Aura Why no updates on kobo.com?

[petercreasey]

Peter, I can't imagine how you think I have come across as "dense".

I've just been asking why kobo is slow at kobo.com and not elsewhere. No one knows... which is an acceptable (if surprising) answer.

[icallaci]

Oh, forget it. Deleted my reply. Kobo is not being slow. Kobo is being prudent and careful, something I should learn too.

[petercreasey]

i, Help me understand...why is kobo failing to provide multiple versions at kobo.com over a several week period not being slow?

[Braid]

Peter, I'm sorry someone has called you dense. It's just that, you don't seem to have understood the explanation that has been put forward.

Imagine, Peter, that you are planning a wedding, and you are inviting everyone in the world to the wedding. You are sending out the invitations via email, but, your email provider's servers just aren't powerful enough to send the billions of wedding invitations to everyone simultaneously. So instead, you have to choose an arbitrary order in which to send out the invitations - let's say the servers can handle ten countries-worth of invitations per day. If there are 196 countries in the world, that means it'll take 20 days until all the invitations are sent out. China is last on the list, and four days in, some Chinese people hear word of the wedding. They ask the Vietnamese, "which email address are you receiving your invitations from?", and the Vietnamese respond, "petercreasey@weddings.com". The Chinese check their inboxes, and their spam folders, but alas, they cannot find their wedding invitations. They ask the New Zealanders, "is petercreasey@weddings.com really the only address sending out invites?". "Yes", say the New Zealanders in response. "Why is petercreasey@weddings.com slow?" ask the Chinese. The New Zealanders say back, "it isn't slow, they are just staggering the invitations by country in an arbitrary order, instead of sending them out all at the same time."

[petercreasey]

B, interesting, no one had mentioned that kobo.com might have a server that won't allow more frequent updates. That is a reasonable explanation of why.

It does seem, though, that kobo should want their own site (kobo.com) to be the most up-to-date source.

[Barbara1955]

Why don't You contact Kobo and Ask them.....

[koboy]

Originally Posted by Braid

Peter, I'm sorry someone has called you dense. It's just that, you don't seem to have understood the explanation that has been put forward.

Imagine, Peter, that you are planning a wedding, and you are inviting everyone in the world to the wedding. You are sending out the invitations via email, but, your email provider's servers just aren't powerful enough to send the billions of wedding invitations to everyone simultaneously. So instead, you have to choose an arbitrary order in which to send out the invitations - let's say the servers can handle ten countries-worth of invitations per day. If there are 196 countries in the world, that means it'll take 20 days until all the invitations are sent out. China is last on the list, and four days in, some Chinese people hear word of the wedding. They ask the Vietnamese, "which email address are you receiving your invitations from?", and the Vietnamese respond, "petercreasey@weddings.com". The Chinese check their inboxes, and their spam folders, but alas, they cannot find their wedding invitations. They ask the New Zealanders, "is petercreasey@weddings.com really the only address sending out invites?". "Yes", say the New Zealanders in response. "Why is petercreasey@weddings.com slow?" ask the Chinese. The New Zealanders say back, "it isn't slow, they are just staggering the invitations by country in an arbitrary order, instead of sending them out all at the same time."

your not the one who should be saying sorry, btw very good explanation although i do grasp the point that petercreasey is making even if it is the minority view on here.

best wishes koboy

[koboy]

Originally Posted by Katie1

Why don't You contact Kobo and Ask them.....

excellent idea.

best wishes koboy

[icallaci]

Also, what would happen if Kobo released an update only to realize it contains a bug that makes the reader unusable (but this bug wasn't found during testing because it needs certain conditions to occur)? If Kobo releases updates to a limited number of people, the damage is limited. It's being smart, not slow.

[MGlitch]

Why is it an issue?

You can see on these forums when a new release is made available to anyone outside of the beta testers. You can download it and load it on your device. This is the same process, essentially, that happens when you sync and your device updates itself. You wouldn't know you were missing anything if you didn't see it here.

Is your ka1 doing what it's meant to? Can you read ebooks on it? Can you load new ones on either via purchasing or sideloading? Etc. If the answer is 'yes', then it's really only minor to moderate fixes that happen between firmware versions, for the most part.

[filmo]

It is prudent not to be first to receive new firmware version. More than twice Kobo has started new firmware version and had to stop, correct buggy update before releasing to more victims. Here at mobile read we have front row seats seeing this happen and how to safely correct these troubled updates.

[Ksquared]

Originally Posted by Braid

Peter, I'm sorry someone has called you dense. It's just that, you don't seem to have understood the explanation that has been put forward.

Imagine, Peter, that you are planning a wedding, and you are inviting everyone in the world to the wedding. You are sending out the invitations via email, but, your email provider's servers just aren't powerful enough to send the billions of wedding invitations to everyone simultaneously. So instead, you have to choose an arbitrary order in which to send out the invitations - let's say the servers can handle ten countries-worth of invitations per day. If there are 196 countries in the world, that means it'll take 20 days until all the invitations are sent out. China is last on the list, and four days in, some Chinese people hear word of the wedding. They ask the Vietnamese, "which email address are you receiving your invitations from?", and the Vietnamese respond, "petercreasey@weddings.com". The Chinese check their inboxes, and their spam folders, but alas, they cannot find their wedding invitations. They ask the New Zealanders, "is petercreasey@weddings.com really the only address sending out invites?". "Yes", say the New Zealanders in response. "Why is petercreasey@weddings.com slow?" ask the Chinese. The New Zealanders say back, "it isn't slow, they are just staggering the invitations by country in an arbitrary order, instead of sending them out all at the same time."

WAIT! When is the Wedding? When will I get my invitation?

That sounds like a BIG party.

[robko]

Originally Posted by petercreasey

B, interesting, no one had mentioned that kobo.com might have a server that won't allow more frequent updates. That is a reasonable explanation of why.

It does seem, though, that kobo should want their own site (kobo.com) to be the most up-to-date source.

I don't think you're understanding how this works yet. Kobo.com does not have a server that these updates are served from separate from the affiliates that are getting the update. Kobo the company has one server somewhere. And all Kobo devices no matter where they were bought from or where they are presently located or what their affiliate is labelled in their config file all call in to that server. If the device provides an affiliate name to the server that is flagged to get the update it gets it. If not, it happily does the rest of the sync stuff (small bandwidth vs pushing an update) but even though the update is sitting on the server the device is talking to it doesn't get it.

Why are devices with "Kobo" or "Kobo.com" as the affiliate not early in the rollout? Maybe there are a lot more devices out there with Kobo as the affiliate so that would overwhelm them. Maybe they'd rather some other affiliate take the flack if something goes wrong. All we KNOW is that they roll it out slowly by affiliate and the WHY (and why they use the order they do) is purely speculation. And FYI, it is NOT just the Kobo.com affiliate that gets a slow roll out.

NOTE TO ABOVE: yes, I realize that I oversimplified the server operation description somewhat to make my point (I assume it would be physically more than one server).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by koboy

i would say the meaning and tone is pretty obvious here, but of course it's open to individual interpretation.

My meaning and tone, or petercreasey's?

And if I came off as a little impatient, then it is because it is a topic that has been discussed here plenty of times. And petercreasey has asked the same question at least twice before and received the known explanation. I don't think expressing some frustration is unreasonable.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by petercreasey

B, interesting, no one had mentioned that kobo.com might have a server that won't allow more frequent updates. That is a reasonable explanation of why.

Well, I did say:

- Spread load on their servers/links over time.

Originally Posted by petercreasey

It does seem, though, that kobo should want their own site (kobo.com) to be the most up-to-date source.

And I keep pointing out that kobo.com is the ONLY site distributing the firmware. But, you are really talking about the "Kobo" affiliate. In that case, the answer, as I and others have said, is a staggered release. And they do this for the reasons stated above.