Glo Kobo Software Update 2.5.2

[sysKin]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I spend a few decades reading dead tree books before building my first computer. Almost every one had the name of book and the name of the author at the top of facing pages just in case I forgot what book I was reading.

Allow me to put it this way: every engineering effort is facing tradeoffs, and there's always a few parameters that are the "selling points", the most major limitations that were pushed to the limit. In case of mobile gadgets it's typically size/weight/battery life, in case of a car it might be engine power or fuel efficiency, in case of a TV it's the screen size, and so on.

Those are the most important limitations that, for a consumer, almost define how good the device is.

Kobo is actively advertising its Glo as having a six inch screen because screen size is important. It's one of those parameters where a 20% decrease cuts the sale price by a factor of three (Mini) and 13% increase almost doubles the price and creates a lot of buzz (Aura).

If screen size is important and scarce, it is common sense (and basic engineering practice) to do everything possible to maximise its use. If they use any pixel of it for non-primary task, they better have a VERY good reason.

They just did the opposite. How am I suppose to not be baffled?

If you excuse a straw-man argument, what they did is an equivalent of making a mobile phone, advertising it as thin and light, and then gluing a big heavy metal ornament to each device.

Comparisons to a paper book are not helpful because paper book's paper size is not the critical design constraint. I certainly wouldn't pay twice the price for a 6.8 inch paper book compared to a 6 inch paper book!

Hopefully this makes sense, and I do apologise for monopolising entire firmware thread with this single issue... I'm being passionate about it not so much because I don't like it (I haven't updated the firmware and will not) but because it's a very bad sign of some very faulty decision making process -- process that probably will affect me one day.

Originally Posted by taming

I understand wanting what you want.
I don't understand why anyone expects a mass produced consumer product to be entirely in line with any one individual's preferences.

Actually you might not understand what I want after all.
What I want is for firmware changes to be consistent, justifiable, and at least remotely predictable.
I don't require individual changes to suit my tastes and needs, this won't happen. If Kobo provided any glimpse into their thinking process, showing that this sacrifice in reading space is justified (a loss comparable to Glo->Mini product change), at least I wouldn't question their common sense and their goals.
For example all the Facebook integration was clearly led by their need to make money by forging relationships with other companies. I'm not happy about that, but I understand it and their goals, and I've never complained about it.

So far the only justification for title bar is consistency with kepubs. It's actually not a bad justification, except that achieving the same consistency by *removing* that silly bar from kepubs is so *obvious*...

[Skydog]

Originally Posted by PeterT

So override the version info as listed above.

Thank you, PeterT.

[aceflor]

Originally Posted by taming

I understand wanting what you want.

I don't understand why anyone expects a mass produced consumer product to be entirely in line with any one individual's preferences. I also don't understand why not getting everything perfectly aligned with one's individual preferences is evidence of stupidity or incompetence on the part of the company that designed it.

If I were buying a million dollar home, I'd feel entitled to be pretty picky. The particulars of a home screen on an ereader, well, I can live with some variance from what might be my own ideal.

Things that don't work, devices that are unreliable, that's something else.

Fortunately, if I don't like a particular product, for any reason at all, I am free to purchase one from another company that I like more.

No offence, but since you are the least objective person when it comes to kobo, I can't really picture you purchasing a reader from another company.....

[taming]

Originally Posted by aceflor

No offence, but since you are the least objective person when it comes to kobo, I can't really picture you purchasing a reader from another company.....

It's been difficult to use another reader in Canada. The nook was never sold here, Sony's either were not sold here or were sold at much higher prices, and Amazon both didn't release new devices for a very long time and played games like not shipping devices to Canada over the holidays. Not that I have to make excuses for having chosen Kobo for the three years it has been around.

That being said, I have been quite forthright when there have been features I didn't like or when performance has been crappy. I still think that Kobo has gone for elegance over usability in the way they implement some features and I have mentioned that a number of times.

I'm a 61 year old female social worker who has worked in mental health for almost 40 years. I may get prickly, but I don't jump up and down very much. Heck, my son once told a friend of his that he had never heard me yell. I think he found it annoying.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by taming

Fortunately, if I don't like a particular product, for any reason at all, I am free to purchase one from another company that I like more.

Not fortunate for Kobo though; I would not have bought an Aura if the title bar had been baked in from the start. Losing sales does not help Kobo, and I want them to do well, having had a Glo previously and liked it. I am complaining about the permanent title bar, not to have a dig at Kobo, but because I want their product to be the best it can be, within reason. I think having an option to turn off the title bar is within reason.

[gouni]

@taming , in canada you do not Pocketbook or Onyx ?

I love kobo, but I tired with their bug.

I have never seen a development repair, break, repair, break, repair, break, repair, break each new system.

I find the kobo looks nice, in my country it is best-selling.

The most sold because it is distributed by a large chain store, renowned for its reliability. If this chain was selling another brand like PocketBook, Kobo would do as in other countries in europe, it would be last because of its unreliable system.

Vote for the glo mini.

[guma]

Originally Posted by taming

Fortunately, if I don't like a particular product, for any reason at all, I am free to purchase one from another company that I like more.

Unfortunately, if you already bought a KOBO reader and want to synch it or even just to connect it to WIFI it will force updates that alter the 'look and feel' and the functionality of the device.
Do you actually expect everybody who strongly disagrees with changes in firmware to be silent and just buy a new device from another manufacturer rather than complain here?


P.S.
If you are bothered by other people's complaints about KOBO you are - fortunately - free to not read threads about firmware bugs ....

[taming]

Is that what this is? A thread about bugs? Silly me, I thought it was about the firmware release, which includes a whole lot about something Kobo did purposely that some people do not like. Thank you guma for giving me such excellent advice.

[church mouse]

Originally Posted by Caramon77

I hated the text being so much close to the top in sideloaded epubs. I used to set a margin in every book. Now i use the Kepub plugin so for me the title on top is welcome. Maybe i am the only one! :-)

You may be a strange Kobo reader species variation but you are not alone - I switched to using the extended plus-in because I liked that bit of space with the title bar.

[taming]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

Not fortunate for Kobo though; I would not have bought an Aura if the title bar had been baked in from the start. Losing sales does not help Kobo, and I want them to do well, having had a Glo previously and liked it. I am complaining about the permanent title bar, not to have a dig at Kobo, but because I want their product to be the best it can be, within reason. I think having an option to turn off the title bar is within reason.

Kepub users have had the title for a very long time so it doesn't bother me as much to see it appear in epubs. In fact, since I use the extended driver, the only time I read epubs ( vs kepub.epub) is when I am using library books sideloaded through ADE. In general, epubs don't seem as well thought out by Kobo as kepubs are. Something to do with the (very gradual or lagging, depending on your POV ) epub3 implementation process, I've been told.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by guma

Unfortunately, if you already bought a KOBO reader and want to synch it or even just to connect it to WIFI it will force updates that alter the 'look and feel' and the functionality of the device.
Do you actually expect everybody who strongly disagrees with changes in firmware to be silent and just buy a new device from another manufacturer rather than complain here?


P.S.
If you are bothered by other people's complaints about KOBO you are - fortunately - free to not read threads about firmware bugs ....

It's very questionable if you can call adding the title at the top of the page for epubs a bug. After all, it was a deliberate design decision, very likely to match the appearance of .kepub ebooks.

It may not be a decision that you agree with. But then I've seen the number of people posting about their experience using the epub to kepub conversion plugin for on the fly conversion as you send epub books from Calibre to your Kobo ereader. None of them seem overly disturbed by the title bar on their converted epubs.

And yes, I do find the endless whinging about the title bar to be even more annoying than the title bar itself.

Regards,
David

[ShellShock]

It is a bit insulting to characterise our criticisms as "endless whinging". We do not want to start a flame war here.

[Moonraker]

It might surprise you, but I actually like it.

So do I.

I find the pages much more aesthetically pleasing. I just wish they had also cured the sleep bug that occurrs 30 seconds of opening.

[Quexos]

I don't think you represent them either so please don't presume that they'll just say "Wow look at that" and go back to their readings. Some will, others will be bothered but won't think about forums or contacting Kobo for a change in this forced wasted space, others will think, why would I contact them, they won't care what one little guy has to say, others will simply buy another brand and yet others will stay on paper books.

No one represents a community but if we don't speak of what is wrong with an upgrade just because we don't represent millions out there, then we don't speak anymore and upgrades will stop evolving the way consumers would like them to.

This top (and bottom) margin is a serious issue which worries me because if they never gave freedom to users of the bottom space to be used as they please, I don't see why they would with the top forced-to-title space newly implemented and if I can't have that space for text then I don't know why I got an Aura because maybe another brand out there with full text screens that are 6" may fit as much as the Aura that is almost 7" without the inconvenience of the bigger sized Aura that does not fit in my pocket.

Originally Posted by david_e

Piffle. Extraordinarily.

The users of this forum speak for no group. They certainly do NOT represent the millions of users who are going to see this, mutter something along the lines of, "Oh, wow, look at that," and go back to their reading.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by DNSB

And yes, I do find the endless whinging about the title bar to be even more annoying than the title bar itself.

"Endless whinging", for serious? It's been about a day. People are complaining in an entirely appropriate thread (the thread about this firmware release) about a major change in the way every single reading page is displayed. There's a robust community here of tweakers and fiddlers who bought Kobos exactly because they (we) could customise the display of our reading pages to suit ourselves - and Kobo courted our custom by making things like the font customisability a marketing point. You really thought that we'd all sit down and shut up about an enforced change in reading page display?

Perhaps the folks who insist that we should all now go out and buy a different device could take their own advice, do something a whole lot cheaper and lower-impact, and unsubscribe from this thread. (I mean, as far as I'm concerned, you're of course more than welcome to stay - but "endless whinging"? Sheesh.)