Aura NEW Kobo Aura Impressions Thread! - Page 13

Canuck_in_Japan · 09-19-2013, 07:10 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil74

Eh? What have I said that will offend anybody on here? Or is criticising the aura not allowed?

I am granted only 2 hours in but to say it is buggy is an understatement.

No I think poo is a perfectly apt description! I'm relieved to be honest. I just got an HD in April so this means I can hold off until at least the Aura 2 is out.

What I would like to know is why neither of those dingbats at Goodereader mentioned any of these criticisms.

PeterT · 09-19-2013, 07:32 PM

The point I'm trying to make is think of this as your home. We have someone come walking in and instantly ranting about an issue.

On the other hand someone walks in and coherently (and politely) describes an issue.

Which person and problem are you more likely to want to deal with and try to help?

speakingtohe · 09-19-2013, 07:44 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

The point I'm trying to make is think of this as your home. We have someone come walking in and instantly ranting about an issue.

On the other hand someone walks in and coherently (and politely) describes an issue.

Which person and problem are you more likely to want to deal with and try to help?

The one who agrees with me

But seriously, If someone ordered a brand new and slightly expensive toy, endured the wait and the anticipation, and it this behaved badly, brand new out of the box, I don't think a pile of pooh is an overly strong way of putting it. Would not make me want to step on them and squash them like a bug in any case even if the h was changed to a p.

Of course if someone came into my home and started to criticise my furniture, I wouldn't jump all over them until they kicked my dog

The onus for hospitality rests mainly on the host.

Helen

PeterT · 09-19-2013, 08:04 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by speakingtohe

The onus for hospitality rests mainly on the host.

Which is why I make FREQUENT use of the IGNORE option.

speakingtohe · 09-19-2013, 08:47 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by PeterT

Which is why I make FREQUENT use of the IGNORE option.

There you go, but harder to do when they are actually in your house and in your face at the same time. I did use the lalala I can't hear you at least once though

Helen

davidfor · 09-19-2013, 09:55 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by tls

Errrm, actually the blank space is really beginning to irritate me. Look at this photo - I may as well not have the bottom 1" of my eReader.

What's on the next page? A chapter heading? A picture? Something else? Why the space isn't used depends on the contents of the book and the formatting. Or you might have hit a well known bug.

tomosaki · 09-19-2013, 11:18 PM

So I bought one today, had one bright white pixel area when the light was in use, returned it and the second one had 4 little bright spots when the light was on (luckily I opened a new one up at the return desk to check if it had issues. The third one I bought the screen was great, no issues with the Aura.I guess I lucked out as this location only had 3 in stock today and I managed to go through them all.

So my suggestion is to open up your package as soon as you buy it at the store to see if the screen is working properly, if you have any issues return it right away and try again.

Overall I'm rather impressed with the device, I threw on a few hundred books and everything has run smoothly, no other major issues.

slantybard · 09-20-2013, 01:57 AM

OK, going to throw some thoughts down. First, a bit about my ereading background so you can view my comments flavoured by my history. I am a long time ereader starting with the Palm V -> Clie -> Handera -> Dell Axim -> Sony 505 -> Sony 650 -> KPW1. I also read on computers and iDevices. I am not loyal to any particular device or format (I am only loyal to Calibre!). My KPW1 is currently jailbroken so that I could modify my fonts/display/collections etc.

I picked up an Aura today and have some preliminary thoughts. The device is much lighter and smaller compared to my KPW1. I could not find a sleep cover to try with the Aura, however, the covers I saw for the HD and Glo looked extremely poor compared to the sleek, tight fitted beauty of the KPW1 cover (it is an amazing cover). I will start researching covers.

The lighting on the Aura looks very, very good compared to my KPW1. Seriously, no blotched/splashed areas of different shades. Did I mention that it looks good?

There is a brighter band at the top noticeable at full brightness (which by the way, is much brighter than my KPW1).

There are about 3 small light spots. They are only noticeable at brightness levels higher than about 75% on my Aura and even then, must be looked at closely to see them. I don't think I will notice them when I read. Overall, the light artifacts on the Aura are way less noticeable compared to the splotchy KPW1 lighted screen (which I have loved to read from this past year).

I took the Aura into the sunshine. The diffuser layer does indeed have some artifacts, but the screen needs to be held off angle to really notice them.When examined, they appear to be diamond shaped...Kobo really brings the bling to ereading! Seriously though, I don't think I will notice while reading.

The fonts look slightly darker on my KPW1. I am not sure if this is because of the screen or not since there are several factors that might explain this:
1. I spent several nights making my own custom font to use on the KPW1 that are better and darker than the stock KPW1 fonts. It only took several minutes to generated a modified Aura stock font using the font menu that come quite close to the custom KPW1 font. This is one area that the Kobo really stands above compared to Amazon.
2. I have not had a chance to load a calibre formated kepub onto the Aura yet and only used a book that was on the device already so I don't know the quality of the formatted book and what engine is rendering it.
3. The lighted Aura screen is slightly more warm compared to the cooler KPW1 screen which may be affecting my interpretation of the font contrast.

I am disappointed that the margins, even when minimized are still quite big. This too may be related to epub formatting and I will explore calibre formatted kepubs with minimal margins or search the forum for a hack to shrink the margins further.

I am also not a fan of the header/footer. I will need to research how to change/hack this. Kindle handles this much better as the header is not seen while reading (only when the controls are triggered) and the footer is also minimal, showing only location/time left to read/etc. I do like the Kindle footer info better than the Aura.

I have not explored Calibre integration, but it can't be more complex than the Kindle's lockdown. I will play with this tomorrow after reading the shelves thread.

So why would I consider switching to the Aura from the KPW1 especially with the upcoming KPW2 Carta device? The biggest reason would be the difficulty in modifying the way books are displayed in Kindles including fonts, margins, justification, line spacing, and collections. The Kindles have required quite a lot of work to develop hacks for and repeatedly break those hacks with each update (java obfuscation anyone?). I expect that the KPW2 will be even harder to jailbreak and customize and may take over a year to develop a significant depth of modifications available for use.

tls · 09-20-2013, 02:42 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil74

Make that 5 freezes in the first 2 hours.

I am navigating and then the device just freezes, non-responsive. I have to stick a pin in the reset button to get it to work again.

Mine has been stable except for when I loaded Japanese epubs and then it froze completely.

tls · 09-20-2013, 02:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by davidfor

What's on the next page? A chapter heading? A picture? Something else? Why the space isn't used depends on the contents of the book and the formatting. Or you might have hit a well known bug.

It was a 4 line paragraph. This kind of gap is consistent tho.

neil74 · 09-20-2013, 03:34 AM

Woke up this morning opened a book, tried to navigate back to home and it froze again.

I am going to try a factory reset and start again.

paola · 09-20-2013, 04:07 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil74

Woke up this morning opened a book, tried to navigate back to home and it froze again.

I am going to try a factory reset and start again.

does the new Aura have an internal card? Perhaps is total nonsense, but I wonder whether there could be a problem with the card itself, IF there is one.

tls · 09-20-2013, 04:22 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by neil74

Woke up this morning opened a book, tried to navigate back to home and it froze again.

I am going to try a factory reset and start again.

Neil, given my experience with this happening with Japanese epubs (which work fine on other devices), could it be your epub is causing the problem? Maybe worth converting to mobi and back to epub using calibre and seeing if that helps, or using a different epub.

I have just tried a few epubs so far but I just realised this morning I better do a mass copy over my collection and check the kobo still works.

bartveld · 09-20-2013, 04:44 AM

Quote:

Originally Posted by slantybard

So why would I consider switching to the Aura from the KPW1 especially with the upcoming KPW2 Carta device? The biggest reason would be the difficulty in modifying the way books are displayed in Kindles including fonts, margins, justification, line spacing, and collections. The Kindles have required quite a lot of work to develop hacks for and repeatedly break those hacks with each update (java obfuscation anyone?). I expect that the KPW2 will be even harder to jailbreak and customize and may take over a year to develop a significant depth of modifications available for use.

Exactly. This was the reason to switch to Kobo for me. No more waiting for hacks from admittedly brilliant developers. Kobo in combination with Calibre (and Sigil in desperate circumstances) provide the right ability to tweak.

bargainofoz · 09-20-2013, 04:54 AM

Been using it for the past few hours and it's been smooth.

Overall quite happy, aside from a few light leaks near the bottom and right hand side of the device. Hardly noticeable when reading though so it shouldn't be a problem.
Though I would've liked the blacks to be a bit darker. They looked a bit washed out when I loaded a few manga chapters to read.

09-20-2013, 01:57 AM	#188
slantybard my parent's oops... Posts: 466 Karma: 1477570 Join Date: Feb 2009 Device: Vx->Handera->Clie-> Axim->505->650->KPW/Aura ->iOS/L2	Aura impressions OK, going to throw some thoughts down. First, a bit about my ereading background so you can view my comments flavoured by my history. I am a long time ereader starting with the Palm V -> Clie -> Handera -> Dell Axim -> Sony 505 -> Sony 650 -> KPW1. I also read on computers and iDevices. I am not loyal to any particular device or format (I am only loyal to Calibre!). My KPW1 is currently jailbroken so that I could modify my fonts/display/collections etc. I picked up an Aura today and have some preliminary thoughts. The device is much lighter and smaller compared to my KPW1. I could not find a sleep cover to try with the Aura, however, the covers I saw for the HD and Glo looked extremely poor compared to the sleek, tight fitted beauty of the KPW1 cover (it is an amazing cover). I will start researching covers. The lighting on the Aura looks very, very good compared to my KPW1. Seriously, no blotched/splashed areas of different shades. Did I mention that it looks good? There is a brighter band at the top noticeable at full brightness (which by the way, is much brighter than my KPW1). There are about 3 small light spots. They are only noticeable at brightness levels higher than about 75% on my Aura and even then, must be looked at closely to see them. I don't think I will notice them when I read. Overall, the light artifacts on the Aura are way less noticeable compared to the splotchy KPW1 lighted screen (which I have loved to read from this past year). I took the Aura into the sunshine. The diffuser layer does indeed have some artifacts, but the screen needs to be held off angle to really notice them.When examined, they appear to be diamond shaped...Kobo really brings the bling to ereading! Seriously though, I don't think I will notice while reading. The fonts look slightly darker on my KPW1. I am not sure if this is because of the screen or not since there are several factors that might explain this: 1. I spent several nights making my own custom font to use on the KPW1 that are better and darker than the stock KPW1 fonts. It only took several minutes to generated a modified Aura stock font using the font menu that come quite close to the custom KPW1 font. This is one area that the Kobo really stands above compared to Amazon. 2. I have not had a chance to load a calibre formated kepub onto the Aura yet and only used a book that was on the device already so I don't know the quality of the formatted book and what engine is rendering it. 3. The lighted Aura screen is slightly more warm compared to the cooler KPW1 screen which may be affecting my interpretation of the font contrast. I am disappointed that the margins, even when minimized are still quite big. This too may be related to epub formatting and I will explore calibre formatted kepubs with minimal margins or search the forum for a hack to shrink the margins further. I am also not a fan of the header/footer. I will need to research how to change/hack this. Kindle handles this much better as the header is not seen while reading (only when the controls are triggered) and the footer is also minimal, showing only location/time left to read/etc. I do like the Kindle footer info better than the Aura. I have not explored Calibre integration, but it can't be more complex than the Kindle's lockdown. I will play with this tomorrow after reading the shelves thread. So why would I consider switching to the Aura from the KPW1 especially with the upcoming KPW2 Carta device? The biggest reason would be the difficulty in modifying the way books are displayed in Kindles including fonts, margins, justification, line spacing, and collections. The Kindles have required quite a lot of work to develop hacks for and repeatedly break those hacks with each update (java obfuscation anyone?). I expect that the KPW2 will be even harder to jailbreak and customize and may take over a year to develop a significant depth of modifications available for use.

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09-19-2013, 07:32 PM	#182
PeterT Grand Sorcerer Posts: 12,168 Karma: 73448616 Join Date: Nov 2007 Location: Toronto Device: Nexus 7, Clara, Touch, Tolino EPOS	The point I'm trying to make is think of this as your home. We have someone come walking in and instantly ranting about an issue. On the other hand someone walks in and coherently (and politely) describes an issue. Which person and problem are you more likely to want to deal with and try to help?

09-19-2013, 11:18 PM	#187
tomosaki Junior Member Posts: 1 Karma: 10 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Aura	So I bought one today, had one bright white pixel area when the light was in use, returned it and the second one had 4 little bright spots when the light was on (luckily I opened a new one up at the return desk to check if it had issues. The third one I bought the screen was great, no issues with the Aura.I guess I lucked out as this location only had 3 in stock today and I managed to go through them all. So my suggestion is to open up your package as soon as you buy it at the store to see if the screen is working properly, if you have any issues return it right away and try again. Overall I'm rather impressed with the device, I threw on a few hundred books and everything has run smoothly, no other major issues.

09-20-2013, 03:34 AM	#191
neil74 Connoisseur Posts: 89 Karma: 19838 Join Date: Sep 2013 Location: UK Device: Kobo aura	Woke up this morning opened a book, tried to navigate back to home and it froze again. I am going to try a factory reset and start again.

09-20-2013, 04:54 AM	#195
bargainofoz Member Posts: 13 Karma: 75072 Join Date: Sep 2013 Device: Kobo Aura	Been using it for the past few hours and it's been smooth. Overall quite happy, aside from a few light leaks near the bottom and right hand side of the device. Hardly noticeable when reading though so it shouldn't be a problem. Though I would've liked the blacks to be a bit darker. They looked a bit washed out when I loaded a few manga chapters to read.