Firmware3.17.0 Discussion

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

I've brought issues to the attention of Kobo on their FB page and never had one deleted, so thats odd.

There is a multiple quote button.. (offtopic: how on earth can you get so many Karma in just 2 months and so less posts ? ) So what do you mean here... I was polite.. I don't want to discuss if it is odd or not, it happened. So i can only guess..

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

There is a multiple quote button.. (offtopic: how on earth can you get so many Karma in just 2 months and so less posts ? ) So what do you meaning here... I was polite.. I don't want to discuss if it is odd or not, it happened.

Don't ask me about karma, I don't particularly understand it myself ;-)

I just thought it was odd they deleted it. It may be more FB as I've found FB pages can be real problematic for losing posts. I've had it happen with other groups where posts go missing and then come back

[mathil]

Upgraded my H2O to 3.17 from 3.15 without factory reset. Haven't experienced any unwanted reboots so far, even just after booting the reader up (when the device is usually at its most sluggish). I tried opening the awards and reading stats pages, did some searches in Library, a sync, downloaded the new 80+mb Japanese dictionary, opened and navigated into the heaviest (90+mb) kepubs on the device. I also inserted my microSD card and read a couple of manga volumes in .cbz format (the card contained about 30 such files, each over 100mb in size). After reading that some users had trouble with PDFs, I purposefully loaded a pdf textbook I had, made of scanned pages: the file was pretty big (140mb more or less), but it gave me no trouble, other than being a little slow to navigate.
I also noticed that a minor translation bug I had reported in 3.16 was fixed.
As others mentioned, the highlighting and dictionary features seem to be faster than they were before, page turn speed the same (this applies to kepubs, as I don't read epubs).

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I am 100% on the side of people criticizing Kobo for their poor software. Individual issues aside, Kobo needs to improve speed, stability and (stock device) versatility. They are not there and the developers generally have no real control.
The Kindle (which is arguably a system less open to outside sources) supports PDFs by far better than Kobo (and they dont even sell these files). While not offering an open reader they are hundred percent more committed to making life less painful for a greater number of users. Kobo isn't and they prove that with every iteration of the poor mess they call a firmware update...

And yet there are plenty of people out there who don't have issues. The problem with fora is that by design they tend to be collections of people who are there because they've had a problem and are looking for a resolution.

Kindle are more committed to locking people into their amazon ecosystem, such as with the phone, amazon video etc. I prefer Kobo myself as theres more openness.

Having owned Kobo's and Kindles I'll stick to Kobo. They've been far less problematic for me.

[arspr]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

And that particular PDF is one that other devices choke on as well, because its a AES256 bit encrypted one. Several readers on my iPad choked on it too - and as I said in that thread, that suggests an issue with the PDF format.

Infant, the only software that read that file for me without problem was Adobe Acrobat or the official reader plugin. All third party apps had real problems with it

You are wrong Desdinova. These are different issues.

As I've said in my post I'm not including the conflictive pdfs in this statement (either the ultra-low-speed ones or the AES 256 bit encrypted ones).

Thumbnail image generation WITH COMMON PDFs is pretty slow. And it is slower with pdfs which just contain scanned images. And then it is slow enough to trigger sickel.

Do not mix issues.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

Don't ask me about karma, I don't particularly understand it myself ;-)

I just thought it was odd they deleted it. It may be more FB as I've found FB pages can be real problematic for losing posts. I've had it happen with other groups where posts go missing and then come back

Again offtopic, you can see in your User CP where u get karma from, don't want to offend you (didn't saw your profile) but are u female, that is always good for karma here .

It is always possible that something is erased by accident by Facebook,only it is a bit weird that it happens with 2 posts on the same page while all other posts at another page are there..

Nevertheless, you see it here all the time, some people have ghosting while others with the same configuration have not.
I can give a whole list with examples where person A have a problem with something while person B doesn't have it.
I am glad I can compare with 2 devices (device 3 is forbidden as it is my wifes) but maybe it is related to small differences of used hardware.. just offering some reason...
I also think that some people (including me,I have to admit) reached the critical point of almost screaming: why don't Kobo doesn't solve old and long stay bugs first,before they gonna start/continue with building new features.. Every new problem,how small,now adds to the total irritation..
I know I can patch sickel (I did) but it keeps me annoyed. (hope all english is good)

[arspr]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

You still haven't answered my point about this particular type of PDF is problematic for a range of devices.

Again Desdinova. Please CAREFULLY read the other thread and do not mix issues.

Of course that 256 bit and the ultra-slow one happen on ALL Kobo devices. At least ottdmk is using HD and I've used HD and H2O. It is not device dependant but FW dependant.

Originally Posted by Desdinova

They do support PDF's. But malformed or problematic PDF's are always going to appear. Find anyone who says they can support 100% of PDF's - Ive had adobe reader itself choke over certain PDF's..

No malformed PDFs here about the thumbnail generation timeout.

Please do not mix issues.

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by arspr

You are wrong Desdinova. These are different issues.

As I've said in my post I'm not including the conflictive pdfs in this statement (either the ultra-low-speed ones or the AES 256 bit encrypted ones).

Thumbnail image generation WITH COMMON PDFs is pretty slow. And it is slower with pdfs which just contain scanned images. And then it is slow enough to trigger sickel.

Do not mix issues.

PDF's are the spawn of the devil in many ways. I agreed that perhaps a multiple timeout config is a way forward, but I still think the problem is overstated. I've yet had a single reboot with using mine with pdf's and pubs etc.

They're just a horrible format.

[johnnyb]

Originally Posted by Desdinova

And yet there are plenty of people out there who don't have issues. The problem with fora is that by design they tend to be collections of people who are there because they've had a problem and are looking for a resolution.

Kindle are more committed to locking people into their amazon ecosystem, such as with the phone, amazon video etc. I prefer Kobo myself as theres more openness.

Having owned Kobo's and Kindles I'll stick to Kobo. They've been far less problematic for me.

And yet Kindle has better support for the open file formt PDF...
People didn’t have issues with their Sony PRS-500s and yet it is easy to point out that they present a subpar experience in comparison to what is possible these days. The fact that Kobo is collaterally introducing new bugs and other quibs with every firmware release is just subpar, period. Of course if I just read a couple of novels that I purchase from Kobo, I have less problems than if I use calibre in conjunction with my Kobo and have to restart the device after adding new books because my Kobo only registered half of them on first try (and database is likely to corrupt if I just ignore the discrepancy between files on the device and in the database, just a random bug in 3.13.1)...
I really don’t care if most people are generally satisfied with their Kobos, they are just bad devices, starting with subpar eink drivers (largely responsible for the sluggish behavior) all the way up to the random quibs like random unregistered highlights...

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by Nick_1964

Again offtopic, you can see in your User CP where u get karma from, don't want to offend you (didn't saw your profile) but are u female, that is always good for karma here .

It is always possible that something is erased by accident by Facebook,only it is a bit weird that it happens with 2 posts on the same page while all other posts at another page are there..

Nevertheless, you see it here all the time, some people have ghosting while others with the same configuration have not.
I can give a whole list with examples where person A have a problem with something while person B doesn't have it.
I am glad I can compare with 2 devices (device 3 is forbidden as it is my wifes) but maybe it is related to small differences of used hardware.. just offering some reason...
I also think that some people (including me,I have to admit) reached the critical point of almost screaming: why don't Kobo doesn't solve old and long stay bugs first,before they gonna start/continue with building new features.. Every new problem,how small,now adds to the total irritation..
I know I can patch sickel (I did) but it keeps me annoyed. (hope all english is good)

I'm male.

And I only have one person apparently who's given me karma - hence why I don't understand where I have got it from..

And funny you mention the wife Mine has a Glo and I have an Aura.

The big problem is there are always going to be bugs that only show up for particular formats/ebooks/configurations.

Its the fun and games of modern software. I think it gets progressively harder to test each and every possible configuration and combination.

[frostschutz]

If you don't have issues with sickel - great! If you do for whatever reason have issues - several workarounds are available by now. That should make everyone happy, even if adding such a mod-unfriendly trigger-happy reboot mechanism raised a few eyebrows.

Kobo's software is top notch. They have a lot to offer. No platform is entirely bug free.

Many platforms are completely locked down; Kobo's software may be closed source but they let you mess with systems where most other devices have barriers in place. And if you brick it while doing so there's a ton of recovery options. Things most other devices can only dream of.

My old reader [iriver Story HD] didn't have half the features, twice the bugs, a proprietary binary format, zero recovery options, and you could brick it with official firmware downloads from the manufacturer. Or simply by copying a book with a too long filename on it. And brick in this case meant dead device, game over.

[Desdinova]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

The fact that Kobo is collaterally introducing new bugs and other quibs with every firmware release is just subpar, period. Of course if I just read a couple of novels that I purchase from Kobo, I have less problems than if I use calibre in conjunction with my Kobo and have to restart the device after adding new books because my Kobo only registered half of them on first try (and database is likely to corrupt if I just ignore the discrepancy between files on the device and in the database, just a random bug in 3.13.1)...
I really don’t care if most people are generally satisfied with their Kobos, they are just bad devices, starting with subpar eink drivers (largely responsible for the sluggish behavior) all the way up to the random quibs like random unregistered highlights...

A lot of that is obviously coloured by a poor experience. No company deliberately introduces bugs etc.. Its always going to be swings and roundabouts. For every person like you that had a poor experience with 'x' there will be one who had one with 'y'

Its the sort of poor experience I had with Amazon and Kindle. But there's nothing particularly sub par about Kobo's in my experience with them.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I really don’t care if most people are generally satisfied with their Kobos they are just bad devices.


now that's what i call an excellent line


best wishes koboy.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I am 100% on the side of people criticizing Kobo for their poor software. Individual issues aside, Kobo needs to improve speed, stability and (stock device) versatility. They are not there and the developers generally have no real control.

Speed has been improved. Page turn speed with ePub is noticeably faster. I do find my H2O to be stable. A lot of what you read on MR is from people modifying their Reader and something then becomes less stable.

The thing that needs fixing is sickle. The time limit used is too short so Readers can be rebooting when they should not have to.

I do think Kobo should release a bug fix firmware before adding any new features. Just fix things.

[Nick_1964]

The devices are okay, some more or less with older specs due to time.
I think the biggest issue is that the firmware contains a reader for epub and kepub,integrated games (the code seems to be inside) and while there are different mark releases,the kernel seems to be (imho) the same or related,maybe it is just trying to much different things.
I don't know the developers but it looks to me as a very old programmer (yes..basic.. the old sinclair spectrum and atari 64) that there are more or less teams that work a bit independant thinking: what can we improve or not..at the end it must all fit.. for as far as I understand there is some distance between the team and the betatesters and not a lot of interaction between team and testers.
That is not a fact,but more things that i "taste/feel" from a lot of topics.

I got an answer from Kobo Netherlands by mail,translated: "the software is to improve the device, if your one is rebooting it is not from the software,so try to change it at your local reseller as it is still in warranty."
So I bless the patch and don't reply to that...