Aura ONE Improvements to Kobos GUI, want your thoughts!

[Fanki]

Hello everyone,

My first post here, so please be kind!

I've been using my Kobo Aura One more than a year now, and although I love it, I feel the graphical interface and the OS itself is really lacking smartness - the reading experience and just overall sleakness could improve a lot..

So, what I want to do now (working as a designer), is to create a wishlist dreamy OS that the Kobo Aura One could have. The project will be bit of a boot in the arse of Rakuten to improve, and a bit of an redesign exercise to myself as well.

I have some ideas on improvements, but really I want to hear this communitys thoughts, and put those into the new concept design. Will you help me out? Tell me all your frustrations and ideas about Kobo Aura One regarding software (mostly).

All the best,
Erik

[johnnyb]

My one request would be system-related (and I cannot stop going on about no matter how much some of you keep telling me that they don't need it, glad I found the “dream OS” thread):
I want to be able to upload books to Kobo's cloud and have them available, together with annotations, on my Mac, my iPad and my ereader so that I can read anywhere and review and copy my notes from the convenience of my computer. Also to be able to backup my notes.

[Fanki]

A platform-indepedent synced library - I like that, johnnyb! That will definitly be in there now.

[ZodWallop]

I liked the old tiled, customizable home screen more than the current one. It would be nice to see an updated version of that.

[Mrs_Often]

Nice idea!

I would really like a browser that pages through sites instead of scrolling. The slow scrolling and refreshing makes browsing (news) sites impossible. I would still like the lovely Pocket button in the browser though, for if I find articles I'd want to read later.

Current functionality that I would not want to lose: series metadata, collections and games.

Originally Posted by Fanki

A platform-indepedent synced library - I like that, johnnyb! That will definitly be in there now.

Yay! Though I would still like to have it sync with Kobo too.

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I liked the old tiled, customizable home screen more than the current one. It would be nice to see an updated version of that.

I liked the functionality/customisability of the tiled home screen too, but the layout was more cluttered and messy than the current (FW 4.9) neater home screen. So I prefer the layout of the current home screen but the second row of items is completely useless. Maybe merge the two home screens? Have the first row be like the current home screen and the second row be customisable tiles? Of course preference for home screen layout is very personal and there won't be one home screen that everyone agrees on to be the best, so maybe make the home screen layout customisable as well? 😄

Oooh now I can't wait for the new GUI 😁

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

I liked the functionality/customisability of the tiled home screen too, but the layout was more cluttered and messy than the current (FW 4.9) neater home screen.

Of course, you could dismiss unneeded tiles, making the home screen less cluttered. I guess any screen you can customize runs the risk of looking more cluttered than a screen that can't be adjusted.

At any rate, I don't think they need to recreate every aspect of the old tiled home screen. They could redesign it to make it look nicer.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I liked the old tiled, customizable home screen more than the current one. It would be nice to see an updated version of that.

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Current functionality that I would not want to lose: series metadata, collections and games.

I liked the functionality/customisability of the tiled home screen too, but the layout was more cluttered and messy than the current (FW 4.9) neater home screen. So I prefer the layout of the current home screen but the second row of items is completely useless. Maybe merge the two home screens? Have the first row be like the current home screen and the second row be customisable tiles? Of course preference for home screen layout is very personal and there won't be one home screen that everyone agrees on to be the best, so maybe make the home screen layout customisable as well? 😄

Oooh now I can't wait for the new GUI 😁

I too really dislike the new home screen and much preferred the customizable tiles on the old home screen. Mostly to have the tiles I want to see, especially more than 1 Collection.

The reason the old screen was so messy looking is because Kobo didn't stick to uniform sizes for the tiles. With each tile a slightly different size it ended up looking like someone trying to play with blocks and failing. Badly.

I once posted images of what I wanted to see in a home screen with blocks being uniformly sized for whatever it was (found the old post here), images I could put here. But that's still my preference over this new screen, I still hate it. At least there's a way to remove the 3rd line with the recommendations.

[rogerinnyc]

I would really like to see more tap zone options, instead of the 4 given to us. Especially with the larger screen of the Aura One, I want pretty much anywhere I tap on the screen to page forward, so I can hold in either hand. I rarely go backwards and am happy to do that with swipes. I've been through this on other threads, and the option for tapping anywhere on the bottom third of the screen is too small/low (it should be at least the bottom 2/3rds of the screen) and the options for tapping on either the left or right side is too wide to reach across easily with your thumb. And, before someone jumps in with why not just slide the page, the answer is I like to tap!

[John F]

I would like a reading mode: tap anywhere on the screen to page forward, swiping can be used also.

[John F]

And to stretch the "GUI" requirement: add some GUI that enables a Bluetooth connection for remote control page turns.

[Derf]

I’d like it if the beta web browser wasn’t buried under menu -> settings -> beta features -> web browser -> start

It takes 5 taps to start, as it is now. I’d prefer a direct button on the home screen.


I would like it if the last battery percentage would be shown on the screen when the device turns off. Optionally to show the battery % on screen while the device is sleeping.

I’d also like a clock on the center top menu of the home screen.

[Derf]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

At least there's a way to remove the 3rd line with the recommendations.

How do you get rid of the third line on the home screen with “Find Your next great read / shop kobo” and “create a wishlist of books you’re interested in / wishlist”?

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Derf

How do you get rid of the third line on the home screen with “Find Your next great read / shop kobo” and “create a wishlist of books you’re interested in / wishlist”?

It's called "New home screen removing the footer (row3) and increasing cover size" and it gets added into the nickel.patch file. But for the life of me I can't find the post with the instructions for it.

But this is the code I added into the nickel.patch file. Be warned this was for Firmware 4.9.11311, I'm not sure if it's one of those multi-firmware patches.

Spoiler:

<Patch>
patch_name = `New home screen removing the footer (row3) and increasing cover size`
patch_enable = `yes`
# Multi-version patch: 4.6.9660
#
#Removing the footer, and larger cover images.
#
find_base_address = `\x52\x78\x9C\x9D\x94\x5D\x4B\xC3\x30\x14\x86\xEF`
replace_bytes = 0000, 52 78 9C 9D 94 5D 4B C3, 52 78 9C 9D 94 41 6B 83
replace_bytes = 0008, 30 14 86 EF FB 2B 0A DE, 30 18 86 EF FD 15 42 AF
replace_bytes = 0010, 3A 68 D3 8F 75 1B 5E 88, 2B 98 A8 69 DA B1 C3 58
replace_bytes = 0018, 43 10 14 04 BD 13 91 AC, 19 0C 36 18 6C B7 31 46
replace_bytes = 0020, 66 5D 20 4D BA B4 CE 0D, EA 52 1B 88 C6 46 D7 B5
replace_bytes = 0028, D9 7F B7 5D A3 6B 93 2C, 8C FE F7 D9 9A 82 9A 98
replace_bytes = 0030, 59 77 25 BC 67 C9 F3 2C, D4 9E 0A EF 27 79 1E F3
replace_bytes = 0038, E7 9D 57 39 C4 F4 8E D1, BD 75 9C 12 96 3D 88 AC
replace_bytes = 0040, AA FE 83 F8 DB FA B6 28, AC 7E A8 FC D8 DC E7 F9
replace_bytes = 0048, 3E 3E D1 06 A7 E8 A1 7C, D7 37 DD B2 98 3E 15 EF
replace_bytes = 0050, E5 98 B0 6C 77 53 F1 2F, 92 71 91 EC EF 4A F9 43
replace_bytes = 0058, F4 EE FE 38 AE BB 2E 38, 3F BD BF 91 E7 6D 72 29
replace_bytes = 0060, 2B 10 AF 76 23 82 96 D5, 72 2A CB FD 84 D3 55 F9
replace_bytes = 0068, 13 E4 19 A6 53 17 C4 B3, 42 64 C2 B2 B9 07 FC DB
replace_bytes = 0070, DE 8C E3 6C 75 72 58 B1, D6 4C B2 64 DD 3B 2C 45
replace_bytes = 0078, E2 6F 34 91 46 0B 56 55, 7E 1E CD 50 7B B4 14 65
replace_bytes = 0080, 2C 3F 75 B0 2C 60 8A 69, 29 D2 F3 14 76 A6 45 4E
replace_bytes = 0088, 36 75 7D 6F E6 EC 9D 2B, 62 96 25 F5 89 87 D1 D8
replace_bytes = 0090, 83 F8 F3 8A 21 8A B7 56, 22 FE BA 16 34 63 3B B7
replace_bytes = 0098, F1 C0 24 2E 0F 3B E2 BE, 38 B4 89 C3 5E 71 D0 75
replace_bytes = 00A0, EC D6 37 97 4F 1E CD 43, 6B 9B 07 BD E6 A1 CB 7C
replace_bytes = 00A8, 9B F9 9C C3 8C 51 AB 78, 21 49 22 32 B7 38 B2 89
replace_bytes = 00B0, E4 19 C4 E5 61 57 7C EC, A3 7E F1 A9 6F 13 8F FC
replace_bytes = 00B8, 99 C4 E5 93 FF E2 C0 FA, 1E 71 E8 BC F2 05 D9 F3
replace_bytes = 00C0, E4 73 B8 23 8D 84 55 3D, A3 84 53 1D DA CA D2 1D
replace_bytes = 00C8, 8E 0C EA F2 B0 A3 0E 80, 36 D4 61 77 D6 56 47 51
replace_bytes = 00D0, 51 5D 3E 79 54 8F 0F EA, 9F 3A 3A A9 4B F1 0B 2C
replace_bytes = 00D8, 9C 7D FB 86 76 5F 1F 3E, ED BE 39 3D 01 5D FD 4F
replace_bytes = 00E0, 01 6C FD CF E1 76 B4 42, C9 6E B2 A6 47 E3 EA 60
replace_bytes = 00E8, 8D 71 7D 71 E2 15 DB 06, EC E7 BB 23 34 65 59 37
replace_bytes = 00F0, 9A 63 2A 87 5A 60 AF 95, 34 02 5B AD 34 02 F5 DE
replace_bytes = 00F8, 5A A0 DA DB 2E 30 08 63, 36 81 41 88 74 A0 0A 8D
replace_bytes = 0100, 15 28 42 2D B0 5B 26 2D, C0 66 99 8C 3C AD 6D 4D
replace_bytes = 0108, 4F 69 5B 17 17 26 89 8A, 5C 88 B1 8E 53 A1 19 D7
replace_bytes = 0110, 13 A1 1E D7 AB 80 1E A8, AA 80 19 A8 B7 A4 89 44
replace_bytes = 0118, B6 A4 8B 8C 83 50 45 8A, 41 A8 23 55 78 18 D5 47
replace_bytes = 0120, 70 EF B4 57 E1 F2 BE 6E, B1 E2 B1 6A E0 5B 4C 38
replace_bytes = 0128, E0 4B 0A 09 7A AC 77 8F, 7D AE 76 4F D5 51 AE 05
replace_bytes = 0130, C4 55 B6 05 AB AF 39 01, EB B7 39 83 86 DB AC C3
replace_bytes = 0138, 9A D7 6C C3 E1 2C F3 E6, E1 2C FB E6 42 6C 78 2F
replace_bytes = 0140, C2 44 F3 BD 44 38 9C 65, 15 0E 67 59 B7 86 70 60
replace_bytes = 0148, DC 5A 9C 04 9A 27 6C C3, B8 C2 3A BC 02 65 DF 17
replace_bytes = 0150, 0B 50 E6 7D 25 C9 58 85, C6 53 1D A6 C2 0B 60 83
replace_bytes = 0158, 89 F0 0C D8 A0 9F 9B EF, FE 6E 00 18 F6 A5 C2 E1
replace_bytes = 0160, 6B F6 25 C2 E1 2C F3 BE, 2C FB BE 40 60 A8 BE 0A
replace_bytes = 0168, FC 40 53 7D 11 0E 67 19, 87 B3 AC FB 02 B3 C8 80
replace_bytes = 0170, F7 E5 4F 22 0D AA 0D 2F, AA C3 2B 50 F6 7D C1 C8
replace_bytes = 0178, 40 99 F7 05 22 4D 39 44, 50 0E 15 5E 52 8E 58 70
replace_bytes = 0180, 78 4E 39 52 46 80 F4 AF, D8 F9 B4 6F 59 C1 96 9C
replace_bytes = 0188, 7D 83 4B BC 20 68 EA 2E, CE BD 15 E1 05 3D 7F 19
replace_bytes = 0190, 21 29 51 73 CD 2F 56 AD, 02 D7 53 FF 76 F4 EC 18
replace_bytes = 0198, DF 75, 00 00
</Patch>

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by rogerinnyc

I would really like to see more tap zone options, instead of the 4 given to us. Especially with the larger screen of the Aura One, I want pretty much anywhere I tap on the screen to page forward, so I can hold in either hand. I rarely go backwards and am happy to do that with swipes. I've been through this on other threads, and the option for tapping anywhere on the bottom third of the screen is too small/low (it should be at least the bottom 2/3rds of the screen) and the options for tapping on either the left or right side is too wide to reach across easily with your thumb. And, before someone jumps in with why not just slide the page, the answer is I like to tap!

Originally Posted by John F

I would like a reading mode: tap anywhere on the screen to page forward, swiping can be used also.

Originally Posted by Derf

I’d like it if the beta web browser wasn’t buried under menu -> settings -> beta features -> web browser -> start

It takes 5 taps to start, as it is now. I’d prefer a direct button on the home screen.


I would like it if the last battery percentage would be shown on the screen when the device turns off. Optionally to show the battery % on screen while the device is sleeping.

I’d also like a clock on the center top menu of the home screen.

Yes please to all of that!

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

It's called "New home screen removing the footer (row3) and increasing cover size" and it gets added into the nickel.patch file. But for the life of me I can't find the post with the instructions for it.

There is also a variation of that patch that does not increase the cover size if you prefer (I don't like the way the increase makes the margins smaller). The variation patch still vertically re-aligns the first two rows after removing the third . They can both be found here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...93&postcount=7

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

There is also a variation of that patch that does not increase the cover size if you prefer (I don't like the way the increase makes the margins smaller). The variation patch still vertically re-aligns the first two rows after removing the third . They can both be found here:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...93&postcount=7

Thank you, I knew it was buried within an older thread but just couldn't find it.