Firmware 4.21.15015

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With this update, you don't have to fix windows and orphans in CSS.

OK I've broken. Are you using some kind of auto-typing? I seem to have read several posts from you today talking about "windows and orphans". It's "widows and orphans".

In case you think there's not much difference, just consider the hotel advertising "all our rooms contain a French window - affording delightful prospects". The other hotel with the French widows is an entirely different kind of establishment.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

With this update, you don't have to fix windows and orphans in CSS. You do it in the config file once and done for most eBooks.

Not quite right, Jon. To quote davidfor's post:

It does not override widows and orphans in the book.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Sorry, Spanish developer joke. In Spanish, "improvement" is the same than "mejora". When you do something worse than before, you *excuse my french* "lo jodes". So "mejoda" is something that, allegedly, is an improvement but it makes the product worse.

Thanks for the enlightenment
Indeed, enhancements are not always improvements, even when they are made with the best intentions.

I liked the highlighting, I can live with a minimal hack in the Kobo config-file regarding the orphans / widows (in that order).
And, as a nice bonus after upgrading, windows does not flag the Clara e-reader as "dirty" after a reset/upgrade anymore, insisting the "disk" must be repaired.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

OK I've broken. Are you using some kind of auto-typing? I seem to have read several posts from you today talking about "windows and orphans". It's "widows and orphans".

Just a typo that didn't get corrected because no red squiggly line under it.

In case you think there's not much difference, just consider the hotel advertising "all our rooms contain a French window - affording delightful prospects". The other hotel with the French widows is an entirely different kind of establishment.

The other establishment, are these widows wealthy and looking for a husband?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Not quite right, Jon. To quote davidfor's post:

I think you misunderstood. Most eBooks don't specify widows and orphans. So the change to widows and orphans in the config will be what you get for most eBooks. That is what I meant.

Yes, I've seen some eBooks that specify widows and orphans of 2. I think that's a rather stupid thing to do. Just as setting a font size at 1em. These are defaults and defaults do not need to be specified in the CSS.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Just a typo that didn't get corrected because no red squiggly line under it.



The other establishment, are these widows wealthy and looking for a husband?

Jon, aren't you already married?

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by jackie_w

OK I've broken. Are you using some kind of auto-typing? I seem to have read several posts from you today talking about "windows and orphans". It's "widows and orphans".

In case you think there's not much difference, just consider the hotel advertising "all our rooms contain a French window - affording delightful prospects". The other hotel with the French widows is an entirely different kind of establishment.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

Jon, aren't you already married?

I know others who are not where I could get a cut of the money.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I don't know if this is a bug or a "feature", but when I select Overdrive in the new firmware, I cannot browse the entire catalog, only the displayed selections "Harry Potter", "what's new for kids" "Thrill Ride" etc. Also, within those categories is a "Filter" button with a dropdown mun offering "Featured" and "All books", but I am unable to activate the "more books" option. By that I mean that I can select "all books", and a message comes up saying "Please wait... we're currently loading this list", but when the page refreshes, the filter is still set to "Featured". What has happened to the ability to search the catalogue of the library the device is logged into?

Did you try a search in Overdrive? That is the only sensible way to check an entire library catalog on your Kobo. You really want to scroll through thousands of entries 3 at a time?

Since I consider the various categories on the OverDrive tab as being featured, being unable to change the filter from Featured makes sense. I would be rather surprised if a category listed as Harry Potter would show non-Harry Potter ebooks. I would agree it's lousy UI design to show All Books as an option for those collections. Much like when I search the OverDrive, if a book does not show Place a Hold or Borrow, I've got it on hold.

When I tested the featured collections for my local library, I get results which pretty closely match the number of results I get using the same featured categories on the library web page and limiting the results to epub ebooks. Some categories on the Clara HD do show fewer entries. For the Climate Future Reading Challenge, one of the library books does not match the ebook of the same name but different ISBN on Kobo's site.

Note that the number of results seems to be capped at 1000 which gives 334 pages to scroll through. On the library web site, I can display an All ebooks category which returns ~35K results. On my Clara HD, that would have me scrolling through ~11,600 pages. Life is far too short.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by DNSB

When I tested the featured collections for my local library, I get results which pretty closely match the number of results I get using the same featured categories on the library web page and limiting the results to epub ebooks.

I don't, and never have, which is why I (a) seldom use Overdrive and (b) always browse on my Kobo when I do. Searching Overdrive on my H2O2 is actually LESS tedious and painful than searching my library's Overdrive listing.

Also, my query was about the changed behavior in the new firmware. Obviously, in a "Harry Potter" section, the "featured" vs "all books" distinction is moot, but it is far from irrelevant in the "What's New" section. I would like to be able to (and, critically, USED TO BE ABLE TO) browse all the new additions, not simply those which Kobo's/Overdrive's algorithm assumes I will want to see.

That said, you response has made it clear that I'm stuck with the change, as regressive as it is for my usage needs. Thank you for clarifying this.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Obviously, in a "Harry Potter" section, the "featured" vs "all books" distinction is moot, but it is far from irrelevant in the "What's New" section. I would like to be able to (and, critically, USED TO BE ABLE TO) browse all the new additions, not simply those which Kobo's/Overdrive's algorithm assumes I will want to see.

That said, you response has made it clear that I'm stuck with the change, as regressive as it is for my usage needs. Thank you for clarifying this.

As I said, for me using my local library, the New Additions returned 1000 results. That was 334 pages at 3 books per page. That is beyond what I consider to be a usable number of results since they are not searchable. After I wrote that message, I checked the library web page and it also capped the New Additions at 1000. How far back do you expect New Additions to go? For my local library, that takes me back about 2.5 months even with the increased additions due to the Covid-19 pandemic. My personal opinion is that anything older than 2 months ain't news, it's olds.

[4691mls]

I don't yet have the new firmware, but I've never found a way to browse all books on Overdrive with my current (or previous) Kobo firmware. If I go to the store and then my library I just see collections like "most popular" or the current Harry Potter feature.

I usually get firmware updates a couple of days after I see them reported on Mobileread, perhaps because my Clara came from Walmart? That's actually ok with me, as it gives me a chance to read about the good and bad of the new firmware before I start using it myself.

[DrChiper]

I inspected one of my old kobos (KA2v1) and found the following settings in the config-file:

[FeatureSettings]
BookSpecificStats=true
FullBookPageNumbers=false
FullScreenReading=true
ImageZoom=true
InvertScreen=false
MyWords=true
Screenshots=false

Are they obsolete or still valid with the current FW 4.21.15015?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

I inspected one of my old kobos (KA2v1) and found the following settings in the config-file:

[FeatureSettings]
BookSpecificStats=true
FullBookPageNumbers=false
FullScreenReading=true
ImageZoom=true
InvertScreen=false
MyWords=true
Screenshots=false

Are they obsolete or still valid with the current FW 4.21.15015?

"FullBookPageNumbers", "FullScreenReading" and "ImageZoom" are no longer in the firmware. They won't harm anything, they just won't do anything.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

I don't, and never have, which is why I (a) seldom use Overdrive and (b) always browse on my Kobo when I do. Searching Overdrive on my H2O2 is actually LESS tedious and painful than searching my library's Overdrive listing.

Also, my query was about the changed behavior in the new firmware. Obviously, in a "Harry Potter" section, the "featured" vs "all books" distinction is moot, but it is far from irrelevant in the "What's New" section. I would like to be able to (and, critically, USED TO BE ABLE TO) browse all the new additions, not simply those which Kobo's/Overdrive's algorithm assumes I will want to see.

That said, you response has made it clear that I'm stuck with the change, as regressive as it is for my usage needs. Thank you for clarifying this.

I asked Kobo. The "All books" is intended to mean "All books in this featured list". Or maybe "All books in the list named on the page". And showing "Featured" in the filter is the error. It should just show "All books". Or maybe not shown at all. But, adding a filter to only show the available books ("Borrowable" sounds terrible) could be useful.