Kobo and Footnotes. Again.

[PeterT]

The other thing I just remembered is that the Kobo support for non Kobo format content (ie epub / pdf) is through the Adobe RMSDK, and there are some long standing issues affecting Kobo's ability to update to newer versions of RMSDK. In turn this also I expect prevents the addition of items like Java script support

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

The other thing I just remembered is that the Kobo support for not Kobo format content (ie epub / pdf) is through the Adobe RMSDK, and there are some long standing issues affecting Kobo's ability to update to newer versions of RMSDK.

What are these issues that prevent Kobo from updating RMSDK to the latest version?

[PeterT]

I'm sorry I don't remember.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[mramosch]

Well, the thing here is that I actually can execute JS code. It’s just that the touch layer absorbs all the touches and blocks interactivity with that code.

On their iOS platform app they even give you the option to distinguish between touch and click events after letting the touch fall through their touch filter layer.

So what’s the stretch to simply allow the same functionality on their own devices too?

[DNSB]

One issue is that .epub ebooks are rendered using the Adobe RMSDK renderer which knows nothing about JS or audio or video. You can use JS in .kepub.epub ebooks which are rendered by Kobo's WebKit based renderer. You can also use ePub3 audio/video embedding in .kepub.epub ebooks.

[mramosch]

And by the way:

In Wendy’s reply in https://github.com/kobolabs/epub-spec/issues/68 she was talking a lot about KOBOs concerns why not to open JS interactivity but not a single word about any licensing restrictions they have to obey, which would have been much easier for her to argument with.

[mramosch]

Sorry - cross mail ;-)

[mramosch]

Originally Posted by DNSB

You can use JS in .kepub.epub ebooks which are rendered by Kobo's WebKit based renderer. You can also use ePub3 audio/video embedding in .kepub.epub ebooks.

In .kepub.epub embedded audio gets rejected on KOBO devices, by showing the error text you provide when embedding the element into your HTML.

Same ebook with .epub extension only, the error message is not shown in the place where the audio element is supposed to be displayed, which means it either got rejected and they don’t prompt it or it is sitting there but cannot be accessed because the touch layer filter restricts all communication with the JS underneath.

On their iOS app it seems to respect JS’s event.preventDefault() because it does work there. I can’t tell for the other platforms they support because I don’t own computers or Android devices…

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by mramosch

In .kepub.epub embedded audio gets rejected on KOBO devices, by showing the error text you provide when embedding the element into your HTML.

Interesting. In playing with audio on my Sage, if I had Bluetooth on and a audio device connected, I could play an audio file in a .kepub.epub file if the format was supported. Video is not supported since video on an eInk screen is pathetic at best.

Originally Posted by mramosch

Same ebook with .epub extension only, the error message is not shown in the place where the audio element is supposed to be displayed, which means it either got rejected and they don’t prompt it or it is sitting there but cannot be accessed because the touch layer filter restricts all communication with the JS underneath.

As far as I know, the RMSDK version used by Kobo does not support the ePub3 audio/video extensions nor does it support JS. The proper behaviour according to the ePub specs is to treat unknowns as null operations.

There are newer versions of RMSDK but so far, Kobo has not updated. Probably since they wish to push ePub3 users to using their WebKit based renderer and not spending any more money on Adobe than needed.

[mramosch]

Hi David!

Originally Posted by DNSB

Interesting. In playing with audio on my Sage, if I had Bluetooth on and a audio device connected, I could play an audio file in a .kepub.epub file if the format was supported. Video is not supported since video on an eInk screen is pathetic at best.

I am listening to a free audiobook from the KOBO store, then exiting the book and opening my kepub.epub book with embedded audio right away and the error message appears.

Audio files are MP3s btw.

Where can we find a list of supported audio formats for the KOBO devices, as I remember to have read sometime somewhere that only Apple aac or something along that line would work? But I’m not sure for which platform that was. Only Apple, iOS or also the KOBO hardware…

I am interested to get the KOBO devices to work as on tablets and phones apps like iBooks and BookFusion do already work perfectly.

[mramosch]

You don’t happen to have an example of a working audio embedding that I could check to see whether there is a difference how older or newer KOBO devices handle it?

Or anybody else?

That would really be very helpful…

[PeterT]

Seeing all Kobo devices use basically the same firmware I doubt there would be any difference

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[mramosch]

Which essentially means that MP3 (at least in the bitrate I was using) is not supported because every app on iOS had no issues at all with my file, however the KOBO reader rejects it with an error message.

So then the question remains: Where can one find a list of supported audio formats for the KOBO devices?

[Quoth]

The audio functionality on Kobo ereaders is intended only for Kobo supplied Audiobooks.
A cheap phone works better and can have longer battery life for audio playback.

[mramosch]

Well, the KOBO device is also intended to be used only with the KOBO reader app and nevertheless we are using NickelMenus and KOreaders and Jailbreaks etc.

I really don’t get your point!

Yours is just an opinion and isn’t frankly very helpful here.

I mean, and I really don’t wanna be rude at all, you are of course totally entitled to have your own opinion, but there are people that don’t live the way you do.

I for instance do not own a computer or a phone and I will never have one, but I do have several thousands of real books and now an eReader. I have to walk 12 miles to the next neighbors in order to talk with you fine folks over the internet.

Am I not allowed to make the best out of my situation and decide for myself whether I sacrifice my battery charge for a few days of music or audiobook listening instead of a week or two of reading.

And when you say that ”the audio functionality on Kobo ereaders is intended only for Kobo supplied Audiobooks” this isn’t really true either. Who says that? KOBO? Well in this case I would ask you why then KOBO offers this hack of zipping mp3 files into an archive and rename it to .mp3z in order to open up a kind of (I guess hardcoded) hack-ish JS epub or interface that lets us play these mp3s in the most rudimentary way possible?

Some people here even mentioned that embedded audio works on their (older) devices…

I guess what I am trying to say is that defending KOBO on your part doesn’t help us users nor does it help KOBO in the long run. It would be understandable if it were for some hardware or processing power limitations, but that is clearly not the case. So it is simply some arbitrary decision that will hurt them when now all those new companies like Onyx Boox and BigMe etc. are delivering devices that offer much much more functionality at a very competitive price.

To sum it all up I think it is pretty stupid of them to insist on locking us in their eco-system like all the Apples and Amazons do and at the same time pretending to be different and more user oriented.

But of course this is also just an opinion and maybe non of my business ;-) So I will stop ranting…

Thanks to you and to all of you for letting me be a part of this community.

Hope to have some more fruitful discussions soon!