• Apps
    • App Store
    • Audio Reader
    • Good e-Reader News
  • Contact
  • Media
    • Advertise
    • Podcast
    • Videos
  • News
    • Android
    • Audiobooks
    • Bookselling
    • Business
    • Digital Publishing
    • e-Books
    • e-Paper
    • e-Readers
    • Libraries
  • Reviews
  • Good e-Reader Store
    • My Account

Good e-Reader

Get the latest news on e-Books, Audiobooks, Digital Publishing, Manga, Anime and Tablets

New Kobo Touch Firmware Seeks to Address Some Problems

June 15, 2011 By Michael Kozlowski 12 Comments

kobo touch

Kobo recently released the Kobo Touch e-reader to much acclaim and many people outside of the USA are buying it in droves.  There are some enhancements that will be made through future firmware updates according to company sources.

Many people who have purchased the new Kobo Touch e-reader have been looking at a myriad of small problems. The first problem is that there is no way to highlight or look words up in the dictionary with non-Kobo ebooks. This means the only way you could access both of those functions is if you purchase a book directly from Kobo. If you load in your own books you have downloaded from the internet or loaded in via Adobe Digital Editions, you cannot look up words with the built in dictionary.

There are also some other enhancements that Kobo told us directly they would be delivering in a future firmware update. We can look forward to additional fonts and the ability to edit line spaces and margins.

The Kobo Touch by default only has 2 fonts to choose from, Georgia and Avenir. Kobo has plans to add up to six more popular fonts soon that will greatly enhance their ebook reader. Although at the moment there are not many fonts to choose from, there are around sixteen different levels of font-scaling to make text smaller/larger.

The one function the Kobo Touch does not even have is the ability to edit your margins and line spacing. This is important with PDF and other ebooks in order to fit more text on the screen. Having line spaces would also drastically help people who have vision problems to allow them to have more spaces between lines of text.

Finally one of the issues Kobo has not mentioned but we hope to see soon is the page turn speed. Considering the Kobo Touch has a faster Freescale processor than the Amazon Kindle 3rd generation and the same Pearl e-Ink display, it could be faster.

Kobo has directly told us that all of these problems and issues are going to be fixed in a future firmware update, other than the page turn speeds. What other updates or ideas would enhance the Kobo Touch? We can pass your ideas along to the programming team.

Michael Kozlowski (7733 Posts)

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about electronic readers and technology for the last four years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the Huffington Post, CNET and more. Michael frequently travels to international events such as IFA, Computex, CES, Book Expo and a myriad of others. If you have any questions about any of his articles, please send Michael Kozlowski an email to michael@goodereader.com

Author Info

News Items of Interest

  • Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 Unboxing VideoKobo Aura H2O Edition 2 Unboxing Video
  • Kobo Aura H2O Edition 2 Video ReviewKobo Aura H2O Edition 2 Video Review
  • Kobo Releases a Flurry of Firmware Updates for all e-ReadersKobo Releases a Flurry of Firmware Updates for all e-Readers
  • New Kobo Homescreen is Now Available on Older e-ReadersNew Kobo Homescreen is Now Available on Older e-Readers
  • Draft2Digital and Streetlib are now distributing e-books to Kobo PlusDraft2Digital and Streetlib are now distributing e-books to Kobo Plus
  • Unboxing the New Kobo Touch e-ReaderUnboxing the New Kobo Touch e-Reader

Filed Under: E-Book News, e-Reader News, Kindle News

  • Anonymous

    “What other updates or ideas do you guys have to enhance the Kobo Touch?”

    I want multi-level TOC support.
    I want the ability to zoom in on images in EPUBs.
    I want my style properties in my CSS style sheet to be honored (maybe they already do?).
    I want the ability to swap out any default dictionary with another, including foreign language dictionaries.

    Get it done Michael.

  • Anonymous

    P.S.
    Please make sure all future reviews of devices that support EPUB include a thorough assessment of the device’s TOC support and its CSS style sheet support. In other words, it is not enough to pass on what it says in the specs from the manufacturer, or simply to point out there is a check box. Test the device using EPUBs that have multi-level TOCs and describe how the TOCs are being displayed (Are the levels indented or collapsible?).  Also, test the device using an EPUB that has a CSS style sheet with a range of style properties, and see if the style properties are being honored. 

  • Benjamin Peltz

    As an academic user, the feature that is still lacking which I find the most inconvenient is the ability to tell what page the current text would be on in the corresponding physical book. It makes citations very difficult for papers!

  • Mark Bentley

    If my reading of the various reviews is correct, there is no in-book search? That would be my one wish – since the on-screen keyboard is by all accounts quite responsive, searching within epubs and PDFs would be super useful!

  • Lynn

    Bought new kobo, after struggling with it not loading onto my computer for almost a week and getting no response on numerous emails to Kobo help I returned it with much frustration.

  • Gongwei522

    I WANT my Kobo touch support Asian fonts!

  • Colinwheeler1965

    Brought a kobo at a Borders bookstore for my partner while holidaying in the USA. Had many problems trying to get it to connect to computer. Then the kobo screen went blank and we havent been able to get it to turn on since!! The bookstore we brought it at was in the process of closing down and weve since returned to the UK anyway. So now were stuck with a kobo that wont turn on at all. $129 dollars down the pan there I think. It will be a while before i come close to buying another kobo or similar product now.

  • Semra Erguden

    I have bought a kobo touch ereader. I download kobosetup and fixed my ereader and load a novel. I formatted my computer. ı want to load kobo to my computer. It asks to connect my ereader. If ı connect , will it  syncronize and loose my bought and downloaded book.

  • Jenn

    Would love to see them fix the freezing issue

  • Flow

    The new firmware update from July addressed many of the problems listed here, but now, when reading PDFs, the pages do not refresh as they are supposed to. Upon a page turn, the previous page is still visible on the right hand side. I realize this has been a huge issue already–I’m just hoping another firmware update will come very soon to fix this.

  • Josh

    Ive been having problems with an ebook that I purchase from kobo and it skips chapters and it jumps from one place to another. I have unistalled and reinstalled the book several times and still hasn’t fixed the problem. I have also done a factory reset numerous times and still hasn’t fixed the issue. I managed to load the book on a sony ereader in order for me to actually read the book.

  • TrophyWife

    I bought a Kobo Touch 2 days ago as a replacement for my original Kobo that died after 2 1/2 years. So far this Touch is a piece of junk. I’ve sync’d it twice using my laptop, the battery is fully charged, I’ve reset it and still the screen freezes constantly after about 2 minutes. Then it powers itself off and is impossible to power back on for a very long time. It’s totally changed my opinion of Kobo. I will never ever buy anything with the Kobo brand on it. This is being returned and I will buy something totally different.

Follow Us on FacebookFollow Us on TwitterFollow Us on YouTubeFollow Us on RSS



Good E-Reader
Tweets about goodereader

Copyright © 2018 Good e-Reader - Privacy Policy - Terms of Use - Shipping and Return Policy