10-15-2010, 09:47 AM | #31 | ||
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It's bizarre how quick some people are to white knight a corporation they like. The more consumers complain about issues like this, the more feedback Kobo has to develop a better product (if they want to). It's a corporation, not a person. I'm sure nobody's feelings are hurt by constructive criticism. The problem in my OP is something I'd expect to see in a beta version of the format, images not displaying at all is actually a pretty serious limitation. Plenty of books rely on more than just plain text to get their message across. Last edited by dos; 10-15-2010 at 09:54 AM. |
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10-15-2010, 10:30 AM | #32 | |||
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For some reason I also had on mind some xml file having some index, but I was curious once and let it live peacefully. I still think that format shown to the end user depends on the publisher. Quote:
a good knight. Again, I would rather put stress on particular book, not on sqlite. Quote:
many million books one could store on the reader to have a benefit? One more further, I do not expect kobo to change selling policy in any way. I, as a user of reader, prefer epub, that I could change and remade and <insert_something_smart>. Spite I have nerves for empty pages and strange line breaks, I often simply change few tags or css lines. At least it makes me pleasure to blame myself later. |
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10-15-2010, 10:37 AM | #33 |
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I think many people offered you an easy solution that you are ignoring. KoboBooks does sell books in ePub format, ePub works perfectly on the Kobo and does show all the graphics. You can easily visit your Library on Kobo and download the book you purchased earlier, this time in ePub format to your Adobe Digital Reader and then transfer it to the Kobo. This is all perfectly legal and should not take you more than 5-minutes (in my experience this is probably faster than using the Kobo Desktop App to load books onto the Kobo).
As for poorly formatted ebooks, this has happened to me with purchases from Amazon, Sony, SmashWords, and Kobo - both mobi and epub versions. Luckily, once DRM is removed, calibre can fix all these "problems" (or just personal preferences in my case) very easily. I find taking problems to the developer of calibre to be far more effective than trying to get Amazon, or Kobo (or Sony, ... etc.) to change their ways. |
10-15-2010, 02:37 PM | #34 |
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Hi
My theory, regarding the sqlite database, is that it is used on the Kobo because the iPhone and iPad use sqlite as an app's data storage. If that is the case and if the kobo format book is indeed the same in the database of the iPhone, iPad and Kobo reader then there is a bug in the reader. I have several books that include graphics and images that look fantastic in ePub format on the Kobo reader and on the iPhone/iPad apps but horrible in native kobo format. It would take some work to compare the contents of the iPhone's sqlite database to that of the reader (and the DRM may prevent it). It would surprise me a great deal if the data sent to the kobo is different than that sent to the iPhone app (it does not make sense to maintain three copies of the book (ePub, Kobo sqlite and iPhone sqlite)) so I suspect that there is a bug in the reader. I do what others mentioned, simply download the ePub. I would like the issue resolved though... Tim |
10-15-2010, 08:40 PM | #35 | |
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Again "download the ePub, break the DRM, reformat it in calibre so it displays properly on the Kobo, and transfer it to the device" is indeed a fix. It's just not an elegant fix, and actually involves doing something legally grey-area. If the Kobo was a hobbyist piece of hardware this would be acceptable but the thing is intended for everyone to use. It shouldn't have such a major flaw in it's native format. ePubs are supplemental to the native format and are provided so that you "own" a copy of the book you bought in case kobo folds, or you get a different reader, etc. I'm not posting here asking for technical help or a fix, I'm posting to make a big deal out of a problem with the native Kobo format, in hopes somebody at Kobo notices and decides it's important enough to fix. Why people here seem annoyed by this is something i don't understand, but i'm new to these forums. fierce loyalty to corporations is something i'm not used to seeing outside of Apple fan communities, and while I don't subscribe to that particular brand of insanity either, i've owned and played with some Apple stuff and can grudgingly admit that some of that adoration is warranted. I'm posting about this because I want Kobo to be successful I really like using my Kobo, but in some cases it requires a lot of tinkering to get things working properly. This may be fine in Australia or some other countries where Kobo is the only game in town, but in North America we have a wide variety of readers to choose from and right now the Kobo is practically unknown here, while everyone knows what a Kindle or Nook or even a Sony Reader is. If the Kobo ecosystem can't be as intuitive and problem-free as those products it will fail. Criticism is good, guys. If you have any problems with the Kobo hardware or software, speak up and let your voice be heard so Kobo realizes their consumers care about detail and improve their standards to match expectations. it just means a better experience for all of us. |
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10-15-2010, 09:06 PM | #36 | |
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People bring issues up here and get helpful responses without ticking people off all the time. Generally they are pleasant when they do this. It's a strategy that seems to work. |
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10-15-2010, 09:08 PM | #37 | |
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I also looked at the desktop app on Linux. It does not properly display the pages with graphics either. That may imply that the kobo format is not capable of displaying graphics... There must be a reason that the kobo format exists... Tim |
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10-15-2010, 09:49 PM | #38 | ||
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we have access to almost as many reader brands as you people do. Quote:
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10-15-2010, 10:26 PM | #39 | |
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I could E-Mail Kobo about this issue but I'm quite sure they're aware of the limitations of a product they designed. I have to say this forum is really strange to me, most forums devoted to a piece of hardware or software that gets updated are full of people jumping over each other to point out every little detail that's wrong with the product, hoping their issue is the one that the most people care about. Check out the official PS3 forums for instance, those people love that machine but when something is wrong they're absolutely vicious. You don't really see many people saying "oh well it's okay, that can be excused because [excuse]", or "well there's this complicated workaround and you should just be happy with what you've got". And you know what? It's usually fixed in the very next firmware update. Perhaps Kobo's customers should stop acting so whipped. It's kind of sad. I'm going to try to find another forum that's not as forgiving, I didn't anticipate this kind of reaction and should have lurked more. It's up to the consumers to keep a company in line. It costs money to improve a product and a company operates by trying to spend as little as possible while at the same time trying to maximize profit. If they think everyone's cool with the status quo they will not expend their resources trying to fix problems. Last edited by dos; 10-15-2010 at 10:37 PM. |
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10-15-2010, 10:29 PM | #40 | |
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Kobo reps do read and post here as well. so the message is getting through which reflects on just how helpful Kobo customer and technical support is. |
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10-15-2010, 10:35 PM | #41 |
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Well, dos, you just managed to be truly rude and insulting when you spoke about Australians and, from my perspective, you are now being insulting to everyone who posts here in almost every post you write. Folks on MR have terrific relationships with each other and with Kobo support. We have them because we have earned them by working collaboratively and treating each other (and Kobo) respectfully.
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10-15-2010, 10:49 PM | #42 |
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Tim, it is the Kobo format that is used for all the sync operations with mobile apps, the website, and soon the WiFi reader. My assumption has been that this proprietary DRM scheme is in place because they can't use ADE with them.
It's interesting that Sony has its new generation of readers still tied to the desktop and ADE. No WiFi--though they have touch. Sony is supposed to have some apps coming up, so they too will have to figure out how to make a non-ADE drm format correctly. Does this make any kind of sense? I'm really hoping that improving the Kobo sync formatting is one of the things they have been working on, but Kobo doesn't tell us much about their future plans. I can understand why they might not want to release this kind of information, but sheesh, inquiring minds definitely want to know |
10-15-2010, 10:52 PM | #43 |
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10-15-2010, 10:53 PM | #44 | ||
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10-15-2010, 10:58 PM | #45 |
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When I load an ePub into the Kobo from ADE the margins are very large and the text is in a column in the center of the screen. I have to go into Calibre and re-format it so it looks normal. To do this, I have to break the DRM.
Perhaps I have something in ADE mis-configured and this is causing the strange margin problems. I suspect, however that this is a problem with the way the Kobo reader handles the ePubs purchased on the Kobo store, as they display fine in ADE and the margin error only appears when loaded onto the reader. |
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