Original Kobo users forgotten? - Page 12

brownieboy · 12-05-2010, 11:11 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by roguefan99

I'm just hoping the big red guy at Kobo

brings us a nice new firmware to destroy, I mean install, over the holidays.

+1!!

I'm still wondering if Santa might be bring me a Sony PRS-650. I think he'll hold off until this firmware is released though.

tpw · 12-06-2010, 04:52 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by brownieboy

+1!!

I'm still wondering if Santa might be bring me a Sony PRS-650. I think he'll hold off until this firmware is released though.

He didn't hold off for me...

The firmware update is now for my wife's kobo

Duiker · 12-06-2010, 11:02 AM

I've been off the Mobile forum for a few weeks. Actually I haven't found a need to come on since I gave my Dad my Kobo and bought a Kindle. I started this thread because I felt forgotten by Kobo. While I was dealing with them on this matter one of the things I was told (sometime aroudn Nov 15) was that the firmware update had a hard release date of November 22nd. I assume it's come and gone with no update?
I'm not here to bash on Kobo but I will say that I resisted the Kindle for a LONG time for a few reason. US company and their proprietary file type being the main reasons. Well I have no regrets now. It's like a breath of fresh air. The Kindle turns on from sleep mode faster then my TV and page turns are basically instantaneous. I haven't powered it off since I bought it only put it in sleep mode. I've read 3 books and only charged it once. I am SHOKED by the ease of use.
Kobo was my first ereader and I am very very sorry to say that I won't be going back. I hope that Kobo can overcome its hurdles and wish the very best for this (mostly?) Canadian company.

Duiker · 12-06-2010, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Pookeysgirl

Only if you're willing to learn how to strip the DRM and convert to epub.

Turns out it wasn't as hard as i thought!

Pookeysgirl · 12-06-2010, 11:05 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duiker

I've been off the Mobile forum for a few weeks. Actually I haven't found a need to come on since I gave my Dad my Kobo and bought a Kindle. I started this thread because I felt forgotten by Kobo. If you go back a few pages in this thread you'll see that while I was dealing with them one of the things I was told was that the firware update had a hard release date of November 22nd. I assume it's come and gone with no update?
I'm not here to bash on Kobo but I will say that I resisted the Kindle for a LONG time for a few reason. US company and their proprietary file type being the main reasons. Well I have no regrets now. It's like a breath of fresh air. The Kindle turns on faster then my TV and page turns are basically instantaneous. I am SHOKED by the ease of use. Kobo was my first ereader and I am very very sorry to say that I won't be going back. I hope that Kobo can overcome its hurdles and wish the very best for this (mostly?) Canadian company.

I'm glad everything worked out for you

I hope your Dad enjoys the Kobo you gave him!

Pookeysgirl · 12-06-2010, 11:06 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Duiker

Turns out it wasn't as hard as i thought!

Awesome!

3d0g · 12-06-2010, 11:47 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoran

If not a secret, what's new there? Further, what features are having
performance issue?

We weren't put under NDA so I don't see any reason not to discuss. I've not been hands-on with a WiFi unit, but to my understanding, the current beta firmware is pretty much a feature match for the new kobo, sans WiFi aspects, of course. Image support in kobo books, subscriptions, dictionary, it's all there. Chapter changes experience a lag. That's the current focus of the devs.

kiwipippa · 12-10-2010, 12:29 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taming

I can give a bit of an update on the beta group. The Kobo team has worked hard to get things taken care of, and there has been a huge amount of progress. No one was really satisfied with the loading times/chapter changes so Kobo has been working on that feature. We will have another beta version that addresses that in the next day or two.

The beta testing is always a challenge, because you fix one thing and then have to retest everything--and on multiple systems, often with changes to both the desktop and the firmware. Sometimes, fixing one thing seems to break something else <sigh>.

The Kobo team is totally committed to making this update as fool proof as possible. It's really coming together.

A week has passed.....any update Taming? It is getting close to Christmas and the Sony in Borders is calling my name. I've gone off kindle - I like epub and my favourite author that was available via kindle has now been geographically restricted so that advantage has gone.

taming · 12-10-2010, 08:12 AM

No real update other than to say that the latest beta is much faster than the beta before. I haven't done much testing on it yet, though I hope to be able to later today.

This has been a bit difficult for me because I had tech problems--with four machines in our house you would think that we would have one that both supported booting from USB (so I could run Linux that way) and had a card reader (so I could create an SD card). I finally figured out how to make my netbook do that and I am good to go. That has been part of the process, btw, we have needed to test Mac and Windows beta desktops in addition to the firmware updates (which necessitate a visit to Linux land). Then when we had all the software running we have tested great gobs of books as kepub, ADE ePUB, and as DRM free files. When we run into a problem, the engineers then have to figure out what it is with a particular book in a particular format that is affecting performance and determine if it is a Kobo issue or an issue with the book itself.

zoran · 12-10-2010, 10:35 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by taming

This has been a bit difficult for me because I had tech problems--with four machines in our house you would think that we would have one that both supported booting from USB (so I could run Linux that way) and had a card reader (so I could create an SD card). I finally figured out how to make my netbook do that and I am good to go.

Kobo should hire taming as a devel staff! I cannot remember anyone
handling four dedicated nodes to debug process! Not even pretty se-
rious guys on openbsd lists.

If I could give an advice, booting linux from usb adapter is equivalent
to booting from cd drive. It only matters till the kernel loads. If node
has 2 usb adapters, here it goes. One for usb stick with firmware ima-
ge (zipped or whatever) and later for usb card reader. It is only impor-
tant to recall how devices were named. (/dev/sda1 etc)

It is a bit late now, but I'd like to know how kobo chose beta testers.

kiwipippa · 12-10-2010, 11:59 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoran

It is a bit late now, but I'd like to know how kobo chose beta testers.

Same here, I am a BA that loves testing (others think I am mad). I love testing a buggy piece of software and then see it come together into a slick tool - as long as the developers are responsive. But as I'm based in New Zealand I doubt I'd ever get a chance to test kobo's releases

And Taming, thanks for the update. It's a busy time of the year to try and fit that sort of thing in.

3d0g · 12-10-2010, 05:27 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoran

Kobo should hire taming as a devel staff! I cannot remember anyone
handling four dedicated nodes to debug process! Not even pretty se-
rious guys on openbsd lists.

Actually, we're pretty much all testing multiple platforms - Windows, Mac, Linux, iPad, Android...

sabredog · 12-10-2010, 06:00 PM

Thanks for the update Taming. Sounds like the update is comprehensive.

I hope the process of updating the ereader with new firmware is easier and more foolproof this time around.

taming · 12-11-2010, 12:08 AM

That was one thing we beta testers couldn't tell as we were working from SD cards, but I have been told it works well and will bring folks from 1.0 or 1.4 to 1.8.

taming · 12-11-2010, 12:17 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by zoran

If I could give an advice, booting linux from usb adapter is equivalent to booting from cd drive. It only matters till the kernel loads. If node...

It is a bit late now, but I'd like to know how kobo chose beta testers.

The problem was that my HP Windows 7 machine did not have a bios option to boot from USB. Neither did my other HP running XP. My husband's Dell could do it, but I would have had to get my bum over to a store and buy a card reader, and so on and so on.... Finally I thought to check out a little ASUS netbook hiding in a closet and I was good to go.

There is a beta sign up sheet here. I believe JC contacted some of the folks he had seen in action on MR for this group, as well.

I was probably the least technically advanced beta tester, but I was persistent

12-06-2010, 11:02 AM	#168
Duiker Addict Posts: 258 Karma: 30680 Join Date: Dec 2009 Location: Toronto, Canada Device: Kindle Paperwhite	I've been off the Mobile forum for a few weeks. Actually I haven't found a need to come on since I gave my Dad my Kobo and bought a Kindle. I started this thread because I felt forgotten by Kobo. While I was dealing with them on this matter one of the things I was told (sometime aroudn Nov 15) was that the firmware update had a hard release date of November 22nd. I assume it's come and gone with no update? I'm not here to bash on Kobo but I will say that I resisted the Kindle for a LONG time for a few reason. US company and their proprietary file type being the main reasons. Well I have no regrets now. It's like a breath of fresh air. The Kindle turns on from sleep mode faster then my TV and page turns are basically instantaneous. I haven't powered it off since I bought it only put it in sleep mode. I've read 3 books and only charged it once. I am SHOKED by the ease of use. Kobo was my first ereader and I am very very sorry to say that I won't be going back. I hope that Kobo can overcome its hurdles and wish the very best for this (mostly?) Canadian company. Last edited by Duiker; 12-06-2010 at 11:12 AM.

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12-10-2010, 08:12 AM	#174
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	No real update other than to say that the latest beta is much faster than the beta before. I haven't done much testing on it yet, though I hope to be able to later today. This has been a bit difficult for me because I had tech problems--with four machines in our house you would think that we would have one that both supported booting from USB (so I could run Linux that way) and had a card reader (so I could create an SD card). I finally figured out how to make my netbook do that and I am good to go. That has been part of the process, btw, we have needed to test Mac and Windows beta desktops in addition to the firmware updates (which necessitate a visit to Linux land). Then when we had all the software running we have tested great gobs of books as kepub, ADE ePUB, and as DRM free files. When we run into a problem, the engineers then have to figure out what it is with a particular book in a particular format that is affecting performance and determine if it is a Kobo issue or an issue with the book itself.

12-10-2010, 06:00 PM	#178
sabredog Geographically Restricted Posts: 2,629 Karma: 14933353 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Perth, Australia Device: Sony PRS-T3, Kindle Voyage, iPad Air2, Nexus7v2	Thanks for the update Taming. Sounds like the update is comprehensive. I hope the process of updating the ereader with new firmware is easier and more foolproof this time around.

12-11-2010, 12:08 AM	#179
taming Trying for calm & polite Posts: 4,012 Karma: 9455193 Join Date: May 2010 Location: Mostly in Canada Device: kobo original, WiFI, Touch, Glo, and Aura	That was one thing we beta testers couldn't tell as we were working from SD cards, but I have been told it works well and will bring folks from 1.0 or 1.4 to 1.8.

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