Kindle or Kobo Aura (HD)?

[Lyn2012]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm not into tweaking eraders anymore.On my ereaders I only want to read. Out of the box. And here I still find Kindles more or less perfect.

In some ways I agree, I don't want to have to tweak my ereader either, but for me it is the reason for changing my PW1 for the new Kobo Aura. Just to get basic functions such as collections imported from Calibre, hyphenation and to add my own fonts, I had to jailbreak and patch the PW whereas the Kobo works straight out of the box.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Lyn2012

In some ways I agree, I don't want to have to tweak my ereader either, but for me it is the reason for changing my PW1 for the new Kobo Aura. Just to get basic functions such as collections imported from Calibre, hyphenation and to add my own fonts, I had to jailbreak and patch the PW whereas the Kobo works straight out of the box.

I've used calibre about 2 years ago as well.
Certainly a great tool.
But I found, that I simply don't need it.
I've got about 700 Amazon books on my Kindle Paperwhite (I've bought about 900, but only about 700 fit in the meager 2GB). I find the one I'm looking for within less than a minute, no collections or anything like that needed.

Only one thing bothers me, but that's unfortunately true for all readers/stores:
Why can't they specify the metadata properly?
I absolutely hate it, when I buy books from the very same source and the author's name for example varies from:
James Patterson
JAMES PATTERSON
Patterson James
Patterson, James
I wish, there were a common standard for all publishers. But at least from the very same source I'd expect some consistency.
In the beginning, I changed such inconsistencies via calibre. But now I simply find it too time consuming. I'm not archiving my books on the PC either anymore...

[Buber]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I'm not archiving my books on the PC either anymore...

That might be unwise. I have mine on 2 different HDDs and on the net storage. You just never know...

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Buber

That (=not archiving ebooks) might be unwise. I have mine on 2 different HDDs and on the net storage. You just never know...

A few years ago, my process had been:
- Downloading on the PC, from various sources (Books on Board, Kobo, B&N, Amazon, ...).
- Stripping from DRM.
- Archiving in Calibre.
- Converting to my numerous target formats (ePUB to AZW and so on).
- Sideloading onto all my readers in the respective format.

After some time, I found for myself:
- I don't care about the metadata anymore. I can't understand, why there's no common spec, for example how to define the author's name. But I simply stopped bothering, it's not really important for reading the book. So I don't care about changing the metadata in calibre anymore.
- It's no use for me, to convert to other formats. I buy the book on my momentary favorite and read it on them. If I don't read it at once and in the meantime have another favorite, I re-purchase the book. Quite a few (300?) books I've purchased 2 or 3 times. Some (100?) I even have on all my readers in all formats they cover.
- I don't worry about archiving. Yes, I have about 700 eBooks in Microsoft's LIT format, which aren't of much use anymore. Although I had stripped them from DRM and converted them into numerous other formats, I'm simply not using them. The ones (maybe 100 out of 700) I intend to re-read I simple re-purchased again, on demand. I may risk to loose some books. But 2 or 3 years after having purchased them, it's not that important and critical.
And, so far all merchants that ceased business, gave me months of notice in advance. I easily could re-download my library.
And: I'm mainly buying from Amazon now. I don't see much risk of them dropping out of business "over night".
And: I'm buying maybe 500 books per year. Downloading and archiving them and stripping from DRM and converting at some stage simply became too time consuming and annoying.

Whereas I still have lots of paper books on my shelfs, I don't see eBooks "for eternity". To me, it's a purchase for the next 2 or 3 years...

[Julien Pham]

I had a Kobo before, an old one, I switched to a Kindle 3G, not the PW (two years ago), mostly because of the 3G of the Kindle I use very often. I buy only from Amazon, and so now I don't feel the need to archive the books anymore. I buy them, I read them, I archive them. And I can do this anywhere, even without a wifi connection. And I an download them again if I need. So I just keep on my Kindle the books I'm currently reading and the ones I will read soon.

On my Kindle I bought the cover with the integrated light. Very handy (remember, this is not a PW).

And the 3G is very useful as well, as I read a lot of English books (I'm french) so sometimes I use the integrated dictionary to find a word (no 3G needed) but sometimes this is not enough so I use the bing translator, and THIS uses 3G.

The 3G is very handy as well because I have the Kindle app on my smartphone, and with 3G the Kindle sync the bookmark anywhere so when I have forgotten my Kindle I can continue my reading on my smartphone.

Amazon also has a daily promotion of some books I use sometimes, and I am an Amazon premium subscriber so I borrow a book per month. Dunno if Kobo has those kind of things.

So this is why I have a Kindle, this is why I bought the 3G version. Now I Wonder if I'll switch to the PW version or not...

[radius]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

And: I'm buying maybe 500 books per year.

You can read a book or two every single day of the year? Wow!!!

[Julien Pham]

Buying books does not mean reading them A know of someone who hadn't read half the books in his Library

[Buber]

Hi again!

So, now I'm a happy owner of Aura HD. I must admit that Kobo webiste was useless (kept hanging on me when I tried to purchase) so I got it from Amazon, alas, for a bit more. But what the heck, x-mas is a good excuse

In short words - I'm quite happy with the purchase. Screen quality is unparalelled. Really great. Light is very uniform, so no "blotching" or whatever else plagues other readers. Got a very nice cover - http://www.amazon.com/Premium-Leathe...dp/B00E19K6EQ/ works very well, puts the device to sleep upon closing the lid, and since it is solid plastic, I have a good feeling about its protection qualities.
Installed Kobo patcher to get all space on the screen - worked like a charm, and now i installed coolreader as well as koreader - finalyl somethign to read PDFs with! On Kindle reading PDFs is nigh impossible -screen to small no option of zooming. Koreader does very good job. If just the reset upon the exit could be fixed..
And getting used to the touch screen - still sometimes does not goo enoug for me, but call me "unadapted" to digiatl age - i noticed on few diferent touch devices that my fingers somehow do not work as well as others. Different skin resistance? Anyway, it works well enough.

So, in short - I'm happy with my purchase, it just would be nice if Kobo could read mobi format better. It does read it, but clearly does much better job with epubs.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by Julien Pham

Buying books does not mean reading them A know of someone who hadn't read half the books in his Library

Err.. I think that "someone" is everybody!

[rajatsharma]

I am having a bit issue with the of Kindle Aura HD. How to fix that. I got a similar article based on my problem which does not says much - http://forums.techarena.in/ebooks/1473407.htm

[anton79ru]

Originally Posted by drew2720

The PW2 is better than the PW1 but Aura is much better on both contrast and even light IMHO.

I currently own an Aura HD and the screen looks greyish to me
At least from what I see in video comparisons, the Paperwhite 2 screen has more contrast and is indeed whiter.

Did you have the chance to compare the two screens head to head? Because if, based on your visual experience, you believe the contrast on Aura HD is better or at least the same, I'll probably stop thinking about trading it for a PW2 solely for that reason...

[soulfuldog]

Originally Posted by anton79ru

I currently own an Aura HD and the screen looks greyish to me
At least from what I see in video comparisons, the Paperwhite 2 screen has more contrast and is indeed whiter.

Did you have the chance to compare the two screens head to head? Because if, based on your visual experience, you believe the contrast on Aura HD is better or at least the same, I'll probably stop thinking about trading it for a PW2 solely for that reason...

If the shipping costs aren't prohibitive, the best thing you could do is buy a Paperwhite from Amazon and compare it yourself. You will have 30 days to return it for a refund if you don't like it, though you would probably have to pay the return postage.

The fact is, people see things differently, plus there are variances between the same models of e-readers. Your Aura HD might look a little greyer than drews. Also, he might be comparing the screen on his Aura HD with the light on, whereas you might be worrying about it being slightly grey with the light off.

The Paperwhite has the best e-ink screen (Carta v Pearl) and improved contrast because of that. However, the Paperwhite has a capacitive touch screen compared to the Aura HD's infra-red touch screen, and this adds an extra layer to the screen which negates this a little. Due to its increased resolution the Aura HD looks sharper too, so there probably isn't a lot to choose between the two, very few Aura HD owners have any complaints about the screen though, it's generally considered that with this model, Kobo have got it about as spot on as is possible.

So I'd be more concerned I had a poor example of an Aura HD than anything else to be honest.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by rajatsharma

I am having a bit issue with the of Kindle Aura HD. How to fix that. I got a similar article based on my problem which does not says much - http://forums.techarena.in/ebooks/1473407.htm

You'll get more of a response if you post this in the Kobo forum. Your question is unlikely to be spotted here.

This is the Kobo forum https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=223

[mystika1]

My Kobo Glo has a greyish tint to the screen and the fonts are like a dark grey. I recently purchased a Kindle PW2 and find the screen to be tan in color when lighting is turned way down. It is white when my light is halfway on up. I do find the blacks to be blacker and more crisp on the PW2. I am enjoying the reading experience on the PW2. Most videos showing the comparison of Kobo vs Kindle seemed to me to show the PW2 appearing more clear and easier to read. That is why I wanted to try the PW2 so bad. I am glad I decided to try the Kindle. I like it a lot.

I still like my Glo as well. I think that both Kobo and Kindle are nice devices. I Would recommend that you just try them both out and figure out which one is best for you.

Penny

[meeera]

Originally Posted by mystika1

My Kobo Glo has a greyish tint to the screen and the fonts are like a dark grey. I recently purchased a Kindle PW2 and find the screen to be tan in color when lighting is turned way down. It is white when my light is halfway on up. I do find the blacks to be blacker and more crisp on the PW2. I am enjoying the reading experience on the PW2. Most videos showing the comparison of Kobo vs Kindle seemed to me to show the PW2 appearing more clear and easier to read. That is why I wanted to try the PW2 so bad. I am glad I decided to try the Kindle. I like it a lot.

I still like my Glo as well. I think that both Kobo and Kindle are nice devices. I Would recommend that you just try them both out and figure out which one is best for you.

Penny

Yes to trying them both out, if at all possible. The Glo and the Aura HD don't exactly have comparable screens - one is Kobo's cheapest first-gen frontlit tech, and the other is the Cadillac of eink screens.