Quote:
Originally Posted by ProfCrash
Text to Speech, which I know people who use at the gym to automatically turn pages and for people with vision problems so that they don't have to buy the more expensive audio books or can listen to books that are not available as audio books.
An MP3 player, which people use for audio books and sometimes music. I don't use it but it is nice that it is there.
An easy to use web browser which does come in handy in a pinch.
Great Customer Service. People who have had Kindles break while travelling have had their replacements sent over night to their hotels.
As I understand it, and this is based on reviews only, better highlighting, note taking, and bookmarking options, which is important to many folks.
Even if I don't use those features, I would prefer to have them there if I needed them then not. Why pay a little less, or in my case the same amount, for a device that is glitchier (many reports on this), has fewer features, and where the Customer Service is not even close to Amazon's?
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Ok fair enough if some of those things are important to you - for whoever started this thread though, I did extensive, almost anal research - and honestly in terms of glitches there is nothing in it - early firmware versions on the Kobo had issues, but then so did the Sony. The Kobo is as stable as any other reader as far as I can tell from recent reviews (not the old ones) although they all have issues if you are unlucky.
Text to speech - I can't read whilst jogging or doing anything in the gym nor would I want an ereader in the gym, never took a book either and find it a little weird that people read whilst exercising but each to their own - same goes for Mp3 player, my books never played music to me so I don't expect my ereader to - if I want an audio book or to listen to music I have a hifi at home and car stereo - on the go I have an iPad and phone that both play mp3 and have better browsers than any ink ereader. By the way the Kobo also has a web browser if that is important to you, and in my opinion it's no better or worse than any other and I played with all 3.
The highlighting and note taking are better than the kindle in my view but that's just a personal opinion, and the sketch pad is great for adhoc notes when not in a book - didn't compare bookmarking but the kobo bookmarks in the cloud across devices as with the kindle so not sure what the issue is there - oh and it has sudoku if you are into that, - again I'm not into a games on this sort of device - I want an ereader to read a book on, that's the only thing hey are really good at - I have other devices that do everything except ebooks much better than a reader. Kobo also have the best iPad/iPhone app if that is important to you.
Customer service I hope I never have to use, but if I do there is a store in every high street in the country I can take my Kobo to - it has a 1 year warranty like any other device. I wonder about the Amazon customer service arguement as a reason to buy Kindle, I never hear that arguement for any other purchase, car, DVD player, TV, mp3 player etc... So wonder why it is suddenly so important when it comes to ereaders - if my ereader breaks when travelling I can buy a book to see my through getting home or if as is likely when out of warranty buy a new ereader - the whole customer service thing just is not important to me, I have a warranty and consumer rights with a shop in every town which Amazon does not have and unless you are in the US you get new kindle devices released 6 months later than our American cousins which is shoddy for a global company.
As for paying twice the price for features I don't need, I'm afraid I just don't get that logic it's like paying double for a car with 5 wheels.
My advice is do your own research, take advice on board but don't get sucked in by the Amazonites, Koboites or Sonyites - especially the Amazonites :-) everyone thinks theirs is the best or they wouldnt have bought it in the first place - Kobo did have issues but they have ironed them out and their features leap forward with every firmware update - I only just bought mine and wouldn't have if I wasn't sure - also go and play with each one, how you hold it and how it feels differ from device to device and it's important you are comfortable holding it.
Each have their own pros and cons - for me Amazon lost due to its lack of ePub support and UK library support otherwise I may well have bought he Kindle Touch so it was between the Kobo and Sony - I tested both and preferred the Kobo for many reasons - others have done the same and preferred the Sony - beware Sony's alleged lack of updates when it mothballs an ereader though, something you may want to check out.
Good hunting.
One last thing as a Koboite - ebooks and ereaders is all Kobo do, they put all their energy into this one thing and whilst they are relatively new I believe they will become the David to the Amazon Goliath in this area unless Amazon open up to ePub. Ereaders are not high on Sony's priority list, and Amazon have their fingers in so many pies it's unbelievable - Kobo only do one thing and have financial backing and ownership from a large Japansese company which has allowed them to lower their prices and really go after this market so expect their products to lead the way in the future - just my opinion though.