Slashdot Mirror

so i guess
https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebo...
your dream of retiring on your incredible writing is dead

So you're okay giving one group of jerks money. But not another? Well whatever. More competition is good isn't it? Especially since amazon holds a dominant marketshare and making it damned hard for even those traditional book retailers to survive. This isn't forgetting the gigantic amount of pricefixing from companies like Apple.

Anyway, if you want another e-reader at a good price, I recommend looking at Kobo. Upside is that many of them can also be reflashed, or you can simply pop out the microSD card, and load up your own preferred version of android without really having to jailbreak them.

In Canada, you can order them from any retailer, or from Kobo.

When I searched Google for "kobo prices" I got the list that I cut and pasted into the article, and a link to https://www.kobo.com/devices/c... that tries to sell you just the expensive stuff.

Mr Google is your friend (;-))

Try reading some of his ebooks for fun.

https://www.kobo.com/ca/en/ebo...

This guy has splattered his digital excrement all over the place, it's fascinating.

Oh yeah, with reviews like this, you can retire now!

I like the reader's suggestion about contacting the Hell's Angels. You see, they might want to protect their copyrights, or they might risk losing them.

The review:

"1/5 WTH?
This is barely even about the funeral, the murder, the Hells Angels, or even bikes for that matter... Not even worth the $0.99. I'm surprised the Hell's Angels lets this guy collect money capitalizing on their organization and two of their fallen brothers..."

Can I get free shipping if I buy your latest ebook? e.g.: https://www.kobo.com/ph/en/ebo... [kobo.com]

I didn't think I had any fans in the Philippines.

Can I get free shipping if I buy your latest ebook?
e.g.:
https://www.kobo.com/ph/en/ebo...

There are 60, 70, 80 year olds that literally wrote the books on what our modern society is built on.

What are "books"?

You can get them in epub which is one of the many formats that are are available for your book reader . Personally I use Calibre which works perfectly under Fedora 24. My wife actually uses a Kobo reader.

Kids nowadays, can't even do a simple web search. Next, they will be telling us they need an easy mode in games like Dark Souls and Bloodborne ... Oh! Wait.

My new KoboGlo is far better e-reader with no DRM for $20 more than the Kindle. You lose, Kindle :)

http://www.kobo.com/koboglo#ov...

Till last week, I had never heard of Kobo. Now there is a story everyday about Kobo.

They've been around for a few years, but since their main revenue driver seems to be their bookstore they don't get as much attention as the more flashy iTunes or Amazon. I've only bought one book from them because I don't like the idea that their content is not in a standard epub format (I don't buy the argument that standard epubs without DRM aren't a valid business model... O'Reilly uses them... JK Rowling's "Pottermore" store uses them...). They've had licensing arrangements to be the bookstore that is tied to some dirt-cheap ebook readers you've never heard of, but they first came to my attention when Target gave them the boot last year in favor of a closer relationship with Barnes and Noble.

Target was carrying two models of their e-ink e-readers (the WiFi and the Touch), and suddenly put them on clearance for 30% off, then 50% off. At that point I didn't have an e-ink e-reader so I figured I'd try it for 50% off.I can only read books on my iPad for so long before the weight and the backlit screen get to me. The "pearl" e-ink screen Kobo was using made all the difference. I was spending less time watching TV and more time reading books. Then they went down to 70% off as Target tried to clear the last units from their supply chain, and I spent an afternoon driving around to different locations buying them up to give to friends and co-workers as gifts. A friend of mine who is over 65 and an avid book reader (but definitely not a gadget guy... he still doesn't even own a cell phone) has been devouring books on the Kobo WiFi I gave him. His employees tell me he's sitting in his car reading it before work, and sitting in his office reading it while he eats lunch. A friend in her 20s who is a physical book "purist" has taken to the one I gave her in a similar fashion, despite the fact that she told me she'd never read e-books. I'm sure they'd get the same enjoyment out of a Kindle (until Amazon remotely deleted their books one day), but it was cheap enough and usable enough that it turned some pretty staunch anti-e-book people into devotees.

Beyond that, their software is open source. The devices run a stripped down Linux distro and there is a community dedicated to rooting and hacking the device... and as far as I can tell they're not fighting it. It was pretty simple to SSH into the device and play around in the shell. A little Googling turns up instructions on how to do it, and videos of people running Python games on the Kobos. This alone should make Kobos a more attractive choice for the Slashdot crowd.

But their offerings weren't really all that different from the Nook and Kindle until Kobo announced earlier this week that it was selling the "limited edition" Kobo Aura with the high-resolution screen. At 256ppi, it's pretty close to the resolution of the current generation "retina screen" iPad, which is listed as 264ppi. Plus the interface looks more usable than the Kobo I'm already spending a few hours a day reading. Totally worth it to me, but YMMV.

Till last week, I had never heard of Kobo. Now there is a story everyday about Kobo.

They've been around for a few years, but since their main revenue driver seems to be their bookstore they don't get as much attention as the more flashy iTunes or Amazon. I've only bought one book from them because I don't like the idea that their content is not in a standard epub format (I don't buy the argument that standard epubs without DRM aren't a valid business model... O'Reilly uses them... JK Rowling's "Pottermore" store uses them...). They've had licensing arrangements to be the bookstore that is tied to some dirt-cheap ebook readers you've never heard of, but they first came to my attention when Target gave them the boot last year in favor of a closer relationship with Barnes and Noble.

Target was carrying two models of their e-ink e-readers (the WiFi and the Touch), and suddenly put them on clearance for 30% off, then 50% off. At that point I didn't have an e-ink e-reader so I figured I'd try it for 50% off.I can only read books on my iPad for so long before the weight and the backlit screen get to me. The "pearl" e-ink screen Kobo was using made all the difference. I was spending less time watching TV and more time reading books. Then they went down to 70% off as Target tried to clear the last units from their supply chain, and I spent an afternoon driving around to different locations buying them up to give to friends and co-workers as gifts. A friend of mine who is over 65 and an avid book reader (but definitely not a gadget guy... he still doesn't even own a cell phone) has been devouring books on the Kobo WiFi I gave him. His employees tell me he's sitting in his car reading it before work, and sitting in his office reading it while he eats lunch. A friend in her 20s who is a physical book "purist" has taken to the one I gave her in a similar fashion, despite the fact that she told me she'd never read e-books. I'm sure they'd get the same enjoyment out of a Kindle (until Amazon remotely deleted their books one day), but it was cheap enough and usable enough that it turned some pretty staunch anti-e-book people into devotees.

Beyond that, their software is open source. The devices run a stripped down Linux distro and there is a community dedicated to rooting and hacking the device... and as far as I can tell they're not fighting it. It was pretty simple to SSH into the device and play around in the shell. A little Googling turns up instructions on how to do it, and videos of people running Python games on the Kobos. This alone should make Kobos a more attractive choice for the Slashdot crowd.

But their offerings weren't really all that different from the Nook and Kindle until Kobo announced earlier this week that it was selling the "limited edition" Kobo Aura with the high-resolution screen. At 256ppi, it's pretty close to the resolution of the current generation "retina screen" iPad, which is listed as 264ppi. Plus the interface looks more usable than the Kobo I'm already spending a few hours a day reading. Totally worth it to me, but YMMV.

You can argue that Kobo's focusing could lead to better results in terms of user experience, but they aren't going to beat Amazon in terms of market share unless they really come up with something consumers think is unique and amazing.

If I could justify getting another e-reader (I already have a Sony PRS-T1 with which I am perfectly happy) I would have a serious look at the Kobo Aura HD. Although I haven't seen it in my hands, it looks very sweet, although of course not as compact as my Sony device.

eReaders aren't designed for PDFs. In theory, the DX was, but it hasn't been updated in years. I do think that 6" is a bit small for a paperback--an "A" format paperback (mass-market) is about 8" diagonal. I think a good compromise would be a 7" screen, as this would still give room for a bezel around it without it being too much bigger than a paperback. The benefit of this is more words on the screen at a time, meaning less page turns and (probably) longer battery life. The disadvantage would be higher cost and increased size/weight. I find it interesting that Kobo has the Mini. That seems way too small, but maybe there's a market for it.

Speaking of the Kobo...for all that I love my Kindle, Amazon has serious problems in the ergonomics/aesthetics department. I get that it's a cheap device that probably has razor-thin margins (or break-even), but when you compare it with the Kobo or the Nook, it just doesn't look very good, and the other devices are more comfortable to hold (particularly the Kobo). This is true both for eReaders and tablets (the new Kindle Fire HD7 is possibly the ugliest tablet out there, even if it's a nice device). I also think Amazon's insistence on removing physical buttons is misguided.

I tried switching to the Nook. I liked it a lot at first, but it left a lot to be desired in the area of syncing. It would often take the device a long time to sync reading positions, and sometimes it would not even sync at all. This, combined with a lack of syncing of non-B&N stuff, led me to come back to the Kindle. I would have tried a Kobo, but their eBook market seemed lacking at the time.

Spec: http://www.kobo.com/koboarc/techspecs/ (kobo.com)