Aura HD Glo HD sold out

[Shadowjack]

The Glo HD is listed as sold out on the Kobo site. Is this a sign they are discontinuing this model or just a temporary shortage? It makes me wonder if they will discontinue the H2O, viewing the KA1 as a replacement for it, as they may view the Aura as a replacement for the Glo.

[rtiangha]

My hope is that they've recalled a bunch of them to update the firmware to remove the bug that affected machines with the initial Windows 10 Anniversary Update, but who knows. Hopefully it's still available and not discontinued. I'd love to see 300 dpi across their entire product line in a variety of screen sizes become the new normal.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

My hope is that they've recalled a bunch of them to update the firmware to remove the bug that affected machines with the initial Windows 10 Anniversary Update, but who knows. Hopefully it's still available and not discontinued. I'd love to see 300 dpi across their entire product line in a variety of screen sizes become the new normal.

There's no need to recall anything. The issue with Win 10AU has been fixed by MS.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

My hope is that they've recalled a bunch of them to update the firmware to remove the bug that affected machines with the initial Windows 10 Anniversary Update, but who knows.

There is no need to do that. After a factory reset, there are no problems connecting to a Win10AU machine. The problem is only seen after the device has been setup and in use.

And I don't think the Glo HD is going to be disappear anytime soon. Unless they have plans for a "Glo ONE" early next year.

[Silverty]

I'm thinking they will be replacing the Glo HD with them. Why else make another ereader in the same price zone? I just wish they gave it the same 300 ppi. Hopefully I'm wrong but Glo HDs seem to be disappearing. They probably want to switch all of them to this new image of the blue button on the back.

[John F]

I did a chat with Kobo, and:

Is seems the device is out of stock for at least this week in our website, over here in costumer service we don`t have an estimated time but I believe that you can try again looking at our website by midweek

[Zaroff]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There's no need to recall anything. The issue with Win 10AU has been fixed by MS.

It hasn't.

http://www.infoworld.com/article/311...ry-update.html

[rtiangha]

Just to clarify, MS implemented a workaround for the Kobo and a few select other devices that were reported as problematic, but it hasn't completely wiped out the issue as Zaroff pointed out. Until there's a true fix from MS, it's probably worthwhile for Kobo to recall all the old devices and update their firmware (and ideally the recovery partition/recovery scripts) to remove whatever weirdness they've done to the boot sector of the user partition (I've noticed that I no longer get any mismatched byte errors in firmware 4.0 whenever doing a dosfsck in Linux) and any other weirdness they do to various sectors, just in case the problem re-emerges later on when MS inevitably changes how they handle USB things again, or for those who, for whatever reason, are running an un-patched Win 10 AU update.

[Zaroff]

Thanks for shedding more light on this. Do you have some pointers for this specific workaround? I can't seem to find any.

[rtiangha]

One of the hot fixes that MS released in the last month made the Kobos work again, although some Kindles still have issues. If you've been updating Windows regularly, you should have gotten it by now.

Sent from my GT-N5110 using Tapatalk

[robko]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

... it's probably worthwhile for Kobo to recall all the old devices and update their firmware ... just in case the problem re-emerges later on when MS inevitably changes how they handle USB things again, or for those who, for whatever reason, are running an un-patched Win 10 AU update.

Think about how much it would cost them to a) get the devices back from retail, b) open the packaging, attached each individual device and reflash it and c) repackage the device, likely in at least partially new packaging. I'd find it hard to believe that that economics of doing that is going to be worthwhile. Worst case scenario if this came back it's going to affect people that unable or unwilling to use wifi to get an update over wifi to fix it. That will be a pretty small subsset of the devices they'd have to recall and even if they have to swap devices for those people it's would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

[rtiangha]

Originally Posted by robko

Think about how much it would cost them to a) get the devices back from retail, b) open the packaging, attached each individual device and reflash it and c) repackage the device, likely in at least partially new packaging. I'd find it hard to believe that that economics of doing that is going to be worthwhile. Worst case scenario if this came back it's going to affect people that unable or unwilling to use wifi to get an update over wifi to fix it. That will be a pretty small subsset of the devices they'd have to recall and even if they have to swap devices for those people it's would be a lot cheaper in the long run.

Well, unless those models are discontinued, it's the only explanation that I can think of as to why there isn't a single Kobo reader in any brick-and-mortar store in my city at the moment, even though the displays are still up. But whatever. I secured my Glo HD before they all mysteriously disappeared. I'm happy.

[Ksquared]

That was how the Aura 6" (Edition none?) went away. Sold out for a few weeks, then gone.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

Well, unless those models are discontinued, it's the only explanation that I can think of as to why there isn't a single Kobo reader in any brick-and-mortar store in my city at the moment, even though the displays are still up. But whatever. I secured my Glo HD before they all mysteriously disappeared. I'm happy.

As I stated above, the factory recall isn't needed. If you factory reset these devices, they have no problem connecting to the bad version of Windows. After the devices are updated to later firmware and actually used, the problem starts happening. It is cause by how the firmware is tracking if it has successfully restarted.

But, the recall isn't needed because:

- Kobo have fixed the problem as of firmware 4.0. Upgrade over WiFi or using a PC that doesn't have the bad version of Windows will solve it for all. At worst, do a factory reset followed by the updated.

- MS have released an update that solves the problem for the Kobo ereaders. Updating to that will solve the problem without changing the device.

What that means is that there are reasonable ways around the problem. And that as MS makes it hard not to install fixes, the number of people actually affected by this problem is small and decreasing all the time.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by rtiangha

Well, unless those models are discontinued, it's the only explanation that I can think of as to why there isn't a single Kobo reader in any brick-and-mortar store in my city at the moment, even though the displays are still up. But whatever. I secured my Glo HD before they all mysteriously disappeared. I'm happy.

Things sell out. Stores may be in the process of ceasing to carry certain models but have yet to remove the displays.

I've not been able to see a Kobo in person without buying one for a long time now. And I'm in a major city in the US. The reason for that is, apparently, that Kobo isn't interested in trying to wrestle with Amazon for the US market. I can't say as I blame them, though I do think they have a product which is superior in many ways to the Kindle line.