Aura H2O Inconsistent length of long presses

[Vanguard3000]

Ever since a few updates back, when the highlighting system changed, I've found that long pressing for highlighting, opening context menus, etc, can be very inconsistent.

I'll press and hold a word to begin a highlight, and it will sometimes take a second, while others, it can take over five seconds, and if I let go any sooner, it'll change the page as if I tapped the screen at that position. It's very irritating as I do a lot of highlighting.

On a similar note, am I the only one who finds it annoying to have the highlight menu come up as well as saving the highlight? It doesn't make things any more convenient than the old method, where you had to use that menu to save the highlight; now, you still have to tap away to dismiss the saved highlight.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Vanguard3000

Ever since a few updates back, when the highlighting system changed, I've found that long pressing for highlighting, opening context menus, etc, can be very inconsistent.

I'll press and hold a word to begin a highlight, and it will sometimes take a second, while others, it can take over five seconds, and if I let go any sooner, it'll change the page as if I tapped the screen at that position. It's very irritating as I do a lot of highlighting.

I haven't noticed any real difference. It could be something about the Aura H2O, but I don't use mine enough to really see.

If yours is the original Aura H2O, try cleaning under the bezel. Dirt under it can block the IR beams.

On a similar note, am I the only one who finds it annoying to have the highlight menu come up as well as saving the highlight? It doesn't make things any more convenient than the old method, where you had to use that menu to save the highlight; now, you still have to tap away to dismiss the saved highlight.

I have mixed feelings about this. But, there is no change in the number of taps. Before, if select something, you had to tap the menu to save the highlight, or tap elsewhere for the menu to go away without saving the highlight. Now, you tap the menu to not save the highlight and tap elsewhere to save the highlight and close the menu. I'm not sure what the difference is.

Kobo told me that the change came from feedback. And I can see it. Why are you highlighting multiple words if you aren't planning to save the highlight? If you do a search, the highlight isn't saved. The problem I have, is that it is inconsistent with selecting a single word (or multiple words that match something in the dictionary). In that case, I have to tap the menu to save the highlight and tap away to close the menu and dictionary popup.

[Vanguard3000]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If yours is the original Aura H2O, try cleaning under the bezel. Dirt under it can block the IR beams.

I usually keep it fairly clean (and wipe the screen regularly), and it doesn't seem to be consistent with a specific area of the screen. But, by "under the bezel" do you mean I need to take it apart, or am I able to just sort of get under from the outside as much as possible?

Originally Posted by davidfor

I have mixed feelings about this. But, there is no change in the number of taps. Before, if select something, you had to tap the menu to save the highlight, or tap elsewhere for the menu to go away without saving the highlight. Now, you tap the menu to not save the highlight and tap elsewhere to save the highlight and close the menu. I'm not sure what the difference is.

I know its not a big thing. The main issue I have is sort of an old man gripe, where I'm used to the old way, and keep tapping the "undo highlight" option, instead of before when you had to tap that same area to save the highlight. I just find it clunky to have to tap to dismiss the highlight menu before making another highlight or turning the page.

[JSWolf]

There's nothing off about the H2O. Mine is just fine with the current firmware.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Vanguard3000

I usually keep it fairly clean (and wipe the screen regularly), and it doesn't seem to be consistent with a specific area of the screen. But, by "under the bezel" do you mean I need to take it apart, or am I able to just sort of get under from the outside as much as possible?

Just carefully clean under the edge of the bezel. If dirt or something gets in there, it can cause strange behaviour in different areas of the screen.

I know its not a big thing. The main issue I have is sort of an old man gripe, where I'm used to the old way, and keep tapping the "undo highlight" option, instead of before when you had to tap that same area to save the highlight.

I'm pretty much the same. It wasn't a change I thought was needed, but, I'm slowly getting used to it.

I just find it clunky to have to tap to dismiss the highlight menu before making another highlight or turning the page.

I would have said that this was always the case. If the menu was displayed, you had to do something to get rid of it before you could do another highlight or turn the page.

[Vanguard3000]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Just carefully clean under the edge of the bezel. If dirt or something gets in there, it can cause strange behaviour in different areas of the screen.

I tried cleaning under the bezel to no avail. It's an older device at this point, so it may just be showing its age. Oh well. In any case, thanks for your help.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Vanguard3000

I tried cleaning under the bezel to no avail. It's an older device at this point, so it may just be showing its age. Oh well. In any case, thanks for your help.

Your H2O should not be showing it's age. Mine isn't and I'vre had it for 6 years come this Thanksgiving (US).

[davidfor]

As it is probably not a physical issue, rereading the original post prompted some things.

Originally Posted by Vanguard3000

I'll press and hold a word to begin a highlight, and it will sometimes take a second, while others, it can take over five seconds, and if I let go any sooner, it'll change the page as if I tapped the screen at that position. It's very irritating as I do a lot of highlighting.

What format books are you reading? ePub or kepub? Purchased or sideloaded? Do you keep the annotations or remove them? (I do a lot of annotations but mainly for fixing problems in the books. Once I do that, I remove the annotations.)

Does the speed change in the book? Is it faster at the near the start or the end? Or even within chapters, especially longer chapters.

There are some performance issues with having a lot of annotations in the database. I have done some cleanup on the database to improve things. Deleting an annotation doesn't necessarily remove it from the database. They are marked as deleted and cleaned up when the device is synced or the book opened again. The latter can be a problem for sideloaded books if you remove them after finishing the book and do not reopen the book. (Note: The exact behaviour is firmware version dependant. I haven't specifically checked the details recently, but, I don't think it has changed.)

[Vanguard3000]

Exclusively sideloaded ePub. Like you, my annotations are primarily for highlighting formatting or OCR errors (I often scan books and convert them myself), so they get removed when I get the chance to correct the errors.

Are you asking specifically the speed of the highlight long press, or page turning and whatnot? I don't see any significant slowdown in page turning. The difference in long-pressing seem to vary even within a single page - there doesn't seem to be a specific pattern at all, which is strange.

I've gone into the database with an SQL viewer and cleaned out the annotations "removed" from the device but not from the database. I don't recall that specifically helping. But I can give it another try.