Suggestions for Firmware V1.5?

[daniblum]

The annoying things I see in it are:
- It starts re-building its database after USB connect even if it was an USB charger - that is, no changes were really made to its contents;
- This re-build seems to start from scratch, instead of being incremental;
- A lot of ePub files that were loaded (via calibre) are still not available for reading;
- There is no way to go to a certain page number. My suggestion is, how about a new menu item 'Go To Page', then a number control that displays the default value (maybe 1, maybe the current page number), and then the Directional Pad's right-left buttons would make it increment/ decrement in ones, and its up-down buttons would make it increment/ decrement in tens, and its centre button would make it accept the current value.

[RedRoverJ]

Originally Posted by thp1017

As much as I'd also love to see a super quick startup time, some times x, y, and z all need to happen, and there may not be a way to speed it up. I like your suggestion of showing the last page viewed quickly while things are booting up, and/or the previously made suggestion of NOT opening the "I'm reading" list on bootup, as that also slows things down.

With respect to the startup process, I wonder if there are some things that could be remove from the boot-up process, in favor of requiring us to *manually* do it. Right now, it seems that every bootup the software compares the books on 'disk' with whats listed in the sql database, and updates it as needed, which has to take a not insubstantial amount of time. I certainly wouldn't mind removing this from the bootup process, and then having something in the menu somewhere to "search for new content" - that makes more sense to me than the current model anyway, but..... the "average" user might have issues with this, I guess, and complain that their books aren't showing up when they copy the files over (oh, wait, or does the "average" user just use the crappy Borders or ADE software?)

I would quite happy if the Kobo only rebuilt the library after USB disconnection. However, this wouldn't account for people who, for example, swap out content on an SD card while the Kobo is off.

Hmm, I suppose a manual "check for new content" option would work, but many users would likely complain that they added new content and it wasn't detected. People do expect that sort of this to be automatic.

Kobo needs to find a balance between ease of use (automatic detection) and speed (quick boot). I like the idea of quickly booting to the last read page and THEN updating the library in the background. This would allow user to continue reading in the shortest amount of time, and allow the Kobo to do the heavy lifting while the user is reading.

[thp1017]

Originally Posted by RedRoverJ

Hmm, I suppose a manual "check for new content" option would work, but many users would likely complain that they added new content and it wasn't detected. People do expect that sort of this to be automatic.

Yeah, I totally agree, which is unfortunate - I just did a quick test popping my sd card out and then back in (no content on it right now), and it took about five seconds to process - so I'd guess at *least* 10 seconds of the bootup time (which is ~30s for me) is scanning the on-board memory and the sd card...

but yeah, this model wouldn't work for your average user - which is why we need to get a hold of the source code

[nooders2006]

I would like to see

--a goto page number function or a least a skip 10 pages , skip 50 pages and similarly go back 10 , 50 etc. A few times the Kobo after syncing has lost where I am up to in a book and manually clicking through a few hundred pages if the book is not chaptered is arduous

--PDF reflow

--Configurable sleep and power off options

--Return of cover displayed in powere off

--A few more basic games eg klondike, mazes, euchre, chess, draughts etc

Cheers

[mdurham]

Originally Posted by HamsterRage

I only see that on the Kobo store purchased books, which you can't mess with because of the DRM. Books that come from other sources don't have that problem.

Thanks HamsterRage, I saw it on a demo Kobo. It was displaying one of the free 100 books that it comes with. How can I verify that the line spacing is 'normal' (closer) on other books on a demo model in the shop? Is there one of the free books that you can recommend I look at?
Cheers, Mike

I just looked at http://www.borders.com.au/ereader/ under 'Features' or 'Technical spec' tab, and you can see that the line spacing is rather large. Is this normal or what? If it's normal I wont buy a Kobo, but I'd really like to.

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by mdurham

Thanks HamsterRage, I saw it on a demo Kobo. It was displaying one of the free 100 books that it comes with. How can I verify that the line spacing is 'normal' (closer) on other books on a demo model in the shop? Is there one of the free books that you can recommend I look at?
Cheers, Mike

I just looked at http://www.borders.com.au/ereader/ under 'Features' or 'Technical spec' tab, and you can see that the line spacing is rather large. Is this normal or what? If it's normal I wont buy a Kobo, but I'd really like to.

Grab a free book off smashwords.com. No DRM, so you can fiddle with it with Sigil, as well.

[goinveg]

Since 1.4 fixed the font scaling in my books borrowed from my local library maybe 1.5 can fix the WIDE margins and allow full justification.

[digital_steve]

Lots of cool suggestions here
I dunno if these are firmware 1.5 suggestions or not but i'd like to see:

The ability to mark books read/unread in the Kobo software and actually have it sync that to the Kobo reader
Don't put new books straight into the 'im reading' page
Keep your current page/pages bookmarked on the Kobo reader when syncing with the Kobo software

I'm clearly a simple man as this is all i want. Every time i buy more books via the Kobo site i get a cold shiver thinking about what i have to do every time i sync the Kobo reader to the software. It's damn painful.

[sark666]

Most of my requests are the common ones but an option to hide the page count at the bottom. I'm trying to read pdf's in landscape and it works ok, but I could tell it would be just a bit larger if the page count wasn't there. Which is sideways anyways in landscape. It's useless for me most of the time and is taking a fair bit of screen real estate.

The obvious ones are:

Return to the book and page where I left off, not what i'm reading menu

Really needs a page jump.

fine tune zoom.

[marleyfan]

I would like to see the ability to have the ereader held horizontally with the blue button in the top right corner.

[HamsterRage]

Originally Posted by digital_steve

Don't put new books straight into the 'im reading' page

I like that idea. I'd like to see a "Newly Added" screen for those books.

[digital_steve]

I don't even need a newly added section... they're fine in the library as they'll be marked 'new'.
I just want the software to manage the reader as it supposed too, in a logical fashion. The way it works now makes no sense.

[kingduct]

I totally agree with this. Being able to reassign the buttons would be great. Notably, I want to be able to use one of the buttons on the left (preferably home) to take me to the next page. I would then reassign "home" to the up or down button, since neither is all that important (since those two just duplicate functions n the display menu).

This would make a huge difference for using with only the left hand or for when right thumb tires!

Originally Posted by fab0109

Next page button is a single point of failure ..

The next page button will be very used, what is the MTBF ?

Middle pad button look like more robust ..

I like to choice button function assignation

home : next page
menu : next chapter

Very useful to read rss feed (for right hand)

When do you publish the source of the firmware ?

We can help reviewing and correcting bug

[Lambo]

Originally Posted by marnom

Multi-language support in the menus, etc. Wouldn't be that difficult to translate with translation files. I can even make it in French if they need it...

I concur. Multilanguage

[Lambo]

I would like to see the modified Bluetooth Sync Feature.

It should be able to use the bluetooth sync the desktop or other bluetooth enabled device with KOBO apps installed.

I am sure KOBO team is working on newspaper/magazine subscription.

It will be nice to see the SYNC can be one touch and download the daily newspaper/magazine updates on the ereader through smartphone/desktop.

for the ereader itself, that leads to KOBO screen changes with
maybe a BOOK/Documents/Magazine/Newspaper on top of the screen .