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Old 07-25-2012, 04:56 PM   #1
starky158
Junior Member
starky158 began at the beginning.
 
Posts: 3
Karma: 10
Join Date: Jul 2012
Device: Kobo touch
Stupid registration prevents sideloading for gift?

Got a Kobo Touch as a gift for someone and figured out you can't actually use the damn thing unless you register for their garbage bloaty software. The person I am giving this too is pretty technologically illiterate and lives 300km away. I was planning on sideloading a couple hundred epubs and set them up on a stable firmware (IE .17 and giving it to them. I would then help them physically every time I am up there put on some new books.

So now I know how this is going to go down:

Me: Okay, now go to kobosetup.com and download the file, install it
Them: Where did I save it? I don't see it
Me: how the hell should I know, probably in your downloads folder
Them: how do I get there?

4 hours later

Me: Okay now put in your email address to register
Them: Whats my password, its set to automatically log in so I don't know

5 more hours and making a throwaway gmail account they will end up losing / forgetting:

Me: Okay now its set up and we can at least put books on it now, you need to download files that end in .epub or mobi

Them: oh it froze, the power button doesn't work

Me: they released another garbage firmware update that causes it to freeze every 30 seconds, take a folded paperclip and stick it in the pin hole in the back

Them: I give up




It doesn't have to be this hard Kobo... remove the damn bloat and let people actually control their device when they unbox it... a friendly (SKIPABBLE) reminder on first start to Update firmware, register an account and enter store information is fine, don't hold people hostage please.


tl;dr

Is there work around to turn it into a usable device as a gift without registering to an email address they will never use and possibly lose, while giving them the possibility of registering later to use the store and other garbage?
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