[boswd]

Originally Posted by Tomac10000

First post.

The new Kobo Touch is a disappointment. Picked one up on Saturday (Chapters) and returned it the following day. ePub support/E Ink Pearl display/low-price/access to more Canadian content played a part in initial purchase decision making, even though I already own a US purchased Kindle 3G+WiFi.

Why am I disappointed by the Kobo Touch?

- The touch feature does not always activate. Unreliable. It's unfortunate that no hardware page-turn buttons are on the Kobo Touch; every time I "click" to a different page on the Kindle 3, I am 100% confident the device will respond -- it has never failed. The Kobo Touch introduces a will-it-or-won't-it-turn-the-page issue, which interrupts reading flow.

- Grease and grime build-up on the screen. No hardware buttons, aside from a home-screen button and power switch, results in oil/fingerprint build-up on the display. Using a stylus reduces these issues, but for some reason, I found that touch accuracy -- registering -- actually declined.

- Font rendering and choices are nowhere near as legible as text found on the Kindle 3. It doesn't matter that the new Kobo Touch and the Kindle 3 share the same E Ink Pearl tech. Each character does not render completely black, which also interrupts flow. Additionally, some lines of text appear darker compared to others on the same page.

- Ghosting. Newer processor (or other hardware) allows quicker page turns but flashing the entire screen -- complete refresh -- happens every six page-turns or so. Depends. Quicker speed is great for marketing purposes, but remnants of text and pictures from previous pages linger (faintly) until the flash occurs. I have had zero issues with page turn speeds on the Kindle 3.

- Glitches. Sometimes text would be illegible due to fine white lines appearing sporadically. Sometimes a page-turn, or menu option change would be greeted by an unwelcome blank screen with sporadic broken GUI elements. Pressing the home button alleviated the situation, yet interrupted the reading/task.

- Side-loaded ebooks: not searchable; words cannot be highlighted; and the dictionary cannot be utilized. The Kindle 3 does not have these issues.

- Kobo can't. Although it is a feature I rarely utilize, the Kindle 3 can "read" books aloud via text-to-speech and built-in speaker.

- Time. Additionally, although the Kobo has an internal clock, there is no way of accessing the time, except venturing deep into a settings menu; a quick press of the "Menu" button on the Kindle displays the time and useful options.

Hence, perhaps a few software iterations are necessary before the Kobo Touch performs to a satisfactory level. However, the Kindle 3, with superior font rendering -- subjective -- provides a robust, reliable experience, without interruptions from disappointing software/hardware decisions, which hinder real-world usability of the Kobo Touch.

this seems like an Astorturf post. I have serious reservations this person actually owned one. As someone who is marketing and advertising for a living Astoturfing has become a very essential and widely used tool in this day and age of the internet and blogs etc. by all companies.

this one seems to fit the bill. The grime and grease build up on the screen gave it away. These types of screens don't build up grim and grease. Plus 1st time poster usually is a dead give away.
And it's way over the top the kobo can't do this but the Kindle is a dream at doing that.