Wednesday, July 18, 2012

Another Disappointment From Kobo


I try so hard not to be negative, yet it seems inevitable that every post I make these days is critical.  Perhaps that is why I have not been posting much lately.

Moving along now, it's been a little over a year since I bought my Kobo Touch.  Coincidentally, Firmware 2.0.0 has, at long last, appeared.  Is this a good thing?  You decide.

New Features:
- Custom Shelves (finally)
- The Home screen now has a single carousel (although they kept the wrong one and hid the wishlist again)
- Adjustable font weights (Currently works for most of Kobo's font's but does not work for sideloaded fonts and, in fact, breaks them (see below under Newly Broken Features))
- French Dictionary
- Switch between accounts on your Kobo

New 'Features':
- Improved custom recommendations (i.e. Better Spying)
- Pin books to your Wishlist so you can buy them later (With an obtrusive link on the Home page)
- Find books similar to the ones in your library (Also with an obtrusive link on the Home page)

Newly Broken Features:
- Sideloaded fonts are set to the lowest possible weight with no way to adjust them
- The clock is now buried within a menu, even when reading
- The wishlist hearts no longer work
- Page turns in sideloaded books are now much slower

Still Missing:
- Proper Library sorting options (genre, length, etc.)
- Support for book series
- User adjustable first line indent options
- A Bug free experience

Please Note: This upgrade is known to brick some Kobos.  In fact, the firmware is no longer being pushed to devices until they get it working.

Personally, I'm quite glad that I didn't download this 'upgrade'.