Firmware 4.15.12920

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

Hardly worth doing. The earlier kind of home screen had smaller book covers and allowed the entire screen to be the Most Recently accessed List. Now it's about 1/3rd of the screen and only four books. The two lower tiles are pointless compared to the Menu. The Advertising on ereaders that HAD NO ADVERTS when bought is an insult.

Sorry, you are wrong. The amount of "advertising" on the current home screen is no different than any previous version of the Kobo firmware. Or, at least, not for any version available on the devices you have stated owning since you bought it. But, as you are probably comparing to the "tiled" home, that could display a lot more "advertising" than the current home screen. The only difference is that you could dismiss it after looking at it. Or deciding you didn't want to read it.

And for the record, I have an Aura ONE and Clara HD with me. Looking at the home screen on both the only "advertising" is the link to the shop. The link to the shop has been well displayed on every firmware version I have used across all my devices.

[drawson1]

Thanks!! That's most of it - I'll keep tweeking . . .

[lkmiller]

Originally Posted by Nemo1984

Like this. My books only.

Ok, so yes, only the text the bottom removed.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Sorry, you are wrong. The amount of "advertising" on the current home screen is no different than any previous version of the Kobo firmware.

A link to the shop and suggestions what to read (even if the user manual) is unsolicited adverts. I'm not wrong about the previous style home. You could dismiss unwanted tiles in Calibre. No patching. Then the ENTIRE home screen was the same as current top row. Zero unwanted content. Zero adverts.

Perhaps we have a different concept of Advertising AKA Marketing?

I might even have a screen shot of the old home screen. Certainly the current one is about 2/3rds totally wasted and the covers a little too large with Annotation number removed from press to see summary. I don't understand. It sounds like you are defending Kobo's Marketing and degrading of home screen which is driven by appearance and Marketing (Advertising), not the usability.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by FrustratedReader

A link to the shop and suggestions what to read (even if the user manual) is unsolicited adverts. I'm not wrong about the previous style home. You could dismiss unwanted tiles in Calibre. No patching. Then the ENTIRE home screen was the same as current top row. Zero unwanted content. Zero adverts.

Perhaps we have a different concept of Advertising AKA Marketing?

I might even have a screen shot of the old home screen. Certainly the current one is about 2/3rds totally wasted and the covers a little too large with Annotation number removed from press to see summary. I don't understand. It sounds like you are defending Kobo's Marketing and degrading of home screen which is driven by appearance and Marketing (Advertising), not the usability.

Could you stop moving the goal post? You claimed, or should I say yelled, that there were no adverts on these devices when you bought them. I disagreed with you. I am saying is that you are wrong. None of them previous version of the home screen had less links to the Kobo store than the current home screen has. And personally, I see less links to the Kobo store on the current home screen than on any previous version.

And yes, I do disagree to what is an advert. I don't consider the link to the store to be an advert. I don't really consider a link to a recommendation list to be an advert. If there was a link to a book, then I would consider that to be an advert. I have a tolino epos. It has a four books across the bottom that links to buy the books. They are ads.

I made absolutely no claims about useability or wasted space on the home screen. But, if you insist...

I'll disagree on the idea that the home screen is driven by marketing not usability. For the marketing, I see less "ads" on this home screen than on the tiled home screen. The store link has been on all versions of the home screen. On this one, only the bottom right tile has "ads" and then only sometimes. With the tiled home screen, every time I synced, the recommendations tile would appear and every time I finished a purchased book, the similar books tile would appear. It was possible for half the screen to be used by store related tiles. Yes, I could dismiss them. But, I couldn't permanently dismiss them without patching. Just like with the current home screen.

As to usability, if you do a search, you will find a lot of posts where I or others had to explain how the tiled home screen worked. And a lot of posts where people thought it was ugly and confusing. If you look at when the current home screen came in, there are a lot of people who praised it as easier to use. And much better looking.

Personally, I posted a "yuck" when I saw the current home screen. I liked the tiled home screen. It worked well for me. But, I understand why people prefer the current one. And I am absolutely stunned by the fact that I see less, as you call it, advertising on this home screen than any of the previous ones. But, you really should examine your beloved tiled home screen for wasted space. The search bar is the perfect example. It wasn't as search bar. It was just a massive button taking up a ridiculous amount of space.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Could you stop moving the goal post? You claimed, or should I say yelled, that there were no adverts on these devices when you bought them. I disagreed with you. I am saying is that you are wrong. None of them previous version of the home screen had less links to the Kobo store than the current home screen has. And personally, I see less links to the Kobo store on the current home screen than on any previous version.

And yes, I do disagree to what is an advert. I don't consider the link to the store to be an advert. I don't really consider a link to a recommendation list to be an advert. If there was a link to a book, then I would consider that to be an advert. I have a tolino epos. It has a four books across the bottom that links to buy the books. They are ads.

I made absolutely no claims about useability or wasted space on the home screen. But, if you insist...

I'll disagree on the idea that the home screen is driven by marketing not usability. For the marketing, I see less "ads" on this home screen than on the tiled home screen. The store link has been on all versions of the home screen. On this one, only the bottom right tile has "ads" and then only sometimes. With the tiled home screen, every time I synced, the recommendations tile would appear and every time I finished a purchased book, the similar books tile would appear. It was possible for half the screen to be used by store related tiles. Yes, I could dismiss them. But, I couldn't permanently dismiss them without patching. Just like with the current home screen.

As to usability, if you do a search, you will find a lot of posts where I or others had to explain how the tiled home screen worked. And a lot of posts where people thought it was ugly and confusing. If you look at when the current home screen came in, there are a lot of people who praised it as easier to use. And much better looking.

Personally, I posted a "yuck" when I saw the current home screen. I liked the tiled home screen. It worked well for me. But, I understand why people prefer the current one. And I am absolutely stunned by the fact that I see less, as you call it, advertising on this home screen than any of the previous ones. But, you really should examine your beloved tiled home screen for wasted space. The search bar is the perfect example. It wasn't as search bar. It was just a massive button taking up a ridiculous amount of space.

i agree the search button on the old tiled home screen does waste too much space but Kobo could have sorted that out while keeping the rest of it the same.

like many people i'm right handed and i hold the ereader in my left hand, therefore i much prefer the menu button to be on the top right like it is on the old tiled home screen rather than the top left it's only a minor nit but still annoying.

the old tiled home screen allows 12 collections at least including 1 or 2 book covers. my biggest gripe is well documented on here but it's still worth mentioning it (to me at least) again what's the point in being able to create 10, 20, 30 etc collections when you can only have 1 of them showing on the home screen at any given time? it's definitely a regressive step as far as i'm concerned.

the kobo shop button doesn't bother me in the slighest it's the lack of user ability/friendliness compared to the old tiled home screen that i dislike so much, in fact i feel so strongly about the current home screen it's the main reason why i won't buy a new kobo. of course other opinions are available.

rant over soapbox stepped off.

best wishes koboy

[lkmiller]

I liked the old homepage. But now I see the current homepage so seldom that I don't really care.

[mathil]

I have to agree with davidfor on the adverts thing: I distinctly remember being annoyed by the recommendations tiles popping up everytime I had to sync the ereader, but I don't remember ever paying attention to the bottom of the new home screen where the link to the store is. That's good enough for me. I have no particular preference for one or the other - as I spend 99.9% of the time I use my Kobo with a book open - but I create collections with tags and series information and I like seeing them pop up on the home screen, so that I don't have to use the search function for the following book in a series. But that's me.

[fotoroberto]

Hi,
I have Glo HD on FW version 4.7.10413, patched, invert screen and koreader installed, everything working OK. WiFi sometimes lags, but it is manageable…
My predicament is: should I upgrade to latest FW and redo the patches and tweaks or there is no real benefit between my FW version and the latest?
I don't really want to tweak it all over again, invert screen is kind of buggy to install.
But, then again, if it is worthy upgrade I might do it.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by fotoroberto

Hi,
I have Glo HD on FW version 4.7.10413, patched, invert screen and koreader installed, everything working OK. WiFi sometimes lags, but it is manageable…
My predicament is: should I upgrade to latest FW and redo the patches and tweaks or there is no real benefit between my FW version and the latest?
I don't really want to tweak it all over again, invert screen is kind of buggy to install.
But, then again, if it is worthy upgrade I might do it.

Yes, certainly. There are many new patches (see the kobopatch request thread) and firmware features (TOC indentation, parental controls (a.k.a de-koboify), quick turn, enable/disable header and footer individually, WiFi fixes, etc) since 4.7.10413, and so far, it has been the least buggy for me except for 3.19.5761. Regarding invert screen, I have made a patch to add a toggle for it in the reading settings screen. Also, with kobopatch, you can keep your list of enabled patches separate from the files themselves, which makes it less work to update. You can also put other mods into the patch configuration file too.

Note that I read kepubs, not epubs.

[fotoroberto]

Originally Posted by geek1011

Yes, certainly. There are many new patches (see the kobopatch request thread) and firmware features (TOC indentation, parental controls (a.k.a de-koboify), quick turn, enable/disable header and footer individually, WiFi fixes, etc) since 4.7.10413, and so far, it has been the least buggy for me except for 3.19.5761. Regarding invert screen, I have made a patch to add a toggle for it in the reading settings screen. Also, with kobopatch, you can keep your list of enabled patches separate from the files themselves, which makes it less work to update. You can also put other mods into the patch configuration file too.

Thanks for prompt response

Well then, I'll do it

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by fotoroberto

Thanks for prompt response

Well then, I'll do it

Eh, I think the bugs introduced with 4.15 that affect epub books are pretty severe. It can be more than annoying if you turn off the device or switch to home screen, and it doesn't remember what page you left at. (to be honest, I'm kind of surprised there's no hotfix for this yet.)

Personally, I use kepub formats on Kobo, and the newer firmware versions are a really big plus.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by rashkae

Eh, I think the bugs introduced with 4.15 that affect epub books are pretty severe. It can be more than annoying if you turn off the device or switch to home screen, and it doesn't remember what page you left at. (to be honest, I'm kind of surprised there's no hotfix for this yet.)

Personally, I use kepub formats on Kobo, and the newer firmware versions are a really big plus.

The only time I've found that bug is when the ToC is hooped. The trigger for me was a book where the author placed the chapter number in one file so it would be on a page by itself and the chapter text in the next file with no header so no entry in toc.ncx. Admittedly trying to use pagebreak after:always doesn't work consistently either.

[rashkae]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The only time I've found that bug is when the ToC is hooped. The trigger for me was a book where the author placed the chapter number in one file so it would be on a page by itself and the chapter text in the next file with no header so no entry in toc.ncx. Admittedly trying to use pagebreak after:always doesn't work consistently either.

It's unconventional, but not hooped... the only place where Toc must be 1 (and 1 onnly) item per internal file is in Kobo's hooped design assumptions.


It's very easy to find many books that will be affected by this, one way or the the other.

[dmapr]

Originally Posted by DNSB

The only time I've found that bug is when the ToC is hooped. The trigger for me was a book where the author placed the chapter number in one file so it would be on a page by itself and the chapter text in the next file with no header so no entry in toc.ncx. Admittedly trying to use pagebreak after:always doesn't work consistently either.

I've seen several books like this, as well as books that had multiple chapters per file. Do you know by any chance if multiple chapters per file will also trigger the bug?