Firmware 4.19.14123 release

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you read KePub, there's a major reason to update. The reading stats have been fixed.

I don't want reading stats. don't use them. is there anything other than that? thanks.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

my Clara is arriving today. sounds as if I shouldn't update today, merely try patches until patches are released for this update version. am I thinking correctly?

It's not worth patching your Clara until the patches are out for 4.19. You get your Clara just as you want it and then bang, time to patch again.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pghaworth

I don't want reading stats. don't use them. is there anything other than that? thanks.

As in all these sorts of releases, there could be fixes/enhancement under the hood that we don't know about such as ePub loading faster.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If you read KePub, there's a major reason to update. The reading stats have been fixed.

I don't read kepubs, and I'm not particularly interested in the reading stats. So unless the epub renderer is faster now or something similar, I think I'll skip this update.

[pghaworth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't read kepubs, and I'm not particularly interested in the reading stats. So unless the epub renderer is faster now or something similar, I think I'll skip this update.

this was my thought

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I don't read kepubs, and I'm not particularly interested in the reading stats. So unless the epub renderer is faster now or something similar, I think I'll skip this update.

The ePub renderer is at least faster at loading ePub.

[geek1011]

@DNSB: FYI, you can also see the latest firmware version in my signature (or at https://kfwproxy.geek1011.net/latest/version). It tracks the latest version returned as the kobofirmware page is loaded. I will be adding push notification support sometime in the future.

@JSWolf: Thanks for getting the summary post at the top. I really need to get around to finishing my firmware auto-poster though...

I'm planning to work on the patches tonight once I'm at home in a few hours. It'll probably take me around an hour to update the patches after that, plus another half hour to figure out and test the 24 line spacing values one (unless Semwize gets to that before I do, as I haven't updated that patch before). The biggest thing which might cause a delay is the header/footer changes, as the swap patch will probably need to be rewritten if it's implemented the way I'm guessing it is.

And judging by the release notes, this firmware will probably become my favourite, as it seems like it will fix the tiny annoyances with the previous version (stats, progress chart in toolbar, and a few random bugs, hide header/footer individually).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by geek1011

@DNSB: FYI, you can also see the latest firmware version in my signature (or at https://kfwproxy.geek1011.net/latest/version). It tracks the latest version returned as the kobofirmware page is loaded. I will be adding push notification support sometime in the future.

@JSWolf: Thanks for getting the summary post at the top. I really need to get around to finishing my firmware auto-poster though...

I'm planning to work on the patches tonight once I'm at home in a few hours. It'll probably take me around an hour to update the patches after that, plus another half hour to figure out and test the 24 line spacing values one (unless Semwize gets to that before I do, as I haven't updated that patch before). The biggest thing which might cause a delay is the header/footer changes, as the swap patch will probably need to be rewritten if it's implemented the way I'm guessing it is.

And judging by the release notes, this firmware will probably become my favourite, as it seems like it will fix the tiny annoyances with the previous version (stats, progress chart in toolbar, and a few random bugs, hide header/footer individually).

Your welcome and thank you for all you do.

[pghaworth]

@geek1011 yes. thank you in advance. I'm new but this Clara is a keeper. so thank you thank you!

[DNSB]

One of the updates in this firmware is removing anti-aliasing for faster loading when reading a PDF.

I don't read that many PDFs and few of those have the complex structure that anti-aliasing would help with so can't say how well it works.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by DNSB

One of the updates in this firmware is removing anti-aliasing for faster loading when reading a PDF.

I don't read that many PDFs and few of those have the complex structure that anti-aliasing would help with so can't say how well it works.

This firmware also adds more visual feedback for accessibility. The tabs now highlight black when you press them, and the multi-page settings have a scrollbar on the right side. The font handling has been completely refactored, meaning I'll need to redo the advanced fonts control patch. Also, the monospace font for epubs has been partially fixed, and a lot of cruft from the old reader has been removed. The WiFi dialog has also been made larger had its padding increased along with a scroll bar.

Also, the patches are about 80% done now.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by geek1011

This firmware also adds more visual feedback for accessibility. The tabs now highlight black when you press them, and the multi-page settings have a scrollbar on the right side. The advanced font controls now has its own font dropdown inside the tweak dialog (which also makes the freedom to advanced font controls patch the hardest to update for this version). Also, the monospace font for epubs has been partially fixed, and a lot of cruft from the old reader has been removed.

Also, the patches are about 80% done now.

My current favourites are the Filter and Sort options going black on grey so I get the immediate reminder that I have changed those options and the font list now being alphabetical for both builtin and sideloaded fonts.

[davidfor]

As has been noticed, a new firmware is out. It should be the last for the year. It will go to all the devices that Kobo have been updating firmware for. The rollout will follow Kobo's usual plan for firmware rollouts.

The release notes have been posted, but my notes from the betas are:

• Icon for Reading Progress in top bar.
• "Large Print Mode" now has slider for the font scale. This is in the "Beta Features".
• Settings:
  • Scroll bar for settings that use more than one page.
  • Reading settings page reorganised. All the options are still there, just in a different order.
• Highlighting of current filter or sort changed in book lists.
• Catalan added as UI interface.
• Changes to the WiFi connect dialog. Now shows which are saved networks.
• Change in how current filter and sort are shown in the library lists.
• PDF: removed anti-aliasing for speeder loading.
• Some sync changes.
• Fix for an auto/sleep sync issue that drained battery.
• Turning of data sharing will no longer stop on device stats tracking.
  In the past, when you unchecked the option to share data with Kobo, it also stopped the reading stats tracking and the "Activity" showed a message about this. Now, when you turn this option off, the current stats are cleared, but, they are kept from then on and the Activity page will show them. But, the stats are not sent to the Kobo servers.

Bug fixes that I know of:

• Fix for Reading Progress graphs.
• Path for monospace font changed to match other fonts and name is "Courier". This should mean that any correctly sideloaded font whose name starts with "Courier" will be used when the monospace font face is specified.
• Opening very large kepub takes too long and the device is restarted.
  Note: This fix is for purchased kepubs synced to the device. Any with the issue already on the device may need to be removed and resynced. Very large sideloaded kepubs will probably still have problems. See this post for more details.
• Fix for annotations list for epubs being messed up when reopening an epub. See this post for more details.

Bug in recent firmware not fixed:

• Opening very large kepub takes too long and the device is restarted.

If I think of anything later, I will add it.

For calibre users, there are no changes that affect the driver. The supported firmware version has been bumped for this firmware and will be in the next calibre release. Until then, it is completely safe to use the "Attempt to support newer firmware versions" option in the driver. I expect the calibre update to be released on Friday. Calibre version 4.6.0 includes the update to support this firmware version.

[hobnail]

I don't know if it did this previously but on the Forma it scrolls quickly through My Books when I hold down the down button on the side. Maybe I never accidentally did that before.

[Calenorn]

Originally Posted by davidfor

[*]"Large Print Mode" now has slider for the font scale.

Oh, this is VERY nice! I've been switching back and forth between large print and regular display. Prefer large print except that it made titles difficult to read (too big) in collections. Now I can tweak it!

God, I love Kobo!