New Home Screen vs Old Home Screen

[PeterT]

I wonder if the screen you get is based on data in that ABtest table? I would see what happens if you copy the rows from one device to another?

[KevinBurke]

I updated my kobo aura HD, not H20, I don't a waterproof ereader, to the newest firmware and I still have the old homescreen.

I think I prefer the old homescreen but the new homescreen is not the end of the world and is more intuitive in some ways e.g. going to settings by clicking one button rather than hopping through two screens to do the same function.

There are pros and cons to each but people, in general, seem adverse to change in general.

In my opinion it is worth upgrading for the bug fixes and stability improvements despite the new homescreen. Not doing so is like chopping your nose off to spite your face.

I mean it still shows the last three or four books you had open, prominently, is more intuitive, and you should be spending more time immersed in an actual book, where other screen formats and options , come into play than in the homescreen.

Just my two cents.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by KevinBurke

I updated my kobo aura HD, not H20, I don't a waterproof ereader, to the newest firmware and I still have the old homescreen.

I think I prefer the old homescreen but the new homescreen is not the end of the world and is more intuitive in some ways e.g. going to settings by clicking one button rather than hopping through two screens to do the same function.

It the same number of taps to get to the settings. Both need you to tap a menu icon at the top of the screen, then tap the settings item in what is displayed.

But, overall, the new top bar and menu is a great improvement.

There are pros and cons to each but people, in general, seem adverse to change in general.

In my opinion it is worth upgrading for the bug fixes and stability improvements despite the new homescreen. Not doing so is like chopping your nose off to spite your face.

I mean it still shows the last three or four books you had open, prominently, is more intuitive, and you should be spending more time immersed in an actual book, where other screen formats and options , come into play than in the homescreen.

You actually picked one of my biggest problems. On the new home screen, the four books are the most recently opened but not finished. On the old home screen it would also show recently finished books. If I finish a book, it is still prominently displayed to remind me to do my "shelving" processes - mark it as read elsewhere, fix any errors I found in the book (another lost function: annotations can't be seen), tell others they absolutely must or must not read it, etc. Yes, I can do this from the book list, but I can look for the still opened books there as well. And it doesn't display the books I just added to the device.

With the new home screen, a large chunk is taken up by the recommendations. Now, I do look at Kobo's recommendations and the related books, and I have bought books because of them, (rarely the actual recommendation, but probably book 1 in the series or something by the same author). The old home screen gave the recommendations tile roughly the same weight as my book tiles. And when I was finished with it, I could remove it so I could handle the next thing. On the new home screen, it's just wasted space nearly all the time.

I do spend most of the time reading on the device. But I spend enough time with the home screen that these changes are going to get in my way.

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Care to give reasons? I like the new top bar and menu, but the rest leaves me cold.

I think it's cleaner. I don't tend to have multiple books on the go so I like the four on the top.

The recommended bit doesn't really bother me, and I happen to think the old homescreen was a little bit too "Atari TOS c. 1990" for my liking.

I saw what you said about finished books, so I guess i'm the opposite ;-) Once a book is finished, I like the fact its no longer on my homescreen ;-)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

I think it's cleaner. I don't tend to have multiple books on the go so I like the four on the top.

But, if you only have one book on the go, there will only be one book on the top. The second will be a space, and an ad will be put in for the last two

The recommended bit doesn't really bother me, and I happen to think the old homescreen was a little bit too "Atari TOS c. 1990" for my liking.

I saw what you said about finished books, so I guess i'm the opposite ;-) Once a book is finished, I like the fact its no longer on my homescreen ;-)

They are only there until I have a chance to do the other things. Then I dismiss them. Or just let them fall off the end of the page as other things happen.

[Josieb1]

I initially liked the new home screen but after reverting to the old one and then trying the new one through patch enabling i've changed my mind, the new home screen is awful!

Far too much plugging of books by Kobo. I don't want or need recommendations I have enough to read already. As soon as I removed the book I had just finished the top left space popped up with "Do I want to go to Kobo to look for a new book". I have over a 1000 on the device so no thanks.

At that point 3/4 of the screen was being used for advertising.

[Pajamaman]

I think the new ad-oriented interface reflects Kobos 2% share of the market. Even B&N have 3%. Kobo need to more aggresively market their devices in stores. They have products with much more choice than Amazon. They should promote them.

Edit. I take that back, maybe. Kobo is dominated by Amazon in the UK despite a strong Kobo presence in stores. But I doubt the Aura One makes many physical appearances. Maybe that would make a difference.

edit. Judging by these boards, most Kobo users sideload books rather than buy from Kobo. Hence perhaps their intro of the new homescreen. Kobo sells more books in English in Canada and Australia. Sales in the UK and USA are dismal. One wonders if they will ultimately go the way of Sony. Hopefully just selling hardware remains attractive to Kobo. But they are clearly now marketing ebook sales more aggresively.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

edit. Judging by these boards, most Kobo users sideload books rather than buy from Kobo. Hence perhaps their intro of the new homescreen. Kobo sells more books in English in Canada and Australia. Sales in the UK and USA are dismal. One wonders if they will ultimately go the way of Sony. Hopefully just selling hardware remains attractive to Kobo. But they are clearly now marketing ebook sales more aggresively.

Amazon's move to KFX may be a boon to Kobo as it may cut down on sideloading customers like me.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

edit. Judging by these boards, most Kobo users sideload books rather than buy from Kobo. Hence perhaps their intro of the new homescreen. Kobo sells more books in English in Canada and Australia. Sales in the UK and USA are dismal. One wonders if they will ultimately go the way of Sony. Hopefully just selling hardware remains attractive to Kobo. But they are clearly now marketing ebook sales more aggresively.

When I buy a book from Kobo, I downloaded via ADE, load it into Calibre to remove the DRM (if there is any), make any fixes/edits I want, and then side load to my H2O. It's not that I don't buy from Kobo, I just don't turn on the WiFi to get my books. Even if I had a Kindle, WiFi would remain off.

[Pajamaman]

Yes I agree. If Amazon enforces KFX then many buyers will go to the Kobo store.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Amazon's move to KFX may be a boon to Kobo as it may cut down on sideloading customers like me.

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Yes I agree. If Amazon enforces KFX then many buyers will go to the Kobo store.

They'll get some sales from that sure, but the majority of buyers don't care what format the books are in or if they can have the DRM removed or be converted. They just want to be able to click buy and have the book work on their chose device.

[issybird]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

edit. Judging by these boards, most Kobo users sideload books rather than buy from Kobo. Hence perhaps their intro of the new homescreen. Kobo sells more books in English in Canada and Australia. Sales in the UK and USA are dismal. One wonders if they will ultimately go the way of Sony. Hopefully just selling hardware remains attractive to Kobo. But they are clearly now marketing ebook sales more aggresively.

I sideload books which have overwhelmingly been purchased from Kobo, because:

• I manage my shelves with Calibre, which is much more efficient than doing it manually on the device
• I sideload only a portion of my library instead of the whole shooting shebang, without having to go into Kobo and archive books, or keep on visibling/invisibling my entire library so I can choose.

Kobo has proved it can't market to me anyway, so the conversion rate from aggressive marketing on my delves is going to be zero.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

It's not that I don't buy from Kobo, I just don't turn on the WiFi to get my books.

Same. I buy from a lot of places, including Kobo, and just sideload everything. Easier that way.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

edit. Judging by these boards, most Kobo users sideload books rather than buy from Kobo. Hence perhaps their intro of the new homescreen. Kobo sells more books in English in Canada and Australia. Sales in the UK and USA are dismal. One wonders if they will ultimately go the way of Sony. Hopefully just selling hardware remains attractive to Kobo. But they are clearly now marketing ebook sales more aggresively.

I do both. I buy most of my books from Kobo, and will start reading the downloaded version. If there are problems with the formatting, I will fix them in the epub version, sideload that and read it instead. I also get plenty of books from elsewhere, and sideload them.

But, the problem I have with this statement, is the first four words: "Judging by these boards". The members of MR are not typical users of these devices. And, in my opinion, are not part the target market of either Kobo or Kindle. Even if we are, there are so few of us, it wouldn't be worthwhile marketing to us. And evidence of that is the lack of a representative from either company, or any of the others, here.

Using us as a measure for anything in the wider world just doesn't work. If I look at questions asked in a non-ereader forum, people express surprise when you tell them they don't have to buy books from Amazon for their Kindle. Or they are asking an uncertain question about if you can. My belief is that a good percentage of Kobo and Kindle owners don't realise they can sideload. And a lot of the rest can't be bothered.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

edit. Judging by these boards, most Kobo users sideload books rather than buy from Kobo.

I buy from Kobo. From the comfort of my PC with a big monitor. I then download those books into Calibre and sideload them on my reader.

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

Yes I agree. If Amazon enforces KFX then many buyers will go to the Kobo store.

That's a huuuuuge if. As long as there are Kindles out there, that don't support KFX, I doubt Amazon will enforce it. And I'll only buy non-DRM's books from Kobo, so if I can't find it on Amazon (for easy DRM-disinfection) and it's not a non-infected book on Kobo, I'll go read another book.