Forma Games?

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by stumped

Kobo should stay focused on improving the reader function, not on pointless gimmicks

Those "gimmicks" haven't been updated for years, except once or twice as necessary to fix the UI.

[Semwize]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

And I've got a Glo HD, which hopefully I keep til I die, I think it's that perfect.

I also have Glo HD, but I like the backlight in Clara HD and Libra much more. There is nothing perfect

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by stumped

I am quite happy with mine, but I am sure a forum search would bring up lots of bugs that others are not happy with

e.g. the database corrupts far too easily and then needs a sign out, sign in reset.
the issues with the Clara light bleed , and with the Forma edge light strip fill pages & pages. I knew about it before I bought so I live with it, but I can certainly see it

so I'd vote for better lighting any day, in place of improved chess playing

The light bleed on the Clara was due to a missing black tape IIRC. And fixed once they knew about it AFAIK.

I never had any crashing with my Kobos which I have used since 2014. So I assume they were due to corrupt books as they are the usual culprits in instances like this.

Forma edge strip is there because the devices form factor. It is a huge screen lighted from one side only. There has to be some sort of fading/brighter side. If people don't like it, they should either buy a smaller device with this form factor or buy another form factor alltogether. I doubt there is something to be done to change the brighter/dimmer thing with the Forma. For a lot of people the bigger screen, lightness of the device and having a mobius screen outweigh the uneven lighting.

None of the things you mentioned are software related (bar the crashing claim) and thus none of them are in the same ballpark as the games. So how would not having games benefit the hardware???

And why do you even rant about it if you are

Originally Posted by stumped

I am quite happy with mine

Hm. So you are fighting on behalf of others whose unhappiness you mostly just suspect. Bit weird, don't you think?

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

The only time my database got corrupted I was doing something repeatedly with a photo ebook when there was some bug about large books not opening. And I've got a Glo HD, which hopefully I keep til I die, I think it's that perfect. So I don't have any of the usual issues with uneven light or bleed.

The one that always gets me though is the dangling characters in kepub unless you fool around with font size until it goes away. Every time a discussion comes up about why kepub is preferred, I think I have to give it a try. And every time I want to slap myself in the head for forgetting about the dangling letters and that's why I avoid kepubs.

That's the only real improvement I'd like to see, kepubs without dangling characters at the top and bottom of the page. And yes, it happens with system fonts as well as sideloaded fonts. The only useful thing about kepubs for me would be to enlarge images, although it would be used extremely seldom, only a handful of books have ever had maps that would have been useful to see more clearly.

I always enable the games in each patch, just to know they're there. I might open one just to test it out, it works, close it and never touch it again, so I don't know why I have the compulsion to just "have" them. So I'm with stumped, there are far better ways to play games than on an ereader, which would be super slow compared to any other device.

What's "dangling characters"? Do you, please, have an image for me? I've never heard of it or seen it before. Or I might have seen it unbeknownst and not realized what it is or not been bothered by it. So, what is it?

And while we all agree there are faster devices to play on, the games do no harm, are not visible to those who don't want them and might be a nice distraction if needed.

I remember I once was very happy to play a bit when I was stuck at an airport for nearly a day. The tablet was already drained by then and I couldn't read anymore. So sometimes it is nice to have choices. I don't need them all the time, but it doesn't hurt to have them either.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

What's "dangling characters"? Do you, please, have an image for me? I've never heard of it or seen it before. Or I might have seen it unbeknownst and not realized what it is or not been bothered by it. So, what is it?

Look at the very bottom line. Part of the top of the letters from the following page show. I used to also get the bottom part of letters dangling at the top of the screen as well, but I'm not seeing it adjusting font sizes with this firmware version (4.19.14123).

The first screenshot is my usual font that's side-loaded, Roboto Slab. The second is a system font, Georgia. I now think it has more to do with the line spacing that you set rather than font size. I do like less line spacing than usual. But no matter how small you make the line spacing in an epub, this never happens.

[Poppaea]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Look at the very bottom line. Part of the top of the letters from the following page show. I used to also get the bottom part of letters dangling at the top of the screen as well, but I'm not seeing it adjusting font sizes with this firmware version (4.19.14123).

The first screenshot is my usual font that's side-loaded, Roboto Slab. The second is a system font, Georgia. I now think it has more to do with the line spacing that you set rather than font size. I do like less line spacing than usual. But no matter how small you make the line spacing in an epub, this never happens.

Thank you. I can't say I've noticed. But I may have and it didn't bother me. Hard to tell. There are things I don't notice anymore when reading. Like the page refresh. I know it is there, it just doesn't register with me anymore. But I can see why it is bothering you.

I do read a lot of history books so I do use the map enlarging a lot, thus it is kepub for me always. But if you don't need this feature often, there is no reason for you not to stick with epub. Or is there?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Those "gimmicks" haven't been updated for years, except once or twice as necessary to fix the UI.

I've always wondered if the "gimmicks" were actually development tools. Either part of the e-ink toolkit to demonstrate how to do things. Or developed by Kobo specifically to test e-ink function.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I've always wondered if the "gimmicks" were actually development tools. Either part of the e-ink toolkit to demonstrate how to do things. Or developed by Kobo specifically to test e-ink function.

i agree,
the ability to play chess, scrabble etc, badly is not going to sell any more units
as for the " i think the software is perfect already" guys, a cursory search the forum will find 100s of dissenting posts. It would be pointless to start listing defects all over again , in this thread, when the are kobo bug threads active already
so my preference would be for 100% of development resources to be focused on those, not on games or gimmicks

[stumped]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I've always wondered if the "gimmicks" were actually development tools. Either part of the e-ink toolkit to demonstrate how to do things. Or developed by Kobo specifically to test e-ink function.

i agree,
the ability to play chess, scrabble etc, slowly and badly, is not going to sell any more units
as for the " I think the software is perfect already" guys, a cursory search the forum will find 1,000s of dissenting posts. It would be pointless to start listing defects all over again , in this thread, when the are kobo bug & wishlist threads active already
e.g. 1,750 posts and close to half a million views in this thread
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...obo+bug+thread

so my preference would be for 100% of development resources to be focused on satisfying some those, not on games or gimmicks

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Semwize

I also have Glo HD, but I like the backlight in Clara HD and Libra much more. There is nothing perfect

I should clarify that by saying the Glo HD is perfect for me... for the content I read and how I prefer to read, and that I must have IR and not capacitive, I want a raised bezel and no hardware buttons, and I don't want anything larger than 6".

The Glo HD might be absolutely horrible for someone else, and I have no problems with that fact at all. To each his own. That's why we have so many various ereaders available, even within one brand.

[Uncle Robin]

This lengthy whine seems to be based on an unsupported assumption, one that has been explicitly contradicted by an earlier post. The complaint seems to be that Kobo is wasting "development resources" on the handful of games hidden way in devmode. Where is the evidence for this? If, as someone stated earlier, they are not developing the games, simply leaving them hidden as legacy leftovers, then there is no substance to the rant.

The fact that games are so well-hidden certainly makes it seem much more likely that Kobo is indeed NOT putting any "development resources" toward the games. If they were actively developing them, making them invisible to all except those who actively go out of the way to hunt them down would seem odd.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by stumped

i agree,
the ability to play chess, scrabble etc, slowly and badly, is not going to sell any more units
as for the " I think the software is perfect already" guys, a cursory search the forum will find 1,000s of dissenting posts. It would be pointless to start listing defects all over again , in this thread, when the are kobo bug & wishlist threads active already
e.g. 1,750 posts and close to half a million views in this thread
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...obo+bug+thread

so my preference would be for 100% of development resources to be focused on satisfying some those, not on games or gimmicks

I'm not sure why you say that you agree when you seemed to have missed my point. The games probably were test beds. And it is likely they still are. Any time spent on them is likely really about testing a change while working on a much smaller code base.

I do agree that the games probably don't sell the device. But, if you want to have people searching for complaints, do a search for how many people have asked where the games are on the newer devices. I've always been surprised at how popular they were.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Look at the very bottom line. Part of the top of the letters from the following page show. I used to also get the bottom part of letters dangling at the top of the screen as well, but I'm not seeing it adjusting font sizes with this firmware version (4.19.14123).

The first screenshot is my usual font that's side-loaded, Roboto Slab. The second is a system font, Georgia. I now think it has more to do with the line spacing that you set rather than font size. I do like less line spacing than usual. But no matter how small you make the line spacing in an epub, this never happens.

One thing that works is to do an @page for the bottom margin to remove the extra bits of the first line on the next screen.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Poppaea

... But if you don't need this feature often, there is no reason for you not to stick with epub. Or is there?

No reason for me at all. I'm not interested in different headers or footers with more info, and I could care less about time spent reading, time left, time for chapter, etc. None of that interests me at all, not even as "don't really need but nice to have" features.

Originally Posted by JSWolf

One thing that works is to do an @page for the bottom margin to remove the extra bits of the first line on the next screen.

Thanks, I'll remember to do that should I ever need a kepub for some reason.