Kobo Vox Software Updates?

[profbisson]

Received an email from a Kobo.chtah.com telling me that a software update for the Kobo Vox is available and to download it from a tinyurl.com link. It was in my spam folder.

I have my suspicion about the tinyurl.com link and it downloads an apk file but did not install it. Spammers uses tinyurl or equivalent link shorteners to hide the fact that it does not come from a legit website, especially the kobo.chtah.com link.

Does anyone know if this is legit? Can anyone from Kobo confirm?

[KoboJW]

Writing a post about that right now. The email is legitimately from us, but the tinyurl link is NOT the software update. Please stay tuned for a post from me coming very shortly...

James

[profbisson]

Thanks, James!

[easterncoyote]

What is with this company?! "The email is legitimate", but the link is from some some suspicious source? I have the Vox, and didn't receive any email about an update. I am one step away from returning this thing. The battery completely discharged overnight while in sleep mode; I plugged it in to recharge, and turned it on to receive an error message that something couldn't load, and I had no access to my books. Taking off the back cover and pressing the reset button did nothing, so I had to do a factory reset. It turns on periodically in sleep mode, as many others have experienced. What an amateur effort, in my opinion. Kobo fans here are effusive about the company releasing updates and improvements, etc.; they should have got it right before they released it.

[PeterT]

I don't believe that Tinyurl.com is in any way a suspicious source. Certainly it (along with almost ANY web site can be used for nefarious purposes).

If you are at all concerned there actually are websites that can be used to expand upon a shortened link to it's original value; take a look at for instance at http://longurl.org/ ; simple Google searches can find many other sites offering the same service.

That Tinyurl.com link expands to http://download.kobobooks.com/vox/apps/SystemPatch.apk

Also if you are at all concerned about security, most people would advise you to NEVER click on an URL in an eMail but rather to type it in yourself.

[easterncoyote]

Originally Posted by PeterT

I don't believe that Tinyurl.com is in any way a suspicious source. Certainly it (along with almost ANY web site can be used for nefarious purposes).

If you are at all concerned there actually are websites that can be used to expand upon a shortened link to it's original value; take a look at for instance at http://longurl.org/ ; simple Google searches can find many other sites offering the same service.

That Tinyurl.com link expands to http://download.kobobooks.com/vox/apps/SystemPatch.apk

Also if you are at all concerned about security, most people would advise you to NEVER click on an URL in an eMail but rather to type it in yourself.

Hi Peter. I don't know anything about tinyurl, but I don't think people should have to do forensics to see if link is legitimate. Why wouldn't the link just be from Kobo?

[taming]

Folks use tinyurl to avoid having to deal with people who can't seem to type in longer addresses without making errors that they then say they could not possibly have made. And, of course, in situations where length matters, for example, when using Twitter.

[mr_nobody]

I imagine kobo might have used tinyurl here because people may end up typing in the address on the onscreen keyboard of their vox!

[hieronymos]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Also if you are at all concerned about security, most people would advise you to NEVER click on an URL in an eMail but rather to type it in yourself.

NO! Seriously, don't do that! Say you receive an email from Paypal and then you type, have a typo and come out at paypla.com, which has the exact same layout as Paypal?
If you want to be sure for an email, check the headers; where does the email come from? Where has it been sent to ('undisclosed recipients;' for example is not good)?

Websites you visit frequently better have double-triple-checked bookmarks in your toolbar. Same goes for when you send an email to your bank or whatever - choose the person out of your hand-picked address book (not the one that fills itself automatically in Outlook or Gmail), don't retype the email from your documents.

See this article as well: http://www.eweek.com/c/a/Security/Cy...etails-352903/

[KoboJW]

easterncoyote: Only those that may require a slight modification to their current software before updating will have recieved the email. If you didn't get it, you're OK and can update. The purpose of the tinyurl is because you'll have to browse there on your Vox. You are, of course, free to type the longer expanded URL using the Vox keyboard if you prefer.

[easterncoyote]

Originally Posted by KoboJW

easterncoyote: Only those that may require a slight modification to their current software before updating will have recieved the email. If you didn't get it, you're OK and can update. The purpose of the tinyurl is because you'll have to browse there on your Vox. You are, of course, free to type the longer expanded URL using the Vox keyboard if you prefer.

Alright, thank you for the information. I was getting quite frustrated with the Vox yesterday, especially having to do the factory reset. I will wait for the update, which hopefully will solve some of these problems!