IF you could design the user interface for the next Kobo Firmware

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by dmacmart

What about adding a default shelf for "unshelved books"? The library would still contain all books.

PeterT provided a method for doing this with calibre but I cannot remember what post. Was slightly different but could be easily modified to suit this purpose.

Helen

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

Other less eccentric ereaders (maybe I mean more robust or reliable?) don't generate the same aura of discontent AFAIK. Most people seem to think they are fine, they have a solid core of fans who think they can do no wrong, and those that don't like them just don't use them, But then the other readers seem to work as advertised and don't go changing things around on a seemingly random basis (again AFAIK)

I don't think so. I f you don't have any hope to get a new release, you don't bother showing bugs or asking for improvements (Kindle or Sony, for example).

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

I don't think so. I f you don't have any hope to get a new release, you don't bother showing bugs or asking for improvements (Kindle or Sony, for example).

hmmm...
I don't agree that Sony or kindle readers feel hopelessly deprived by not getting a lot of half baked releases. After all they mostly work.

Sure I would like them to work perfectly, and if they mopped my floors in their spare time that would be infinitely better, but they are for the most part to be counted on to perform well if not perfectly

Helen

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Ken Maltby

OK, as this is "Mobileread" Forums, I guess I should give more consideration to those who are reading on smaller screens, and not format my lines in a manner you of tiny screens may have difficulties with. This approach doesn't help with any tendency I might have for run-on sentences.

Luck;
Ken

It's more an issue when someone quotes you and the line breaks in the little box used for the editor look downright ugly. As for run-on sentences? You've come to the right forum for those.

Regards,
David

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by davidfor

You will be happy to hear that things have improved with 2.6.1. On my Touch, I have 1300 books and a shelf for each series plus a few others. That gives 30 pages of shelves. Most have less than five books, but one shelf has 1031 (all the ePubs) and one has 263 (all the books that have a PDF format). Opening the shelf list now takes about 25 seconds. Hopefully it will be better on the Aura.

It still isn't great, but better than before.

Well that is super. I am still getting up the courage to put 2.6.1 on my Aura.

On my mini the time appears to be exactly as pre 2.61. But I have no largish collections on it. I will put it on my to-do list to give it a try.

Helen

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

I see.

I thought it was limited to R to L languages or vertical script that needed epub3...I've done fairly well with the languages/scripts I use without even having to add my own fonts (ryumin and gothic seem to work well...even if they are not everyone's taste). But it helps that Japanese is supported, as that is a tricky language that otherwise would probably cause me no end of problems. In my case if I had to use the extended plugin for that reason, I would limit it to the books which need it, especially if I was having so many problems like Theonna.

The ACCESS renderer does handle those text direction directives but some of the other features such as the table of contents displaying correctly even if the default font does not contain the glyphs are handy. Unfortunately, it seems that ability is limited to searching the Kobo supplied fonts and does not extend to sideloaded fonts. A Malayalam table of contents entry does not display but a Devanagari one does for example despite having two sideloaded fonts that handle Malayalam glyphs.

Regards,
David

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

hmmm...
I don't agree that Sony or kindle readers feel hopelessly deprived by not getting a lot of half baked releases. After all they mostly work.

In the same way than in a Kobo, I think. At least, in my 350, people like Sony with PRS or T1 rooted, or Kindle with duokan or....

You haven't been in a Spanish forum listening about Sony and Spanish dictionary

A lot of people are happy with Kindle/Sony... in the same way a lot of people are happy with Kobo. You only listen more people complaining than giving praises

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

In the same way than in a Kobo, I think. At least, in my 350, people like Sony with PRS or T1 rooted, or Kindle with duokan or....

A lot of people are happy with Kindle/Sony... in the same way a lot of people are happy with Kobo. You only listen more people complaining than giving praises

Or those who root their Nooks. Almost every ereader seems to have a community dedicated to making it work in ways the manufacturer never contemplated.

One way I've heard to calculate your user satisfaction numbers is to multiply the numbers of complaints by 10 and subtract that number from your total user base.

Regards,
David

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

In the same way than in a Kobo, I think. At least, in my 350, people like Sony with PRS or T1 rooted, or Kindle with duokan or....

A lot of people are happy with Kindle/Sony... in the same way a lot of people are happy with Kobo. You only listen more people complaining than giving praises

True enough. This was my point in the post you first responded to.

For example my PRS-350 I never had any complaints with it and saw very few from others except when they seemed to be broken.

My Kobo mini I have lot of complaints about and I see many more from other owners.

I loved my Kobo mini when I got it, but two firmware updates removed basic features (available for years on the 350) that it had when I bought it.

I understand that you may have had worse problems with your 350 than with a Kobo reader. And maybe your Kobo works better than my Aura and Mini do.

If so I am sorry that you have had a lot of bad Sony experiences and glad that you have had all wonderful Kobo ones.

Hope it stays great with Kobo for you.

Helen

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

PeterT provided a method for doing this with calibre but I cannot remember what post. Was slightly different but could be easily modified to suit this purpose.

Helen

I think it's near the end of the shelf thread and used a custom column. Maybe I should gather all the little custom column / shelf ideas together at.

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I think it's near the end of the shelf thread and used a custom column. Maybe I should gather all the little custom column / shelf ideas together at.

Indeed. And publish it as an ebook

I'd buy one even if the paperback was cheaper

Helen

[Terisa de morgan]

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

T
I understand that you may have had worse problems with your 350 than with a Kobo reader. And maybe your Kobo works better than my Aura and Mini do.

If so I am sorry that you have had a lot of bad Sony experiences and glad that you have had all wonderful Kobo ones.

Not really, let's see... my Sony worked great... after I installed PRS+, created my custom-build firmware and added my options for series, customized my footers, my gestures and so on.... If I compare Sony without PRS and Kobo, the only point where Sony is better is in dictionaries, far better. The other points... not so much. No problem with Sony and no problem with Mini and Glo.

But... I'm not a good example. As I've told you, I make my own custom build for Sony, I've make my functions in calibre to create shelves in my Mini, I don't usually have problems with electronic and software... is my job

[Ken Maltby]

When Ectaco and Aluratek both imported the same hardware and started an unofficial competition in firmware development, there was a period of frequent firmware releases, for the devices. That eventually settled down and the few additional releases were more about implementing better reading software as it became available. Once the Adobe Reader Mobile v9 was implemented, with any problems corrected, firmware development essentially ended.

I have to admit that I can't remember anything like the angst over screen features or text display that you see here, about the Kobo. The file handling for both companies devices was quite good, for the most part, right from the start.

Luck;
Ken

[TechniSol]

Ken,

If I contributed to that, I apologize, but we're talking about the user interface, not redesigning the core functionality of the system. I don't think kobo would realistically start over from scratch. Nor do I think a reasonable outside group would either... So I think the database is here to stay.

If properly implemented it is the best way to go, in that information should only need to be read, processed and sorted ONCE, not every time a file browser is started to select a book. Properly implemented it means FASTER times as only pointers or references to data need be manipulated instead of the whole record and assorted fields for a variety of searches, rather than limiting the user to browsing based on the only structure being the file directory structure.

Depending on how you wish to search\browse vs. how you implemented the file structure you'll be grinding a lot of gears looking for what you want. The file structure browser thing seems to have the greatest appeal to people who are convinced they will only ever need to locate things or sort them based on one premise -whether they realize it or not. Isn't it better to have a list of all your mysteries, poly-tics, etc. as well as be able to sift through by author, publisher, "whatever" tags without having to store multiple copies of the same books?

I think if Kobo had the idea of having a simple browser or just a directory input field to allow a user to specify where to start processing files(hell, just specify a "start here" directory and process it's contents first) and changed their programming so they could process files in the background while quickly presenting the user with some choices and a book to read in the meantime would be a great step forward when one must process a huge card full of books not present in the database. Just a wayward thought, Kobo... Not everything must be completed in advance of allowing the user to do something with the device. Linear thinking is not always the best. Outside the box does not mean inside the next vessel instead. Om, mani padme, hum...

I also think that if you want a full blown file browser you should be able to have one, but I don't expect Kobo to provide it, nor do I see how it would be faster than a properly implemented database as it would need to scour the file system each time it was started up... and so would you! I think you'd be a lot better off asking for/developing a pseudo file browser interface that used the information in the database since it is already present and sorted in some fashion -possibly dropping the book covers to speed processing if that truly is the bottleneck. Matter of fact, you'd be way ahead. Why must everyone who wants a file browser wish to force it on everyone else? More importantly why schlog through all that data over and over on a device having limited resources?

But what do I know?

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by Terisa de morgan

Not really, let's see... my Sony worked great... after I installed PRS+, created my custom-build firmware and added my options for series, customized my footers, my gestures and so on.... If I compare Sony without PRS and Kobo, the only point where Sony is better is in dictionaries, far better. The other points... not so much. No problem with Sony and no problem with Mini and Glo.

But... I'm not a good example. As I've told you, I make my own custom build for Sony, I've make my functions in calibre to create shelves in my Mini, I don't usually have problems with electronic and software... is my job

Ahh. Was mine too before I retired from it.

I thought about installing PRS+ on my Sony, but nothing I really needed. I too use calibre for managing my Mini and have no complaints about that.

But calibre can do nothing to stop the random page turns or bring back the back bar or make my mini always sort books the same way

Anyway enough said. Glad you are satisfied with your mini and hope to be the same some fine day.

Helen