Glo Kobo Glo, some questions 4 Sameer

[Danger]

Ok this is actually a repost from a post that never got a response. I'd really like to hear from Sameer on this:

WOW... 10mins 39secs in I hear Sameer say "Let's give the customers a choice"...

Sooo when does this apply to other options beyond fonts? So far everything else in regards to options we've been asking for has been total silence. Heck at least an acknowledgement such as "That's an interesting idea, we can't promise anything but we will look into it."

Other things: Reading Life has replaced Wishlist on the home screen. As Reading Life is at best a curiosity for me I guess it's better that having the Wishlist there.

Having said that when will we see DISCOVER also removed and relegated to "Find Books" menu with the DISCOVER spot being used by SHORTLIST?

Does the Home screen still replace the books you ARE reading with newly added books so that you have to hunt in the library to find your book again? As I haven't added any books since before I upgraded to 2.1.1 I'm not sure if this has been addressed or not.

Are the new Kobos still fragile in regards to the screen, in other words do they still have a breakable glass substrate? I ask this because of the mention of:

Kobo Glo’s 6” high-res XGA E Ink Pearl touchscreen is ultra-thin and durable so nothing gets between you and your eBook, not even the brightest sunlight (or a little scratch). It’s just like reading print on paper, only better.

and

Non-glass, no-glare, non-issue

I assume both of these statements from the Kobo site are in regards to the top layer and that the substrate is still as fragile as ever but one can hope that that has been improved.

I'm looking forward to getting the KGlo and passing on my KT to my wife but would like to know the answers above to see what I am in for before hand

Screen response, has the response to touch improved? It looks like it reacts better than my KT does now. I figure either the respose has been improved or that Sameer's fingers are smaller than mine and the screen responds better because of that. If it's smaller fingers then I will have to start bringing my stylus with me

That black bar on the bottom of the screen is nasty. Fine for things like options when you are annotating and such but not nice when reading.
...
Correction I see that the Wishlist is NOT gone but rather moved to the bottom of the screen all by itself so that more screen realistate is wasted.

Does that black bar only appear when the glow light is on?

[ArmorDog]

Originally Posted by Danger

...Does that black bar only appear when the glow light is on?

In the video the bottom bar turns black when he turns on the light so I think it's pretty likely that it's (only) there when the light is on.

[the.Mtn.Man]

I want to know about the durability of the Glo screen and if it's as fragile as the Nook GlowTouch. That's my only concern.

[Tony1988]

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

I want to know about the durability of the Glo screen and if it's as fragile as the Nook GlowTouch. That's my only concern.

Time will tell.

[murg]

Kobo's advertising is fairly clear that there is no glass.

I think they mean above the e-ink screen and refering to clarity. Not the substrate.

However, this statement will be taken to mean that there is no glass in the entire device. As such, Kobo will be responsible for replacing any 'no glass' device where the glass breaks, even after the warranty period. This of course, depends on the power of your local consumer protection department.

This must be a difficult question to answer, as it has now taken Sameer several days to post a response to his own post saying he'd look into it. If it is difficult for Kobo's rep to get an answer to this question, imagine how difficult it is for us consumers.

[nogle]

Originally Posted by murg

This must be a difficult question to answer, as it has now taken Sameer several days to post a response to his own post saying he'd look into it. If it is difficult for Kobo's rep to get an answer to this question, imagine how difficult it is for us consumers.

Why do you assume that he doen't have an answer? He may have an answer that he is not currently at liberty to disclose. If you have an answer that you are not at liberty to disclose, you may also be precluded from disclosing that you can't disclose. This is not unusual in public companies and companies that depend upon proprietary technology.

And before anyone points out that Kobo is not a public company; its parent company Rakuten is public in Japan.

[taming]

Originally Posted by murg

This must be a difficult question to answer, as it has now taken Sameer several days to post a response to his own post saying he'd look into it. If it is difficult for Kobo's rep to get an answer to this question, imagine how difficult it is for us consumers.

I can't speak for Sameer, of course, but he is very much a senior manager. His job title, per linked-in, is Director, Product Management, eReader Devices. Knowing the answer and finding the time to engage people here are not the same thing.

He is probably nicer than I am. I'd keep a little list of rude and demanding people and then I would ignore them entirely.

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by Tony1988

Time will tell.

Yeah, let the early adopters beat on it first.

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by taming

I'd keep a little list of rude and demanding people and then I would ignore them entirely.

Me too.

[Danger]

Originally Posted by taming

I can't speak for Sameer, of course, but he is very much a senior manager. His job title, per linked-in, is Director, Product Management, eReader Devices. Knowing the answer and finding the time to engage people here are not the same thing.

He is probably nicer than I am. I'd keep a little list of rude and demanding people and then I would ignore them entirely.

Well this post wasn't meant to be rude or demanding. I made this separate from the other post it appeared in, in case it got missed. I made an assumption it got buried and missed because I've seen other posts by Sameer since, including one on the weekend. A time I would not expect a post from anyone at Kobo.

Now knowing his job title I would really really greatly appreciate his opinion/answers to questions I originally posted here. Looking back at my original post I can see that it indeed may have been rude/demanding but that certainly wasn't my intent. I actually quite respect Sameer from what I have seen of his posts here trying to help people with their problems. Hence the questions here directed specifically at him.

Questions rephrased not to sound rude/demanding

1) Will we see more options added to the Kobo settings beyond fonts as per earlier requests?

2) Does the Home screen still replace the books you are reading with newly added books, requiring you to hunt in the library to find the book you were currently reading if more that 4 new books are added? I've noticed this still happening with 2.1.1.

3) Are the new Kobos still fragile in regards to the screen, in other words do they still have a breakable glass substrate?

4) Has the response to the touch screen improved? It looks like it reacts better than my KT does now. I figure either the respose has been improved or that Sameer's fingers are smaller than mine and the screen responds better because of that. If it's smaller fingers then I will have to start bringing my stylus with me.

5) Does the black bar only appear when the glow light is on? I'm assuming it does from the video. I'm not sure I like that the bar is black, is there a setting to reverse it, white bar/black text?

[the.Mtn.Man]

Originally Posted by Danger

2) Does the Home screen still replace the books you are reading with newly added books, requiring you to hunt in the library to find the book you were currently reading if more that 4 new books are added? I've noticed this still happening with 2.1.1.

I can understand the logic behind this design, and if they changed it then you'd have people complaining that they have to hunt through the library to find the book they just added instead of having it conveniently on the homescreen.

Anyway, I always add the book I'm currently reading my shortlist so that it's easy to find even if it happens to get pushed off the homescreen.

[Danger]

Originally Posted by the.Mtn.Man

I can understand the logic behind this design, and if they changed it then you'd have people complaining that they have to hunt through the library to find the book they just added instead of having it conveniently on the homescreen.

Anyway, I always add the book I'm currently reading my shortlist so that it's easy to find even if it happens to get pushed off the homescreen.

I can understand this as well and it's something that doesn't bother me much with 1.9.17 as I do the same thing with the shortlist. I add the books I want to read or are reading to it. While The shortlist isn't that far away in v2+, it did get buried and no longer quite as available on the home screen which is my concern. Also another reason I keep going back to 1.9.17 after I've tested the newest firmware and find I still don't like it. Something I won't be able to do if/when I get the Kobo Glo.

[murg]

Originally Posted by nogle

Why do you assume that he doen't have an answer? He may have an answer that he is not currently at liberty to disclose.

I believe that someone asked Sameer about the glass, and he said he'd find out and post an answer.

That was many days ago by now. I can't believe that the Director, Product Management, eReader Devices would be unable to get a fairly quick answer to a simple question such as: is there any glass in our product?

[murg]

Kobo's advertising about 'no glass' on their own website:

http://www.kobo.com/koboglo
Because Kobo Glo’s advanced high-res XGA Pearl E Ink screen isn’t made from glass there’s never any glare, even in the brightest sunlight.

http://www.kobo.com/koboglo/experience
Non-glass, no-glare, non-issue

http://www.kobo.com/koboglo/techspecs/
Screen - Non-glass touchscreen for glare-free, fingerprint-resistant reading


In my mind, these are fairly clear statements that there is no glass in the Glo. Even if you wanted to limit it to the screen, the glass substrate is still part of the screen, or at least the screen assembly.

Yes, I'm aware that Kobo may be being specific (or vague) enough to get away with this sort of weaseling.

It's like a LCD monitor, where the lighting tubes contain mercury. Advertising that the LCD screen doesn't contain mercury may be technically true, it is misleading, as the product contains mercury.

[SameerH]

FWIW, I didn't think anyone's comments/questions have been demanding or rude. I'm just sorry I couldn't get to everyone.

Originally Posted by Danger

1) Will we see more options added to the Kobo settings beyond fonts as per earlier requests?

I'm sure we will, but we will approach each feature on a case by case basis. I think we have a great track record in providing options and choice to our customers. There are many factors that go into deciding whether we make certain things configurable or not, including how we represent the choice in the UI, is there space enough, and whether it makes sense for all our customer base.

Originally Posted by Danger

2) Does the Home screen still replace the books you are reading with newly added books, requiring you to hunt in the library to find the book you were currently reading if more that 4 new books are added? I've noticed this still happening with 2.1.1.

Yes it does. I think Mtn_man mentioned this, but this is done so that when you have just purchased a book, you have immediate access to it from the home screen.

3) Are the new Kobos still fragile in regards to the screen, in other words do they still have a breakable glass substrate?

The screens use a glass substrate yes, but there is much more than just the screen that determines the fragility of the device. There is mechanical and material engineering that goes into mitigating the natural fragility of the screen for example. These new devices are as robust as the Kobo Touch is.

That said, the front light technology that we use for Kobo Glo is more resilient than some other tech that is in the market today. That is to say, if the device is in your purse or bag and is coming into regular contact with, oh I don't know.. say keys for example the front light will likely not suffer catastrophic failure such as we have seen with some competitors.

In general, as with any handheld electronic device, if you are concerned that a device may get damaged in your specific usage scenarios, then I would encourage you to look at options for protective cases:
http://www.kobo.com/accessories.html

4) Has the response to the touch screen improved? It looks like it reacts better than my KT does now. I figure either the respose has been improved or that Sameer's fingers are smaller than mine and the screen responds better because of that. If it's smaller fingers then I will have to start bringing my stylus with me.

I'll have to look into what issues you are having with the Kobo Touch device. I can say that based on our testing the Touch performs very well on the Kobo Glo.

5) Does the black bar only appear when the glow light is on? I'm assuming it does from the video. I'm not sure I like that the bar is black, is there a setting to reverse it, white bar/black text?

Yes. At certain settings at certain times of the day, you cannot tell that the light is on. The light indicator bar is there so that there is no mistaking that the light is on and unnecessarily draining your battery. We're looking at offering a setting to not use it.