Paperwhite or Kobo Glo?

[kyteflyer]

I'm actually not interested in the screen issues, though they may have a final influence over which I decide on.

I have never owned a Kindle, or a Kobo, so what I am interested in is the software and book management.

1) Do either of them allow sorting by Author, providing a "page" or collection that way?
2) How much font variation is there? or is it restricted to the publisher's choice?

I'm tending to lean toward Kindle at the moment, which will then require the conversion of almost 2000 epubs to .mobi format (not looking forward to it, but at least it doesnt have to be done all at once)

3) How do these two manage books which are not purchased from the dedicated store? Are they "registered" in any way with the respective websites, or ignored.

Still leaning toward Kindle, because of the many free books I have acquired over the past 12 months, some at least of which are DRM protected. Easier to convert the non-protected ones, than to strip protection and then convert.

4) Does anyone think there might be an argument for having both readers? (Seems a bit excessive to me, but then, I am given to excession at times)

Appreciate any suggestions and opinions here

[davidfor]

My answers are purely for the Glo. Other than in shops, I've never played with a Kindle.

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I have never owned a Kindle, or a Kobo, so what I am interested in is the software and book management.

1) Do either of them allow sorting by Author, providing a "page" or collection that way?

The library list can be sorted in several way: Author, Title, Type (format), Size and Recently Read. You can also create bookshelves and put whatever books on them that you want to.

2) How much font variation is there? or is it restricted to the publisher's choice?

Lot and yes. The Glo comes with 11 fonts and you can sideload your own. And it allows at least 20 sizes in all fonts. But, if an epub has fonts and sizes specified, it depends on how they are specified. If font sizes are specified in a relative value, that is used relative to your selected font. If it is an absolute value, that is always used. A similar thing happens wit the font.

I'm tending to lean toward Kindle at the moment, which will then require the conversion of almost 2000 epubs to .mobi format (not looking forward to it, but at least it doesnt have to be done all at once)

3) How do these two manage books which are not purchased from the dedicated store? Are they "registered" in any way with the respective websites, or ignored.

Still leaning toward Kindle, because of the many free books I have acquired over the past 12 months, some at least of which are DRM protected. Easier to convert the non-protected ones, than to strip protection and then convert.

The Glo supports sideloaded books with Adobe DRM. You just need to register your Adobe ID on the device to read them. Non-DRM protected books can be sideloaded simply by copying them to the device when connect to a PC. The device detects them at disconnect and loads them into its library.

Books purchased from Kobo's shop can be downloaded directly to the device. You can also sync reading status with the Kobo server to sync to other Kobo devices and apps. The format used is a tweaked epub with their own DRM. But, the Kobo shop also has standard epubs that can be downloaded to a PC and sideloaded

4) Does anyone think there might be an argument for having both readers? (Seems a bit excessive to me, but then, I am given to excession at times)

Well, we can never have to many toys The only reason I can think of is so you don't have to convert the books. Then you can load them onto the device that handles the format best.

[HowGozit]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I'm actually not interested in the screen issues, though they may have a final influence over which I decide on.

I have never owned a Kindle, or a Kobo, so what I am interested in is the software and book management.

1) Do either of them allow sorting by Author, providing a "page" or collection that way?
2) How much font variation is there? or is it restricted to the publisher's choice?

I'm tending to lean toward Kindle at the moment, which will then require the conversion of almost 2000 epubs to .mobi format (not looking forward to it, but at least it doesnt have to be done all at once)

3) How do these two manage books which are not purchased from the dedicated store? Are they "registered" in any way with the respective websites, or ignored.

Still leaning toward Kindle, because of the many free books I have acquired over the past 12 months, some at least of which are DRM protected. Easier to convert the non-protected ones, than to strip protection and then convert.

4) Does anyone think there might be an argument for having both readers? (Seems a bit excessive to me, but then, I am given to excession at times)

Appreciate any suggestions and opinions here

I have both readers - Kindle for my wife (linked to my Amazon account) and the Glo for me.

I haven't fooled with the fonts much - they grow and shrink as I need them - good enough for me.

All else being equal - and if I didn't have an existing library - I'd lean towards the Kindle. Longer rated battery life - simpler to use. (IMHO). Screen does look a little bit better - but that is subjective. Both screens are very good.

If you have a shedload of epubs - the Glo is a perfectly reasonable device - and it is very handy to just copy them all into the Micro SD card (Kindle doesn't have this - but read on..)

If you buy a lot of books from Amazon (I do), then the Kindle is a boon - and the fact that you can't sideload everything is balanced by the ease of loading books from the Amazon store. (Albeit you can can shove in a couple of thousand books!! And it is easy enough - it is like loading an attached disk). I find that the books I want cost a good price from Amazon.. And they are usually available - its a bit variable with other stores.

Sorting - yes - author/title/last read. But with the number of books you are talking about - I'd need the search function anyway - and that seems to work well enough on both.

Both permit the creation of collections.

Both - probably won't hurt. Choose one - for you, I'd lean a bit towards the Glo - SD card and epub reading.

Just my 2 cents.

Ross

[Joy736]

Don't let file-conversion scare you off. I went from Sony to Kindle and conversions are quick and flawless. I sill buy a lot of epubs because Dutch ebooks are all in epub and I never had any problem converting. I love my Paperwhite. I never owned a Kobo though.

[eschwartz]

I've only ever had a Kindle, but it works great. There are several fonts, but I never cared enough to look at them. I can read it well enough already, so it's fine for me. It supports sorting by recently opened, title, and author. Also, you can create collections, which are like tags. If you have them, then you can also sort by collections, which dosn't show them outside the collection. (Or sort by one of the other three, and collection folders will appear on the booklist.)

Any sideloaded books simply won't have the awesome features of a book you bought from amazon: cloud backup, sync between devices, page numbers and public highlights. But Adobe DRM is not supported, so no sideloading drm'ed books. (And you can't convert them from ePub anyway.)

But don't let the conversion scare you off. If you use calibre (and every ebook reader should) you just select all books, click convert, then leave it running overnight. Piece of cake.

And since the 3.5GB in the Kindle Touch can hold about 3,000 average-sized books, you don't need expandable memory. If you read 100 books A DAY you will still have one month of reading on your Kindle. At a more reasonable but still exorbitant 3 books a day, you will have nearly 3 YEARS worth. I'm sure somewhere along the way you can get to a computer and swap them for new ones.
(Same logic applies to every other eReader, including the Kindle Paperwhite which has (shudder) a measly 1.5 GB and about a year's worth of books.)

[kyteflyer]

Thanks so much, everyone. I think I will go out later and view both readers in the flesh, as it were. Its a little disappointing about losing syncing of bookmarks etc, but perhaps that doesn't matter so much if I end up reading only on one device (eg not between ipad and either of these).

I do use Calibre, so would convert that way. I've done it before with a few books, so an overnight conversion of 2000 is of little consequence. Not even sure I want to carry a year's worth of books, I only ever have 40-50 on my Sony, I'm a slow reader, so many things to distract me, so getting through them all in a year is unlikely. LOL at your 100 books a day, eschwartz

[tomsem]

Keep in mind that every Kindle has an associated @kindle.com email address. Using this (or the various Send To Kindle apps and a browser extension that can send web pages), you can send 'personal documents' to the Kindle (doc, txt, rtf, and pdf with or without conversion to mobi), and there is 5GB of free storage for these. These will then sync and backup annotations just as with stuff you purchase from Amazon.

The availability of this service is for me an important differentiator between Kindle and Kobo (and other ereaders). It is not as important when you move to reading on tablets since there are so many options there.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

3) How do these two manage books which are not purchased from the dedicated store? Are they "registered" in any way with the respective websites, or ignored.

4) Does anyone think there might be an argument for having both readers? (Seems a bit excessive to me, but then, I am given to excession at times)

My first reader was a Kobo Wireless, then I picked up a Kobo Touch (about to get replaced with a Glo) and ultimately a Kindle Touch as well...so I've struggled with this very issue myself, just one generation back.

As far as the reading experience goes, I greatly prefer the Kobo. I like having the cover displayed when the unit's turned off, and I just generally prefer the interface. The one weak spot, where I really have to give the Kindle credit, is store integration in general and wish lists in particular. The Kobo has a rudimentary wish list that's only accessible through the device, but the Kindle can see and easily manipulate your existing wish list(s).

As far as buying from third party bookstores, I much prefer buying EPUBs that will go on my Kobo than MOBIs for my Kindle. First of all, there are simply more EPUB stores, and secondly, I can just put the new books on a microSD stick without having to connect a USB cable. (Or, for DRM-free EPUBs, I can use the Kobo browser and download 'em directly to the internal memory!) Big win for Kobo there.

All in all, I'll let my money speak for me: as noted above, I'm jumping through hoops to buy a new Kobo Glo, despite it being much easier to get a Kindle Paperwhite. The Kobo's where I do the lion's share of my reading; I only got the Kindle so I'd have access to Kindle-only deals and books. (I determined that I'd rather buy the second reader than deal with an ongoing conversion hassle, and I don't regret it.)

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

My first reader was a Kobo Wireless, then I picked up a Kobo Touch (about to get replaced with a Glo) and ultimately a Kindle Touch as well...so I've struggled with this very issue myself, just one generation back.

As far as the reading experience goes, I greatly prefer the Kobo. I like having the cover displayed when the unit's turned off, and I just generally prefer the interface. The one weak spot, where I really have to give the Kindle credit, is store integration in general and wish lists in particular. The Kobo has a rudimentary wish list that's only accessible through the device, but the Kindle can see and easily manipulate your existing wish list(s).

As far as buying from third party bookstores, I much prefer buying EPUBs that will go on my Kobo than MOBIs for my Kindle. First of all, there are simply more EPUB stores, and secondly, I can just put the new books on a microSD stick without having to connect a USB cable. (Or, for DRM-free EPUBs, I can use the Kobo browser and download 'em directly to the internal memory!) Big win for Kobo there.

All in all, I'll let my money speak for me: as noted above, I'm jumping through hoops to buy a new Kobo Glo, despite it being much easier to get a Kindle Paperwhite. The Kobo's where I do the lion's share of my reading; I only got the Kindle so I'd have access to Kindle-only deals and books. (I determined that I'd rather buy the second reader than deal with an ongoing conversion hassle, and I don't regret it.)

The Kindle's web browser can be used to download any MOBI or azw3 ebook from the web, no different than the Kobo. And most sources for free EPUBs also offer MOBIs now, I believe. Certainly Project Gutenberg and the Baen Free Library, which are the only 2 I've actually used so far, offer both. And the books I buy, I see no reason to purchase from a dozen different stores. I prefer the baked-in store which is built around any particular device.

And maybe you can put ebooks onto your microSD for the Kobo and Nook, but with Amazon, you can email them to your Kindle, so they are part of your cloud library, and get them synced too! That is just as useful a feature, I believe.

Incidentally, if it's between the Nook and the Kobo, I would go for the Nook, I'm pretty sure Barnes and Noble has a bigger catalog.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

The Kindle's web browser can be used to download any MOBI or azw3 ebook from the web, no different than the Kobo. And most sources for free EPUBs also offer MOBIs now, I believe. Certainly Project Gutenberg and the Baen Free Library, which are the only 2 I've actually used so far, offer both. And the books I buy, I see no reason to purchase from a dozen different stores. I prefer the baked-in store which is built around any particular device.

With free books, it's pretty much a toss-up. With paid books, not so much, at least in my experience. Baen is a notable exception, but they've put deliberate effort into that for several years. I've found it easier to get paid EPUBs from a non-Kobo source than paid MOBI/AZW books from a non-Amazon source.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

And maybe you can put ebooks onto your microSD for the Kobo and Nook, but with Amazon, you can email them to your Kindle, so they are part of your cloud library, and get them synced too! That is just as useful a feature, I believe.

I disagree, rather strongly. That extra step of having to have a network connection and involve your email account seriously turns me off.

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Incidentally, if it's between the Nook and the Kobo, I would go for the Nook, I'm pretty sure Barnes and Noble has a bigger catalog.

There is an argument to be made there, in that the Nook should read anything the Kobo can plus provide access to the B&N store. However, the original poster was asking about Kobo vs. Kindle, and didn't even consider the Nook as an option. Perhaps he is, like I am, reading the news about B&N possibly shedding the Nook hardware as being a bad sign for that platform. Yes, I bought my first Kobo from a Borders as it was closing, but I did so explicitly because Kobo is an international company that wouldn't die with Borders. The Nook carries no such assurances...

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Rev. Bob

With free books, it's pretty much a toss-up. With paid books, not so much, at least in my experience. Baen is a notable exception, but they've put deliberate effort into that for several years. I've found it easier to get paid EPUBs from a non-Kobo source than paid MOBI/AZW books from a non-Amazon source.

Having a Kindle certainly doesn't restrict one to only buying Mobi books. I buy quite a few ePub books (because "BooksOnBoard" frequently have better prices during their sales than Amazon do). Converting books from ePub to KF8 format using Calibre is trivial.

I disagree, rather strongly. That extra step of having to have a network connection and involve your email account seriously turns me off.

You don't HAVE to do it that way - that's merely one of many ways to get books onto a Kindle. Personally I just copy the books via USB.

There is an argument to be made there, in that the Nook should read anything the Kobo can plus provide access to the B&N store. However, the original poster was asking about Kobo vs. Kindle, and didn't even consider the Nook as an option. Perhaps he is, like I am, reading the news about B&N possibly shedding the Nook hardware as being a bad sign for that platform.

Do you not think it more likely that, since he is in Australia, he's not considering the Nook for the rather more obvious reason that B&N don't sell to Australia?

[kyteflyer]

I'm in Australia... Nook not available here so its never been in contention. I'm thinking of doing the 2 reader thing, I've decided that I have too many DRMd in each format, and dont want to bother with stripping the DRM. So, first up will be the Kindle, I think, because I can make do with my PRS650 and idevices for epub. Lots of options for reading on those, not so many for mobi/azw (Kindle app only)

Anyway... just had another huge other expense so its all on hold for the moment.

Thanks to all

[kyteflyer]

OH, bTW.. "she" not "he"

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Do you not think it more likely that, since he is in Australia, he's not considering the Nook for the rather more obvious reason that B&N don't sell to Australia?

Certainly; however, it's also conceivable that other people are reading this thread rather than making their own to ask a very similar question, and thus the Nook info may be useful to them. I didn't bring up the Nook, but since someone else did, I addressed that point.

[Rev. Bob]

Originally Posted by kyteflyer

I'm in Australia... Nook not available here so its never been in contention. I'm thinking of doing the 2 reader thing, I've decided that I have too many DRMd in each format, and dont want to bother with stripping the DRM.

I was less concerned about stripping the DRM than converting formats; I'm enough of a web geek that I instinctively distrust automated conversions, and I'm busy enough that I don't have time to do 'em by hand. I considered a second device to be much cheaper than my time and effort.

As always, YMMV.