixed a lot of bugs. For all the complaints I could come up with (seriously what the heck, Kobo Nickel?) Kobo does update the firmware on its devices more often than any other ereader company I could think of.

[cybmole]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Bookeen, Onyx-Boox, Pocketbook...

OK - it may vary by country - never seen or heard of those here in UK

and how buggy are they ?

[Anak]

Originally Posted by corroonb

Do kepubs still have terrible formatting with no indents and just a space between paragraphs? It looks that way with the latest firmware on the Kobo Touch.

That depends on the initial release date of the book. Books released before early 2013/late 2012 could still have these issues.
Kobo is to blame for this, not the publisher as Kobo made a decision to bypass some of the internal CSS of the book by "injecting" additional code to the book. These problems would not exist (anymore; even with older releases) if Kobo had chosen to parse/bypass this code on the user-agent (ereader) instead of adding it to the book itself. That is what other ereader manufactures do. If they can do it, why can't (won't) Kobo do it?

Originally Posted by Rand Brittain

Kobo software has some bugs. It's also fixed a lot of bugs. For all the complaints I could come up with (seriously what the heck, Kobo Nickel?) Kobo does update the firmware on its devices more often than any other ereader company I could think of.

Originally Posted by cybmole

OK - it may vary by country - never seen or heard of those here in UK

and how buggy are they ?

It is not the frequency that matters most. What matters if they fix known bugs. I can't say Kobo doesn't but it takes Kobo a lot longer to fix bugs then most other manufacturers. Although Kobo does update its firmwares more freqently this does not mean that known bugs are also fixed. Or a bug suddenly reappears after a firmware update (imo, this is a typical Kobo issue or more likely to happen to Kobo readers then any other brand).
No firmware is bug free but Kobo firmware seems more buggy (to me, but you may disagree).

Note: I still own a Qisda ES600 (which is sold under various brandnames) which I bought in 2010. It still works but the screen is no match to the screens used in newer devices.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by cybmole

OK - it may vary by country - never seen or heard of those here in UK

and how buggy are they ?

We have forums here at Mobileread for the dedicated owners of these Readers.


Don
(Moderator)

[Canuck_in_Japan]

I've had an Aura HD and Aura for about a year now and I've never experienced any problems with the firmware.

[EndlessWaves]

Speaking as someone coming to it fresh this year (first eReader) I would say my Aura HD's software was unpolished but reasonable. It's of much the same quality of the hardware design, it has some good bits and some bad bits but no really critical issues.

And the two firmware updates I've had so far have certainly gone in the right direction, having fixed a few issues.

[corroonb]

Is there reason why the Kobo android app has different formatting (indents and no spaces between paragraphs) for the same books? Does the android app use epubs rather than kepubs?

[cybmole]

i use the android app on Kindle Fire with sidloaded epubs., it seems to turn any sideloaded epub into kepub - in that it applies kepub style footers- page numnbers per chapter, not page numbers per book. When you import a book it is sucked into a kobo database sructure, it's no longer visible as an epub file if you search the tablet folders
there is a setting to toggle kobo formattting OFF, it then obeys the books own formatting rules. if you toggle it on, you get the extra spacing - traditional Kepub style.

there is one quirk that puzzles me - with a well formed cover.html file holding only the cover picture in <svg tags. you'd expect to see the cover as 1st page of book, but on the tablet you always get a blank page 1/2 then a cover page 2/2 on the tablet.
by well formed I mean that calibre polish or modify or convert has done insert /replace cover -

I wish that documentation/help was better. the latest tablet app lets you swipe to change font or to change brightness. I spent bout an hour trying different swipes - different directions, different areas of the screen...& could not figure how to predict whether font or brightness was going to change. Google eventually told the difference between a pinch and a 2 finger swipe - kobo don't explain that. I'd prefer anyway to disable both of those but there is no option.

[Ech1965]

I experienced a few crashes of my Kobo aura HD ( fw 3.2 ) while reading epubs.

I spent a few evenings configuring calibre with the koboextended driver to be able to send kepub to the kobo.

No more crashes since then.

[cybmole]

another Kobo software thing that puzzles me is why the kobo tablet android UI is so different from the KObo e-reader UI ( I assume that the Aura etc run a version of android also?) )

e.g. with a book open on tablet, a simple swipe down beings up the TOC overlay, that is quick & intuitive;
on the Aura HD I have to press carefully in 3 consecutive locations, then expand it - which is much slower and more error prone. is that because the e-ink screens cannot overlay windows ?