Kobo Vox eReader: A Multi-Tasking Machine with Google Play

[DarrellAtKobo]

Hello,

We would like to share some exciting news with everyone. Please visit the following link for more details;

http://blog.kobobooks.com/kobo-vox-e...h-google-play/


Regards,
Darrell.

[Reader Paradice]

Well, all I can say is "job well done!". With this latest update, and Google Play among other things, you have totally transformed the Vox from a good eReader with a prior 'so, so' tablet side functionality, to a smooth running (for a single core 800MHz CPU) and good finger/swipe screen response.... true 7 inch tablet. I am amazed how seamless and painless it is now to add any app you might want from Google Play. I have Google Play in auto-app update mode, and smile as I watch it totally update one by one, the various apps that came standard with the Vox, and the ones I had side-loaded from the start. Also, I had a 'very slow speed and use' issue with Google Maps right after the Google Play update install, but last night, Google Play automatically updated Maps, and now it is as fast a load, and the use of as any other app on the rig. Kobo Guys and Gals, you have really pulled the rabbit out of the hat with this update. If you could remove the 'Books just for you' B.S. and just let me once again have my 3 book mosaic and....... let ME find my own books of interest (as I was happy to do before the second last update), it would be a 10 out of 10 for my present usage of and opinion of the Vox. With this most recent update, you gave us flexibility and speeded up the entire system response (I believe anyways....).

Thank you from a most happy Vox owner. Please though....reconsider the book pushing and 'just for you' and allow us to remove it if we wish. The 'just for you feature' pushes books that for over 99 percent, I have absolutely no interest in buying. It is a total irritant. I had to be honest with that. The latest update though? Fully, a winner in its implementation. Now THAT was a service to your customer and Vox owner group base!!!

R.P.

[Kboland]

I for one am a little confused as to the purpose of this post, considering there is obviously already a topic on this forum started by someone who seems to be an employee of Kobo as well. Is everyone at Kobo going to start their own thread?

On a side note, while I do love some things about the recent update, like the fact that the 'wake from sleep' bug has been fixed, allowing my Vox to go 3 days now with light use and standby, and of course the access to the Play Store, there are a few things that I have issue with.

First off, I now seem to get daily notifications of "Recommended Reading", despite having the Wifi off all the time. This means that Kobo has introduced this 'feature' which will now tell me that I should buy the book that I already sideloaded into my library...every day...

Kobo, you need to give users the option to turn off the 'Recommended for You' feature!

I also take issue with the the fact that the Vox is now more locked down that it used to be. I still want the option to root my unit to remove programs that I will never use, yet that run constantly in the background...INQ Home Live and Globe2Go to name a few. That and I'd like the opportunity to once again remove the startup sound, along with the numerous photos of 'Contributors'. I don't really need a photo of Brad Sokol riding his bike...

[Reader Paradice]

Originally Posted by Kboland

I for one am a little confused as to the purpose of this post, considering there is obviously already a topic on this forum started by someone who already seems to be an employee of Kobo.

On a side note, while I do love some things about the recent update, like the fact that the 'wake from sleep' bug has been fixed, allowing my Vox to go 3 days now with light use and standby, and of course the access to the Play Store, there are a few things that I have issue with.

First off, I now seem to get daily notifications of "Recommended Reading", despite having the Wifi off all the time. This means that Kobo has introduced this 'feature' which will now tell me that I should buy the book that I already sideloaded into my library...every day...

Kobo, you need to give users the option to turn off the 'Recommended for You' feature!

I also take issue with the the fact that the Vox is now more locked down that it used to be. I still want the option to root my unit to remove programs that I will never use, yet that run constantly in the background...INQ Home Live and Globe2Go to name a few. That and I'd like the opportunity to once again remove the startup sound, along with the numerous photos of 'Contributors'. I don't really need a photo of Brad Sokol riding his bike...

-----------------------------------------------

The purpose of the post is personal affirmation. I also agree that the book pushing is becoming rather aggressive. Also agree that you should be able to remove core programs that you never use. That, I very much agree with.....

You can still uninstall apps with a screwdriver.

After popping out the internal SD card and mounting the filesystems under Linux, I took a look around. It has a bunch of ODEX files, which appears to be some sort of optimized binary format. I'm guessing that's why the latest release feels so much faster.

[sqdancer]

Originally Posted by Kboland

I for one am a little confused as to the purpose of this post, considering there is obviously already a topic on this forum started by someone who seems to be an employee of Kobo as well. Is everyone at Kobo going to start their own thread?

...

This thread was originally posted in the General Discussion forum and then was moved over here.