Aura HD Kobo Glo/Aura/Aura HD future firmware feature request thread

arspr · 11-05-2013, 04:53 PM

Hi, I'm pretty new to these forums but as suggested in the latest posts of Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread maybe starting a new thread for the latest models can be a good decision as it seems Touch/Mini don't have the same features anymore.

I didn't think I was the most appropriate person to start it... But nobody did... So here I go.

Support for nested ToCs
Currently nested ToCs are flattened to one level. This behaviour causes that pretty detailed ToCs (with possibly a lot of effort spent in them) are converted to endless and meaningless lists of entries...

Hyphenation control interface
A good example of inconsistency here. Kepubs (ACCESS renderer) are not hyphenated by default but epubs (RMSDK renderer) are. Workarounds are possible for both if the user wants to change those behaviours (enabling hyphenation in kepubs in this thread, disabling hyphenation in epubs in this one). But they are somehow cumbersome and not suitable for an entry user of the eReader. You need some knowledge about CSS/Calibre/editing ebooks and I think this is a very important rendering option (more important than even Line Spacing available through GUI).

GoTo Page function
Even when page numbers are quite meaningless in ebooks, they are still pretty much more accurate and faster than the small sliding bar the current interface offers. (And page numbers are still shown in both kepubs and epubs).
More over, Kobo has a GoTo Page function implemented... but in bookshelf/annotation lists...

"Soft" font type changing
Currently, if you choose a font setting but "Document Default", the WHOLE book is rendered with that font even if it has styles, embedded fonts or whatever. This behaviour is possibly OK for a lot of people, but I prefer changing fonts only where the ebook editor/author hasn't set them inside the ebook.
(Currently the font setting is like a CSS property with !important. I would like it without that flag too).
More over, because of the current behaviour you can loose information in books edited with two or more different font types.

Updated ---
Another inconsistency here. As posted below, in kepubs all the book is changed as I had previously posted. But in epubs it seems that only <p> contents are changed...

Zooming options over embedded images
Aura HD has a wonderful screen so sometimes an embedded image is just too small. Or maybe it's too big because its wrong CSS settings. Or maybe you just want to explore some detail in some area of the image, Or maybe...

I think it could be a great idea enabling some kind of zooming options by long pressing on images. If possible it would open a new window where you could freely zoom, move and whatever around the image.

Updated ---
In firmware 2.10.0 (or even in older ones through some tweaking as it is said in the 2nd post by Paola), this feature is present for kepubs but not epubs.

Adding this feature in epubs either would be great. In addition, I don't like double tapping to call the Image Viewer. It feels alien to the general Kobo interface where most things, (but zoom in pdfs IIRC), are done through long tap and long tap does nothing on images...

Control over footer/header size
(Or even being able to hide any of them). Aura HD screen is wonderful but I think that both footer and header are too big and they waste quite a lot of space in the screen. Options on their appearance would be great.

Full book management options on tiles (and inside book menu too)
If you long press on a Tile you can just open it or dismiss it. It would be really great if I could directly archive/delete/whatever the book.
More over, within the opened ebook you cannot perform some actions like deleting it. Why? I would add all the management options you have in library to the book menu.

Alphabetic scroll-bar in Library
I mean: a lateral scroll bar so you can easily jump to books with (name/author/whatever) starting by the letter xxxx. (Like in Sony book list or like your address-book in your Android smartphone).
The current available GoTo Page function is somehow quite meaningless here. Why should I want to jump to the 14th page of 37? What I really want is jumping to books (or authors or whatever) starting by "L".

Deleting books AND annotations
As posted in the Bug Thread (see this post and the next), when you delete an epub their annotations are kept stored within the device. I find this behaviour quite pointless, but, as davidfor says, other people may prefer it.
So would it be possible adding an option for "Delete (Annotations too)"?

Marking some items before performing an action
Imagine you want to archive/delete/whatever action some books/shelves/annotations. You must perform one each time and repeat the action n-times. (If you are lucky and that's what you want, sometimes you have a Delete/Archive/whatever all option).
Adding the ability to select several items before performing an action would be really great.

Sorting by Series in Library
Official kepubs or if you use the option in Calibre KoboTouchExtended driver allows storing series info for your books. Sorting by this info would be a great addition.
More over, Pixelpuncher has quite a good suggestions here about improvements in searches/sorting.

Updated ---
Search toolbar also present in Library
Yes, right now if I want to search for a book, and I'm inside the library (because I do want to browse my books), I have to EXIT to the home screen before I can search for it. (Am I the only one who thinks that this behaviour is not logical at all?).

As explained by davidfor in the 12th post, this request is really bad.

Possibly a simple search icon somewhere would be far better.

"Awesome" home screen search toolbar
"Awesome" as in Firefox.
Now seriously. Adding the next options (to Bookstore and Library) in the search toolbar would be great:

Inside the currently reading book. It would search for text or annotations within the ebook. (You can already perform this action, at least for text, from the book menu. I'm just suggesting the ability of doing it from outside the ebook).
Inside the whole library. Possible with a warning and asking for confirmation because I suppose it can be pretty slow with big libraries. It would work like the previous one but it will search in every single book you have.

Of course, sorting options on the results are pretty compulsory with these possible new features.

Updated 11-14-2013---
Subcollections/subshelves
As explained in this thread, the ability to create subcollections can be really interesting. In addition to their manual use, it could be used to port nearly your whole Calibre library categorization to the eReader.

(Although as Helen and davidfor say, I do sadly fear that Kobo is never going to spend the effort in this feature

).

paola · 11-06-2013, 03:28 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arspr

Zooming options over embedded images
Aura HD has a wonderful screen so sometimes an embedded image is just too small. Or maybe it's too big because its wrong CSS settings. Or maybe you just want to explore some detail in some area of the image, Or maybe...

I think it could be a great idea enabling some kind of zooming options by long pressing on images. If possible it would open a new window where you could freely zoom, move and whatever around the image.

For images, unless the new firmware has eliminated it, you can solve the problem by adding the following line to the file "Kobo_eReader.conf" in the directory .kobo\Kobo\Kobo_eReader.conf":

Code:

[FeatureSettings]
ImageZoom=true

If the

Code:

[FeatureSettings]

line is already there, just add the other line underneath.
You may find it worthwhile to have a look at this thread:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=218376

GeoffR · 11-06-2013, 03:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arspr

"Soft" font type changing
Currently, if you choose a font setting but "Document Default", the WHOLE book is rendered with that font even if it has styles, embedded fonts or whatever. This behaviour is possibly OK for a lot of people, but I prefer changing fonts only where the ebook editor/author hasn't set them inside the ebook.
(Currently the font setting is like a CSS property with !important. I would like it without that flag too).
More over, because of the current behaviour you can loose information in books edited with two or more different font types.

I have some books that work the way you want, i.e. when I choose Document Default I get all the embedded fonts used by the publisher, but when I select say Georgia then the chapter headings remain in the embedded font but the main text changes to Georgia.

I think it is up to the publisher to create the book this way though, they can choose which objects will always use the embedded font and which can be overridden by the user's selection. I don't see how the firmware could tell which ones to override and which to leave alone if the publisher hasn't provided that information.

davidfor · 11-06-2013, 04:43 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by paola

For images, unless the new firmware has eliminated it, you can solve the problem by adding the following line to the file "Kobo_eReader.conf" in the directory .kobo\Kobo\Kobo_eReader.conf":

The new firmware has eliminated the need for the option. Double tap an image in a kepub and the image view will open on it.

cycojesus · 11-06-2013, 11:29 AM

In addiction to a smaller blank footer I'd love to have a progress bar à la FBReader with chapters indicators (see http://mg.pov.lt/fbreader-toc-marks.png for a visual)

PeterT · 11-06-2013, 12:41 PM

Originally Kobo did show a chapter style progress bar, but for the life of me, I can't remember whether that was Kobo Original, Wifi, or early days of Touch.

arspr · 11-06-2013, 01:09 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by GeoffR

I have some books that work the way you want, i.e. when I choose Document Default I get all the embedded fonts used by the publisher, but when I select say Georgia then the chapter headings remain in the embedded font but the main text changes to Georgia.

I think it is up to the publisher to create the book this way though, they can choose which objects will always use the embedded font and which can be overridden by the user's selection. I don't see how the firmware could tell which ones to override and which to leave alone if the publisher hasn't provided that information.

WTF!!! Another inconsistency here. By chance I have uploaded the same book as epub and "kepubized".

In epub some fonts are changed and others aren't.

In kepub all are changed.

I will investigate further.

supermaily · 11-06-2013, 02:03 PM

I need better support for dictionaries:
- 'normal' file formats
- more supported languages (PL, RU, etc)
- easy dictionaries handling (adding, switching, etc)

arspr · 11-06-2013, 02:47 PM

The Font changing issue:

Kepub renderer changes the font in all the book. I mean it seems the new font is directly applied to <body> (with !important).
Epub renderer only seems to change <p> (with !important). At least <div>, <hx>, <cite> and <ol>+<li> are not changed.

(Good books to test: anyone from the AON Project. They are free).

A BUG? Or just a strange design criterion?

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

The new firmware has eliminated the need for the option. Double tap an image in a kepub and the image view will open on it.

Great, I've just installed 2.10 and tested it. Just two observations:

It only works in kepubs. Would it be possible to make it work in epubs too?
Double tap is not used nearly in any place in Kobo interface. More over long tap on images doesn't do anything but calling the "highlight" bar. I think long tap is more Koboish than double tap.

I will update the first post ASAP

davidfor · 11-06-2013, 06:17 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arspr

Great, I've just installed 2.10 and tested it. Just two observations:

It only works in kepubs. Would it be possible to make it work in epubs too?

It can only come to the epub reader if Kobo can add the code. But, that could be difficult as it is based on the Adobe SDK and might need some changes there.

Quote:

Double tap is not used nearly in any place in Kobo interface. More over long tap on images doesn't do anything but calling the "highlight" bar. I think long tap is more Koboish than double tap.

But, long press has a meaning which you demonstrated. It allows you to select something to add a highlight. People will want to highlight and annotate the images.

davidfor · 11-06-2013, 07:05 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arspr

Hi, I'm pretty new to these forums but as suggested in the latest posts of Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread maybe starting a new thread for the latest models can be a good decision as it seems Touch/Mini don't have the same features anymore.

Can I disagree with the need for this thread? I don't think the firmware versions have diverged enough yet. And I don't think Kobo will let them diverge any more. From statements made by Kobo, I do know that things like Pocket will come to the Touch. And the interface probably will as well. Kobo have spent this year concentrating on the new devices. The Glo received all the updates because it was the same resolution as one of them. That made it easy to do and allowed them to test a lot of the changes for the Aura.

The Touch and Mini have not been forgotten. All these firmware versions have been tested on the Touch and Mini. And lots of people are sideloading them with no issues. Pocket will come to the Touch. As to the rest of the updated interface, we'll see. I could see Kobo not doing the tiled home scree, but the rest of it should be there.

As evidence of the fact this thread is not needed, look at the first set of suggestions. Only two of them are specific to the current Glo, Aura HD and Aura interface. And one these just needs to be reworded a bit for the Touch interface. And one of the others is a bug, A bug that is present on all devices.

A more useful thing would be to restart the feature request thread. The current thread has been going for over two years. Some of the requests have been fulfilled. Others are no longer valid due to other changes. And overall it is a mess. So, refocus and make the suggestions we need now based on the current firmware for all devices.

davidfor · 11-06-2013, 07:14 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by arspr

Search toolbar also present in Library
Yes, right now if I want to search for a book, and I'm inside the library (because I do want to browse my books), I have to EXIT to the home screen before I can search for it. (Am I the only one who thinks that this behaviour is not logical at all?).

This is a horrible idea. In case you haven't noticed the "search bar" on the home sceen is not actually a search bar. It is a button that opens another window to do a search. It is a waste of space on the home screen and should be replaced by a real "Search" button in the menus at the bottom of the screen. On the library lists, a search icon in the top bar makes sense.

Also, next time you are looking at the library list, tap the top-right of the screen to open the top menus. A search button (yes, it looks like a search bar, but again it is a button) will appear. Press that and the search window will open.

speakingtohe · 11-06-2013, 07:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

Others are no longer valid due to other changes. And overall it is a mess. So, refocus and make the suggestions we need now based on the current firmware for all devices.

The first post in this thread seems exceptionally well organized. Whether it is needed or not (personally I think it is an exercise in futility but doesn't hurt to try) I appreciate the look of it although I think it will be hard to keep this way.

Helen

BTW I hear they have discontinued the mini. Too bad, I actually like the mini.

Helen

davidfor · 11-06-2013, 07:39 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

The first post in this thread seems exceptionally well organized. Whether it is needed or not (personally I think it is an exercise in futility but doesn't hurt to try) I appreciate the look of it although I think it will be hard to keep this way.

Yes it is and I agree that the thread won't stay that way. Maybe adopting a format for suggestions like the bug thread would help.

Quote:

BTW I hear they have discontinued the mini. Too bad, I actually like the mini.

I saw that as well. They seem to have disappeared from most shops here. I am surprised as it seemed to fit in the product line and was popular. Hopefully they have something new coming to replace it.

filmo · 11-06-2013, 09:36 PM

I new Kobo Mini could be made smaller with same size screen. The present mini seems to be rugged and stiff enough to take all of my abuse so far lets hope any replacement is as good or hopefully better in this regard. I have seen that size reader with a flexable screen sold in Europe that might be better than current mini.

11-05-2013, 04:53 PM	#1
arspr Dead account. Bye Posts: 587 Karma: 668244 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: none	Kobo Glo/Aura/Aura HD future firmware feature request thread Hi, I'm pretty new to these forums but as suggested in the latest posts of Kobo Touch future firmware feature request thread maybe starting a new thread for the latest models can be a good decision as it seems Touch/Mini don't have the same features anymore. I didn't think I was the most appropriate person to start it... But nobody did... So here I go. Support for nested ToCs Currently nested ToCs are flattened to one level. This behaviour causes that pretty detailed ToCs (with possibly a lot of effort spent in them) are converted to endless and meaningless lists of entries... Hyphenation control interface A good example of inconsistency here. Kepubs (ACCESS renderer) are not hyphenated by default but epubs (RMSDK renderer) are. Workarounds are possible for both if the user wants to change those behaviours (enabling hyphenation in kepubs in this thread, disabling hyphenation in epubs in this one). But they are somehow cumbersome and not suitable for an entry user of the eReader. You need some knowledge about CSS/Calibre/editing ebooks and I think this is a very important rendering option (more important than even Line Spacing available through GUI). GoTo Page function Even when page numbers are quite meaningless in ebooks, they are still pretty much more accurate and faster than the small sliding bar the current interface offers. (And page numbers are still shown in both kepubs and epubs). More over, Kobo has a GoTo Page function implemented... but in bookshelf/annotation lists... "Soft" font type changing Currently, if you choose a font setting but "Document Default", the WHOLE book is rendered with that font even if it has styles, embedded fonts or whatever. This behaviour is possibly OK for a lot of people, but I prefer changing fonts only where the ebook editor/author hasn't set them inside the ebook. (Currently the font setting is like a CSS property with !important. I would like it without that flag too). More over, because of the current behaviour you can loose information in books edited with two or more different font types. Updated --- Another inconsistency here. As posted below, in kepubs all the book is changed as I had previously posted. But in epubs it seems that only <p> contents are changed... Zooming options over embedded images Aura HD has a wonderful screen so sometimes an embedded image is just too small. Or maybe it's too big because its wrong CSS settings. Or maybe you just want to explore some detail in some area of the image, Or maybe... I think it could be a great idea enabling some kind of zooming options by long pressing on images. If possible it would open a new window where you could freely zoom, move and whatever around the image. Updated --- In firmware 2.10.0 (or even in older ones through some tweaking as it is said in the 2nd post by Paola), this feature is present for kepubs but not epubs. Adding this feature in epubs either would be great. In addition, I don't like double tapping to call the Image Viewer. It feels alien to the general Kobo interface where most things, (but zoom in pdfs IIRC), are done through long tap and long tap does nothing on images... Control over footer/header size (Or even being able to hide any of them). Aura HD screen is wonderful but I think that both footer and header are too big and they waste quite a lot of space in the screen. Options on their appearance would be great. Full book management options on tiles (and inside book menu too) If you long press on a Tile you can just open it or dismiss it. It would be really great if I could directly archive/delete/whatever the book. More over, within the opened ebook you cannot perform some actions like deleting it. Why? I would add all the management options you have in library to the book menu. Alphabetic scroll-bar in Library I mean: a lateral scroll bar so you can easily jump to books with (name/author/whatever) starting by the letter xxxx. (Like in Sony book list or like your address-book in your Android smartphone). The current available GoTo Page function is somehow quite meaningless here. Why should I want to jump to the 14th page of 37? What I really want is jumping to books (or authors or whatever) starting by "L". Deleting books AND annotations As posted in the Bug Thread (see this post and the next), when you delete an epub their annotations are kept stored within the device. I find this behaviour quite pointless, but, as davidfor says, other people may prefer it. So would it be possible adding an option for "Delete (Annotations too)"? Marking some items before performing an action Imagine you want to archive/delete/whatever action some books/shelves/annotations. You must perform one each time and repeat the action n-times. (If you are lucky and that's what you want, sometimes you have a Delete/Archive/whatever all option). Adding the ability to select several items before performing an action would be really great. Sorting by Series in Library Official kepubs or if you use the option in Calibre KoboTouchExtended driver allows storing series info for your books. Sorting by this info would be a great addition. More over, Pixelpuncher has quite a good suggestions here about improvements in searches/sorting. Updated --- Search toolbar also present in Library Yes, right now if I want to search for a book, and I'm inside the library (because I do want to browse my books), I have to EXIT to the home screen before I can search for it. (Am I the only one who thinks that this behaviour is not logical at all?). As explained by davidfor in the 12th post, this request is really bad. Possibly a simple search icon somewhere would be far better. "Awesome" home screen search toolbar "Awesome" as in Firefox. Now seriously. Adding the next options (to Bookstore and Library) in the search toolbar would be great: Inside the currently reading book. It would search for text or annotations within the ebook. (You can already perform this action, at least for text, from the book menu. I'm just suggesting the ability of doing it from outside the ebook). Inside the whole library. Possible with a warning and asking for confirmation because I suppose it can be pretty slow with big libraries. It would work like the previous one but it will search in every single book you have. Of course, sorting options on the results are pretty compulsory with these possible new features. Updated 11-14-2013--- Subcollections/subshelves As explained in this thread, the ability to create subcollections can be really interesting. In addition to their manual use, it could be used to port nearly your whole Calibre library categorization to the eReader. (Although as Helen and davidfor say, I do sadly fear that Kobo is never going to spend the effort in this feature ). Last edited by arspr; 11-14-2013 at 01:33 PM. Reason: Updated info - Subcollections

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11-06-2013, 11:29 AM	#5
cycojesus Enthusiast Posts: 27 Karma: 16238 Join Date: Feb 2010 Location: Lyon, France Device: Kobo Elipsa	In addiction to a smaller blank footer I'd love to have a progress bar à la FBReader with chapters indicators (see http://mg.pov.lt/fbreader-toc-marks.png for a visual)

11-06-2013, 12:41 PM	#6
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,155 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	Originally Kobo did show a chapter style progress bar, but for the life of me, I can't remember whether that was Kobo Original, Wifi, or early days of Touch.

11-06-2013, 02:03 PM	#8
supermaily Junior Member Posts: 6 Karma: 11514 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	I need better support for dictionaries: - 'normal' file formats - more supported languages (PL, RU, etc) - easy dictionaries handling (adding, switching, etc)

11-06-2013, 09:36 PM	#15
filmo Wizard Posts: 1,326 Karma: 1077205 Join Date: Jun 2011 Device: Kobo Touch, Sony T1, Kobo Mini	I new Kobo Mini could be made smaller with same size screen. The present mini seems to be rugged and stiff enough to take all of my abuse so far lets hope any replacement is as good or hopefully better in this regard. I have seen that size reader with a flexable screen sold in Europe that might be better than current mini.

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