Touch Kobo Touch Firmware 1.9.17

[Jaden]

Today I read for a longer time and now I had dead taps - far more than I had before. But only on the right side of the screen (and changing the lighting didn't matter nor did cleaning the screen...).

As to those asking why the recommendations are a problem - they take up memory, for example.

I set the bar to shortlist, but I'd be more happy to be able to opt out of this. It's enough that there's advertising on the Desktop and Kobo website (I might even look at those) and that I receive advertising emails. I don't want even more advertising on my Touch.

[dioioib]

The system seems much improved to me. However, it will not load any new content for me. Only the content purchased through Kobo's store loads.

I have tried everything yet again.

Renamed all files removing special characters such as []:;"'`~,?!@#$%^&*()+=
Used Kobo Bulk Fixer on epubs - only 6 files were epubs
Used Adobe Digital Editions to authorized the device. (All content is visible)
Turned on the device - processes content.
Look in the library - only 4 files are present. Kobo Manuals, and 2 free books downloaded from the kobo store.
Look in the .kobo/KoboReader.sql file and there are duplicate entries for the preloaded content but no additional books are listed.
Checked the image directory - all book covers were parsed
Checked .adobe-digital-editions folder activation.xml and device.xml exist.

This is on my new replacement model N905B

All content is on internal memory.
I have not tried side loading yet.

I'm going to open another ticket tomorrow if I can't get this thing going, with another hard reset. I really shouldn't have to hard reset something right out of the box though.



---Contemplating How My Unread Books Must Feel---

[mshappy89]

Never had problems with page turns but since upgrading I seen to have the problem where when turning a page it skips back a few pages.

Would a reset help

[Woodstonian]

Before the upgrade, I was getting about 6-10 page turns between dead taps. Now it's more like 20-25. By experience is limited, though, to just one epub book since I just bought the unit 11 days ago.

[pdrewcock]

My first time posting. Forgive me if I'm in the wrong forum or any other transgressions.
Just got my forced update. Found one major bug that Kobo so far has not been able to fix:
When I launch tthe browser and go to favorites, the first favorite selection opens fine. The second time I try to open a favorite, the reader re-boots. Every time, no misses.
Customer service only managed to delete my favorites list, but it didn't fix the problem.
Any suggestions would be appreciated. Anyone else try this yet?
Oh yeah, and another thing:
Sudoku locks up constantly! Maddening!
I know both these apps are not officially supported, but they used to work well. Do you suppose that Sony has decided to slowly kill this product since it simply duplicates the Sony unit?
Cheers! Pete.

[KevinShort]

Originally Posted by pdrewcock

Found one major bug that Kobo so far has not been able to fix:
When I launch tthe browser and go to favorites, the first favorite selection opens fine.
The second time I try to open a favorite, the reader re-boots. Every time, no misses.

Huh, I just tried it, and I'm having the same bug. I think I'll go back to 1.9.16 now,
I really like the web browser.

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

That doesn't stop it from tracking and profiling you for the sake of advertising at you, which is the big problem.

I hope you never ever buy anything from an online vendor, or have an account with Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., because they all basically do the same thing.

[dioioib]

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

I hope you never ever buy anything from an online vendor, or have an account with Facebook, Google, Yahoo, MSN, etc., because they all basically do the same thing.

That doesn't make it ok.

Being forced into a system that aggregates data from you is no different then someone going through your trash after you put it on the curb.

As a Canadian I have an expectation of privacy. It's unfortunate that companies capitalize from users by forcing them into these agreements. At least this firmware version allows me to turn off some aspects of data aggregation like facebook shares. Google has lost me as a supporter for the this exact reason. The Cloud in general is a horrible idea because it gives the wrong people to much access to your everyday life. It's a shame open source developers don't simplify certain types of server setups so people could run their own "Cloud's." I can get the same results from making an SSH tunnel into my home computer. I don't need nor want these cloud services but am forced into updating to software, websites, and hardware that support creepy marketing gurus harvesting every bit of data they can so they can commodity it. Now I don't have an issue if this is glaringly apparent when the service launches. But when a service changes mid way through it is nothing but irritating. And sneaking it in without anyone knowing is even worse.

I find it surprising when companies get up in arms about software or hardware modifications, when the end result is people attempting to make a a device work the way they had expected it to.

What is even more surprising is people accepting this is just the way it is. If this was a telephone or cell phone conversation no one would think twice about how wrong it is to snoop on your communications and actions. But somewhere down the line people just decided to roll over and ignore their right to privacy. I say if your one of those people great let companies do what they want with your data thats fine by me. But I want an off switch or a self installed alternative without "google analytics" or who knows what else.

[JedV]

Originally Posted by Thra11

The browser seems to have been broken. Now it comes up with some nonsense about appearing to be connecting to a public wifi hotspot, then tries to load a "Hotspot web login" page, which never loads, presumably because my home wifi connection is not a public hotspot. It's gained a 'cancel' button, but to be honest, I preferred it when it could actually connect to the network and load web pages.

I had the same experience last October with whatever firmware version was most current back then. The Kobo Touch 'experimental' web browser doesn't handle pop-ups well, if at all. As a result, I couldn't log-in to a hotel's wifi hot spot. My friend on the other hand could using another device

[Blue2u]

Originally Posted by PeterT

You can easily do the upgrade without WiFi..... Just launch Kobo Desktop; let it upgrade to the newest version, and then, when you attach the Kobo, Desktop will prompt you do an upgrade on the Touch.

Even my Kobo desktop wouldn't download the upgrade. After I read your post I tried. I really wanted to get my Kobo fully upgraded, I paid for it, it should work the way it's supposed to, right?! So, I started from scratch, uninstalled Kobo desktop, Calibre, etc. Restarted from scratch.
1] Installed Kobo desktop, found my purchases, etc, downloaded 1.9.17
2] Plugged in Kobo Touch, downloaded 1.9.17, added library
3] Library didn't show up
4] Uninstalled library, tried re-loading, it worked this time, and did all 200+ books in one go.
5] Read my book for about an hour. Double page turns still happening, but not as often.
6] Time is off [about half hour], annoying, but, ok
7] Wanted to add a couple of new books, added 1, fine, went to add 3 more, got the #$%^& 'Get Disk Free Space' error. AGAIN Details below.

This is getting frustrating beyond belief. Why once the library is built [200+ at a time], will it not accept more than ONE change at a time? It will be a PITA but is the easiest solution really to add one book at a time?

Also, to anybody who has/had both Touch and Vox, is the Vox any better? My g/f got one and had to return it, she never even got to read one book on it, it wouldn't work for her at all. Maybe I'll just go back to the first Kobo and be done with it...

Oh, and here's error details...AGAIN

(2, 'GetDiskFreeSpace', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 82, in run
File "site-packages\calibre\gui2\device.py", line 412, in _upload_books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\driver.py", line 253, in upload_books
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\device.py", line 1010, in _sanity_check
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\device.py", line 175, in free_space
File "site-packages\calibre\devices\usbms\device.py", line 133, in _windows_space
error: (2, 'GetDiskFreeSpace', 'The system cannot find the file specified.')

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by dioioib

That doesn't make it ok.

Being forced into a system that aggregates data from you is no different then someone going through your trash after you put it on the curb.

As a Canadian I have an expectation of privacy. It's unfortunate that companies capitalize from users by forcing them into these agreements. At least this firmware version allows me to turn off some aspects of data aggregation like facebook shares. Google has lost me as a supporter for the this exact reason. The Cloud in general is a horrible idea because it gives the wrong people to much access to your everyday life. It's a shame open source developers don't simplify certain types of server setups so people could run their own "Cloud's." I can get the same results from making an SSH tunnel into my home computer. I don't need nor want these cloud services but am forced into updating to software, websites, and hardware that support creepy marketing gurus harvesting every bit of data they can so they can commodity it. Now I don't have an issue if this is glaringly apparent when the service launches. But when a service changes mid way through it is nothing but irritating. And sneaking it in without anyone knowing is even worse.

I find it surprising when companies get up in arms about software or hardware modifications, when the end result is people attempting to make a a device work the way they had expected it to.

What is even more surprising is people accepting this is just the way it is. If this was a telephone or cell phone conversation no one would think twice about how wrong it is to snoop on your communications and actions. But somewhere down the line people just decided to roll over and ignore their right to privacy. I say if your one of those people great let companies do what they want with your data thats fine by me. But I want an off switch or a self installed alternative without "google analytics" or who knows what else.

The Western concept of "privacy" is a fairly modern and not particularly realistic notion. As they say, no man is an island. And really, for as long as there have been marketers and advertisers, there has been aggregated data and targeted marketing. This is nothing new. It's just that the data collection methods are a bit more sophisticated now, and the marketing shows up as, in this case, suggestions on your reader's home page instead of as junk mail on your doorstep. It's a little silly to be getting paranoid now.

Considering all the hundreds of other ways that companies collect data about you -- How often do you use your credit card, and where? What magazine subscriptions do you have? Online subscriptions? How many websites have you registered with? And on and on... -- shutting down Google Analytics on your Kobo is going to make no difference whatsoever. It might make you feel better, but it's a bit Don Quixote.

[The Terminator]

Originally Posted by GoingDown

I am pretty sure that Kobo did use google tracking with older firmwares as well.

Yup, and no complaining to the developers will ever change that. Complain to Kobo if you don't like it.

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by MDK

Kobo Touch Firmware 1.9.17 and desktop 2.1.7 will be released shortly.

Kobo Touch:

• Improved recognition of page-turn taps
• Home screen correctly remembers your carousel choice
• Improved sync performance
• Fixed rendering of menu items where a word is highlighted
• Fixed trouble connecting to Wi-Fi in some cases
• Option to share your reading activity to Facebook Timeline
• SD card performance has been improved
• Other stability and performance improvements

Desktop:
• Improved Syncing Performance
• Hover over recommendations for more information
• Improved syncing of annotations between eReaders and Desktop software
• Fixed issues with navigating to search results
• Various bug fixes and performance improvements

As usual, special thanks to the beta testers for their feedback!

Interesting note here. The double page turn still happens, and for me its become much more apparent. Any One else?

Do like the fact that short list now stays at the bottom and no longer is replaced with the recommendations.

Overall I would say this firmware gets a 7.5 out of 10...

[eddie19]

I have recently had the new firmware 1.9.17. Can't say I notice any difference regarding page turn. In fact I have had two occasions when the system has frozen. Pages would not turn. Had to switch OFF and restart. Also had problems with erratic page turn, when a forward swipe would result in the pages turn backwards. In each case I was reading epub books.

I agree about the navigation bar. Why not have a 'goto' option where you can enter a page number.

[jusmee]

Originally Posted by eddie19

I have recently had the new firmware 1.9.17. Can't say I notice any difference regarding page turn. In fact I have had two occasions when the system has frozen. Pages would not turn. Had to switch OFF and restart. Also had problems with erratic page turn, when a forward swipe would result in the pages turn backwards. In each case I was reading epub books.

I agree. I can't credit them with having achieved ANY improvement at all. In fact, at this point, I suspect the hardware is substandard and no amount of tweaking of software will ever make it work 100%.