On A scale of 1 to 10 how happy are you with the Way Firmware is being released

[samhy]

My vote was 7. Now that I've looked at all the comments, my reasons were explained by the others who chose 7 too.
In a nutshell: not bad, but room for improvement

[speakingtohe]

Originally Posted by haydnfan

I voted 8. I've only had a kobo since early April, so it is hard to appreciate the frustration that long term users feel. That being said, some of you whine about inconsequential errors as if they completely ruin your reading experience. I've been there with the line height bug on my kindles. I have to say just take a deep breath and regain perspective. It shouldn't ruin your day if there is a header or one font doesn't render bold or italics correctly. There is a strange feeling of entitlement at work here that you feel that you deserve a lifetime supply of free updates for a device that is being sold at a loss.

I voted frustrated. I don't want a lifetime supply of updates. I would happily pay a higher price for a better product. Kobo's choice to sell at a loss if indeed they do.

I assume if they are selling at a loss, it is possibly to sell more books and make an overall profit.

I loved my mini when I got it and the first update was good. Not much improvement since IMO, and a few steps back, but then I am probably very demanding in wanting it to function as well as the Sonys or the kindles.

Helen

[jackastor]

I would like to encourage all who check out this thread to weigh in on the poll. The Kobo People Read this forum religiously. The more you guys weigh in with your thoughts the more likely they are to pay attention to the issues at hand.

For those who so far weighed in well done. All your points bring some healthy discussion that is long overdue.

Thank you


regards

Jack

[paola]

Originally Posted by jackastor

I would like to encourage all who check out this thread to weigh in on the poll. The Kobo People Read this forum religiously. The more you guys weigh in with your thoughts the more likely they are to pay attention to the issues at hand.

For those who so far weighed in well done. All your points bring some healthy discussion that is long overdue.

Thank you


regards

Jack

well, I thought my vote would come as a spoilsport, so waited until your last appeal

Perhaps because firmware updates with my previous reader were really scarce and with big problems, I am not too disappointed with Kobo. The bugs which affect me are small annoyances. I do have major annoyances, but they seem to me more lack of features that bugs. I am referring to:

• pathetic rendering of pdf files: difficult to zoom in them, no dictionary, no annotations, basically unusable, to heartfelt thanks to all the good developers on this forum working on hacks and improvements;

• inability to zoom figures if they are not the only element in the page (for kepub/Epub)

perhaps if Kobo guys read this religiously they'll bear this in mind to avoid turning my 7 into a 1

[HarleyB]

I voted neutral because I never ever have wifi turned on, I never ever sync and I only ever connect to the desk top when I have researched an update and decided that I really want it.

I think it good that Kobo does update the product but I find it a bit frustrating that there seems to be so many problems that I need to check very carefully before I decide to upgrade.

[Anak]

I'm on the negative side but I answered neutral because a was in a good mood and to give Kobo the benefit of the doubt to make drastic changes. But with a strong negative outlook. BTW, neutral is still only a "5" on this scale and on the negative side.

[TechniSol]

I think it's telling that the three lowest scores possible added together number 2:1 compared to the three best scores they could choose... that seems like a pretty clear message.

I think we're all grateful that Kobo continues to provide updates, but I think most of us would prefer they "get all their stuff in one sock" and stop releasing firmwares they have to immediately replace due to creation of new bugs, while still leaving many other bugs unaddressed.

Don't get me wrong, I think my Glo is the best reader I could have purchased in terms of hardware and software features, but it still has way too many bugs in way too many categories. IIRC, there are still annotation bugs that have been around since early Touch firmwares.

I'm not bitchin' to cause trouble, I just want to see the Glo's firmware reflect the excellence of the hardware and have a top notch experience when using it. I am so happy with the physical design and how well the front lighting works that I just want to see better overall from Kobo.

[haydnfan]

That is one heck of a misrepresentation of the poll results. At this time 40 people voted below neutral and 42 voted above neutral. That means that among the most fussiest ereaders, there are as many happy as there are frustrated. I think that these update problems are blown out of proportion.

[leslie_ms]

I chose 3.

My Touch is almost two years old. The problem with an older unit is that the components within it are not identical to the components in the same model built yesterday. The parts are similar, but not identical. That makes firmware updates for older units very risky.

I'm afraid one of these updates is going to brick my reader. And, given my experience with Kobo's customer service, it would be really tough to convince them that it's their fault.

As it sits right now, I don't apply an update for at least a week after release. And there have been two updates I remember that were pulled in that time frame. There may have been more.

What frustrates me is that, if I buy a book when an update has just been released--and that seems to happen a lot, I have to load the epub instead of the kepub to avoid the update. I prefer kepubs. It's one of the reasons I bought a Kobo in the first place.

It also seems that for every small, annoying bug they fix, they introduce a new small, annoying bug. Although, I don't have any hard data to prove it. It's just my impression.

This interface is good right now. I wish Kobo would just leave it as it is. Instead, it looks like they're trying to please everyone by adding new features. But you can't please everyone, so leave the older models alone. Or, let us chose whether we want to update or not.

Leslie

[PeterT]

@leslie_ms: Trust me when I say that when a release IS done, it will not brick your older Kobo Touch. Now whether the same can be said for releases to the Beta testers, I'd rather not say!

[jackastor]

Hey so far so good. 108 completed the survey but we have thousands of kobo users. Come on lets keep the momentum going!

Lets all weigh in.


regards

Jack

[TechniSol]

haydnfan,

Or put another way, nearly half of Kobo's customers who participated thought they could do better. Part of the reason I slanted my original observation was that the poll itself is slanted so that only forty percent of the voting categories were negative based on the verbal tags attached. That skews the poll positively to begin with beyond people's naturally positive bias.

If I were Kobo I'd be very uncomfortable with a poll of activist core customers in which nearly half thought I could be doing better... they'd be a whole lot better off seeing a bell curve primarily distributed at 75% satisfaction from the advanced users who tend to populate forums, or do you think having as many dislike what you're doing as like what you're doing is the way to be successful in business?

Bear in mind that these are people who already liked your product enough to buy initially so results are overwhelmingly positively skewed, or should be. When half of them are telling you that you could do better, especially with higher distributions among the most negative possible categories that is telling.

[rashkae]

I wanted to like Kobo,, I really really did,,, Canadian, (or was, at least,) supports epub (albeit, as a third cousin no one know what to do with but gets ivited to family function out of ritual.) and who doesn't like to stick it to the man.

At the end of the day though, Kindle has it together, Kobo doesn't even after years to get thing straightened out.

[theducks]

I will weigh in (but not vote) as a non-Kobo person always looking for a possible replacement for my aging PEz

I see Kobo FW issues mentioned all the time in Calibre.
Granted some of these are on the fringe, but others make me feel I am back in the 80's calling Software support and getting asked: 'What time did you download (by 1200 baud modem) the patch'

Too frequent updates indicates to me, a rushed QC.
(then there is the fine line not to cross: not frequent enough updates. For significant issues would indicate lack of caring )

Quite a balancing act. Rich GUI features that are (codewise) fragile or a Basic interface, limited but rock solid.


The Aura hardware looks intriguing ( I just wish for buttons, being touch challenged).
I will continue to keep my eye on Kobo devices

[Matth79]

3. Should concentrate on fixing bugs, improvements instead of perpetual random tinkering with the interface - if something has to be moved / changed, there sould be a damn good reason for it. Yes, and fluff should be optional.