Firmware 3.17.3 Discussion

[Ripplinger]

I just discovered with 3.17.0 that the light adjustment along the left side has changed quite a bit. It used to be that you needed to be touching the bezel when adjusting the light, but now it seems it doesn't work that way any longer. You need to be a distance away from the bezel. Which for me means when I need to go back a page using my left hand, it always ends up dimming the light instead, unless I make a really exaggerated long swipe across. Doing a back page turn in my left hand isn't something I do that often, so didn't notice it until now.

Is it the same in 3.17.3 or must you be touching the bezel like before? I think I'll disable the left side light adjustment, I really never adjust the light that way.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I just discovered with 3.17.0 that the light adjustment along the left side has changed quite a bit. It used to be that you needed to be touching the bezel when adjusting the light, but now it seems it doesn't work that way any longer. You need to be a distance away from the bezel. Which for me means when I need to go back a page using my left hand, it always ends up dimming the light instead, unless I make a really exaggerated long swipe across. Doing a back page turn in my left hand isn't something I do that often, so didn't notice it until now.

H2O, sideloaded 3.17.3

For me, light adjustment is working while touching the bezel or while a very short distance from it (<10mm, possibly less). I'm having no trouble at all going backwards, just a tap on the left side (either touching the bezel or not) works fine here without ever triggering a light change. There's no need to swipe at all.

[eenk]

I, too, noticed no difference with firmware 3.17.3 on an H2O. I still need to press my finger to the left bezel border for changing brightness. I experience no interference with page turning except that I really need to make a sweeping gesture so that it affects brightness and not ends in selecting text. But who knows, maybe Kobo tweaked hardware parameters and now the typical variance in these parameters begin to show.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I just discovered with 3.17.0 that the light adjustment along the left side has changed quite a bit. It used to be that you needed to be touching the bezel when adjusting the light, but now it seems it doesn't work that way any longer. You need to be a distance away from the bezel. Which for me means when I need to go back a page using my left hand, it always ends up dimming the light instead, unless I make a really exaggerated long swipe across. Doing a back page turn in my left hand isn't something I do that often, so didn't notice it until now.

I found the same.. I never read on my back, always on a side in bed, so sometimes I have the device in my right hand, sometimes in my left.
Normally you go one page further by swiping from right to left or tap on the right side.
But when you hold it with your left hand, you can make the same swipe as you would use on the right side, move your left thumb as much as possible from the bezel and do the swipe.
When you do this correct on the left side, it will not go one page back, but one page further, which it would not do with a tap..
Now this manouvre adjust the light.

[MacEachaidh]

Yes, I too keep getting changes to the light level when I swipe. I'm never, ever going to use that feature, so I really wish it could be turned off. It's a pain.

Also the gradation of the horizontal slider for the light is all over the place. On my Aura HD, the light more than doubles from 43% to 44%. One's too dim, the other's far too bright.

[Ripplinger]

I could have sworn there was a way, either in the patch or in a change in the config file, to turn off the light adjustment via sliding along the left bezel. Did I imagine it or just wishful thinking on my part?

I think the problem will only occur for swipers and not those who prefer to "tap" to turn pages. I'm a swiper and that's never going to change.

When you had to hold your finger against the bezel while making the adjustment, it wasn't a problem. But now that it's been moved to work even away from the bezel a bit, it's become a problem for those who prefer to swipe to turn pages. Especially if you have smaller hands and your thumb doesn't reach very far across the screen when you swipe.

[MacEachaidh]

If you tap near the invisible slider, it's still a problem. I found on my Aura HD that tapping unintentionally on the slider-that-shall-not-be-named instantly drops the light level to 2%.

If there's been any mention of how to switch it off, I haven't seen it. (But I also am unfamiliar with editing the config files, so it would probably be wasted on me.)

I wrote a request to Customer Care about making the slider user-selectable in the settings, and the reply said:

We're always happy to hear suggestions for new features. Thanks for your interest!

so I assume that will be the last I hear of that.

[isaacbh]

It's worth repeating what's been mentioned in this forum before: you don't have to touch the left side. If you're right-handed, you can make small swiping motions back and forth with your right thumb close to the right bezel. That's how I avoid changing the light level by accident.

[GeoffR]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

I could have sworn there was a way, either in the patch or in a change in the config file, to turn off the light adjustment via sliding along the left bezel. Did I imagine it or just wishful thinking on my part?

You might be thinking of the Aura, which has an option to disable the two-finger swipe that adjusts its brightness.

The reason you might have thought of that is because of a bug that has been in the last few firmware versions which displays the Aura-only reading settings on a Glo. If you go to the Reading settings menu on a Glo you might see options for "Pinch to adjust font size" and "Two-finger swipe to adjust brightness" although those feature don't exist on the Glo.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by isaacbh

It's worth repeating what's been mentioned in this forum before: you don't have to touch the left side. If you're right-handed, you can make small swiping motions back and forth with your right thumb close to the right bezel. That's how I avoid changing the light level by accident.

But if you're holding the reader with your left hand for whatever reason, you need to be able to use your left thumb to turn the pages, and be able to do it without changing the light setting.

Originally Posted by GeoffR

You might be thinking of the Aura, which has an option to disable the two-finger swipe that adjusts its brightness.

The reason you might have thought of that is because of a bug that has been in the last few firmware versions which displays the Aura-only reading settings on a Glo. If you go to the Reading settings menu on a Glo you might see options for "Pinch to adjust font size" and "Two-finger swipe to adjust brightness" although those feature don't exist on the Glo.

That sadly must be what I'm remembering. I might go back and try 3.16.0 and see how that behaves with the light adjustment.

It really would be best though if Kobo gave us a way to turn off the light adjustment along the left side.

[MacEachaidh]

Originally Posted by isaacbh

It's worth repeating what's been mentioned in this forum before: you don't have to touch the left side. If you're right-handed, you can make small swiping motions back and forth with your right thumb close to the right bezel. That's how I avoid changing the light level by accident.

If that works for you, then you're set.

But not everyone does things the same way, which is why such commands need to be a little flexible. In many aspects, the UI is amenable to user habits, as it should be. But in others, it needs some rejigging.

I think the light swiper is an example of a bad design, as it stands. I don't see how the majority of people would use it, or use it often enough to be so prominent, and yet it's there for everyone, and has enough of an impact that you're talking about abandoning half the screen for page swipes. Which feature should take screen dominance, do you think, in an e.reader: turning pages, or changing the light level?

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by isaacbh

It's worth repeating what's been mentioned in this forum before: you don't have to touch the left side. If you're right-handed, you can make small swiping motions back and forth with your right thumb close to the right bezel. That's how I avoid changing the light level by accident.

I want to reverse that, the way I read have nothing to do with the way Kobo makes new features.
If I must avoid every machine,device,thing,routine because they change the way they work from the start, I can go back to Mount Everest and stay there.
It is so easy like say: my stomach hurts so bad when I have to laugh: then don't laugh.
Like a car that has been updated, sorry the steering weel is on the left side but we implemented some new stuff there, so handy but you have to step out on the right side now.

There was a way to do it, okay you have to go to the top menu, select the brightness symbol,then set the light but honestly.. do you have to do that so often that a shortcut was needed by touching the left side ?
All the things that causes problems are there because some people don't like it to use it the way it was,and maybe, excususe me,lazyness, to go to 2 option settings.
Same as resetting.. "oh.. I don't have a pin" well then we build in a mechanism for that people that resets a device and need 2 updates and some patches to disable it again (sickel).
The screen is there to read, not to put 20 options in,or at least put in a function to disable it.
Now Kobo says me how to read and how to hold the device because all the extra options and bugs must be put there

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

If that works for you, then you're set.

Which feature should take screen dominance, do you think, in an e.reader: turning pages, or changing the light level?

Amen to that !

[meeera]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

I think the light swiper is an example of a bad design, as it stands. I don't see how the majority of people would use it, or use it often enough to be so prominent, and yet it's there for everyone, and has enough of an impact that you're talking about abandoning half the screen for page swipes.

I use it a lot, FWIW, adjusting the screen exactly how I like it in varying ambient lighting.

I wonder if hardware is varying a bit here? I just tried swiping every which way, large and small, angled and straight, in the left half of the screen, including little swipes that started or ended touching the bezel. I couldn't get it to trigger light adjustment instead of page turn until I was swiping at past a 45 degree angle from horizontal. This is on an H2O.

I'm all in favour of more Advanced settings, though. Light swipe on and off seems like it would be a fine one to have, if people want it.

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by meeera

I use it a lot, FWIW, adjusting the screen exactly how I like it in varying ambient lighting.

I wonder if hardware is varying a bit here? I just tried swiping every which way, large and small, angled and straight, in the left half of the screen, including little swipes that started or ended touching the bezel. I couldn't get it to trigger light adjustment instead of page turn until I was swiping at past a 45 degree angle from horizontal. This is on an H2O.

I'm all in favour of more Advanced settings, though. Light swipe on and off seems like it would be a fine one to have, if people want it.

I don't think it is the hardware,but the way people do it.
When I swipe lefthanded,without change the settings of where to touch the screen,I can go back and forward by swiping the left side.
When my partner tries, she always ended one page back.
When I really want to change the light with my hand on the left side of the screen, I always highlight words and sentences and I never manage to change the light the first 2 or 3 times.
So that is why I don't do it, but having said that I would only do it for testing because from the beginning my light is on the same 33% on both readers.
So it is not the hardware,but the people who operate it, when you shake a little with a tired finger you already activate the wrong things and that is where Kobo makes her mistakes.

They are all made on the drawing board,without thinking about the way real humans use and touch their devices,no one does it the same way.

Kobo must think..the main reasons to touch the screen are page switching,highlighting words. All the rest must be put on an option screen,you can't keep adding functions to the screen itself because at the end,you have one square of 2 cm to turn pages.
That is the choice they made at the moment they put of any hardware buttons.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by MacEachaidh

I think the light swiper is an example of a bad design, as it stands. I don't see how the majority of people would use it, or use it often enough to be so prominent, and yet it's there for everyone, and has enough of an impact that you're talking about abandoning half the screen for page swipes. Which feature should take screen dominance, do you think, in an e.reader: turning pages, or changing the light level?

Personally, I love it. I never found the popup very convenient and it was hard to get the right level. Now, I adjust the light depending on where I am.