Kobo Firmware 3.11.0

[Ripplinger]

Here's a comparison scan of the 2 readers showing the darker, thicker font (scanned side by side so a slight camera angle can't distort the text). Both are Caecilia, size 32 (with GeoffR's patch, not sure if that number changes without the patch for the same size, I seem to remember it does), and font weight set to the highest at 8. Reader at left has firmware 2.4.0 and the right has 3.11.0. I do the same comparison each firmware update, and 3.8.0 looked the same as 2.4.0 with identical settings, there was no noticeable difference in the font thickness.

When I tried it at the lowest font weight setting on both readers, they were closer to being the same but still the 3.11.0 firmware was slightly thicker. But on the reader with 3.11.0, it wasn't an even font thickness throughout the page. The top half was noticeably lighter and thinner than the bottom half of the text, which I thought was really odd.*

The chapter title ONE is blue in the book, that's why it's not as black as the rest of the text on either sample.

*Edit about the uneven font on the page: It seems to be caused by the font menu overlay on the bottom half of the screen. Once you turn a page, the difference it gone and all pages have even, uniform font thickness from that point on.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Alastair_S

So where do Kobo get ideas for their products,

No idea. But, it is probably some marketing "brain". Or copying what someone else is doing.

and what do 'typical users' have that we don't?

They just turn the device on and read. They don't change fonts for each book, they don't add extra fonts, they don't use the shelves, they probably buy books from the shop attached to the device, they probably have less than 100 books and probably less than 20 on the device. They don't worry about DRM, they just follow the instructions for getting the books onto the device.

We here are a lot more demanding. We want the device to work the way we think it should work. We probably have a lot more books. They might not all be on the device, but the fact that we can move them on and off makes us different. We'll consider editing the books. DRM is the bane of our lives.

The above is just my opinion and I'm being simplistic. But, these devices are consumer devices and the knowledgeable users (us) make a very small fraction of the potential market. Catering for us is unlikely to have a noticeable affect on the companies sales. But, it will drive the development cost up.

[Nick Payne]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Try swiping side to side.

Yes, thanks, I found that out some while after posting my original message. I wonder why that screen doesn't accept a tap for next page in the same manner as when reading a book.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by davidfor

For a long time I didn't use a cover with my Glo. And I frequently used the switch to put it to sleep. After this, I would always look at the screen to see the reading status. When it was a bit dark, I frequently thought "It would be nice for the light to stay on for a little bit so I could read the status". Apparently, Kobo can read my mind.

When I put the reader into sleep, it only displayed the cover of the book, not any stats so maybe I miss the point here and your's display something else ?
I have to use the special reading status menu if I would to look at that.

I don't think it would be productive for me to comment on this. Especially as I have no idea of Kobo's plans or method to decide what bugs to fix or features to implement.

I understand,but I do think that when you are expanding like they did here by taking the market almost (Netherlands) you have to solve the bugs first,it is your calling card.
But there are a lot of problems.. by example, when I walk to my library I sometimes touch a book by mistake, it opens right away.
When you close it, it stays on the main menu with a big tile, showing how much percentage is read.
But you can't do a long press on it to mark it back as "not readed" or as "already finished" I do have to go into library again, look for the book I accidentially opened, be very carefull not doing it again, then in the library I have to long press, and then make a choice to mark the book as finished,or never read.
I can't do these actions on the main menu.
I can't set my main menu to display only new books, there are always a lot of readed books on it.. why.. I can say ignore this block,but then another one pops in, right between al the new books list there is a completed..make different area's for the new and readed ones,don't put them random on the main screen.
Just 2 examples about strange behave,but Kobo even didn't answer my suggestions,but implement new things that only works for a couple of people,not the mass.

[murg]

Originally Posted by Alastair_S

So where do Kobo get ideas for their products, and what do 'typical users' have that we don't?

They just do the opposite of whatever Amazon does.

[dgparryuk]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

when i press the sleep button it displays a totally black screen with almost no light at all,then the cover comes back and is lighted again,and 1 second later it turns out..
I really can't see why this function is there

I actually like that - i was reading in the dark last night and when i put it to sleep it tells me how much of the book i have left, normally you can't see the screen once it turns off so that second or two is great to go, oh i have x left read... with out having to go back to the home screen and then back into the book for where you left it off...

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by dgparryuk

I actually like that - i was reading in the dark last night and when i put it to sleep it tells me how much of the book i have left, normally you can't see the screen once it turns off so that second or two is great to go, oh i have x left read... with out having to go back to the home screen and then back into the book for where you left it off...

Maybe on kepub, on sideload epubs it only gives a percentage.. telling nothing at all ?
(I did find the setting to display it now because it never gave me the stats but the reader is on full cover display and that is why it never cames up..but actually, 1. I got a sleepcover so I will never see it, 2. I am not in the mood when I want to go to sleep to see there is 60% left.. 60% of what.. to count how many pages are there I first need to know the total amount of pages,then calculate how much then 60 % will be.. just before you turn the book into sleep you look at the bottom telling you exactly how many pages are left is much more accurate then put it to sleep and watch in 1 second on the Glo to see only a percentage.. IMHO )

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Here's a comparison scan of the 2 readers showing the darker, thicker font (scanned side by side so a slight camera angle can't distort the text). Both are Caecilia, size 32 (with GeoffR's patch, not sure if that number changes without the patch for the same size, I seem to remember it does), and font weight set to the highest at 8. Reader at left has firmware 2.4.0 and the right has 3.11.0. I do the same comparison each firmware update, and 3.8.0 looked the same as 2.4.0 with identical settings, there was no noticeable difference in the font thickness.

That is amazing! No wonder I am so happy, even though I can't adjust the weight on my side loaded fonts.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

When I put the reader into sleep, it only displayed the cover of the book, not any stats so maybe I miss the point here and your's display something else ?
I have to use the special reading status menu if I would to look at that.

The "Sleep and Power" settings page has options to change what is on the sleep and powered off screen.

I understand,but I do think that when you are expanding like they did here by taking the market almost (Netherlands) you have to solve the bugs first,it is your calling card.
But there are a lot of problems.. by example, when I walk to my library I sometimes touch a book by mistake, it opens right away.
When you close it, it stays on the main menu with a big tile, showing how much percentage is read.
But you can't do a long press on it to mark it back as "not readed" or as "already finished" I do have to go into library again, look for the book I accidentially opened, be very carefull not doing it again, then in the library I have to long press, and then make a choice to mark the book as finished,or never read.
I can't do these actions on the main menu.

I agree, the menu on the tiles should have the full actions available for the item. But, that isn't a but, that's a design choice. Or are you calling opening a book by accident a bug?

I can't set my main menu to display only new books, there are always a lot of readed books on it.. why.. I can say ignore this block,but then another one pops in, right between al the new books list there is a completed..make different area's for the new and readed ones,don't put them random on the main screen.

Again a design choice. The tiles are random. They are ordered from most recently used to least recently used. Splitting the screen into different areas for different things means you can dismiss all of one type and have the how area devoted to one type.

Just 2 examples about strange behave,but Kobo even didn't answer my suggestions,but implement new things that only works for a couple of people,not the mass.

There we'll have to disagree. I like all the changes in the latest firmware. Did they fix all the bugs? No, but I didn't expect them to. I expect that any development group will be working on bugs and new features at the same time. They prioritise any changes depending on their priorities. How they decide those priorities, I don't know. Other than fixing problems that crash the device quickly.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by davidfor

The option in the extended driver for full book pages numbers sets an option in the config file on the device. It doesn't affect the books in any way. I don't think the firmware uses this option now, so it shouldn't have an affect.

It was different from the current options, though. With the config file option I had 'Chapter Title- Page x from y' with x & y being for the whole book. Which is how I wanted it.

With the 3.11.0 options I have either 'Chapter Title - Page x from y' when I set it to Chapter, or just 'Page x from y' when I set it to Book.

I want my chapter title back!

This is with sideloaded (Extended Driver) kepubs.

[scoky]

In my Kobo HD (ver. 3.11.0), some settings will disappear in "Sleep and Power" sometimes like "screensaver" and now there will be no read stats in the sleep screen and poweroff screen. I have done the factory reset and it still exits.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

It was different from the current options, though. With the config file option I had 'Chapter Title- Page x from y' with x & y being for the whole book. Which is how I wanted it.

With the 3.11.0 options I have either 'Chapter Title - Page x from y' when I set it to Chapter, or just 'Page x from y' when I set it to Book.

I want my chapter title back!

This is with sideloaded (Extended Driver) kepubs.

Unfortunately, that's how Kobo decided to implement this. The previous option that the driver set was unofficial and unsupported. With the new options, it has been removed and there is no way to return the chapter name. I can see why they did it. Displaying the chapter name next to the page count for the whole book might be considered inconsistent and possibly confusing. I'm not sure on that one. But, they also removed the chapter name from the navigation bar when full book page counts are used. I think that is a mistake.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There we'll have to disagree. I like all the changes in the latest firmware. Did they fix all the bugs? No, but I didn't expect them to. I expect that any development group will be working on bugs and new features at the same time. They prioritise any changes depending on their priorities. How they decide those priorities, I don't know. Other than fixing problems that crash the device quickly.

I didn't ment that ALL changes in firmware are not good, only the 2 I called are not in my opinion.
See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=112 for the explaining of the read stats when powering off.
We have some disagreement on the bug fixes (but hey,we are behaving people so we don't gonna fight on it ) because some bugs are really for long on that list and I think you must show at least more priority about solving them.
A known bug can interfear with a new option or introduce a new bug.
The paragraph bug is one of those bugs that was there still several new firmwares later.
Annoying enough to made patches for it.
I know they can't put every feature in it but lets say you want to scroll 5 pages back.. try to do that with the slider in a big book, it will drives you crazy because you can't enter page numbers or even return to the page you was left.
Remember the small bug about the light, it is still there..2 times 28%, look at the huge difference between 50 and 51, still 2 times at 56.. and there is your own list of still present bugs (this small one isn't on it ) it is just sloppy to leave it there.

[Joques]

I really like that the frontlight stays on for a few seconds after I put a book to sleep mode. That way, if I want to take a look at the cover of the book I'm reading, I don't have to go find a reading light (I usually read where it's dark) or, even worse, cumbersomely navigate to the front cover and then back to where I were. I'll just slide the power slider, and the cover is right there, illuminated for precisely as long as I need it to.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

I didn't ment that ALL changes in firmware are not good, only the 2 I called are not in my opinion.
See https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...&postcount=112 for the explaining of the read stats when powering off.

And I disagreed. I think the light staying on a bit is useful. And my bet is that it was a one-line change in the code.

We have some disagreement on the bug fixes (but hey,we are behaving people so we don't gonna fight on it ) because some bugs are really for long on that list and I think you must show at least more priority about solving them.
A known bug can interfear with a new option or introduce a new bug.
The paragraph bug is one of those bugs that was there still several new firmwares later.
Annoying enough to made patches for it.

The long paragraph bug is a bad example. The bug was not in code that Kobo controlled. It was actually in the RMSDK. To fix that bug meant that Kobo had to wait until it was fixed by Adobe, take the new version of the libraries involved, do all the testing that is needed to make sure that nothing else was broken and was compatible with their code. Against that, they have to decide if the risk is worth the fix. Personally, I had to go out of my way to trigger this bug. In the time it was in the firmware, I saw it in at most 10 books that I read. And I think only two of them had more than two paragraphs that triggered it. If those were the stats presented to me when prioritising a bug, it would be way down the bottom of the list.

And using the patch as proof that Kobo could fix it doesn't work. The patch broke other things and meant the book wasn't displayed correctly. People had to decide which was the preferred behaviour.

I know they can't put every feature in it but lets say you want to scroll 5 pages back.. try to do that with the slider in a big book, it will drives you crazy because you can't enter page numbers or even return to the page you was left.
Remember the small bug about the light, it is still there..2 times 28%, look at the huge difference between 50 and 51, still 2 times at 56.. and there is your own list of still present bugs (this small one isn't on it ) it is just sloppy to leave it there.

I think choosing five pages doesn't help your case. Tapping back five times is probably less work than bringing up a dialog, doing the maths in your head, typing the number in pressing the go button. But, I suppose you mean, go to a particular page number. To be honest, the only times I ever do that is from the ToC or the index of a paper book. Both of those say to use some sort of linking system to get where I want. But, I am surprised Kobo don't have it. Of course, for the kepubs which until now have had a per-chapter numbering system, it wouldn't have been very useful. For them page 100 doesn't mean much if the chapter doesn't have 100 pages.

As to my bug list, yes, it and fixes is very ego-centric. It lists things I notice or have been shoved in front of me recently. And I stated it in my post. And I've stated it every time I have made a post like that.

As to the missing numbers in the light levels, I really don't care about them. Is fixing them the best use of the Kobo developers time? I don't think so. And, as you think Kobo is concentrating on issues/features that are for a small number of people, how many people would actually notice this? Or care.