Kobo ereader

[su-37]

I am currently looking for an e-reader before uni and i was seriously considering the amazon kindle, till i saw the shipping time... 7 - 9 weeks!!! I thought id look around and found the kobo e reader. I tried their software and it works out of the box. I think i know which im going for. What have been your experiances with e readers and ubuntu?

[drawkcab]

Don't buy anything until you research the Pocketbook line up of ereaders and the new Sony 650.

http://www.pocketbookreader.com/

Also, read up at mobileread forums:

http://www.mobileread.com/

I think I'm going to order the pocketbook 602 as my Xmas Present.

[su-37]

Im in australia. They seemed good but im not sure what currency it was in.

[Rodney9]

Sony 650 is amazing.

In short, the Sony PRS-650 with its upgraded touchscreen stands to be one of the top ereaders for 2010

[NCLI]

I am currently looking for an e-reader before uni and i was seriously considering the amazon kindle, till i saw the shipping time... 7 - 9 weeks!!! I thought id look around and found the kobo e reader. I tried their software and it works out of the box. I think i know which im going for. What have been your experiances with e readers and ubuntu?
IMO, the Kindle is by far the best ereader. The display is top-notch, build quality excellent, but most importantly: It has free global 3G.

[Docaltmed]

The color nook looks excellent. I've been using the Nook for a year, it's far better than the Kindle (which still has screen problems, btw).

[Jazzy_Jeff]

The color nook looks excellent. I've been using the Nook for a year, it's far better than the Kindle (which still has screen problems, btw).

The Nook Color is just an Android pad. If you want to read with a backlit screen then go for it. And the battery life is only around 8 hours.

What screen problems does the Kindle have??? I have the Kindle 3 and have had no problems at all. I have had it almost 2 months now. The Nook also has the same screen as the Kindle 2 and I have not heard of any problems with those as well. I know a few people that have them.

[SartoriusGenuflectus]

I have a Kobo Touch. Its good for reading, looking up definitions and searching for word occurrences - all things I expect from an ereader.
Its most useful feature, so I thought, was the ability to highlight text and write notes. However, having made many such annotations in all the ebooks I have read, I find the mechanics of accessing those notes very laborious on the Kobo. Also there is no facility for extracting those notes into a more useful medium such as a word processor.
I am currently having a major problem in that most of by ebooks have got corrupted and the Kobo will no longer open them. The help desk recommends deleting the ebook and reloading. That is fine for getting back to reading but in the process the annotations are lost for ever.

[Paqman]

it's far better than the Kindle (which still has screen problems, btw).

???

I have a Kindle, the screen is great. What "problems" do you mean?

[trinux_bc]

I've also got a Kobo Touch, I haven't done any annotating so I have no experience there, but for reading it works well. I use Calibre to manage my library and haven't had any issues at all.

trinux_bc

[candtalan]

I just bought one and had difficulty. Although it works as a dumb USB device without running the PC based Setup program, the wireless is non functional until significant software updates are completed and these need to be done using Setup. Setup needs either a Windows machine or a Mac, a Linux based OS is NOT supported. If I had known this I would not have purchased it.

The killer aspect is that wifi is not recognised out of the box because the original software is buggy and wireless is one problem which is sorted out by getting the software updates. They also significantly change the GUI too, I notice.

I copy below the response from Kobo support to my initial inquiry and also my reply.
=======================================
>Upon further investigation of Ubuntu and that it >is a Linux based operating system, on the side of >your Kobo Touch box it details the requirements in >order to use the Kobo Desktop software and there >is currently no compatibility with Linux based >Operating Systems and the Kobo Software. I >apologize for the inconvenience.
>
> Sincerely,
> The Kobo Team
=======================================

Hi there
Thank you for your quick response.
I bought the kobo touch online at asda direct and the specifications there are pasted below. You will see that (whatever is on the box) the
product is misrepresented.

I think your company is crazy to have such a potentially interesting product yet be so totally unhelpful in its setup and use by anything other than Windows or Mac. Ubuntu alone has 20 million users, many of whom may fall into the same trap I just did.

You might like to let your sales department know that I have made it and will continue to make it my business to inform my followers and Ubuntu users via twitter and forums that they should NOT buy a Kobo because it needs Windows to run the Setup and - unless setup is run, then - at least for my own example product - the wireless connection is not functional until setup is run and significant product software updates are downloaded.

It happens that I am an experienced and resourceful computer user and I have managed to download and apply the kobo software updates without use of Windows or Mac, which as I have said, I do not have. However this took a considerable effort and should be avoided if at all possible.

As I said above I will help the Community by broadcasting to avoid Kobo purchase, and because ereaders are becoming more popular I can imagine I will be busy for some time yet.
=================================================
http://direct.asda.com/Kobo-eReader-Touch-Edition---Lilac/000518299,default,pd.html
==================================================
Colour Lilac
Model Number N905-KBO-L
Processor Freescale IMX 508, 800 Mhz
Operating System Linux (custom)
RAM (MB) 256MB
Screen Size (inch) 6 Inches
Battery Life (hrs) 1 month, dependent on individual usage
Weight 185 g
Accessories Included Includes Manual, USB Cable and comes preloaded
with 15 free bestseller previews
Type eReader
Storage Capacity 2GB, with 1GB available to store content (over 1,000
eBooks). Expandable up to 30,000 eBooks with a 32 GB SD Memory Card
RAM (MB) 256MB
Operating System Linux (custom)
Storage Capacity 2GB, with 1GB available to store content (over 1,000
eBooks). Expandable up to 30,000 eBooks with a 32 GB SD Memory Card
Memory Card Slot Yes - Micro SD
Headphone Socket No
Battery Life (hrs) 1 month, dependent on individual usage
Weight 185 g
Screen Size (inch) 6 Inches
Screen Type Pearl high contrast E Ink display
USB Port 1 x USB Port
==================================================

[candtalan]

In case you are wondering, I used the magic described by the brilliant guy at
http://lhsi-blog.blogspot.co.uk/2011/12/setting-up-kobo-using-linux-ubuntu.html#comment-form
and it took some effort and a drop of Wine. For example I had never before needed to 'configure' Wine. So I had several goes at it. It has been a very frustrating and irritating experience. There is a .deb available, apparently written by a kobo developer informally. It was featured in OMG! Ubuntu not so long ago. I did try this, however, it did not apparently recognise my product, so, updates were not offered, and nor did WiFi work at all. I had apparently no choice but to actually use the .exe supplied for setup.

[goldshirt9]

A little old but I have just purchased a kobo wi-fi ( as i dont want a touch screen)
worked in windows 7 with calibre office and kobo desktop (calibre is far superior)
then i tried kubuntu lts.
plugged in and started straight away again using calibre office.
only problem i found was i couldnt use the application launcher ??
still as i had the short cut in my dock all was ok

Purchased a kobo as i read it was easier to add "obtained" books ;)

[candtalan]

A little old but I have just purchased a kobo wi-fi ( as i dont want a touch screen)
worked in windows 7 with calibre office and kobo desktop (calibre is far superior)
then i tried kubuntu lts.
plugged in and started straight away again using calibre office.
only problem i found was i couldnt use the application launcher ??
still as i had the short cut in my dock all was ok

Purchased a kobo as i read it was easier to add "obtained" books ;)

Our Kobo Touch is pretty easy to use, and it advertisies its ability for open and free content. We are pleased with it however, as in my oroginal comment a way ago, the Kobo updates, which in ourcase were esential because as sold the wifi was not proerly functional, - the updates had to be done through Windows which we do not use. So it was a real problem, and very annoying when the product is advertised as running a Linux OS and being good with open content(!) I note that you seemed to first try it with Windows so I guess any updates would be done then. Did you notice any?