Kobo Firmware 3.11.0

[Mentor75]

Hi (Sorry for my bad english)

I don't know if i'm the only one but with the version 3.11 of firmware i got 1 (maybe 2 ) problems on my Aura HD:

1) i have a "ghost" image of previous page. Refresh every one page does'nt change anything.
2) i think ( but i'm not 100% sure ) i need to charge battery more frequently

I don't hope a solution, i just use again the version 3.8 and all is back to good. I just hope to not have the problem with all the future versions of firmware !

Pour les francophones qui ne comprendraient pas mon anglais pourri:

La version 3.11 du firmware m'a apporté une rémanence, particulièrement en sortie de veille, que je n'avais absolument pas avant, même avec un taux de rafraichissement de tous les 6 pages. En plus il me semble que la batterie se décharge nettement plus vite. Je suis donc revenu à la version 3.8 et tout est rentré dans l'ordre. J'espère ne pas être le seul à avoir ce problème et donc que quelqu'un se penchera dessus, sinon je risque bien de le retrouver dans toutes les futures versions !

[ojay]

Bugger!

I lost the suggested reading panel on my mini in 3.8 but now it's back in 3.11.
On the upside it's much more responsive.

Is there any kind of patch available to deactivate the Kobo store/suggested reading feature?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ojay

Bugger!

I lost the suggested reading panel on my mini in 3.8 but now it's back in 3.11.
On the upside it's much more responsive.

Is there any kind of patch available to deactivate the Kobo store/suggested reading feature?

Do you mean the recommendations tile that is displayed after a sync? If so, my Kobo Utilities plugin for calibre has a way to dismiss tiles from the home screen and keep them from coming back.

[ojay]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Do you mean the recommendations tile that is displayed after a sync? If so, my Kobo Utilities plugin for calibre has a way to dismiss tiles from the home screen and keep them from coming back.

Yes that's the one I'm complaining about, thanks David.
Does the plugin work after restarts etc? I use Dropbox pretty exclusively these days.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ojay

Does the plugin work after restarts etc? I use Dropbox pretty exclusively these days.

The plugin runs in calibre when the device is connected. It modifies the database on the device. Firstly, it updates rows in the table that is read to populate the home screen so that the undesired tiles will not be displayed. Then it adds a trigger so that when the device adds a new row to the table for tiles you don't want to see, they are changed so they are not displayed. So,yes, it works across restarts of the device.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The plugin runs in calibre when the device is connected. It modifies the database on the device. Firstly, it updates rows in the table that is read to populate the home screen so that the undesired tiles will not be displayed. Then it adds a trigger so that when the device adds a new row to the table for tiles you don't want to see, they are changed so they are not displayed. So,yes, it works across restarts of the device.

But,is there a plugin,or can yours be adapted,to change the dimensions of a tile ? I would love it when the tiles with new books are a bit bigger or even the same as the current one I am reading ?
It is so sloppy now,tiles with all different sizes like the sync one and the browser one,statistics are all different and there is no way to re-order them (as far as I can see) to made the first page of the reader a bit better.
I like the Kobo better then the Sony, but the Sony one is having a more pleasant look of the main page of the readers menu then the "mess" there is every time on the main screen of the Kobo.

And again apologies if you feel attacked by the "eject" discussion,I think in combination with my dyslectic I translate to "direct" from my own native language to English.
It can be offending ( i changed my sign for it) but the problem is that I don't mean it offending and therefore I don't see it.
Only when people react on it in much another way then I was hoping for, I can see in their reactions which part might be offending or attacking,but then it is to late.

[giododa]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

… but the Sony one is having a more pleasant look of the main page of the readers menu then the "mess" there is every time on the main screen of the Kobo.

I agree.

[filmo]

Sony T1 home screen best feature is having easy to read captions below each unreadable cover. This makes it real world practical because I don't have to waste time installing readable covers to make home screen. I'm thankful that Calibre now generates covers with larger font making it readable on home screen. Sony caption below each cover might be same size as Title and Author on book cover but caption is readable while fuzzy low resolution Title and Author on cover is unreadable. I have to admit home page covers on my Kobo touch are much sharper so tiny Title and Author on smallest home screen covers are readable with 4X magnification jewlers loupe. :-)

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by filmo

Sony T1 home screen best feature is having easy to read captions below each unreadable cover. This makes it real world practical because I don't have to waste time installing readable covers to make home screen. I'm thankful that Calibre now generates covers with larger font making it readable on home screen. Sony caption below each cover might be same size as Title and Author on book cover but caption is readable while fuzzy low resolution Title and Author on cover is unreadable. I have to admit home page covers on my Kobo touch are much sharper so tiny Title and Author on smallest home screen covers are readable with 4X magnification jewlers loupe. :-)

A lot of e-book makers include a very large cover, sometimes 2x the resolution on my Aura HD but then they make a tag around the cover defining how big it may display.
A waist of space, this weekend I had a book of almost 2 MB, after resizing the cover there was 396 KB left.
There is a problem with Sony and some other readers, they do scale a JPG file, but can't scale a PNG file or don't scale the image ok,that is why most of the time they define in the ebook itself how big the cover may be so every reader can display it ok,but they are a bit ridicule about the sizes.
By replacing it with calibre, it installs the downloaded JPG file and also removes the defined space, and Sony can display it perfect.
That explains why it look better when u use Calibre.
Look here at some coding:

<div>
    <svg xmlns="http://www.w3.org/2000/svg" height="100%" preserveAspectRatio="xMidYMid meet" version="1.1" viewBox="0 0 293 333" width="100%" xmlns:xlink="http://www.w3.org/1999/xlink">
      <image height="333" width="293" xlink:href="../Images/1_Bookmark.png"></image>
    </svg>
  </div>

Here it doesn't matter how big the cover is, it will always displayed at 293x333 and look bad on the Sony.(and shrinked to a "tile" to a homescreen even more terrible)
But if they include a PNG file 1200x1600 as a cover, they need to use the above code because (until prs-t2 I don't know of the T3) it will go way over the edges of the screen because of the way Sony and some others handles the PNG (not able to rescale).
With Calibre, you download the JPG,replace the PNG with it, it removes the hardcoded image size in the code above and voila,perfect for the Sony

[ojay]

Originally Posted by davidfor

yes, it works across restarts of the device.

Recommendations returning after only a sync, unfortunately.

Thanks for you plugin and for your time.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by ojay

Recommendations returning after only a sync, unfortunately.

Thanks for you plugin and for your time.

If you selected the create trigger option at the bottom of the dialog, it shouldn't. I don't dismiss the recommendations tile. I look through them and try to work out "why that book?" I'll do some testing when I get home and see what is happening.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

But,is there a plugin,or can yours be adapted,to change the dimensions of a tile ? I would love it when the tiles with new books are a bit bigger or even the same as the current one I am reading ?

Sorry, that isn't possible via my plugin. I think it would to have to be done by a patch. But, I don't think anyone has gone looking for a way to do it.

It is so sloppy now,tiles with all different sizes like the sync one and the browser one,statistics are all different and there is no way to re-order them (as far as I can see) to made the first page of the reader a bit better.

There we are going to disagree I like the fact that the tiles are the size needed for their purpose. That way I can get more on the screen. As to reordering them, no, or at least no practical way.

[GeoffR]

Did this firmware change the layout of the homescreen for other devices, or is it just the Glo that has the big blank area at the bottom? (or just my Glo?)

This is what my Glo's homescreen has looked like since firmware 2.6.1: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/att...hmentid=106973

Attached is what it looks like in 3.11.0: Not enough space for a third row of tiles:

[Lyn2012]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There we are going to disagree I like the fact that the tiles are the size needed for their purpose. That way I can get more on the screen. As to reordering them, no, or at least no practical way.

I really like the different sized tiles too. Unlike many people, I even like the more abstract and dynamic arrangement of the Home page. For me nothing is more boring than seeing a page filled with tiles of the same size in neat rows and I never realised how much I disliked it until Kobo came up with the current Home page. The Sony's Home page was acceptable/useable but the Kindle's was absolutely useless for me - my PW was unregistered and only had 3 books showing on the Home screen. The dynamic nature of Kobo's page means that most things I need are accessible directly from the Home page.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by GeoffR

Did this firmware change the layout of the homescreen for other devices, or is it just the Glo that has the big blank area at the bottom? (or just my Glo?)

Attached is what it looks like in 3.11.0: Not enough space for a third row of tiles:

That has been normal for quite some time, for the Glo. Although in place of the sync tile, I have a book cover which extends below the line of the other two second row covers.