How to let websites identify kobo browser as "mobile" instead of "PC"?

[price]

eg, when i open inoreader.com with the build-in browser, it only shows a PC version of the webpage, no matter how i zoom in/out it. And sadly the url of both the mobile and pc version of inoreader.com are indentical.
So, are there any ways to change the UA of the browser, so the servers would identify it as a mobile phone?

I haven't tried doing this with the Kobo browser and don't know if it's possible, but obviously you need to change the "user agent" string that is a configuration string in every client browser. Here's an example talking about how you can change it in desktop browsers: https://www.howtogeek.com/113439/how...ny-extensions/.

ETA: This discussion reminded me I had been wanting to do this on my Android tablet, where I run Firefox browser and a lot of the websites serve up content as if my 7" Nexus tablet is a larger tablet. Instead, I want them to serve pages to this tablet as if it's a mobile device. This article described concisely how to go into the about:config, add a custom configuration setting, and specify my own user agent. Found the user agent values for mobile here, and it works great! Now if only it were that simple with Kobo's browser. Somehow, I'm guessing that it's not going to be. :-( Most browsers don't make things as user-configurable as Firefox, and even less so a dedicated device like a reader.

You might try raising this question in the Kobo developer subforum. I searched "user agent" there, and a only a handful of threads came up, like this one by davidfor:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ght=user+agent

[price]

Originally Posted by maximus83

I haven't tried doing this with the Kobo browser and don't know if it's possible, but obviously you need to change the "user agent" string that is a configuration string in every client browser. Here's an example talking about how you can change it in desktop browsers: https://www.howtogeek.com/113439/how...ny-extensions/.

ETA: This discussion reminded me I had been wanting to do this on my Android tablet, where I run Firefox browser and a lot of the websites serve up content as if my 7" Nexus tablet is a larger tablet. Instead, I want them to serve pages to this tablet as if it's a mobile device. This article described concisely how to go into the about:config, add a custom configuration setting, and specify my own user agent. Found the user agent values for mobile here, and it works great! Now if only it were that simple with Kobo's browser. Somehow, I'm guessing that it's not going to be. :-( Most browsers don't make things as user-configurable as Firefox, and even less so a dedicated device like a reader.

You might try raising this question in the Kobo developer subforum. I searched "user agent" there, and a only a handful of threads came up, like this one by davidfor:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...ght=user+agent

That's really sad. I thought there were some codes in the .kobo folder which can change this, but apparently it is much more complicated than i thought.

There may well be an easy way to do this on Kobo, I just haven't found what it is! From a couple of quick online searches and a scoped search here in MR, I can't find anything about it.

If you have time to check around yourself, it might be worth checking in some of the kobo .config files that are in folders on the device, and see if any of those contain a useragent string that could be tweaked.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by maximus83

There may well be an easy way to do this on Kobo, I just haven't found what it is! From a couple of quick online searches and a scoped search here in MR, I can't find anything about it.

If you have time to check around yourself, it might be worth checking in some of the kobo .config files that are in folders on the device, and see if any of those contain a useragent string that could be tweaked.

There isn't anything I can see in the config file, or the area of the firmware that usually maps to config file entries. But, the useragent is a string in the firmware. A patch should be possible to change it.

Originally Posted by davidfor

But, the useragent is a string in the firmware. A patch should be possible to change it.

What would be handy is if we could beg the dev team for a configurable textbox in the "Developer settings" that displays the default user agent string, and has a toggle button that would let you select "Custom useragent string" and supply a custom value if desired. Or toggle to return to "Default value" later, if needed, in case a custom useragent experiment fails miserably.

Of course, there may not be much demand for this. I suspect many users, like me, aren't using the included browser enough to make it worth while. I find the experience of trying to use anything other than the ereader app on these e-ink devices to be so frustrating, I just don't do it anymore. See my post in the Android section about updating my Nexus 7 to Android 8.1, and then using the "reading mode" (grayscale) setting. IMO, THAT is the way to go if you really want a nice Android-based reading experience, and can still run real Android apps and browse the web with no limitations.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by davidfor

There isn't anything I can see in the config file, or the area of the firmware that usually maps to config file entries. But, the useragent is a string in the firmware. A patch should be possible to change it.

A patch can change it. It's just simple string replacement. Make sure you replace the one which does have the version (there are different UAs for the browser and for the APIs).

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by geek1011

A patch can change it. It's just simple string replacement. Make sure you replace the one which doesn't have the version (there are different UAs for the browser and for the APIs).

I don't patch, so I'm not going to do it, I thought you would

But, what do you mean by "doesn't have the version"? I can see two strings:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; en-us;) AppleWebKit/%1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/%1 (Kobo Touch)

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.0; en-us;) AppleWebKit/%1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/%1 (Kobo Touch %2/%3)

The latter is what is what I see when I use a user agent reporting site.

[geek1011]

Originally Posted by davidfor

I don't patch, so I'm not going to do it, I thought you would

But, what do you mean by "doesn't have the version"? I can see two strings:

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; en-us;) AppleWebKit/%1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/%1 (Kobo Touch)

Mozilla/5.0 (Linux; U; Android 2.0; en-us;) AppleWebKit/%1 (KHTML, like Gecko) Version/4.0 Mobile Safari/%1 (Kobo Touch %2/%3)

The latter is what is what I see when I use a user agent reporting site.

Oops, that's a typo. I meant the one which does, which is the second one as you said. The %1 is the Qt WebKit version (538.1 for me), the %2 is the last 4 digits of the device ID, such as 0375, and the %3 is the firmware version.

Originally Posted by geek1011

Oops, that's a typo. I meant the one which does, which is the second one as you said. The %1 is the Qt WebKit version (538.1 for me), the %2 is the last 4 digits of the device ID, such as 0375, and the %3 is the firmware version.

In your opinion: Is tweaking the UA string on the Kobo browser going to make a useful/meaningful difference? I found its performance so awful as to be unusable and gave up on it. And by 'performance', I mean both 'how it renders pages' and 'how quickly it renders pages.' Of course, that's just me. I'm probably spoiled with good net bandwidth at work and home, and my other devices are more snappy, even my old Nexus 7 tablet from 2013. Using the e-ink device browsers on my Kobo or PW4 feels to me like sitting there and watching paint dry on a wall.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by maximus83

In your opinion: Is tweaking the UA string on the Kobo browser going to make a useful/meaningful difference? I found its performance so awful as to be unusable and gave up on it. And by 'performance', I mean both 'how it renders pages' and 'how quickly it renders pages.' Of course, that's just me. I'm probably spoiled with good net bandwidth at work and home, and my other devices are more snappy, even my old Nexus 7 tablet from 2013. Using the e-ink device browsers on my Kobo or PW4 feels to me like sitting there and watching paint dry on a wall.

I really don't know. The initial request was about seeing the mobile version of a site rather than than the desktop version. A few years ago, that would have meant a lower bandwidth site with simpler controls. Now, I'd wonder if it was the other way around. It will probably depend on the site. But, the browser is old enough and lacks a lot of function, so that it won't be able to take advantage of many sites.