Kobo FW 2.6.1., we'll have to redefine embarrasing

PinkET · 06-21-2013, 01:00 PM

Hi there,

I wasn't going to bother writing down my findings because I don't want to spend my time on negative thoughts or words.
But after seeing this UI (user interface) getting worse with every new version, I just cannot let it pass by.
My wish is to stir something up in the Kobo developers, to hopefully get them to develop an UI that's worthy of the hardware.
I am judging their work, not their person nor their effort.
I may use a harsh comment here and there, but I will refrain from name calling or personal insults.
If any individual feels offended by my criticism, chances are this individual fits the shoe.

Ok, hold on to your seatbelts.

The Kobo Glo is in my opinion a nice piece of hardware, uncomplicated, pretty solid and it potentially could get the job done if it wasn't for the Kobo developers, in particular the one or ones designing the UI.
In 27 years of computering, developing, coding, beta testing, troubleshooting and what not, I did see some really shitty software, but Kobo's firmwares in general and this firmware in particular set a new standard.

One could say, I've seen worse. Yes, maybe, but consider this. Developing for the GLO isn't so hard, on the contrary.
This eReader has little functionality hardware wise; no sound, no multimedia, no backward compatibility to consider, no 3rd party software, no (real) games, no plug an play hardware (except for a SD card).
It is such a simple piece of hardware to write code for, it is embarrassing to see how the Kobo team is struggling to come up with a solid, intelligent UI for it.

I am not biased in any way toward any other brand or against Kobo. The Glo is my first ereader and despite the software I am happy with it. I live a traveling life in a mobile home and I don't have space for books.
When I'm reading a book I forget about the UI ... that is until I need to turn a page, or have to do something other than read on it.
The UI (not just the latest FW) always manages to get in my way, either by letting me wait 4, 5, 6 seconds, or making me press several times, options where you would not expect them to be or the opposite.

What in general I encountered in the time I own the Glo:
Opening books not bringing me to the last read page that I bookmarked,
Sudoku freezing the machine with only option being reboot,
Machine responsiveness reducing to almost zero,
Bookmarks disappearing after FW updates,
FW updates not showing release notes,
FW updates not showing correct FW version,
Latest FW has the release notes button removed altogether. Are we not to know what got messed up this time?

Never imagined a machine with so little functionality could have so many problems, some people's washing machines are more complicated than the GLO

I could fill a whole page with my findings, but I feel this is nuf said.

Now let's get to this latest FW 2.6.1.

Failure1:
Pressing the brightness icon doesn't give you direct control over the brightness anymore. You have to press on a second brightness icon to access the control.
I wonder how many extra presses that will mount to per year? Well, it's double the amount that's for sure.

(not to forget every press uses up a bit of your battery)

Failure2:
The brightness control is not conveniently on the bottom of the screen anymore where I could swipe it without moving my hand while continuing reading.
It is in the middle of the screen now, eliminating both mentioned advantages in one go.

Failure3:
One would think it would be impossible to further screw up the brightness functionality, but one would think wrong!

At night I like to turn down the Glo's light a bit and play one or two games of Sudoku before I go to sleep.
But somehow the devs forgot there is no topbar in Sudoku, so there's no way to access the brightness settings.
To turn down the light I now have to do the following:
1. press menu
2. press save and close
3. press any of the four icons (light, wifi, battery or menu) or anywhere on the topbar except home.
4. press brightness
5. turn down brightness
6. press the X or any other part of the screen
7. press any of the four bar icons again
8. press settings
9. press extra
10. press the Sudoku start button

Combine that with the fact I have to press some of them twice or more (responsiveness) and we are looking at anywhere from 10 to 20 presses to turn down the light.

Why are programs like Sudoku under settings in the first place?

Update. "Luckily" in failure4 (the new mainscreen) a direct link to Sudoku appeared after playing it, so as long as I don't open to many books after playing it, I can turn down the light in only 6 steps. Yay!.

(Epic)Failure4: The mainscreen. I always considered the mainscreen a joke ever since I own the Glo, but what on earth are they up to at Kobo? Tiles? Are they planning to integrate it with Windows 8? Come on! A mainscreen should be a nerve-center where everything comes together. This one only gets on my nerves!

I mean, what is Sketchpad doing on my mainscreen after I opened it once? Is it suddenly a favorite because I opened it once? Shouldn't I be the one to decide?
What is Sketchpad doing on the Glo in the first place?
Did you know you can even save the stupid lines you draw with it? As if anything you draw with it could be worth saving!
BTW, better not save them because the drawings will all appear on your mainscreen as if they were books.
BTW, to annoy you even further they will also appear on your mainscreen in a tile called "books added".
BTW, to really piss you off they will also appear in your books library. (better create a shelf for all your "artwork" then).

After I made and saved 8 drawings there were no more books on my mainscreen, just drawings, meaning you have no control over what stays on the screen.
BTW, the direct link to Sudoku is also gone now, so back to ten steps to turn the light down. Bummer.

A word of caution !!!BUG!!!.
When in library, when you click on the menu next to a drawing and chose edit, the Sketchpad opens without any UI, meaning you are stuck in it and only a reset of the Glo can save you.
Opening it by merely pressing on the drawing opens it with UI. So that's a Bug and a design failure. Why the edit option in a menu when just pressing on the drawing does the same thing?

It is becoming pretty sad now. I manually deleted the drawings from the screen by pressing and holding and choosing 'dismiss tile' and now I'm left with 4 books and some tiles with Sketchpad, Sudoku, Chess, Internet browser and Sync, none of which I want there.
There is plenty of room for another book bottom left and without the unwanted tiles at least two more, but for some reason it stays unused. So I start opening some books to see if my screen can be filled with only books again. Nope, Kobo made the program tiles stay at the expense of the books. When I open more books, other books disappear but the programs stay.
So I have to press and hold each of them and chose dismiss tile. Now they are gone but they will be back after the next time you open any of these programs.
You will have a lot of dismissing to do in the future.
On the upside of that, one could say the Glo is getting more interactive with this new FW.

Failure4 could fill a thread on it's own.

Lets examine the search-box that is occupying the whole width of the screen.
What happens when you press it? Can you type directly in the box? Nope, the old search dialog appears!
So, in fact it's a button disguised as a text-box over the entire width of the screen.
Can any of the developers (a word that is getting ever harder for me to use) explain what's the point of this?

More about the mainscreen:
Why can't I still get rid of reading life on my screen? Why is it there when I have it switched off?
What is sync now doing on my mainscreen? Why is it the only tile I can't dismiss?
Why is statistics on my mainscreen? And why does it keep appearing after I dismissed it?
I don't give a damn how many books I have read or how long it took me. Other people might, so make it optional.
Make everything optional, that's my bottom line, it's my ereader! I will decide what's important to me!

Another bug detected. When you turn on wifi the wifi icon disappears from the bar. One would expect and wish for the exact opposite behavior.
Note: Sometimes it will reappear and disappear again after some navigating, so it's unpredictable behavior as well.

About the tiles themselves. I don't want them. They are ugly, they make my bookcovers even smaller than they were before and I have no control over them.
Stop this nonsense and focus on making a real UI for ...... sake! This hardware deserves descent software.

If Kobo needs help, I can create a mock-up UI for this machine that will make everybody happy if not drool.
Fully logic, fully configurable, using the screen real estate efficiently and non obtrusively.
Kobo will have to do the coding, cause coding for Linux is not my thing.

There are still a few UI mistakes and bugs in FW 2.6.1 that were there since the beginning, but I think this post is long enough as it is.

rant off//

Greetings

Mike

Dr. Drib · 06-21-2013, 01:27 PM

I'm quite happy with this version of the firmware.

I just read books, and have no problem with anything.

Don

BWinmill · 06-21-2013, 02:14 PM

PinkET: may I suggest turning rant mode off before posting your opinion. Some of the points are bordering on incoherent because the description are wandering all over the place.

A couple of things to note though. Much of the criticism is focussed on the "Extras". Kobo notes, on the extras screen, "that they're not officially supported by Kobo." I enjoy these games on the commute and wish that they were better, but Kobo does make it clear that they are not a core feature of the device (and presumably do not receive much TLC).

As for the UI, I agree that it isn't perfect. I disagree with the bit about anyone being able to design one that makes "everybody happy if not drool." Kobo has gone through several designs on their eink based readers. There's always a group who's happy with the changes, another group who hates the changes, and a bunch who don't really care. Stuff like that is really in the domain of opinion: noone's really right and noone's really wrong. I, for one, like the new tiles interface. I can also understand why some people don't like the tiles interface. A large part of the difference is because of how individuals use the device.

Please understand: no mater how right you think you are, you are just as wrong as the rest of us.

Uschiekid · 06-21-2013, 02:21 PM

If you want to get rid of certain tiles (sync, recommendations, etc), I suggest you look at davidfor's plugin for calibre called "KoboUtilities"....You can set it so that they don't reappear (well, actually during the sync, recommendations appeared, but at the end of the sync, it was automatically deleted).

If you don't use calibre, but like to edit your database (

), you can still remove the sync tile....but the downside, is you will have to do it after every sync.

You should be able to populate your home screen with 8 (or 9...haven't figured out what determines this, other than the size of the cover and no bookmarks or annotations in the 1st book) books. And other than the sync tile (which there is a sneaky option to get rid of), none of the other tiles should be an issue, as you add books, they should be put lower on the screen until they are bumped off.

HOWEVER, if you are using an SD card and the books you are adding are on the SD card, there is a bug...so if this is the case, let me know, and I'll tell you the pattern that I have observed, and how to get the unwanted tiles off without having to dismiss them.

DNSB · 06-21-2013, 02:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PinkET

Failure4 could fill a thread on it's own.

Lets examine the search-box that is occupying the whole width of the screen.
What happens when you press it? Can you type directly in the box? Nope, the old search dialog appears!
So, in fact it's a button disguised as a text-box over the entire width of the screen.
Can any of the developers (a word that is getting ever harder for me to use) explain what's the point of this?

Just how were you planning on typing in the search box without popping up the search dialog? There is no keyboard on the home screen. Copy/paste?

This was discussed a while back where the suggestion was made to move search (along with several other functions) back to a small button in the top bar of the home screen freeing up some screen real estate.

As to why they made Sync non-dismissable in 2.6.1? Great Ghu alone knows. Check davidfor's KoboUtilities which will let you dismiss quite a few tiles from the home screen including Sync without manually editing the database.

Regards,
David

John F · 06-21-2013, 03:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

...

Please understand: no mater how right you think you are, you are just as wrong as the rest of us.

I started reading/thinking about this, but my brain produced a popup message saying "your brain has stopped responding".

Tzar · 06-21-2013, 03:19 PM

PinkET,

I feel a lot what you're describing.

I still like and use my Glo in spite of all this. But as I said in another thread, the perpetually half-baked firmware has actually made me cancelled my Aura purchase, and I will be seriously tempted in buying the next Amazon offering that will go out to compete with the Aura.

I could live with a lot of issues if at least the one that are the heart of the reading experience could get adressed, mainly the broken bookmarks function. Since how many firmware releases has this been broken? Why do I keep coming back to my book either one page forward or one page backward? This is beyond me why this cannot be solved or is not getting adressed.

The change to the brightness control also surprised me. I find it less convenient than in the past. Also now, you have no choice but to look at the black smudges at the bottom of the screen since you cannot have that black bar anymore with the light on.

PinkET · 06-21-2013, 05:45 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

PinkET: may I suggest turning rant mode off before posting your opinion. Some of the points are bordering on incoherent

I was unaware that a certain level of writing skills and coherence was acquired before posting, nor did I see it mentioned in the forum rules. If I missed them, please accept my apology.
Shall I forward my next posts to you first so you can check them on coherence?

BTW. Would you be so kind to go through the same trouble as I did to actually make a case and show me which points you find are bordering on incoherent? You know, basing your opinion on a few provable facts?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

A couple of things to note though. Much of the criticism is focussed on the "Extras".

Why are you lying about my post and then commenting on it? Can't you find a point you can actually disprove? Shame on you!

I suggest you read it again because literally NONE of my comments are focused on Extras.
Extras are mentioned when I focus on the "Brightness setting" and the "Mainscreen".
At no point in my post do I go into any details about the Extras themselves. So "focused on Extras" is a plain lie.

Was being the first to jump in and bash the OP so important for you, you skipped a few lines?

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

As for the UI, I agree that it isn't perfect.

As for the UI??? Are you kidding? My entire post was about the UI!! Nice you finally got to this point too.

As for the UI, it's an embarrassing piece of software, but I'm under the impression you wouldn't know the difference.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

I disagree with the bit about anyone being able to design one that makes "everybody happy if not drool."

Impression confirmed.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Kobo has gone through several designs on their eink based readers.

You just enforced my case.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

There's always a group who's happy with the changes, another group who hates the changes, and a bunch who don't really care.
Stuff like that is really in the domain of opinion: noone's really right and noone's really wrong. I, for one, like the new tiles interface. I can also understand why some people don't like the tiles interface. A large part of the difference is because of how individuals use the device.

That is exactly why I advocate OPTIONS and CHOICES, right there almost at the end of my post, but I guess you were in such a hurry you missed that too.

So, let's talk about the facts. You haven't presented anything but opinion about my incoherence and about something I didn't write.

At least I made a case based on evidence anyone can check for themselves and however incoherent in your view, I did put in a lot of effort to be precise and detailed.
I haven't seen you present anything to dismiss my findings, nor have you tried.

So my post stands as it is.
Kobo Glo's UI is a mess. That's my opinion based on verifiable quirks and bugs.
And my list is a lot longer than in my first post, I can assure you.

Quote:

Originally Posted by BWinmill

Please understand: no mater how right you think you are, you are just as wrong as the rest of us.

Next time I need to write a condescending but coherent oneliner, I'll ask you for help. You're good at it.

PeterT · 06-21-2013, 05:53 PM

Actually a lot of your ranting seems to be on SketchPad and Sudoku

PinkET · 06-21-2013, 05:56 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

If you want to get rid of certain tiles (sync, recommendations, etc), I suggest you look at davidfor's plugin for calibre called "KoboUtilities".....

Thanks for the suggestion and for the offer to help. Really appreciate it.
I do use Calibre and I will check it out.

The fact one has to use 3rd party software on a PC to adjust a simple thing like what shows up on the screen of the reader is further enforcing my case that Kobo's UI is flawed.
It's like having software on your PC to enable your car to open the windows.

See ya,

Mike

mystika1 · 06-21-2013, 06:30 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by Dr. Drib

I'm quite happy with this version of the firmware.

I just read books, and have no problem with anything.

Don

I am in full agreement. I love my Glo.

Penny

PinkET · 06-21-2013, 07:01 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

Actually a lot of your ranting seems to be on SketchPad and Sudoku

It doesn't seem so. Only for people who have problems interpreting context and reading in general.

PinkET · 06-21-2013, 07:18 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by mystika1

I am in full agreement. I love my Glo.

Penny

I'm happy with the Glo as I mentioned in my original post. A thing some people seem to have overlooked.

But Love has nothing to do with User interface flaws.

Am I now the forum's pariah because I don't want Reading life, Shop, Sync and statistics on my home screen? Have I violated some secret code by openly criticizing your sweet little ereader?

I find the term love in combination with an electronic object quite disturbing.
I hope I haven't ended up in a ereader sect here at mobileread.

alexep · 06-21-2013, 07:23 PM

I agree that we should be able to customize the main screen a bit more (dismiss tiles that can't be dismissed, disabling reading life and whatnot) but I don't really see a point in not having your recent activities showing up on your screen since there's not much to do in an ereader anyway. And trust me, I usually HATE that recent activities trend everyone seems to be including in their systems or apps or whatever, like Amazon with their tablets and recently with their Kindle Android app, or Google with Google Books. But if you don't want Sketchpad there, dismiss it. You said it yourself, Sketchpad is impractical on a device like this. I've used it once and never again because it sucks. And then I dismissed the tile from my home screen and that was the end of it. It's an experimental feature anyway.

As far as the tiles UI goes, I'm a big fan, they look great. At least on the Aura, can't speak for the Glo. Same thing on responsiveness, everything works fine here on my Aura. In my opinion, the only thing in your post that qualifies as a failure is the brightness bar being moved from the bottom to the centre of the screen. That's annoying.

PinkET · 06-21-2013, 07:50 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

Just how were you planning on typing in the search box without popping up the search dialog? There is no keyboard on the home screen. Copy/paste?

Hi David,
Nice to see someone presenting actual arguments.

To answer your question I wasn't planning to.

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

This was discussed a while back where the suggestion was made to move search (along with several other functions) back to a small button in the top bar of the home screen freeing up some screen real estate.

A button in the top bar was a good suggestion in my opinion. I wonder what made them decide for the dummy searchbox occupying so much real estate instead?

Quote:

Originally Posted by DNSB

As to why they made Sync non-dismissable in 2.6.1? Great Ghu alone knows. Check davidfor's KoboUtilities which will let you dismiss quite a few tiles from the home screen including Sync without manually editing the database.

Nah, I will revert to FW 2.5.0., was nice, stable and responsive, and no crap on my screen, well except for reading life and shop but I will check out the tools to get rid of them. After that no more updates.

Thank you for pointing it out though. I appreciate the none aggressive post.

Greetings,

Mike

06-21-2013, 01:00 PM	#1
PinkET Enthusiast Posts: 35 Karma: 198870 Join Date: Sep 2012 Device: Kobo Glo	Kobo FW 2.6.1., we'll have to redefine embarrasing Hi there, I wasn't going to bother writing down my findings because I don't want to spend my time on negative thoughts or words. But after seeing this UI (user interface) getting worse with every new version, I just cannot let it pass by. My wish is to stir something up in the Kobo developers, to hopefully get them to develop an UI that's worthy of the hardware. I am judging their work, not their person nor their effort. I may use a harsh comment here and there, but I will refrain from name calling or personal insults. If any individual feels offended by my criticism, chances are this individual fits the shoe. Ok, hold on to your seatbelts. The Kobo Glo is in my opinion a nice piece of hardware, uncomplicated, pretty solid and it potentially could get the job done if it wasn't for the Kobo developers, in particular the one or ones designing the UI. In 27 years of computering, developing, coding, beta testing, troubleshooting and what not, I did see some really shitty software, but Kobo's firmwares in general and this firmware in particular set a new standard. One could say, I've seen worse. Yes, maybe, but consider this. Developing for the GLO isn't so hard, on the contrary. This eReader has little functionality hardware wise; no sound, no multimedia, no backward compatibility to consider, no 3rd party software, no (real) games, no plug an play hardware (except for a SD card). It is such a simple piece of hardware to write code for, it is embarrassing to see how the Kobo team is struggling to come up with a solid, intelligent UI for it. I am not biased in any way toward any other brand or against Kobo. The Glo is my first ereader and despite the software I am happy with it. I live a traveling life in a mobile home and I don't have space for books. When I'm reading a book I forget about the UI ... that is until I need to turn a page, or have to do something other than read on it. The UI (not just the latest FW) always manages to get in my way, either by letting me wait 4, 5, 6 seconds, or making me press several times, options where you would not expect them to be or the opposite. What in general I encountered in the time I own the Glo: Opening books not bringing me to the last read page that I bookmarked, Sudoku freezing the machine with only option being reboot, Machine responsiveness reducing to almost zero, Bookmarks disappearing after FW updates, FW updates not showing release notes, FW updates not showing correct FW version, Latest FW has the release notes button removed altogether. Are we not to know what got messed up this time? Never imagined a machine with so little functionality could have so many problems, some people's washing machines are more complicated than the GLO I could fill a whole page with my findings, but I feel this is nuf said. Now let's get to this latest FW 2.6.1. Failure1: Pressing the brightness icon doesn't give you direct control over the brightness anymore. You have to press on a second brightness icon to access the control. I wonder how many extra presses that will mount to per year? Well, it's double the amount that's for sure. (not to forget every press uses up a bit of your battery) Failure2: The brightness control is not conveniently on the bottom of the screen anymore where I could swipe it without moving my hand while continuing reading. It is in the middle of the screen now, eliminating both mentioned advantages in one go. Failure3: One would think it would be impossible to further screw up the brightness functionality, but one would think wrong! At night I like to turn down the Glo's light a bit and play one or two games of Sudoku before I go to sleep. But somehow the devs forgot there is no topbar in Sudoku, so there's no way to access the brightness settings. To turn down the light I now have to do the following: 1. press menu 2. press save and close 3. press any of the four icons (light, wifi, battery or menu) or anywhere on the topbar except home. 4. press brightness 5. turn down brightness 6. press the X or any other part of the screen 7. press any of the four bar icons again 8. press settings 9. press extra 10. press the Sudoku start button Combine that with the fact I have to press some of them twice or more (responsiveness) and we are looking at anywhere from 10 to 20 presses to turn down the light. Why are programs like Sudoku under settings in the first place? Update. "Luckily" in failure4 (the new mainscreen) a direct link to Sudoku appeared after playing it, so as long as I don't open to many books after playing it, I can turn down the light in only 6 steps. Yay!. (Epic)Failure4: The mainscreen. I always considered the mainscreen a joke ever since I own the Glo, but what on earth are they up to at Kobo? Tiles? Are they planning to integrate it with Windows 8? Come on! A mainscreen should be a nerve-center where everything comes together. This one only gets on my nerves! I mean, what is Sketchpad doing on my mainscreen after I opened it once? Is it suddenly a favorite because I opened it once? Shouldn't I be the one to decide? What is Sketchpad doing on the Glo in the first place? Did you know you can even save the stupid lines you draw with it? As if anything you draw with it could be worth saving! BTW, better not save them because the drawings will all appear on your mainscreen as if they were books. BTW, to annoy you even further they will also appear on your mainscreen in a tile called "books added". BTW, to really piss you off they will also appear in your books library. (better create a shelf for all your "artwork" then). After I made and saved 8 drawings there were no more books on my mainscreen, just drawings, meaning you have no control over what stays on the screen. BTW, the direct link to Sudoku is also gone now, so back to ten steps to turn the light down. Bummer. A word of caution !!!BUG!!!. When in library, when you click on the menu next to a drawing and chose edit, the Sketchpad opens without any UI, meaning you are stuck in it and only a reset of the Glo can save you. Opening it by merely pressing on the drawing opens it with UI. So that's a Bug and a design failure. Why the edit option in a menu when just pressing on the drawing does the same thing? It is becoming pretty sad now. I manually deleted the drawings from the screen by pressing and holding and choosing 'dismiss tile' and now I'm left with 4 books and some tiles with Sketchpad, Sudoku, Chess, Internet browser and Sync, none of which I want there. There is plenty of room for another book bottom left and without the unwanted tiles at least two more, but for some reason it stays unused. So I start opening some books to see if my screen can be filled with only books again. Nope, Kobo made the program tiles stay at the expense of the books. When I open more books, other books disappear but the programs stay. So I have to press and hold each of them and chose dismiss tile. Now they are gone but they will be back after the next time you open any of these programs. You will have a lot of dismissing to do in the future. On the upside of that, one could say the Glo is getting more interactive with this new FW. Failure4 could fill a thread on it's own. Lets examine the search-box that is occupying the whole width of the screen. What happens when you press it? Can you type directly in the box? Nope, the old search dialog appears! So, in fact it's a button disguised as a text-box over the entire width of the screen. Can any of the developers (a word that is getting ever harder for me to use) explain what's the point of this? More about the mainscreen: Why can't I still get rid of reading life on my screen? Why is it there when I have it switched off? What is sync now doing on my mainscreen? Why is it the only tile I can't dismiss? Why is statistics on my mainscreen? And why does it keep appearing after I dismissed it? I don't give a damn how many books I have read or how long it took me. Other people might, so make it optional. Make everything optional, that's my bottom line, it's my ereader! I will decide what's important to me! Another bug detected. When you turn on wifi the wifi icon disappears from the bar. One would expect and wish for the exact opposite behavior. Note: Sometimes it will reappear and disappear again after some navigating, so it's unpredictable behavior as well. About the tiles themselves. I don't want them. They are ugly, they make my bookcovers even smaller than they were before and I have no control over them. Stop this nonsense and focus on making a real UI for ...... sake! This hardware deserves descent software. If Kobo needs help, I can create a mock-up UI for this machine that will make everybody happy if not drool. Fully logic, fully configurable, using the screen real estate efficiently and non obtrusively. Kobo will have to do the coding, cause coding for Linux is not my thing. There are still a few UI mistakes and bugs in FW 2.6.1 that were there since the beginning, but I think this post is long enough as it is. rant off// Greetings Mike

06-21-2013, 02:21 PM	#4
Uschiekid Tenrec Posts: 724 Karma: 1076988 Join Date: Oct 2012 Device: Kobo Aura One, Kobo Glo	If you want to get rid of certain tiles (sync, recommendations, etc), I suggest you look at davidfor's plugin for calibre called "KoboUtilities"....You can set it so that they don't reappear (well, actually during the sync, recommendations appeared, but at the end of the sync, it was automatically deleted). If you don't use calibre, but like to edit your database (), you can still remove the sync tile....but the downside, is you will have to do it after every sync. You should be able to populate your home screen with 8 (or 9...haven't figured out what determines this, other than the size of the cover and no bookmarks or annotations in the 1st book) books. And other than the sync tile (which there is a sneaky option to get rid of), none of the other tiles should be an issue, as you add books, they should be put lower on the screen until they are bumped off. HOWEVER, if you are using an SD card and the books you are adding are on the SD card, there is a bug...so if this is the case, let me know, and I'll tell you the pattern that I have observed, and how to get the unwanted tiles off without having to dismiss them.

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Kobo Touch not disconnecting properly from Calibre OR Kobo Desktop - Windows 7	JBlyth	Devices	1	08-03-2011 06:50 AM

06-21-2013, 01:27 PM	#2
Dr. Drib Grand Sorcerer Posts: 45,383 Karma: 59504381 Join Date: Jan 2007 Location: Peru Device: KINDLE: Oasis 3, Scribe (1st), Matcha; KOBO: Libra 2, Libra Colour	I'm quite happy with this version of the firmware. I just read books, and have no problem with anything. Don

06-21-2013, 02:14 PM	#3
BWinmill Nameless Being	PinkET: may I suggest turning rant mode off before posting your opinion. Some of the points are bordering on incoherent because the description are wandering all over the place. A couple of things to note though. Much of the criticism is focussed on the "Extras". Kobo notes, on the extras screen, "that they're not officially supported by Kobo." I enjoy these games on the commute and wish that they were better, but Kobo does make it clear that they are not a core feature of the device (and presumably do not receive much TLC). As for the UI, I agree that it isn't perfect. I disagree with the bit about anyone being able to design one that makes "everybody happy if not drool." Kobo has gone through several designs on their eink based readers. There's always a group who's happy with the changes, another group who hates the changes, and a bunch who don't really care. Stuff like that is really in the domain of opinion: noone's really right and noone's really wrong. I, for one, like the new tiles interface. I can also understand why some people don't like the tiles interface. A large part of the difference is because of how individuals use the device. Please understand: no mater how right you think you are, you are just as wrong as the rest of us.

06-21-2013, 03:19 PM	#7
Tzar World War II buff Posts: 55 Karma: 32130 Join Date: Nov 2011 Location: Montreal, Quebec Device: Kindle Oasis 3, Kobo Aura One	PinkET, I feel a lot what you're describing. I still like and use my Glo in spite of all this. But as I said in another thread, the perpetually half-baked firmware has actually made me cancelled my Aura purchase, and I will be seriously tempted in buying the next Amazon offering that will go out to compete with the Aura. I could live with a lot of issues if at least the one that are the heart of the reading experience could get adressed, mainly the broken bookmarks function. Since how many firmware releases has this been broken? Why do I keep coming back to my book either one page forward or one page backward? This is beyond me why this cannot be solved or is not getting adressed. The change to the brightness control also surprised me. I find it less convenient than in the past. Also now, you have no choice but to look at the black smudges at the bottom of the screen since you cannot have that black bar anymore with the light on.

06-21-2013, 05:53 PM	#9
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 13,366 Karma: 78877538 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour	Actually a lot of your ranting seems to be on SketchPad and Sudoku

06-21-2013, 07:23 PM	#14
alexep Junior Member Posts: 4 Karma: 2576 Join Date: Jun 2013 Device: Kobo Aura HD	I agree that we should be able to customize the main screen a bit more (dismiss tiles that can't be dismissed, disabling reading life and whatnot) but I don't really see a point in not having your recent activities showing up on your screen since there's not much to do in an ereader anyway. And trust me, I usually HATE that recent activities trend everyone seems to be including in their systems or apps or whatever, like Amazon with their tablets and recently with their Kindle Android app, or Google with Google Books. But if you don't want Sketchpad there, dismiss it. You said it yourself, Sketchpad is impractical on a device like this. I've used it once and never again because it sucks. And then I dismissed the tile from my home screen and that was the end of it. It's an experimental feature anyway. As far as the tiles UI goes, I'm a big fan, they look great. At least on the Aura, can't speak for the Glo. Same thing on responsiveness, everything works fine here on my Aura. In my opinion, the only thing in your post that qualifies as a failure is the brightness bar being moved from the bottom to the centre of the screen. That's annoying.

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