New Kobo Website ?

[nogle]

Originally Posted by taming

It is not yet announced--so probably not ready for use. Storing for off-line use particularly for a device that is mobile could be seen as a good thing if you want to actually use some aspect of it when you do not have a connection, right?

It probably uses Google analytics too. How dare they try to generate revenue by providing me things I want...

[Suzanna]

I did try this with Chrome and it works well there. It still isn't working on Firefox or Explorer, though.

I tried it in Chrome and it seemed to work fine with a couple of previews. I was a bit shocked in the shortness of the previews though: front matter and two pages? Is this a product of the reader, or are all Kobo previews so unenlighteningly short?

[PeterT]

It seems to be typical, and when I have asked about it, I have been told it's set by the publisher.

Some books all I have seen for the preview is the front matter + table of contents.

[taming]

My sense of that, Peter, has been that the kepub software seems to number things as chapters that are not. So, when a publisher sets preview chapter first two chapters, well, on kepubs, you may not get any actual text at all.

[PeterT]

Possibly, but then I have seen previews end in the middle of a chapter too!

Originally Posted by PeterT

Possibly, but then I have seen previews end in the middle of a chapter too!

I suspect that it was ending mid-chapter while I was checking out the online preview since it would only show the first "page" of chapter one then flipping would bring up the purchase screen. If it's an issue with their online reader, hey should fix it. If it's an issue with the publisher, they should fix it since some of us don't like buying products sight-unseen. Especially given the prices of ebooks. (Which is ironic since the Vox's lock screen has a quoe about reading being cheap.)

[Orn8one]

It would be wonderful if the new site had a ''Search'' that actually worked well. Any chance Kobo.com?
Has anyone else tried on an iPad? Works in both Safari and Mercury Browsers but what to do about the storage request? I already have my Library downloaded on the ipad app. See my previous post page 1.
Thanks.

[Irunsjh]

After seeing the link, I have tried using it on my iPad, even though I have all my books loaded inside the iPad App, and I love it. I am actually choosing to use the HTML5 reader more then the App right now. I do not need the Pulse information, as most of the books I am reading do not have anyone reading them. My only issue is that even though I have tried to load more then one book into the memory of my iPad, it only wants to keep on in memory. This will become an issue if I finish my current book where there is no wifi to sync the next, but something I can deal with pretty easily. Overall I like the website a lot, and look forward to it moving beyond v0.1.0

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Irunsjh

After seeing the link, I have tried using it on my iPad, even though I have all my books loaded inside the iPad App, and I love it. I am actually choosing to use the HTML5 reader more then the App right now. I do not need the Pulse information, as most of the books I am reading do not have anyone reading them. My only issue is that even though I have tried to load more then one book into the memory of my iPad, it only wants to keep on in memory. This will become an issue if I finish my current book where there is no wifi to sync the next, but something I can deal with pretty easily. Overall I like the website a lot, and look forward to it moving beyond v0.1.0

On the subject of Pulse. You do realize that this functionality can be disabled in the iOS app? All you need to do is go into the settings and turn off the Pulse option.

I believe that there is a limited amount of "disk" space that an html5 application can use. I have a feeling it starts off with a 5MB chunk, but an html5 app can ask for more, which is why you're asked to increase database size (to 50MB).
I think this 50MB might be the limit for iOS devices as set by Apple.

If you download a book and it takes up quite a bit of space, when you try and add another book, if it would put you over the 50MB limit, then it would probably remove the other book from the cache to accommodate this new book.

Out of curiosity, what was the title of the book you had downloaded originally, and the book that you then tried to open that replaced the original book.

[Irunsjh]

Originally Posted by Sharkus

Out of curiosity, what was the title of the book you had downloaded originally, and the book that you then tried to open that replaced the original book.

The first book that I downloaded was "The Night Dawns Trilogy" by Peter F. Hamilton. It is massive over to 3000 printed pages long, so I know it is going to take up a lot of the 50mb of space, as it is around 20mb in size. The second book I tried to load was less then 1mb, sorry I do not remember the name, and it did not want to load properly. When I tried to open it it had to re download the book and removed the large book from memory.

As of last night, the application was not functioning at all. When I tried to open the any of the books in my library it would show that it was downloading, and then when I opened the book to read I would get the following error "Error.UnableToOpenChapter" displayed on the screen. Not a huge deal as they have not offically launched the HTML5 app yet. I am looking forward to being able to use the app again, because even at only 50Mb of space on my iPad, it was an awesome reading experience.

[paulsalter]

might be ok on a touch screen device (assume this is whats its for as help screens mention touching screen), but not to impressed using it on a laptop.

will pass on this as apps for me are much better

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by Irunsjh

The first book that I downloaded was "The Night Dawns Trilogy" by Peter F. Hamilton. It is massive over to 3000 printed pages long, so I know it is going to take up a lot of the 50mb of space, as it is around 20mb in size. The second book I tried to load was less then 1mb, sorry I do not remember the name, and it did not want to load properly. When I tried to open it it had to re download the book and removed the large book from memory.

As of last night, the application was not functioning at all. When I tried to open the any of the books in my library it would show that it was downloading, and then when I opened the book to read I would get the following error "Error.UnableToOpenChapter" displayed on the screen. Not a huge deal as they have not offically launched the HTML5 app yet. I am looking forward to being able to use the app again, because even at only 50Mb of space on my iPad, it was an awesome reading experience.

Thanks for the feedback. Ideally if your two books would not take you over the 50MB limit then you should be able to keep both of them in offline storage. As you say, I believe it has not been officially launched, so there are no doubt issues still being worked out.

[taming]

It looks like it has "launched", but with a beta tag. See: http://read.kobobooks.com/. You can delete books from the off-line storage. Sync seems to work! When you read a preview, it asks if you want it deleted. Nice!

[kiwipippa]

I've just discovered this - really like it. Much easier browsing through the bestsellers, and What's New. I'd like to see them add "recommendations" as well so you get more tailored results.