Glo Kobo Software Update 2.5.2

[Liesse]

Originally Posted by taming

I have no idea what the future is going to look like, but I suspect that Kobo has a better idea of that future than we might think.

Thanks Taming. I hadn't thought of it that way.

It is nicer to think that Kobo changed things to make them more compliant with a standard rather than because they wanted to.

It makes a lot of sense.

I do still wish they could give us the choice, if they could manage it. Just as I'd like an option to series sort. Choices are good!

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Jaden

I actually like the spaces between paragraphs. For me it's more comfortable to read that way, so I always format my ebooks to have them.

Also I can not really understand the obsession with how many lines of text you have on the screen. It's not like the reader gets any heavier with the books having more pages. And turning the page is very fast and easy. (Not saying that people aren't entitled to their opinions or that other people's preferences are stupid or anything - I just don't really get it...).

Having used a Kobo Touch before, I get much more text on my screen than I used to before (75 pages in my comfortable font sizes on the touch vs. 48 on the Aura, different font size - else it would still be 61 to 48). But I really just checked that once.

And I must admit I really didn't care about the amount of pages turns needed to finish a book before and don't know - as long as we are talking about a few lines and pages. But reading some people (not everyone, of course) it sounds as if the amount of page turns had doubled.

Still voting for options, of course. And I think an "Advanced Options" section would be great. I don't think it needs to be some config file. A check box in the settings to show or not to show advanced options would be enough, I think.

I am the same as you in my preferences, but I am in deep deep sympathy for those who like their books formatted in the traditional way.

Kobo seems to be very arbitrary in this. They can obviously display things both ways as they have done in the past, but seem to be opting for the Kobo way or the highway. Then they offer the font options and the line spacing options, which are (esp. line spacing) very backwards in implementation. The minimum default line spacing is 1.3 which is about .1 higher than the most commonly used ones. So unless you really want a lot of extra (and distracting) spaces between the line, what good is it?

I am afraid it will be their downfall if the inability to make simple, no surprises reading software does not do them in first.

Helen

[gadgetdude]

Instead of starting a new thread I figured my questions are related enough to this discussion. I am a VERY new Kobo Glo owner and have been following this 2.5.2 discussion pretty closely. Can someone please quickly explain my options if I don't want to go to 2.5.2? When I activated my Glo a few days ago it went through an update process and installed 2.5.1. I couldn't find any option to disable updates, are they automatic or do I have to kick them off? Sounds like you can revert - how is that done?

Thanks in advance - still learning about my new toy...

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by roger64

Thanks for the link. I can't resist quoting you. This man knows indeed well its job and makes the point loud and clear.

It's a nice comparison, but... yeah, well... he can't count.

Where he says that there is one more row of text there are actually two (not that it matters that much).

Also I wonder why he doesn't show the advanced font options (which are really unique) even though he says that there are more font options on the Aura.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by taming

No, i think that every vendor will have its own spin on things like whether or not there is a title at the top of the page, and buyers may decide that they like one company's take on it over another, but that the old ePubs will disappear.

Your right that this year the switch to epub3 will be made. But, I don't know if the old epub2s are going to disappear soon. That is to be decided by the publishers.
To my knowledge there is no mass coversion tool available yet, to convert exisiting epub2 to epub3 or to epub3+2 (the latter is complient with old readers, where epub2 is an embedded fallback). I've no doubt such tool will surface.
I don't think that Kobos spin of epub3 will be any different than epub2.
They have developed a house style and that won't change drastically with the introduction of epub3.
What is needed is a universal drm not different vendor specfic proprietary drm so buyers can buy book in any shop.
Adobe (or any other party) could step into this by offering a new drm protection solution/module as an addon to epub3 and leave the development of epub3 to others. Adobe has the infrastructure in place.

Readium and other developers of epub 3 engines should publish a best practices epub 3 guide on how a epub 3 should be constructed to keep it flexibible for user agents (devices) to add features that can be adjusted by user input. True, that isn't any different from epub2 but there are many epubs out there that lack flexibility because every (child) element in a css contains "hard coded" redundant data that only should be set at higher levels.

[ShellShock]

Originally Posted by Jaden

Also I wonder why he doesn't show the advanced font options (which are really unique) even though he says that there are more font options on the Aura.

The advanced options are only available for bulit-in fonts. I think the reviewer chose a side loaded font so he could use the same font on both the Kobo and Kindle.

[Anak]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

The advanced options are only available for bulit-in fonts. I think the reviewer chose a side loaded font so he could use the same font on both the Kobo and Kindle.

Bookeen (Cybook) Odyssey (HD) has something similar to make fonts look lighter or bolder.

[Jaden]

Originally Posted by ShellShock

The advanced options are only available for bulit-in fonts. I think the reviewer chose a side loaded font so he could use the same font on both the Kobo and Kindle.

I think that's what he did, too.

But IMHO he should have mentioned the advanced options for the built-in fonts since they are a big plus.

Also it would have been nice if he would have compared the best built-in Kindle font with the best built-in Aura font (since many "standard" users will not sideload fonts).

There are so many different approaches besides of trying to get the same font and size on the each device to show how many lines on text there are on the screens.

[Quexos]

Well the way to avoid 2.5.2 is to simply not synch your Glo. I don't think it would automatically update if you don't synch. Mine never did, I always had to synch to get it to update. But some people mentioned something about the update coming automatically, I'm not sure how that goes though.
Maybe if you try to purchase books from the kobo store, it might update but I am not sure about that because I only side-load my books.
In any case if you don't turn the Wi-fi on, you won't have to worry about updates.

Originally Posted by gadgetdude

Instead of starting a new thread I figured my questions are related enough to this discussion. I am a VERY new Kobo Glo owner and have been following this 2.5.2 discussion pretty closely. Can someone please quickly explain my options if I don't want to go to 2.5.2? When I activated my Glo a few days ago it went through an update process and installed 2.5.1. I couldn't find any option to disable updates, are they automatic or do I have to kick them off? Sounds like you can revert - how is that done?

Thanks in advance - still learning about my new toy...

[taming]

Jim Dovey of Kobo talks about ePub 3, Kobo, Adobe in this podcast: http://ebookninjas.com/audio/eBookNi...ey_Readium.mp3

His part begins a bit past minute 38.

[graycyn]

Originally Posted by Quexos

Well the way to avoid 2.5.2 is to simply not synch your Glo. I don't think it would automatically update if you don't synch. Mine never did, I always had to synch to get it to update. But some people mentioned something about the update coming automatically, I'm not sure how that goes though.
Maybe if you try to purchase books from the kobo store, it might update but I am not sure about that because I only side-load my books.
In any case if you don't turn the Wi-fi on, you won't have to worry about updates.

OK, so is there anyway not to get the update on a new Aura?

I have to return my Aura HD for an exchange due to issues with the glo light flickering and I assume that I *will* have to download the 2.5.2 update during the initial setup process with the exchange device.

Is it possible to downgrade to 2.5.1 after that happens?

[Quexos]

ShellShock says he knows how but I never got an answer when I asked him how he does it.

Originally Posted by graycyn

OK, so is there anyway not to get the update on a new Aura?

I have to return my Aura HD for an exchange due to issues with the glo light flickering and I assume that I *will* have to download the 2.5.2 update during the initial setup process with the exchange device.

Is it possible to downgrade to 2.5.1 after that happens?

Originally Posted by ShellShock

I have gone back from 2.5.2 to 2.5.1 without doing a factory reset (on an Aura).

[davidfor]

Downgrading the firmware can be done by sideloading the older version in the same way as manually upgrading it. Going from 2.5.2 to 2.5.1 would be safe.

If you want to go back to much older firmware, then do the factory reset and use the PC to do the setup. It will copy firmware files to the device. Remove these and replace them with the version you want.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660 has the links to the firmware as well as the steps for installing them.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Quexos

ShellShock says he knows how but I never got an answer when I asked him how he does it.

Download the 2.5.1 firmware from the links in the Direct Links to Kobo Firmware in the Kobo Developer's Forum:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=185660

After the 2.5.2 update has finished, unzip the 2.5.1 firmware update file and copy it's contents into the .kobo directory. Disconnect from your computer and the "upgrade" process will install 2.5.1.

There is also an item about replacing one file in the 2.5.2 firmware to remove the kepub-style header from displaying when reading an epub.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=213106

I've tried it and it seems to work but I've gone back to the stock 2.5.2 for now.

Regards,
David

[PeterT]

Just be SURE to select the correct file to download for your device.