Kobo has just issued a new firmware update for their complete lineup of e-readers, and most of the functionality came from the new Kobo Forma. The Kobo firmware 4.12.12111 is compatible with the Kobo Touch, Kobo Glo, Kobo Glo HD, Kobo Touch 2.0, Kobo Aura, Kobo Aura HD, Kobo Aura H2O, Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2, Kobo Aura ONE, Kobo Aura ONE Limited Edition, Kobo Aura Edition 2, Kobo Clara HD, and the Kobo Forma. It has not been released to the Kobo Mini The firmware will be pushed out to all e-readers in the next couple of days via WIFI.
Here are all of the new features found in the update
- Hide book title or footer:
- Keep your book title private, or just give yourself space for words on the screen
- Go to Settings > Reading settings > Page appearance
- Reading PDF documents:
- While reading a PDF, double-tap to zoom in, then swipe to move between sections of the page
- Double-tap to zoom out, or use a page-turn button to move to the next page
- Reading Comics (.CBR, .CBZ):
- Performance has improved when reading .CBR or .CBZ comics, especially when zooming in
- You can now press and hold to flip through pages quickly in .CBR and .CBZ comics
- More enhancements:
- Fast page flip is now up to 50% faster
- Several Wi Fi issues have been addressed
- Enabling and disabling Wi Fi is faster
Misc Updates
- Adding scroll buttons to the bottom of most lists and dialogs. These show in the corners at the bottom. Tapping them will scroll to the next page. Swiping will still work in all expected places. Note that on the first page, there is no left arrow, but you can still scroll backwards to the end of the list.
- Fix the lack of a refresh after displaying the menu bars while reading if the footer was hidden.
- Fixes for at least one more situation where the Forma was freezing.
- Full refresh now done when the font settings are done. At least I think this is new. I’m sure it wasn’t there before, but I can’t think of when it was added. Note that for an epub, there is two refreshes done. This has been reported.
- The screensaver info panel has been reduced in size. There is now no empty space between the status and the book status. If the device is plugged in, an extra line is added with the charging state. With the transparency that was in a 4.11.x release, it looks cleaner and is less intrusive.
Michael Kozlowski is the editor-in-chief at Good e-Reader and has written about audiobooks and e-readers for the past fifteen years. Newspapers and websites such as the CBC, CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and the New York Times have picked up his articles. He Lives in Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada.
