MobileRead Forums - View Single Post - My Impressions, Unboxing and Review

jswinden · 10-30-2011, 01:01 PM

A couple of observations from reading the various Vox posts:

Android, unlike iOS, is not intuitive at all. It is a rather complex OS with settings scattered about in non-intuitive menu locations. It is certainly more like learning Windows OS than learning the iOS. Now it is true that that is what makes Android so much more powerful than iOS, but it also makes it exponentially more difficult and tedious to learn to use. So if Kobo did in fact go more for the "I just want a color eReader" crowd, then they really screwed up on the documentation. You can't give a hugely complex device to a novice and expect them to quickly learn how to use it. How many posts have we read of Vox owners not even knowing they should first charge it a few hours before playing with it? That is not a slap at the Vox owners. It is a slap at Kobo for not having the common sense to include a simple to follow "Getting Started" fold out to show owners how to get started. Duh!!!!

So my point here is: If Kobo was aiming for the "I just want a color eReader" crowd, they should have known that audience is mostly lacking in Android skills and would need their hands held throughout the first few days of ownership. So Kobo should have made setup much more intuitive and provided easy to follow documentation.

Having owned a Kobo Touch briefly, I know that Kobo thought it was brilliant to have two rendering engines rather than one. For Kobo ePubs, known as kePubs, they included a rendering engine with more bells and whistles. For non-Kobo ePubs, known as simply ePubs, they included a rendering engine that was horribly lacking in features. From reading these posts I'm inclined to think this might also be the case for the Vox. I've read how sideloaded books are rendered without features like hyperlink selection. I don't know if Kobo kePubs have that feature, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Using two rendering engines on the Kobo Touch was incredibly short sighted and a mistake. If they did the same on the Vox then that was incredibly stupid. True, Kobo does try to improve their shortcomings with FW updates, but they never really got it ironed out with the KT so why should we think they will eventually get it right with the Vox?

On the plus side I'm happy to hear that the Vox can install and run other reader apps. That is great because it sounds like that will be required for decent ePub reading.

10-30-2011, 01:01 PM	#16
jswinden Nameless Being	A couple of observations from reading the various Vox posts: Android, unlike iOS, is not intuitive at all. It is a rather complex OS with settings scattered about in non-intuitive menu locations. It is certainly more like learning Windows OS than learning the iOS. Now it is true that that is what makes Android so much more powerful than iOS, but it also makes it exponentially more difficult and tedious to learn to use. So if Kobo did in fact go more for the "I just want a color eReader" crowd, then they really screwed up on the documentation. You can't give a hugely complex device to a novice and expect them to quickly learn how to use it. How many posts have we read of Vox owners not even knowing they should first charge it a few hours before playing with it? That is not a slap at the Vox owners. It is a slap at Kobo for not having the common sense to include a simple to follow "Getting Started" fold out to show owners how to get started. Duh!!!! So my point here is: If Kobo was aiming for the "I just want a color eReader" crowd, they should have known that audience is mostly lacking in Android skills and would need their hands held throughout the first few days of ownership. So Kobo should have made setup much more intuitive and provided easy to follow documentation. Having owned a Kobo Touch briefly, I know that Kobo thought it was brilliant to have two rendering engines rather than one. For Kobo ePubs, known as kePubs, they included a rendering engine with more bells and whistles. For non-Kobo ePubs, known as simply ePubs, they included a rendering engine that was horribly lacking in features. From reading these posts I'm inclined to think this might also be the case for the Vox. I've read how sideloaded books are rendered without features like hyperlink selection. I don't know if Kobo kePubs have that feature, but I wouldn't be surprised if they do. Using two rendering engines on the Kobo Touch was incredibly short sighted and a mistake. If they did the same on the Vox then that was incredibly stupid. True, Kobo does try to improve their shortcomings with FW updates, but they never really got it ironed out with the KT so why should we think they will eventually get it right with the Vox? On the plus side I'm happy to hear that the Vox can install and run other reader apps. That is great because it sounds like that will be required for decent ePub reading. Last edited by jswinden; 10-30-2011 at 01:07 PM.