Just curious: can anyone who has used both kindle e-readers and the kindle store and kobo e-readers and the kobo/rakuten store compare them for me?
I'm thinking along these lines:
Any ideas? @joel?
Do the new ones (Kobo Clara/Libra Color) not have physical buttons, or am I just not seeing them in the pictures?
@aeberbach @rl_dane the Libra has physical buttons
Ah, I see. Are the differences between the two worth the price difference? (70 USD 😥)
@rl_dane @joel @aeberbach I got the Clara colour and haven't missed the buttons
Did anyone get the little wireless page turner, or did you all look at the price, weigh the potential utility in your mind, and then just say, "AWW HAIL NAW."? 😆
@aeberbach @rl_dane personally I would get it if I hadn't bought mine already.
Wow, that's telling.
Is their bluetooth page-clicker thingy worth the money? The fancy case they sell does look like it's worth it.
Rakuten does (or did) sell stuff in other countries that give them evil vibes, like whale meat I think...
I have a Kobo but I've only used the Kobo store about 2 times in 10 or more years (IRC is my library). I've heard Kindle users rave about their devices because they use some sort of subscription feature.
Also, stock software on Kobo has some hidden features
https://bobbyhiltz.com/posts/2022/04/kobo/
@rl_dane I use both.
Kobo has slightly fewer books. Usually self-published / indie books are Amazon exclusives. Some niche academic ones are also only on Amazon. But all the big titles are on there.
Price - broadly the same. Kobo price matches (and gives you a discount) if you send in proof it was cheaper on Amazon.
Both use roughly the same technology - so the eInk experience is pretty similar. Hardware and software design is up to personal preference.
Nice, thank you! Looks like I'll be getting a kobo device soonish. ;)
@rl_dane @joel This is probably not the answer you're looking for, but just in case it helps in any way: I bought a Fire 7 on sale a long time ago, jailbroke it, put a third party LineageOS-based Android distro on it and now have access to all the markets. Technically even Amazon's, but I don't use that.
It's an old Fire 7, so this may not apply anymore, but I find it to be just great for reading on kind of ironically for the reasons it's terrible for most other things. The weak hardware sucks for gaming or anything else, but is great for reading and it's small and comfortable to hold.
I'm mostly using DRM-free stuff, but it can connect to all the stuff where there is an app or site (though using sites like Internet Archive "checkout" for reading kind of sucked, I did do it some.)
Nice. I tried to figure out how to jailbreak my kindle fire, but didn't get very far with it.
It's a wonderful device in terms of form factor, and utterly terrible in almost every other conceivable way. 😄
@rl_dane @joel The jailbreaking varies by model. A lot of older ones are really easy. Mine had a weird thing where connecting a wire to a particular contact on the board for some reason broke the signature check in the bootloader. I'm sure Amazon has made more recent models really hard to jailbreak though. It's a constant cat and mouse game though I'm sure and with the price placement and etc, there is a heck of a lot of incentive for the community to keep fixing them. 😆
It's strangely hard to find a lot of comparable devices. It's so hard to find anything that isn't big and heavy these days, but for reading you want small and light. So jailbreaking these may still be the best option today too even with an unlimited budget. Well, old ones are on eBay I'm sure!
Yeah, even recent ones pop up on woot.com every now and then for stupid cheap.
That's how I got my last two. ;)
@rl_dane @joel
I've used both, and much prefer the Kobo readers/store. I can't vouch for the range of the Kobo store (although I haven't found them to *not* have what I like to read), and the prices are fairly equal (again, for the type I read). Both stores are fairly competitive I think (although I imagine Amazon have quite a monopoly).
As for evilness, I can't say how evil Ratuken are but they're certainly no worse than Amazon. But I guess they're not as ubiquitous either.
@qlp
I'm in the curious camp too! I chose kobo as Jeff can pay for his own space trip.
Kobo devices usually get better reviews, but then kindle gets top spot for "the ecosystem" (as you say).
Calibre, Linux and kobo devices play well together. Easy to make a DRM free backup of books.
I'm curious to know if authors get a better deal from any particular brand.
@rl_dane @joel
> I'm in the curious camp too! I chose kobo as Jeff can pay for his own space trip.
MOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOODDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDDD 😄 💗
@rl_dane just use Kobo my friend, it's fineeee. And it still allows you to download your books and de-DRM them which is something Amazon no longer lets you do
How do you like the devices themselves?
Yeah, I'm thinking about making the switch. I've already DeDRMed all my kindle books.
Is the kobo DeDRM process easy? Also, do they have anything like the kindle X-Ray feature? That's pretty neat. ;)
Also, how does the selection compare?
@rl_dane @joel I run koreader on my Kobo Sage. For me, the selling point is the simple install of koreader.
Edit: https://koreader.rocks/ - open source eReader software which won't suddenly force every thing you read to have the correct DRM.
That's nice, I do use it on Android a little bit.
Kobo devices are better than Kindle by far. They’ve had better font and line spacing options from the beginning — my only complaint was that the early ones didn’t last more than a couple of years.
I’ve also had a large format Boox Max II epaper reader for academic journals and other locked pdfs. It’s A7 or letter sized and un illuminated. Great quality but at the end of its supported life it seems.
My partner just got a new Kobo reader for personal use, the mid sized high definition black and white. It’s trade paperback sized and I’ve been checking it out. I’d still like a high resolution, large format colour option for magazines, comics and graphic novels but no one seems to make one.
In terms of selection, we get everything we can on Kobo and load in DRM free content.
For the things that are only sold through Amazon, we pay for a printed version when that’s an option and read it on an iPad if it’s not.
I really wish authors would stop publishing exclusively on Amazon.
