New Home Screen vs Old Home Screen

[k9reeder]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

And thanks to that new and "improved" homescreen, I'll never update my firmware either.

It's a shame Kobo doesn't allow users/owners of a Kobo to decide when and if they will update firmware. If I get a warning from Kobo that I will lose x y or z functionality if I don't upgrade, that's fine. It's my decision. But I'd still like to be able to turn on wifi, and do word lookups with google and Wikipedia, use the browser, as I can now, without fear of having to risk being forced a download of buggy firmware that may or may not kill my sd card slot or ruin stats etc.

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by k9reeder

It's a shame Kobo doesn't allow users/owners of a Kobo to decide when and if they will update firmware. If I get a warning from Kobo that I will lose x y or z functionality if I don't upgrade, that's fine. It's my decision. But I'd still like to be able to turn on wifi, and do word lookups with google and Wikipedia, use the browser, as I can now, without fear of having to risk being forced a download of buggy firmware that may or may not kill my sd card slot or ruin stats etc.

You can... if you patch your ereader and disable wifi updates.

[k9reeder]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

You can... if you patch your ereader and disable wifi updates.

There's a patch that allows me to prevent firmware updates but still use wifi? Please point me the way, thanks!

[llcj]

Originally Posted by meeera

That's I am trying to do. It sounds like Kobo has already responded positively to some feedback about the first new home screen they rolled out.

Are you allowed to say how many collections can be pinned to the home screen?

No collections can be pinned to the home screen. The middle right "tile" will display an author book display if more than one book by that author is opened. I haven't been able to trigger a collection "tile" yet. These "tiles" can't be dismissed (i.e. you can't dismiss the tile and have the previous "tile" reappear or completely dismiss it and have nothing.)

Even worse is that if I dismiss all "tiles" from the top section reserved for my reading, I am presented with a "need something to read; visit Kobo" or something to that effect. With this "tile", I had at one point, three large, direct links to the Kobo store instead of the discrete links on the previous screen. None of these "tiles" could be dismissed.

When a top reading "tile" is dismissed, it isn't replaced by what had been pushed off the screen, as in the previous screen. Instead, You are left with a blank space.

Not a fan, to say the least. I will probably roll back to a previous firmware.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by llcj

No collections can be pinned to the home screen. The middle right "tile" will display an author book display if more than one book by that author is opened. I haven't been able to trigger a collection "tile" yet. These "tiles" can't be dismissed (i.e. you can't dismiss the tile and have the previous "tile" reappear or completely dismiss it and have nothing.)

I haven't worked out the rules, but I have had an author and collection displayed at the same time.

Even worse is that if I dismiss all "tiles" from the top section reserved for my reading, I am presented with a "need something to read; visit Kobo" or something to that effect. With this "tile", I had at one point, three large, direct links to the Kobo store instead of the discrete links on the previous screen. None of these "tiles" could be dismissed.

Really, you are going to dismiss all the current open books? Personally, I can't get upset at this being replaced by the need something to read tile, because if it is ever displayed, I will really need something to read. I'm never going to see it.

When a top reading "tile" is dismissed, it isn't replaced by what had been pushed off the screen, as in the previous screen. Instead, You are left with a blank space.

That's not what is happening here. If I remove a book, there they shift left and the fourth most recently opened book appears. And it keeps on going like that.

[Terisa de morgan]

But what I need to read are books I haven't opened in my ereader, not books at the Kobo store, so that is what annoys me more.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That's not what is happening here. If I remove a book, there they shift left and the fourth most recently opened book appears. And it keeps on going like that.

So, are you saying that you do get the last previous title that was pushed off the screen? That's interesting. ... Okay, I've just tried this again and it's working as you describe. For the last day or so it hadn't worked this way. With this behaviour, the link to the Kobo store I had will likely never appear. This is much better.

I've tried again to get a collection to appear on the centre right position and again I couldn't do it. I seem to always get the last author I've opened who has more than one book on my device.

As to dismissing the book I'm currently reading, I did that to see what would happen, more than anything. True enough, I probably would never use it this way.

One positive, on this home screen, book covers seem be sharper.

I think for me, personally, from the first time I got the previous home screen, I liked it very much. On the other hand, I find this home screen visually unattractive as well as far less functional. But, I'll reiterate, this is just my opinion.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by llcj

I've tried again to get a collection to appear on the centre right position and again I couldn't do it. I seem to always get the last author I've opened who has more than one book on my device.

This has worked for me, so far:

• Main menu (top left) > 'My Collections'
• Select the Collection you want on the Home screen.
• Open a book from the Collection.
• Go back to Home screen from Main menu
• Selected Collection is now in middle right position.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

This has worked for me, so far:

• Main menu (top left) > 'My Collections'
• Select the Collection you want on the Home screen.
• Open a book from the Collection.
• Go back to Home screen from Main menu
• Selected Collection is now in middle right position.

Yeah, I've done that. I've also tried opening more than one book from the same collection to see if that would trigger it but no luck.

I'm thinking it might be related to the other weirdness I had with the top row of books displayed.

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by llcj

Yeah, I've done that. I've also tried opening more than one book from the same collection to see if that would trigger it but no luck.

I'm thinking it might be related to the other weirdness I had with the top row of books displayed.

Hmm, interesting. I've just done another test. I think the success (or otherwise) of the method I posted may be related to how many books are in the selected Collection.

For instance, when I selected a Collection containing only 3 books the mid-right position ended up completely empty, but when I chose a 7-book Collection the method worked OK. So that suggests the "tipping point" is one of 4, 5, 6, 7 books.

ETA: I think the magic number is at least 4 books in the Collection for the method to work. A bit odd really... I might have understood if the number was 3 because the mid-right position displays 3 book covers.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Hmm, interesting. I've just done another test. I think the success (or otherwise) of the method I posted may be related to how many books are in the selected Collection.

For instance, when I selected a Collection containing only 3 books the mid-right position ended up completely empty, but when I chose a 7-book Collection the method worked OK. So that suggests the "tipping point" is one of 4, 5, 6, 7 books.

ETA: I think the magic number is at least 4 books in the Collection for the method to work. A bit odd really... I might have understood if the number was 3 because the mid-right position displays 3 book covers.

Thank you for that. I hated not having some control over what showed up in that space. I might not want a certain author's books prominently displayed on my home screen with no option to replace it when I have no current need or desire to read that author's books. Being able to control which Collection goes there is far more useful.

Now I will have to work on managing my Collections, something I haven't bothered with for some time.

And, yes, you seem to need more than 3 books in a Collection for this method to work.

[mathil]

Regarding Collections, I've had at least 2 3-book collections appear on the middle-right part of the screen, so I don't think you need to have at least 4 for it to appear there. The way it behaves is pretty funny though.
As an example, I've been reading the first book from a trilogy, with all three books belonging to the same collection. While opening the first book and reading it, the middle-right part of the screen stays blank. When I tried as a test to mark the book as unread from the home screen, the collection this book belongs to appeared there. It then disappeared when I entered the collection from the home screen to open the book again. Opening another book from the collection also didn't seem to work.
It works, though, if I open a collection where all the books are marked as unread. Which is pretty useless (to me at least).

EDIT: 2-book collections don't seem to appear in the middle-right corner -- every time I've tried, I've gotten a link to all the books I have from the author of the book I'm currently reading. Which works just as well to me, even though I'd prefer to have the collection there.

[Question Mark]

Originally Posted by mathil

Regarding Collections, I've had at least 2 3-book collections appear on the middle-right part of the screen, so I don't think you need to have at least 4 for it to appear there. The way it behaves is pretty funny though.
As an example, I've been reading the first book from a trilogy, with all three books belonging to the same collection. While opening the first book and reading it, the middle-right part of the screen stays blank. When I tried as a test to mark the book as unread from the home screen, the collection this book belongs to appeared in the middle-right spot. It then disappeared when I entered the collection from the home screen to open the book again. Opening another book from the collection also didn't seem to work.
What worked was opening another collection entirely, with all unread books. In that case, the collection appeared in the middle-right corner as it was supposed to. Pretty useless, at least to me.

I see what you mean. Now that I've added books back into more of my old collections, I notice the same.

While it might not be the most useful utilization of that space, I appreciate having some semblance of control over what will show up there. I'm not a big fan of random stuff popping up on my screen which I can't get rid of even if I happen to enjoy the author.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

Hmm, interesting. I've just done another test. I think the success (or otherwise) of the method I posted may be related to how many books are in the selected Collection.

For instance, when I selected a Collection containing only 3 books the mid-right position ended up completely empty, but when I chose a 7-book Collection the method worked OK. So that suggests the "tipping point" is one of 4, 5, 6, 7 books.

ETA: I think the magic number is at least 4 books in the Collection for the method to work. A bit odd really... I might have understood if the number was 3 because the mid-right position displays 3 book covers.

The collections I've tried all have more than 7 books.

So I've just opened four books from a collection that has 100 books and now nothing appears in the middle right section.

I've tried returning to the collection before I go to the home screen and still nothing in the middle right section.

[llcj]

Originally Posted by mathil

Regarding Collections, I've had at least 2 3-book collections appear on the middle-right part of the screen, so I don't think you need to have at least 4 for it to appear there. The way it behaves is pretty funny though.
As an example, I've been reading the first book from a trilogy, with all three books belonging to the same collection. While opening the first book and reading it, the middle-right part of the screen stays blank. When I tried as a test to mark the book as unread from the home screen, the collection this book belongs to appeared there. It then disappeared when I entered the collection from the home screen to open the book again. Opening another book from the collection also didn't seem to work.
It works, though, if I open a collection where all the books are marked as unread. Which is pretty useless (to me at least).

EDIT: 2-book collections don't seem to appear in the middle-right corner -- every time I've tried, I've gotten a link to all the books I have from the author of the book I'm currently reading. Which works just as well to me, even though I'd prefer to have the collection there.

So I've opened books from a collection of unread books (111 books in the collection) and what I get is an author from this collection from whom I have more than one book.

I've tried other combinations and at best all I can trigger is an author "tile".