Kobo future firmware feature request thread

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by johnson_chung

I'm in China. I have updated my aura to the latest version. For Kobo ereader was not sold in China mainland, it seemed that Kobo has banned Chinese IP.

I'm pretty sure that it is China that is doing the blocking. The problem has been discussed plenty of times before. And, with the recent firmware, WiFi should work. The device does attempt to contact a URL on the Kobo domain. If it cannot to do this, it prompts with a message about whether to continue connecting or not. One reply stops the connection, the other lets the device connect to your WiFi. Any access to the internet is up to what is available to you at the time.

You can also add the following lines to the config file to connect without this promp.

[FeatureSettings]
IgnoreCaptivePortal

If the first line is already there, add the second line in the block after it.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The device does attempt to contact a URL on the Kobo domain. If it cannot to do this, it prompts with a message about whether to continue connecting or not. One reply stops the connection, the other lets the device connect to your WiFi. Any access to the internet is up to what is available to you at the time.

Ooh, this may solve one of my old issues! I have a USB stick with its own built-in wifi router, and I keep a copy of my ebook library on it, but in the past I’ve been disappointed that the phone-home logic prevented me from turning on the stick, connecting to it with my Kobo reader, and browsing that library to download a book or two.

[Rand Brittain]

So, I wound up trying out using kepubs on my Kobo this week, and while it seems to work okay, my two main complaints are that the Kobo renderer doesn't respect "page-break-before: always", which is unfortunate because a lot of the technical RPG ePubs I've made rely on it, and that it tends to randomly put extra space after an emdash, which makes it hard to error-check to see whether I put an extra space in the file where one shouldn't be.

EDIT: Apparently that second thing is already listed as a bug. I guess maybe the first thing is probably closer to a bug than a feature request?

[Rid]

A more customisable, better filter in “My Books”. Basically let the Kobo owner choose what they want to filter.

For example;
Be able to select “Reading” and “Unread”.
Be able to select “Unread” but not include “Previews”.

[Rid]

I know this has been mentioned before, but I want to repeat it just in-case Kobo is watching…

An alarm feature (which you set) that’s let you know how long you have been reading a book. A flashing screen or pop-up dialogue etc.

We can get stuck in a book for hours and forget that we have to get up in the morning for work…. A clock on the screen is not the same as this would get ignored in a good book.

[kannalo]

Allow metadata to be added to cbz files that will be on the device maybe using a json or text file inside the cbz containing:

artist/author
series/book name
chapter number

[Nekrodamus]

Hello! i make a deep request to you.

An option to disable / enable the clock.

I need to deactivate the clock, I hate clocks and that something as banal as time tells me when to start or stop reading. Please, it is only an on / off option.

I know that someone will tell me that if I am reading a good book I will not notice the clock, but I read a lot and when I browse the ereader it inevitably crushes me with the clock and it bothers me a lot. When he was not i was much happier.

Thank you.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by kannalo

Allow metadata to be added to cbz files that will be on the device maybe using a json or text file inside the cbz containing:

artist/author
series/book name
chapter number

Perhaps when there is a standard for CBZ/CBR/CB7/etc. metadata, Kobo might implement that feature. Currently there is no standard and looking at the existing methods of embedding metadata, few of those that have any hope of becoming a standard.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Nekrodamus

Hello! i make a deep request to you.

An option to disable / enable the clock.

I need to deactivate the clock, I hate clocks and that something as banal as time tells me when to start or stop reading. Please, it is only an on / off option.

I know that someone will tell me that if I am reading a good book I will not notice the clock, but I read a lot and when I browse the ereader it inevitably crushes me with the clock and it bothers me a lot. When he was not i was much happier.

Thank you.

Sheesh! Did you not post a virtually identical message in August, 2020? Given that the stock firmware does not display the clock while you are reading and a clock was an often requested feature, it's very unlikely that Kobo is going to remove it. Pretty much your only option is to revert to an earlier firmware revision that did not display the clock.

So stop staring at your home/library screens so much and spend more time reading.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by Nekrodamus

Hello! i make a deep request to you.

An option to disable / enable the clock.

I need to deactivate the clock, I hate clocks and that something as banal as time tells me when to start or stop reading. Please, it is only an on / off option.

I know that someone will tell me that if I am reading a good book I will not notice the clock, but I read a lot and when I browse the ereader it inevitably crushes me with the clock and it bothers me a lot. When he was not i was much happier.

Thank you.

If, as you say, you "read a lot" then by definition you will not see the clock often because it is not shown while you're reading. It only shows on the homepage, or if you choose to view it. Do as you claim to do, and simply read a lot, and you'll seldom even see it.

[troro]

My favorite request for a future firmware feature: an easy to use nightmode.

With Firmware 4.26.16704 it takes me - starting at the startpage - 6 steps to invert the screen and 2 further steps to get back to the startpage.

My suggestion: see screenshot

[John F]

Originally Posted by troro

My favorite request for a future firmware feature: an easy to use nightmode.

With Firmware 4.26.16704 it takes me - starting at the startpage - 6 steps to invert the screen and 2 further steps to get back to the startpage.

My suggestion: see screenshot

As a work around, try NickelMenu.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by troro

My favorite request for a future firmware feature: an easy to use nightmode.

With Firmware 4.26.16704 it takes me - starting at the startpage - 6 steps to invert the screen and 2 further steps to get back to the startpage.

My suggestion: see screenshot

NickelMenu takes only two screen presses to set night mode.

[troro]

As a work around, try NickelMenu.

I tried NickelMenu.

But I'm pretty sure, that there are a lot of Kobo-customers who don't know NicklMenu, who don't even know mobileread.com.

It's a Kobo-reader, so I think it's Kobo's job to get their devices work properly.

[John F]

Originally Posted by troro

I tried NickelMenu.

But I'm pretty sure, that there are a lot of Kobo-customers who don't know NicklMenu, who don't even know mobileread.com.

It's a Kobo-reader, so I think it's Kobo's job to get their devices work properly.

It was just a suggestion, to make sure that you (and others) know some possible alternatives.

I think your implementation is lacking, or at least needs to be expanded. When I change to night mode I also need to change the brightness, so for me, it would still be a multi-step process. I would like to see a short cut for switching modes and setting brightness to some saved values for the two different modes.