Where exactly is Kobo with its Readers?

[rraod]

I will upgrade my H2O only when I get something considerably bigger (7.8") with equal or more screen resolution, faster processor, more RAM, storage and good battery life.

For me the waterproofing is not that important. They can make two models, one with water proofing and other without, so we can have a choice in selecting a device.

Recently many cellphones are coming with multiple processors (my sony Z3+ is with Octa Core processor), why not eReaders coming out with multiple processors? At least dual processor to process the library in the background while we read books.

I would prefer a faster device and live with charging the device once a fortnight instead of a long life of 1-2 months.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by rraod

why not eReaders coming out with multiple processors? At least dual processor to process the library in the background while we read books.

Don't really need dual processors for that... a single processor is perfectly capable of running tasks in the background, and the OS can give such background tasks a lower priority so when your book reading has work to do (render the next page) it would get first dibs at the CPU.

Library update blocking you from doing anything else, is the developers decision unrelated to hardware.

Also no matter how fast you make the processor, the eInk display is still slow so it's not like you'd get "smoother scrolling" or anything because of it. Slow page turns are mainly due to programming (next page already pre-rendered or not) better CPU does not automatically solve such things.

Sooner or later it will come I guess, since single core processors seem to be a dying species...

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Also no matter how fast you make the processor, the eInk display is still slow so it's not like you'd get "smoother scrolling" or anything because of it. Slow page turns are mainly due to programming

Programming tricks might help, but I do think a faster processor would help more.

I mean, my0 epub and kepub books turn just fine.
What's killing me is the high res scanned pdfs that have +10 second per page turn times.

I've got a few vectorized PDFs that also are bad, with complex line drawings that seem to take forever to render.

So, yes, you are right, on the majority of books meant for ereaders, the cpu is fine. But if you get a bigger screen, people are going to want to read more PDFs, and that will need a faster cpu.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by compurandom

What's killing me is the high res scanned pdfs that have +10 second per page turn times. I've got a few vectorized PDFs that also are bad, with complex line drawings that seem to take forever to render.

Yes, sure. No one will complain about faster CPU in any case [not sure if acrobat PDF engine can make use of multiple CPU cores though]

On the other hand, I have PDF files that are slow to render on my Quadcore 3Ghz Haswell PC. If you export stuff from AutoCAD as PDF you can kill any machine with those.

This kind of problem will persist even if you tenfold the CPU power of current ebook readers. If you don't need insane zoom levels, you're better off with converting them to a lower resolution for the ereader.

[ottdmk]

I'm really hoping that the new Kobos use the new iMX-7 dual processor. While it's the same speed as the current one in the H2O I think the improvements claimed in the hardware screen controller will be worth it.

[Kbex]

I just received an email from Kobo regarding a survey that I completed. Here is part of their response:

"We agree with you that we need to improve a lot. Please know, that we are working to prioritize improvements so we can serve you better. Our development team is constantly working to make our devices better. There is a new generation of devices that are coming soon. I hope you like it."

[pickyaxe]

Originally Posted by Kbex

I just received an email from Kobo regarding a survey that I completed. Here is part of their response: [...] There is a new generation of devices that are coming soon. I hope you like it."

Thanks for the heads up. Man, the wait is killing me.

[Blossom]

There's a little more info here

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=275592

It's not much to go on but the FCC filing has been done.

Sent from my Nexus 7 using Tapatalk

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by pickyaxe

Thanks for the heads up. Man, the wait is killing me.

What's going to kill me is waiting til it's close to Christmas to buy one. Can't justify it, otherwise.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

On the other hand, I have PDF files that are slow to render on my Quadcore 3Ghz Haswell PC. If you export stuff from AutoCAD as PDF you can kill any machine with those.

Agreed. Like I said, I only have a few pdfs with that problem.

If you don't need insane zoom levels, you're better off with converting them to a lower resolution for the ereader.

On the few pdfs with high resolution scans, I've tried reducing the resolution, but the problem is, they are lots of text (typically two or three column) and I need to zoom at least 2x to read it, and if I reduce the resolution, the letters get fuzzy. Suggestions on how to reduce resolution (or otherwise speed up page turns) without loss of character clarity would be welcome. Modifying the document is ok with me, but I suspect a faster cpu would also help.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by compurandom

Programming tricks might help, but I do think a faster processor would help more.

I mean, my0 epub and kepub books turn just fine.
What's killing me is the high res scanned pdfs that have +10 second per page turn times.

I've got a few vectorized PDFs that also are bad, with complex line drawings that seem to take forever to render.

So, yes, you are right, on the majority of books meant for ereaders, the cpu is fine. But if you get a bigger screen, people are going to want to read more PDFs, and that will need a faster cpu.

It's a compromise between CPU speed and power consumption: the faster the CPU, the higher the power consumption. As you say, CPU performance is optimised for ordinary novels, and really is too slow for complex PDFs. That's why I read novels on my Kindle, but PDFs on my iPad, which does have a fast CPU.

[frostschutz]

Originally Posted by compurandom

On the few pdfs with high resolution scans, I've tried reducing the resolution, but the problem is, they are lots of text (typically two or three column) and I need to zoom at least 2x to read it, and if I reduce the resolution, the letters get fuzzy.

Might be something for a thread of its own, if you can provide a few representative sample pages. I've had some luck reducing color depth to 1bit for text areas. Doesn't do much for JPEG but helps PNG a lot. If those columns always were in the same places you could slice it up so every column is a page on its own, making each page a smaller image and easier to handle for the reader. There's also k2pdfopt which can reflow scanned text but I'm not sure if it handles columns.

But in the end aside from OCR or somehow obtaining a digital copy of the original source, there's only so much you can do with scans...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by frostschutz

Might be something for a thread of its own, if you can provide a few representative sample pages. I've had some luck reducing color depth to 1bit for text areas. Doesn't do much for JPEG but helps PNG a lot. If those columns always were in the same places you could slice it up so every column is a page on its own, making each page a smaller image and easier to handle for the reader. There's also k2pdfopt which can reflow scanned text but I'm not sure if it handles columns.

But in the end aside from OCR or somehow obtaining a digital copy of the original source, there's only so much you can do with scans...

This is a discussion that belongs in the "Workshop" forum, if the previous poster wishes to discuss the matter further.