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Old 06-22-2012, 09:17 PM   #1
nila
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Thinking of getting a Kobo Touch - Battery + Book Management questions

Hi all,
Going to get myself an eBook reader.
Been looking at a few and as I already have a large library of books (used to use my phone to read on) in multiple formats (ePub, pdf, txt, etc) this one seems like a good choice due to its multiple format support.

I have read two things about it though that worry me:

Battery life
- this seems to be fairly poor. Some ebook readers are claiming apx. 2500 page turns per charge which is what I want - something I can use while travelling if I need to and be reading for hours each day and still only needing to charge it every few days. The Kobo seems to have fairly poor battery from a lot of the posts I've seen scattered around??

Book Management on the device
- From what I've read it has literally no book management and only just gives you a big huge long list of the books available. Basically means once you start getting a lot of books on there it will be a HUGE pain in the ass with no way to organise them by genre, artist, title etc.
Is this true and how big a problem is it?


Are the two issues above a result of the Kobo Touch being a 'cheap product' and if I want one without them I should look at more expensive products?


What are good suggestions for eBook readers that support a lot of formats, have long battery life and a decent interface?


Thanks for the help guys.
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Old 06-22-2012, 09:28 PM   #2
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I've just read the Kindle can be hacked to give it ePub support.
Is the Kindle a better device (better battery + book management on the device)?
Is the Nook Simple Touch a better device? I can order one from the US and get it shipped to me for the same price as the Kobo Touch.

Does the Kobo show adverts also? Wouldn't be happy with that if it did - the Nook doesn't.

Last edited by nila; 06-22-2012 at 09:33 PM. Reason: x
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Old 06-22-2012, 09:47 PM   #3
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I'm more than happy with the battery life of my Touch; Frankly I don't remember when I last gave it a full charge and I DO read a great deal.

Sure the management is not the best; there is experimental support available for shelves in a plugin that has been developed. This does not really add new support; rather it enables the partial support for shelves added by Kobo them selves.

I am happy with sorting by either book name or author, especially when I have used calibre to add series info to the book titles, so that books sort within a series.

I only use ePub format so convert other formats to ePub via calibre.

Remember; most people only post to complain about issues.
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Old 06-22-2012, 09:50 PM   #4
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Hi Wizard
I'm fully aware of people only complaining about issues and the silent majority not mentioning how well it works for them from tons of other forums :P

The Nook Simple touch claims that it is significantly faster than other ebook readers at page turns and has no ads - does the Kobo have ad's and is the nook significantly faster?
I can get it from ebay for the same price (even with postage from the US) as the Kobo.

Also, does it have better support for organising books?
Any chance you could post a screen shot of the Kobo's book browser so I can actually see what I'm talking about.
You mention browsing by author or title?
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Old 06-23-2012, 12:09 AM   #5
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You haven't said where you live, but if you live in a country where the various ereaders are sold, maybe you should compare them in person--see how you feel about them in your hand. Do be aware though that stores tend not to update readers once they have them, so you may not be looking at the latest release.

You are asking people on the Kobo forum to make comparisons with readers most of us probably do not own.

You can buy a Kobo with ads in the US, from Target I believe. There are recommended books on the Touch that can be ignored by choosing another option in the bottom carousel. I have my shortlist displaying there. I use the shortlist function for my non-fiction books. I seldom have more than 40 or so books on my Touch at one time, so being able to search by recent reads, author, title, or shortlist is plenty for me. I use Calibre for my library management.
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Old 06-23-2012, 12:12 AM   #6
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Battery life is great as far as I am concerned. I have mine set to sleep after 15mins and power off after 30mins. With those settings the battery lasts a long time for me. I'd say 2 to three weeks, easy.

Book management other than alphabetical by: Title, Author, File Type, Recent Reads. However you can add books to a short list, which is what I do particularly for series books. This can be shown/accessed on the home screen.

The one problem I do have that has started to bug me a bit are dead screen taps. Meaning you tap the screen to turn a page and nothing happens. Tap again nothing happens... you get the idea. However for me if nothing happens on the second tap I just swipe my finger across the screen and that turns the page. I can then go back to tapping the screen.

Other than that one bug I love my KT.
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Old 06-23-2012, 12:16 AM   #7
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I find it interesting that some folks get dead screen taps frequently, and some people almost never get them. I am in the latter camp. I did have one with the problem, but I exchanged it through Chapters-Indigo. I knew that there wasn't really a fix for readers that acted this way when using .17. The update from .16 to .17 took care of a lot of issues like this, so I just sorta figured if I was having the problem with .17, I should exchange the Touch.

Last edited by taming; 06-23-2012 at 12:19 AM. Reason: more inf
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Old 06-23-2012, 01:03 AM   #8
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Quote:
Originally Posted by Danger View Post
Battery life is great as far as I am concerned. I have mine set to sleep after 15mins and power off after 30mins. With those settings the battery lasts a long time for me. I'd say 2 to three weeks, easy.

The one problem I do have that has started to bug me a bit are dead screen taps. Meaning you tap the screen to turn a page and nothing happens. Tap again nothing happens... you get the idea. However for me if nothing happens on the second tap I just swipe my finger across the screen and that turns the page. I can then go back to tapping the screen.

Other than that one bug I love my KT.
Hello Nila,
I too have a KT and agree with what "Danger" has quoted. I really enjoy reading on my KT and was very fortunate to have one that has no issues. Like, with any electronic device, you do run risk to purchasing a 'faulty' one. I also try not to put too many books, as I found this slowed down my KT, and I was getting a lot of dead or delayed screen taps. But, I was really surprised how simple it was to set up and navigate, plus with the 'wifi' you can keep in touch with your friends via your email accounts while on vacation.

Last edited by lornaw; 06-23-2012 at 01:06 AM.
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Old 06-23-2012, 01:28 AM   #9
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The battery life of the Touch is great. When I see people complaining about Kobo's battery life, they are usually talking about the Kobo Vox (which is an Android tablet with an LCD screen).

The Touch is terrible at library management: you have three different views, can sort your library, and can shortlist your favourite books. Worse yet, sideloading large numbers of books will result in it spending a huge amount of time rebuilding its database.

I would suggest that the Kobo is ideal for someone looking for a no-hassle reader rather than a feature rich reader. It is good for someone who may load a dozen books at a time, but not for someone who wants to manage their entire library on it. That's great for people like me. Of course, you may differ.
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Old 06-23-2012, 02:17 AM   #10
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No issue with battery life here, so long as it's in Airplane mode.

I thought I'd be much more bothered by the lack of library management that I have ended up being. I've got several hundred books on mine at the moment. Don't get me wrong, I'd love for shelves/folders to be implemented; but I've found that judicious use of the Shortlist, and use of the Search function (I usually know what I want to read), is working fine for me right now. Mileage is definitely going to vary on this one, though.

Mostly I like the Kobo because of the feel in my hand, and because of the fine control of fonts/line spacing/margins/etc.
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Old 06-23-2012, 03:57 AM   #11
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For me BWinmill has summed things up perfectly.

I bought a Touch a month ago from Staples UK for £60 as a cheap back up when my Kindle3 began to exhibit an unreliable on/off button. To my surprise, I love the Touch and my Kindle has been relegated to the substitutes' bench.

I only keep about 40 books on the reader at any one time and the navigation is fine for this.

I do not use wifi, and have only had to re-charge the Touch once in the month of ownership.

I have had no turning page issues.

As a small, basic reader the Touch has really impressed me.
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Old 06-23-2012, 04:11 AM   #12
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Note that it is also a reader that has:
  • advanced font handling
  • the ability to sync Kobo kepub formatted books over a wide variety of devices using Kobo apps
  • On device purchasing
  • WiFi
  • Sharing to Facebook, if you want it and then all the time or only when you want it and make it happen
  • Annotations, including highlighting and notes
  • Reading life
  • Awards
  • Touch
  • An SD card slot
Some folks (including me) would say it is far more than a simple, basic reader. If the ability to create bookshelves is the single most important feature for you, then buy something else, or use the hack for this feature.

Last edited by taming; 06-23-2012 at 04:18 AM.
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Old 06-23-2012, 07:10 AM   #13
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The battery life question might also be in relation to the Kobo WiFi, as it's not as good. For any possible criticisms people might have about the Kobo Touch, battery life certainly isn't one of them. Not sure it's quite as good as the Kindle Touch (though I may be wrong?), but it's certainly no slouch.

If you have to import a Nook but can buy a Kobo locally, then go with the Kobo (or the Sony PRS-T1 which handles collections better than the Kobo), so if you have any problems you won't have hassles with returning it.
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Old 06-23-2012, 09:37 AM   #14
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One of the biggest changes from version to version of the Touch has been the improvement in power management and the life of the battery. The info on/in the box is out of date. Like the improvement in page turning and text clarity, some improvements are not mentioned here (and elsewhere) nearly as much as are the changes in features.
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Old 06-23-2012, 09:47 AM   #15
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I'm not sure where you got the idea that the battery life is poor. I've found it to be great. In the summer--the time of year I read the most--I get 2 to 3 weeks out of a charge. In the winter, it goes up to 5 or 6 weeks.

Just remember to turn the wifi off (airplane mode) and turn the eReader off (as opposed to sleep mode) if you aren't going to be using it for a couple of hours. I have mine turn off automatically after 30 min.

As others have said, library management is pretty much none existent. The sort functions work well enough for me. By sorting, it's a lot easier to find a book on my Kobo than in my dead-tree library. I find the short list feature useful as well.

A few people have mentioned the dead tap issue. I've noticed that this happens more often with side-loaded books and less with kepubs. And, it's a lot less annoying than the old double-tab problem.

It's true that the Touch is a cheap eReader but, as taming pointed out, it has some great features. I'd like to add a pretty decent dictionary to her list. (Much better than the on the Wifi version.)

What I like about cheap, is that I don't hesitate to take it to places where it might be damaged. (camping, backpacking, the beach) If I break it, it won't break me to replace it.
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