New firmware release - 4.4.9298 - Page 3

davidfor · 05-09-2017, 11:15 PM

I'm coming in a bit later than I'd like, but, here's what I know.

From Kobo, this is what is in 4.4.9298

Home screen - A fresh new layout that puts the focus back on your current reads – with larger text and bigger book covers.
Main menu - A new simple menu on the upper left gives you direct access to all the important sections with one tap.
Authors view - You can now browse by authors in the My Books section.
Tabs - The My Books, Browse, Recommended, and Activity sections now feature tabs for quick and easy access to sub-sections.
Status bar - The status bar on the upper right now displays larger icons for Light, Wi Fi, Battery, Sync, and Search.
Sort by date added - You can now sort your books by the date they were added to your account. Look for this option with the other sort controls in My Books.
PIN lock - Protect your privacy by requiring a 4‑digit PIN to unlock your eReader. Enable this feature from the settings menu under Energy Saving and Privacy.

Apart from this, the bug fixes I know of are:

Browser:
- Downloading files larger than 2MB.
- Don’t have to restart browser if you cancelling a download.
Reading stats fixed. The stats for any books read with the last few firmware versions will not be fixed, but they seem to be working properly for any reading done after the upgrade.

This is apparently the firmware to be sent to the Aura H2O Edition 2 when it is released. It should be going to all devices except the Mini.

I have made the changes needed for calibre and they will be in the next release. Until then, it is completely safe to use the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option in either of the drivers.

Edit: The support for firmware 4.4.9298, the Aura H2O Edition 2 has been released in calibre 2.85.0 and and the 3.0 betas.

davidfor · 05-09-2017, 11:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

This update is giving me mega problems right now, the biggest being that the OS shows me as having no books since it's not showing the stuff on my sd card where all books are loaded. The card shows up fine when the device is connected to a PC, but not when the device is up & running. Reseating the card, nothing, rebooting the device, nothing.

My Books only shows stuff in the cloud (can't find a way to hide it but that may be because the device sees no books on board).

During the beta I tested with cards in my three devices that have a slot. I haven't had any problems with seeing the books on card with the device. Is the card details showing when you look at the Device information page in the settings?

Could you try adding a new book to the card? That should trigger the book processing and it might get it out of whatever funk it is in.

AnemicOak · 05-09-2017, 11:20 PM

So far I don't really mind the new home screen.

My biggest problem is the recommendations. Unless/until Kobo gives me a way to help tweak my recommendations like Amazon does (to take into account pbooks & ebooks from other sources) I find it rather useless and it's in a very prominent spot (top right). I'm not necessarily opposed to them being there (although it would be better it they could be disabled), but if they're going to be forced on me I'd like to make them more useful.

MGlitch · 05-09-2017, 11:34 PM

I did see something about 'not interested in this' when I looked at the recs. So you should be able to dismiss particular books.

AnemicOak · 05-09-2017, 11:36 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

During the beta I tested with cards in my three devices that have a slot. I haven't had any problems with seeing the books on card with the device. Is the card details showing when you look at the Device information page in the settings?

Could you try adding a new book to the card? That should trigger the book processing and it might get it out of whatever funk it is in.

No card showing under Device Info...

I used Calibre to send three new books to the card (which it reads fine), but no change on the device itself.

I just had to rebuild things a bit when the 4x firmware came out and I had to do a factory reset because the device wouldn't boot after the update. I really hope I'm not going to have to do that again & I really hope I'm not going to have to format the card and reload all 4,000+ books.

AnemicOak · 05-09-2017, 11:40 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I did see something about 'not interested in this' when I looked at the recs. So you should be able to dismiss particular books.

I just noticed that. Hopefully it works now. In the past their recommendations system on device & the web never actually registered anything when you did that. What I'd want though would be able to do this on the website in more of a bulk manner as opposed to one at a time on the device itself.

davidfor · 05-09-2017, 11:59 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

So far I don't really mind the new home screen.

My biggest problem is the recommendations. Unless/until Kobo gives me a way to help tweak my recommendations like Amazon does (to take into account pbooks & ebooks from other sources) I find it rather useless and it's in a very prominent spot (top right). I'm not necessarily opposed to them being there (although it would be better it they could be disabled), but if they're going to be forced on me I'd like to make them more useful.

From what I can see, the home screen is divided into six areas. The two across the top con contain two book each that are being read. If you only have one or two books in this state, the right hand block can take something else.

The middle two blocks always has "My Books" on the left, and something else on the right.

For the "something else" in the right hand blocks, I have so far seen: an author, a collection, recommendations, wishlist, related books. I haven't worked out the rules for when these change, but the author tends to be for the book I am reading or the one I just finished.

The bottom two blocks has the shop on the left and various things on the right. I can remember seeing a link to the device manual, Pocket, reading stats, the number of VIP points I have and related books. I'm sure there has been at least one other thing, but I can't think of what it is. Again, I don't know the rules of when these are displayed.

As to Kobo pushing advertising at us, at the moment, my Glo HD only has the shop in the bottom left. This is less than I usually saw with the old home screen. But, I'd still prefer the old home screen.

MGlitch · 05-10-2017, 12:06 AM

They did buy shelfie with the intent of improving their recommendations. As to if that will work or not I'm not sure, but they're aware there is room for improvement.

AnemicOak · 05-10-2017, 12:06 AM

Mine right now (keep in mind I have no books atm) is a space where my current read would go & next to that Recommended, the second row is My Books and an Author Name (I assume this would change based on your last read) and then a smaller all text row on that says "Find your next great read" the other seems to rotate (so far I've seen reading stats, Pocket & wishlist).

Like I said, so far I don't really mind the new look. Of course just like with the old one my ideal would be for My Books to be my home screen.

AnemicOak · 05-10-2017, 12:09 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by MGlitch

They did buy shelfie with the intent of improving their recommendations. As to if that will work or not I'm not sure, but they're aware there is room for improvement.

Yep. Like I said I don't mind it (don't love it but don't hate it), just would like to make it more relevant overall by customizing it more. It does seem so far that the books I've marked either as Already Read or Not Interested have had what I've done "stick" so it looks promising.

GeoffR · 05-10-2017, 12:36 AM

I sideloaded this firmware version to my Glo, it all went smoothly. A few things I've noticed that don't seem to have been mentioned above:

* Book titles in the library list are now displayed in a regular font, rather than italics. This might make things easier for those with books in languages such as Arabic and Hebrew.

* Sorting the Author list by last name doesn't work as well as the author sort in the Books list. For example "John-Henri Holmberg (Editor)" is correctly sorted under "Holmberg" by the author sort in the Books list, but incorrectly sorted under "(Editor)" by the last name sort in the Authors list.
(Edit: Also multiple authors are incorrectly sorted. E.g. the Authors list incorrectly sorts "Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström" under "Hellström" while the Books list correctly sorts them under "Roslund")

* Formatting of title/series/author on the reading stats page is messed up. There is no gap betwen the title and series, and the author name is cut off at the bottom.

* Home screen and menus are extremely ghosty on my Glo.

AnemicOak · 05-10-2017, 12:56 AM

Ended up doing a factory reset. It does see the card now (or seems to since it's processing content very slowly [over 4,000 books]).

Zorka · 05-10-2017, 04:11 AM

Sideloaded this firmware on one of my mini's and (alltough I haven't used it much) everything seems to be working fine.
I must say I like the new homescreen, menu.

dordale · 05-10-2017, 04:38 AM

It sounds like the new home screen has been tweaked a little--can someone post a screen shot or two? I'm still thinking I prefer the old home screen and am not ready to upgrade yet because of that, but I am curious to see what the new screen looks like.

Thanks!

davidfor · 05-10-2017, 04:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by dordale

It sounds like the new home screen has been tweaked a little--can someone post a screen shot or two? I'm still thinking I prefer the old home screen and am not ready to upgrade yet because of that, but I am curious to see what the new screen looks like.

I can't take a screenshot at the moment, but, I don't think the looks have changed from the test version. Kobo have added more things to what can be displayed down the right side. The two noticeable are for an author or collection. These look pretty much the same as "My books" but have the author or collection name where "My Books" would go.

05-09-2017, 11:15 PM	#31
davidfor Grand Sorcerer Posts: 24,907 Karma: 47303748 Join Date: Jul 2011 Location: Sydney, Australia Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos	I'm coming in a bit later than I'd like, but, here's what I know. From Kobo, this is what is in 4.4.9298 Home screen - A fresh new layout that puts the focus back on your current reads – with larger text and bigger book covers. Main menu - A new simple menu on the upper left gives you direct access to all the important sections with one tap. Authors view - You can now browse by authors in the My Books section. Tabs - The My Books, Browse, Recommended, and Activity sections now feature tabs for quick and easy access to sub-sections. Status bar - The status bar on the upper right now displays larger icons for Light, Wi Fi, Battery, Sync, and Search. Sort by date added - You can now sort your books by the date they were added to your account. Look for this option with the other sort controls in My Books. PIN lock - Protect your privacy by requiring a 4‑digit PIN to unlock your eReader. Enable this feature from the settings menu under Energy Saving and Privacy. Apart from this, the bug fixes I know of are: Browser: Downloading files larger than 2MB. Don’t have to restart browser if you cancelling a download. Reading stats fixed. The stats for any books read with the last few firmware versions will not be fixed, but they seem to be working properly for any reading done after the upgrade. This is apparently the firmware to be sent to the Aura H2O Edition 2 when it is released. It should be going to all devices except the Mini. I have made the changes needed for calibre and they will be in the next release. Until then, it is completely safe to use the "Attempt to support newer firmware" option in either of the drivers. Edit: The support for firmware 4.4.9298, the Aura H2O Edition 2 has been released in calibre 2.85.0 and and the 3.0 betas. Last edited by davidfor; 05-12-2017 at 10:30 AM.

05-10-2017, 12:36 AM	#41
GeoffR Wizard Posts: 3,821 Karma: 19162882 Join Date: Nov 2012 Location: Te Riu-a-Māui Device: Kobo Glo	I sideloaded this firmware version to my Glo, it all went smoothly. A few things I've noticed that don't seem to have been mentioned above: * Book titles in the library list are now displayed in a regular font, rather than italics. This might make things easier for those with books in languages such as Arabic and Hebrew. * Sorting the Author list by last name doesn't work as well as the author sort in the Books list. For example "John-Henri Holmberg (Editor)" is correctly sorted under "Holmberg" by the author sort in the Books list, but incorrectly sorted under "(Editor)" by the last name sort in the Authors list. (Edit: Also multiple authors are incorrectly sorted. E.g. the Authors list incorrectly sorts "Anders Roslund and Börge Hellström" under "Hellström" while the Books list correctly sorts them under "Roslund") * Formatting of title/series/author on the reading stats page is messed up. There is no gap betwen the title and series, and the author name is cut off at the bottom. * Home screen and menus are extremely ghosty on my Glo. Last edited by GeoffR; 05-10-2017 at 12:48 AM. Reason: Also multiple authors are incorrectly sorted

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05-09-2017, 11:20 PM	#33
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	So far I don't really mind the new home screen. My biggest problem is the recommendations. Unless/until Kobo gives me a way to help tweak my recommendations like Amazon does (to take into account pbooks & ebooks from other sources) I find it rather useless and it's in a very prominent spot (top right). I'm not necessarily opposed to them being there (although it would be better it they could be disabled), but if they're going to be forced on me I'd like to make them more useful.

05-09-2017, 11:34 PM	#34
MGlitch Wizard Posts: 2,841 Karma: 22003124 Join Date: Aug 2014 Device: Kobo Forma, Kobo Sage, Kobo Libra 2	I did see something about 'not interested in this' when I looked at the recs. So you should be able to dismiss particular books.

05-10-2017, 12:06 AM	#38
MGlitch Wizard Posts: 2,841 Karma: 22003124 Join Date: Aug 2014 Device: Kobo Forma, Kobo Sage, Kobo Libra 2	They did buy shelfie with the intent of improving their recommendations. As to if that will work or not I'm not sure, but they're aware there is room for improvement.

05-10-2017, 12:56 AM	#42
AnemicOak Bookaholic Posts: 14,391 Karma: 54969924 Join Date: Oct 2007 Location: Minnesota Device: iPad Mini 4, AuraHD, iPhone XR +	Ended up doing a factory reset. It does see the card now (or seems to since it's processing content very slowly [over 4,000 books]).

05-10-2017, 04:11 AM	#43
Zorka Enthusiast Posts: 40 Karma: 41580 Join Date: Feb 2017 Location: Belgium Device: Kobo Mini(5), Kobo Touch, Kobo H2O, Poke2, Pocketbook Color, Remarkabl	Sideloaded this firmware on one of my mini's and (alltough I haven't used it much) everything seems to be working fine. I must say I like the new homescreen, menu.

05-10-2017, 04:38 AM	#44
dordale Wizard Posts: 1,731 Karma: 3472866 Join Date: Apr 2008 Device: Sony PRS-650 & 350; Kindle Voyage; Kobo Aura HD, Aura One, and Forma	It sounds like the new home screen has been tweaked a little--can someone post a screen shot or two? I'm still thinking I prefer the old home screen and am not ready to upgrade yet because of that, but I am curious to see what the new screen looks like. Thanks!

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