How to make a Kobo private and vendor-independent ?

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by issybird

Raises hand. As I mentioned recently in a different thread, in a post which you quoted and to which you responded, at one point Kobo removed access to purchased PDFs, of which I had a few (they were either cheaper than the ePub or the only format available). They gave a warning in advance, but those books are gone.

But as has been said many times on MR...

PDF are not real eBooks.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

But as has been said many times on MR...



PDF are not real eBooks.

I believe you're the big proponent for them not being real e-books

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[vintodrimmer]

Originally Posted by meeera

Did this bottom-right Recommendations on the Elipsa persist and remain non-interactive after you opened/read a book or two? My bottom right - on a H2Oed2 - always contains either a recent series or a recent author. Which I find rather useful.

To be honest, I'm not sure.
I'm not using the Kobo store and I don't think it counts side-loaded books.
That said, it displays a (random? I currently only have one as I'm testing things out) collection there now, so it's not that bad.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by vintodrimmer

On a Kobo Elipsa in the lower-left corner for the brand new user.
They did disappear eventually, but initial impression was pretty bad.
I'll look into the Kobo Patcher to see if any of this can be changed.


Following is a rant about me not liking the interface.

Generally, I have to say that I'm a bit disappointed in the interface.
Bottom-left was occupied by the aforementioned TOP-50 picks with the largest image being quite unpleasant to me. I tried pressing "not interested", but it didn't change anything, it was still one of the largest elements on the screen.
Bottom-right was just wasted space, since I'm not really interested in recommendations (they are quite bad in my experience). I did give it a try, but now they just contain some books I'm not going to be interested in.

The worst part is how non-interactive they are.
This is literally a dedicated advertisement space.
You can't browse through the elements from the screen, you can't dismiss or open them from here.
The only thing you can do is use them to open the store (for which there already is a dedicated, always visible button at the bottom of the screen).
To be fair, once I uploaded some books instead of just research PDFs, it did disappear, but the space is still wasted. As the top row I have my recent books.

In the bottom left I have some other books. By pressing on any of the books in the lower-left they don't open, but bring you to the other page entirely with all of your books. So I can just press "my books" button with the same effect.

Huh? That is a serious "Huh?" because what you say doesn't match with the Kobo home screens that I have seen. Including the copy of 4.28.17826 that is for the Elipsa that I put on my Glo HD. Maybe the Elipsa is different, but, but I haven't seen comments that suggest it is. I did wonder if you had simply swapped left and right, but, that doesn't explain it all.

For example, in the lower left corner, there is "Find your next great read"/"Shop Kobo". Tapping that takes you to the store. It doesn't show recommendations or anything else, and it doesn't change. In the bottom right, there is one that changes. It can show a link recommendations, reading stats, your wishlist, the help and about six other things.

The home screen is divided into five sections vertically: The info bar with icons across the top; current books; My Books and a collection/author; the bit described above; and the button bar across the bottom.

For a new user, current books will show, on the left, an outline with a message about getting books. The right might show recommendations or top50 or something like that. As soon as you add books and start reading them, you get up to four currently opened books show across here.

The middle section has My Books on the left and a changing section on the right. At the right shows something like recommendations or top 50. But, again, when you add your books and start reading, it changes to either an collection or an author related to what you have been reading.

And the next section is described above.

I just think the UI is terrible, honestly.
I'd prefer it to always default to the "my books" page with the "currently reading" ones at the top and have the ability to disable everything else.

The "My Books" always opens to the book list you last used. With the same filtering and sorting options you had last used.

No, the interface isn't very user configurable. But, it does listen to what you do and changes exactly what is on the screen as you use the device.

And you did mention the recommendation, which are "are quite bad in my experience". Of course they are. You state you don't buy books from Kobo. How can Kobo recommend books if you don't tell Kobo what you like? In fact, isn't that a good thing? It demonstrates that Kobo is not spying on your sideloaded books or using other sources to work out what they should sell you. I mean, this is a thread about privacy, and you seem to have demonstrated that Kobo is treating your privacy seriously.

And for the record, my recommendations are quite good. I do buy books from Kobo. Most of the books I see are books I would consider. And they frequently lead me to buying a book, or putting one on my wishlist for later (meaning that I get a good promo code). It doesn't mean I get the recommended book, but, it will frequently lead me to another in the same series (Kobo rarely recommends book one in a series I haven't read) or the same author (I frequently try a free book from an unknown author). The problem I have is that I frequently grab a preview because of discussion here to test something. Those previews are rarely something I want to read, but, they do impact Kobo's recommendations for a while. But, that is my fault, not Kobo's.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

...You really do have to stop taking things so seriously...

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by vintodrimmer

To be honest, I'm not sure.
I'm not using the Kobo store and I don't think it counts side-loaded books.
That said, it displays a (random? I currently only have one as I'm testing things out) collection there now, so it's not that bad.

Using patches, you can remove the bottom two text links (Find Your Next Great Read and Discover Books...) at which point there will be no advertising or advertising adjacent links on your home page (or anywhere else, I guess)
Attached isn't the best photo, but hopefully clear enough to show what I am talking about.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by vintodrimmer

To be honest, I'm not sure.
I'm not using the Kobo store and I don't think it counts side-loaded books.
That said, it displays a (random? I currently only have one as I'm testing things out) collection there now, so it's not that bad.

Right. So it's neither persistent nor non-interactive, and not a dedicated advertisement space.

[vintodrimmer]

Originally Posted by davidfor

what you say doesn't match with the Kobo home screens that I have seen.

Let me illustrate with a picture.
Attached is the illustration of how the fresh device with a couple of uploaded books looked for me.
The 2 dynamic fields in the 2nd row contained "Top 50" books and "Recommedned".
They were subsequently replaced with my books (which is a weird decision IMO, when it simply acts like a shortcut to "my books", for which there is already a shortcut) and a bookshelf.

Originally Posted by davidfor

And you did mention the recommendation, which are "are quite bad in my experience". Of course they are. You state you don't buy books from Kobo.

That was not a jab at Kobo's recommendations, but recommendations in general. I actively used goodreads for some time and netflix/youtube/spotify and what not and almost never the recommendation were particularly good, so I try to remove them whenever possible.
In this particular case, even more so, since I have no intention to use Kobo's marketplace (at least as the main book buying platform).

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Using patches, you can remove the bottom two text links (Find Your Next Great Read and Discover Books...)

Thanks, that looks like something I'd want.

Originally Posted by meeera

Right. So it's neither persistent nor non-interactive, and not a dedicated advertisement space.

Partially.
* You can't remove it -> persistent
* I guess you could argue that any button is "interactive", but in the end it's just that: a very big glorified button. There is no interactivity with the element besides pressing it.
* It starts as dedicated space for promotional material. I do agree that it gets removed later in the life of the device, though.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by vintodrimmer

The 2 dynamic fields in the 2nd row contained "Top 50" books and "Recommedned".

Those are just placeholders until you start using your device. If they persisted, then yeah, that would be crummy. But they do not last long. You are free to dislike them, but I'm hard pressed to take those complaints seriously.

They were subsequently replaced with my books (which is a weird decision IMO, when it simply acts like a shortcut to "my books", for which there is already a shortcut)...

The double My Books has to do with the history of the Kobo home screen. The four buttons at the very bottom are fairly new. Before those, My Books was a link hidden in a hamburger menu on the top left.

The My Books 'button' (and I do agree, it's just a big, fancy button) was handy. Now, it should probably be replaced by something else.

[vintodrimmer]

Now that I have a bit of experience with Calibre-web, I have to say that it's not the greatest solution.
1. It uses the built-in API for requests, meaning that only ePubs (converted to kepubs) and kepubs are being uploaded to the device
2. It does not sync notes in any way shape or form

As such, is there anything that can completely sync the contents of my device?
I have seen the KoboCloud which should allow me to sync with my NextCloud server, but not sure how well it works.
If there was something like GitHub/GitLab, where you can sync chnges from all your devices, that would have been amazing in my opinion.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Those are just placeholders until you start using your device. If they persisted, then yeah, that would be crummy. But they do not last long. You are free to dislike them, but I'm hard pressed to take those complaints seriously.

Nah, it made an unfortunate first impression (I really disliked the image being displayed), but I wouldn't really consider it as any serious downside.
Still wish there was an option to customize the screen layout, even if it was from a pre-selected option or required a PC-companion.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The double My Books has to do with the history of the Kobo home screen. The four buttons at the very bottom are fairly new. Before those, My Books was a link hidden in a hamburger menu on the top left.
The My Books 'button' (and I do agree, it's just a big, fancy button) was handy. Now, it should probably be replaced by something else.

Are they still missing from the older devices? I can see them being less handy on smaller eReaders.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by vintodrimmer

Are they still missing from the older devices? I can see them being less handy on smaller eReaders.

You can—officially—put the latest Kobo firmware on any of the touch screen devices other than the Mini. The Mini is not officially supported but mine has 4.26.16704 on it and seems to work quite happily in my limited testing.

See geek1011's Kobo Firmware Downloads page for the manual download and install links.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by vintodrimmer

Are they still missing from the older devices? I can see them being less handy on smaller eReaders.

The smallest screen Kobo's made for almost a decade is 6" and I find the buttons handy on my 6" Clara.

Still wish there was an option to customize the screen layout, even if it was from a pre-selected option or required a PC-companion.

Before the current home screen layout, Kobo used a tiled screen layout. Any tile could be dismissed. It was pretty customizable. I do miss that screen. But the only way to use it is via older firmware and there are too many improvements in current firmware to make that viable.

I wouldn't complain if Kobo brought the tiles back. But I'm not holding my breath.

Here's what the tile home screen looked like.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Before the current home screen layout, Kobo used a tiled screen layout. Any tile could be dismissed. It was pretty customizable. I do miss that screen. But the only way to use it is via older firmware and there are too many improvements in current firmware to make that viable.

I wouldn't complain if Kobo brought the tiles back. But I'm not holding my breath.

Yes, I liked simply ONLY having the ENTIRE home screen as MRR (Most Recently Read) with ability to dismiss. Now only the top row has that.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The smallest screen Kobo's made for almost a decade is 6" and I find the buttons handy on my 6" Clara.

The Clara HD does not have buttons.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

The Clara HD does not have buttons.

Please read the message in context.