Using the Kobo one handed

I got an email asking how difficult it is to use the Kobo one handed - particularly left handed.  Here are pictures of me holding it with both hands.  When I use it, I typically hold the machine in my left hand and turn pages with my right.  If you only want to use one hand, it's not hard, just accept you'll likely need a knee every now and then to hold it steady as you run your hand to different areas (which is what I'm doing at the start of the video when the Kobo leaves the screen).  Also, your hand will likely cramp, as there isn't much variance available (your thumb needs to be on the right side of the right hand button and you have to turn pages too frequently to make it worth putting your hand elsewhere).

Here's a video to demonstrate.  I start with the device on as it takes a while to get to the start screen.  And yes, I say 'scan' when I mean 'scroll'.  I was in a hurry when I made the video.  :)


Using the Kobo left handed. from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.

If you've got a question about the Kobo, feel free to ask in the comments or email me and I'll try to answer it as soon as possible (with a video if required).

Kobo vs iPad in Sunlight Conditions

Here's where the Kobo definitely does better than the iPad. Sunlight conditions. E-ink readers are designed to be non-reflective, to give a better 'book' experience. In contrast, the iPad has a highly reflective screen, so reading in direct sunlight can be a problem. This video shows the difference and ways to improve reading on the iPad, beyond using a sun screen or sitting in the shade.

Kobo vs iPad in sunlight conditions from Jessica Strider on Vimeo.

Kobo vs iPad for Reading PDF Files

This is a quick video showing the difference between reading a PDF on the Kobo vs the iPad. Ultimately, while it's great the Kobo can read PDFs and increase the font size, it's inability to scroll through documents using anything but the forward and back keys, make doing anything than a straight read impossible (with books you can at least jump between chapter but that isn't an option with PDFs).

Contrast this with the iPad, which allows for easy scrolling, bookmarking, etc. it's a much more pleasant reading experience when it comes to PDFs.

Kobo E-Reader Version 1.4 Upgrade

Here's a video I did showing the upgrade changes for the Kobo.



Here's a quick summary:
1. there's now a light indicator when charging
2. the log in screen defaults to the 'my books' page, even if you were reading a book (it used to log in to the page you were reading)
3. there's a 15 minute sleep function, after which the machine turns off (this means you can't leave the Kobo on indefinitely, so you always have to log back in and choose your book to continue reading)
4. the sleep screen shows the book cover and gets you back to your page if you click the power button before the 15 minutes are up
5. the 'off' screen no longer displays the book cover, just a 'powered off' message.
6. you can hide the preloaded books by choosing to view only your books in the display menu of the 'books' screen
7. you can now resize fonts in ePub files uploaded from sources other than the Kobo store (I show a PDF in the video, but it's the same idea)

Kobo E-Reader Review

As promised, here's my review of the Kobo E-Reader after having read a novel on it.

First, some of my points are no longer valid as the company has come out with a firmware update. Some of the things they're addressing, quoted from this post:

1. Font scaling
A number of people have had issues resizing fonts on epub files they have imported into the eReader, especially files from other stores/sources. Font issues have been tricky. [Warning: content of a technical nature] They are most often caused by hardcoded absolute font sizes in the epub CSS. Doing wholesale overrides of CSS can earn us bad karma with publishers. And while we can easily override some CSS elements (font face, for example, since we have a limited number of fonts on the eReader), the Adobe SDK actually prohibits override of absolute font sizes. (Grrr…) So we have had to do some crafty things behind the scenes to get around that limitation. We have tested the new release of firmware with every file that users have sent us with font resizing issues and it has worked in all cases we’ve tested so far.

2. Title Management
The biggest irritant we heard from lots of users was “I don’t care about *&@^#$# Jane Eyre! Get it out of my Library!” Totally understandable: some people feel it clutters up the Library or makes it harder to find purchased books. (Others love having a reader that is full of books as soon as you plug it in. That’s the way it goes…) There is a short-term fix in the new release while we work on a longer and more complicated one. In the short term, you’ll be able to hide pre-loaded books on the device — get them out of the way so you can look at the other books you’ve added. That definitely won’t address all issues, but it will address the biggest pain point while we work on a wider range of library management features for a subsequent release.

3. Battery Life
This was a software problem rather than a hardware one. Even when the device is in sleep mode, there is a negligible amount of activity on the device. The bug: in some situations, power consumption wasn’t tapering off as much as it should have when the device went into sleep mode. We found the bug and fixed it, so people should be able to get the 8,000 page turns they were expecting.

4. Charging Light
Used to: show nothing until it was charged and then turn red when it was done. (Yep, that makes absolutely no sense.)
New release: turns red when it’s charging (so you know something is going on), turns blue when it’s done. Should generally provide a more accurate sense of what’s going on.

There are a bunch of other things rolled up in the update (universal mac builds for PPC+Intel for the Desktop Reader, better indications when the device is off, etc.), but I wanted to flag those four since they’ve been a topic of some discussion here.

The book I read, On Basilisk Station, by David Weber, was, due to the fact I got it from a BAEN CD rather than the kobo store, a bad choice. I encountered the font sizing problem (books from other sources couldn't be resized, and showed up on the kobo on the smallest font). Several people came up with their own fixes and posted them online, so I was eventually able to fix this, but it made reading in bed less pleasant as I had to hold the kobo fairly close to my face.

The reading experience itself is good. The page turns feel slow, but only because computers have gotten so fast that any electronic device that isn't instantaneous seems slow by comparison (and e-ink readers have slower page turns than the i-pad or computer). The quilted backing is comfortable to hold and the size is good for reading (fits the hand and has a decent sized screen, regardless of text size). And if you're just reading straight through, it's a good device.

Other problems I encountered though were discovering 3/4 of the way through the book that there was a prologue I somehow missed, difficulty scrolling back to remind myself of details (I tend to check back to confirm details and remind myself of important events once new knowledge pops up, something that's difficult on the kobo since you can't jump to specific pages, only one page at a time or to chapter openings).

I also encountered a problem with the formatting beyond the sizing - which I hope this upgrade will address. The original file I uploaded (the one I couldn't change fonts on) had paragraph indentation but no page breaks. I know this is a format issue not a kobo issue, but it did cause me problems, not realizing the scene changed (I even checked it against the paperback to confirm it was a formatting error and not an idiosyncracy of this book). When I changed the format so it could be resized, the formatting got rid of the indentations (which I prefer) and started putting a space between paragraphs. On occasion there would be a double break to show scene changes, but not always. So I was more on guard, but still blindsided by scene changes every now and then.

For those of you out there who think putting digital version of books out should be easy, let me tell you, if the book isn't formatted properly it's a royal pain to read. The number of times I had to backtrack and reorient myself made the book feel very disjointed and the reading experience a lot less enjoyable than it should have been. If you want to know what does go into preparing an e-book, here's a wonderful post.

I also spent most of the time reading in a room with poor natural lighting, forcing me to use a lamp (yes, a paper book would require the same thing, but the i-pad doesn't, and so I mention it here).

If you're wondering at the speed of the kobo, I filmed a quick video showing the navigation, page sizing and page turning of the device. And yes, I say 'i-ink' rather than 'e-ink'. I'm blaming that on Indigo and Apple's fondness for 'i' words. :)



Ultimately, I still prefer paper books to electronic ones, but the problems with reading On Basilisk Station notwithstanding, now that I know what to expect I can see myself reading on the kobo again and enjoying the experience. I'll be more careful about checking for a prologue before skipping to chapter one. The page turn speed didn't bother me so much once I got into the book, and my battery lasts a good week between charges, even if it's left on between reading sessions.

For the price, it's a great reading device if you don't want to do other things with the machine. If you do want to do other things... I still prefer the i-pad. For all it's greater size, the i-pad's instant page turns, ability for colour and backlight (great for reading in darkened rooms and at night) is an excellent machine.

Back from Japan, Thoughts on the ipad & the kobo

So, we returned safe and sound from Japan on Thursday. I'd meant to post my thoughts on the ipad yesterday and start blogging about our trip but jet lag hit so I spent the day napping instead.

Of the two devices we brought on the trip, the ipad and the kobo, we definitely found the ipad more useful. My husband downloaded a mapping program, which we used to track our progress (and our walking side-trips), as well as help us in unfamiliar places to avoid getting lost. He amused himself on the airplane with various games. For the most part I used it, rather than the kobo, to read (explained below). When we could find a free connection, we used it to check email and download more games, etc. On the occasions when we encountered my friends, we'd uploaded photos and did slide shows with it. It was also a great conversation topic for my husband, as his Japanese (and often their English) wasn't good and he didn't know any of the people we were meeting.

The backlit screen was excellent for the airplane, as it meant it could be used without using the overhead light and thereby disturbing people (I tried to read the kobo on the plane and ran into this dilemma. Since the screen isn't backlit, you can't read it without an outside light source. In the past I'd always get window seats and crack the window a bit to read books, if necessary. This time I was in a middle seat, so couldn't do that).

We never found ourselves reading in direct sunlight so glare wasn't a major problem with the ipad, and you can dim the screen (in fact it's recommended to do so in order to save battery life), which makes it easier to read in sunny conditions.

Typing messages with it wasn't as hard as I'd expected. Switching between the letters and numbers takes some getting used to, but everything has a learning curve.

The ipad is fast. One very noticeable difference between reading on it and the kobo, was how long it took the kobo to refresh pages. As I said, I didn't end up doing much reading on the kobo. Part of that was because my husband was reading from it a lot of the time. But when he wasn't, I found it a pain to use. I chose Frankenstein as my plane read. I couldn't read the kobo on the plane for the above reasons (no backlight), so I started reading it on the kobo app for the ipad. What I didn't realize when I started was that Frankenstein is separated into letters, and the letters subdivided into chapters. The kobo has no way of jumping ahead to a specific page. You must either scroll between pages (and page refreshes, in this age of cable internet and instant gratification are SLOW) or you have to scroll through chapters. But the kobo didn't had the subchapters of Frankenstein listed, so once I started the 300+ page section, I was more or less stuck reading it on the ipad (or scrolling for hours, which I refused to do).

So, I'm not the best judge of the kobo's performance at the moment. I'm hoping to read a book off the kobo next week so as to give more accurate feedback about it.

In the meantime, the ipad is incredible. Reading on it was a joy. The weight wasn't a problem, the light wasn't a problem. When the screen's lighting is down it can last quite some time on a charge (we charged it every night and I think the most we drained it was to the 70% charge mark). Both the kobo and ireader apps are fun to read from. You can decide your page flip method, and they're practically instantaneous regardless of which one you choose. The option of font sizes is a plus (which the kobo has as well).

The biggest problem with the ipad was deciding who got to use it!

Kobo E-Reader

For our upcoming trip to Japan, I bought my husband a Kobo e-reader. Here's what came in the box: the reader, a usb cord and quick start instructions. Right now you also get one of three promotional books for free (in addition to the 100 preloaded books). We got Stieg Larsson's The Girl With the Dragon Tattoo.

I'm not too keen on the screen's way of blacking out in order to refresh/turn (I don't like things that flash in my face) and my husband wishes e-readers would pre-render the next page so turns go faster. Still, it's a nifty reader and weighs less than the comparable books would.

I'll tell you after the trip how it holds up.

We chose not to get the optional holder. The reader's pretty robust and the reading screen's fairly small and, since it's e-ink, smudges don't show up that well.