Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 1.9.8

[readingglasses]

Originally Posted by PeterT

We could see 1.9.10 or 1.9.93 even! Nothing says it's a single digit revision number :P

Believe what you want to believe. You won't crush my dreams.

[Pistos]

Originally Posted by readingglasses

Did anyone else realize yet that there's only one more update before they release either the procrastinating 1.9.9.1 or else 2.0 ?

PeterT has a point. It is common to have version number components that go into the 10s and 20s.

If an update is good enough to be dubbed 2.0, then I'm sure they'll do that, but I'm also confident that if the next firmware updates are not worthy of fanfare and a big marketing budget, then it will be 1.9.xx .

[rwhe]

Originally Posted by rwhe

I get the big cover on sleep -- nice job!
I do notice the the Home screen seems to be once again tracking my five most recent books, something it stopped doing in 1.9.6. Again, thank you, Kobo devs.

I spoke too soon. After I connected with USB, old books started showing up on my Home page again. Then, when I wasn't looking, my KT did a spontaneous factory reset! Fortunately, I was prepared for this -- all my books are on SD. (Today was the first time I tried using Kobo Desktop for Linux -- could that have made a difference?)

This is pretty painful. Say what you will about paper books; at least they don't do spontaneous factory resets.

Kobo devs: any ideas what happened here?

(edit)

It didn't do a factory reset by itself, but it was in a state where it couldn't read or even see any books, only demo features of the device. Nevertheless, KD4L said it was running 1.9.8, and when I unplugged it, it asked me to do a factory reset, which I did, as it wasn't much good otherwise.

[danskmacabre]

Doh, saved wifi connections still failing and require deleiting to work.
It just doesn't do it all the time.

[taming]

Originally Posted by rwhe

It didn't do a factory reset by itself, but it was in a state where it couldn't read or even see any books, only demo features of the device. Nevertheless, KD4L said it was running 1.9.8, and when I unplugged it, it asked me to do a factory reset, which I did, as it wasn't much good otherwise.

I am not a developer, but from what I understand, when you have a corrupted Db, the Touch now prompts you to do the reset. Resets on the Touch are different than on earlier devices, which didn't actually repair/replace the bad Db as part of the factory reset. Reading about the problems you were having, it seems like you might have needed that!

[ArmorDog]

I'd just like to say that I've been very happy with the 1.9.8 update and I haven't had any problems at all. (I read a lot of side-loaded books and I'm constantly switching to the browser to look stuff up in wikipedia)

Thank you, Kobo devs!

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by Toastedpine

Stability improvements are important. I'm still a little worried about larger books. Because of the loading, I've noticed that while I read, the Touch doesn't respond anywhere near as well as with a short novel.

Odd. I notice no difference in terms of speed and performance between a short novel like The Man Who Knew Too Much (139 pages) and a monster like War and Peace (1700+ pages). Each loads from the home page in about two-seconds, and page turn speed is identical near as I can tell. This is using freely available DRM free epubs.

[actiss]

So is anybody else suffering from the footnote problem in sideloaded ePubs that I mentioned back in post 18? I'm curious to hear others' experiences.

[Joe563]

Originally Posted by actiss

So is anybody else suffering from the footnote problem in sideloaded ePubs that I mentioned back in post 18? I'm curious to hear others' experiences.

In general, hyperlinks in non-Kobo EPUBs are poorly implemented. I have noticed the problem you mention here. In addition to that problem, here are some others that I have noticed:

1) there is no visual feedback to indicate that a hyperlink has been successfully activated. In a Kobo EPUB, if a hyperlink has been successfully activated the hyperlink will briefly be shown as white text against a black background (Kobo Styling Off) and the busy spinner is displayed in the upper left of the screen.
2) if a hyperlink is successfully activated, it will generally take you to the page just before the correct page.
3) in some books hyperlinks are not shown with an underline so it is impossible to distinguished them from the surrounding text. In several books that I have, I only became aware that they contained hyperlinks when I viewed them in ADE. At a minimum, hyperlinks should be shown in light gray as is the case in Kobo EPUBs with Kobo Styling Off and, preferably, they should be shown in light gray with an underline.

ETA: The three problems that I have noticed have all been pointed out to the Kobo developers but to date there is no indication that they are working on solutions or even any acknowledgment from them that they exist.

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

Odd. I notice no difference in terms of speed and performance between a short novel like The Man Who Knew Too Much (139 pages) and a monster like War and Peace (1700+ pages). Each loads from the home page in about two-seconds, and page turn speed is identical near as I can tell. This is using freely available DRM free epubs.

Might be that the larger books he's reading have had their chapters split up into individual files that need to be loaded (a real pain when you're using footnotes, by the way, as I've found with the Kobo version of Noam Chomksy's ''Hegemony or Survival''). Greatly reduces performance.

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by actiss

So is anybody else suffering from the footnote problem in sideloaded ePubs that I mentioned back in post 18? I'm curious to hear others' experiences.

I've experienced this as well, and the behavior is exactly as you describe. No indication that the footnote link has been followed, and turning a page turns to the next/previous page from the link even though the display suggests you are still on the original page.

[Sher0808]

Help...I definitely have a problem since the update. I updated my Kobo with the new software and then attempted to download a new library book that I borrowed from my library. It wouldn't work. Next thing I know I have this message saying error in storage and gave me no choice to go back to factory standards. I went through the procedure, downloaded my purchased books with no problem. But I have three borrowed books from the library that will not load using ADE like it did before. I am particularly upset as one of the books is a John Grisham The Confession with only about 20 pages left to read. I only have 2 days left before it is returned.......please let me know what I am doing wrong or is this a bug in the update???? Sher

[taming]

If you did a factory reset, you may need to reauthorize your reader with Adobe ADE.

[Sher0808]

Originally Posted by taming

If you did a factory reset, you may need to reauthorize your reader with Adobe ADE.

You could be right, thx. I turned everything off and started from scratch and ADE did want to be authorized. It still took several attempts to drop and drag the books into my Kobo. I am now a happy camper and off to finish my book.

Thanks again.

Sher

[SF&F Reader]

I just installed the new FW. No problems so far, except that it won't connect to Calibre anymore. Not a big surprise, just thought I'd mention it.