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arspr · 11-22-2013, 01:42 PM

Hi, I've recently changed from Sony PRS-650 to Kobo Aura HD.

Reading what has been posted here I would like to clarify some things:

First of all, get used to the name ACCESS which refers to the renderer of kepubs and to the name RMSDK (or ADE) which refers to the common epub renderer which is pretty much the same in all the devices (even the Kobos) as it comes from Adobe and it is needed in order to support the most common DRM scheme used worldwide (but in Kindles): the ADEPT.
In general ACCESS is FAR better than your already known RMSDK viewer.
But the dynamic page numbering in ACCESS, which seems to please you, is a trade off against a GoTo Page Funcion. There's no function like that in Kobo, only a small navigation bar as already explained.
On the other hand I DO really like the zooming function over images Kobo has implemented in ACCESS renderer (not in ADE). If you double tap over an embedded image you call an image browser were you can zoom freely around it.
ACCESS also offers statistics (reading time, remaining reading time, whatever) on kepubs. BUT this feature is broken/removed in the latest FWs (2.10 and 3.0) for sideloaded kepubs. Currently it only works in "official" kepubs downloaded through your Kobo account from the Kobo bookstore. Although there are some posts where some people say Kobo is planning its return in future FW releases.
And yes, although it is always a somehow buggy FW, Kobo updates the device software periodically .
Kobo comes with a lot of included dictionaries (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and even Japanese, and translations between them and English) But they are poorer than Sony Oxford dictionaries.
But other things are not so great in the Kobo ereader firmware. Probably the most stupid disadvantage in my opinion is that nested ToCs are fully flattened... (in kepubs, epubs or pdfs). In this way, complex ToCs are nearly useless as they are converted into pages and pages of meaningless entries.
It's just a matter of preferences but I also prefer the interface of Sony devices in general (maybe I'm just more used to it). Nevertheless some procedures in Kobo are quite a PITA, no matter how you look at them. As example, you cannot select several items (books, annotations inside books, whatever) in order to delete them (or to perform any other operation). You must delete them one each time. And I do miss an alphabetic scroll bar in book lists so I could easily jump to books/authors starting by "L".
Another nasty bug also present in latest revisions of FW is about reading pdfs in landscape mode, because the navigation areas are not rotated from the default portrait mode and each new page is not loaded to the upper left corner but to the lower left one IIRC. I suppose Kobo will eventually fix it but the bug has been present in the last 2 or 3 revisions of the firmware.

11-22-2013, 01:42 PM	#10
arspr Dead account. Bye Posts: 587 Karma: 668244 Join Date: Mar 2011 Device: none	Hi, I've recently changed from Sony PRS-650 to Kobo Aura HD. Reading what has been posted here I would like to clarify some things: First of all, get used to the name ACCESS which refers to the renderer of kepubs and to the name RMSDK (or ADE) which refers to the common epub renderer which is pretty much the same in all the devices (even the Kobos) as it comes from Adobe and it is needed in order to support the most common DRM scheme used worldwide (but in Kindles): the ADEPT. In general ACCESS is FAR better than your already known RMSDK viewer. But the dynamic page numbering in ACCESS, which seems to please you, is a trade off against a GoTo Page Funcion. There's no function like that in Kobo, only a small navigation bar as already explained. On the other hand I DO really like the zooming function over images Kobo has implemented in ACCESS renderer (not in ADE). If you double tap over an embedded image you call an image browser were you can zoom freely around it. ACCESS also offers statistics (reading time, remaining reading time, whatever) on kepubs. BUT this feature is broken/removed in the latest FWs (2.10 and 3.0) for sideloaded kepubs. Currently it only works in "official" kepubs downloaded through your Kobo account from the Kobo bookstore. Although there are some posts where some people say Kobo is planning its return in future FW releases. And yes, although it is always a somehow buggy FW, Kobo updates the device software periodically . Kobo comes with a lot of included dictionaries (English, French, German, Spanish, Portuguese and even Japanese, and translations between them and English) But they are poorer than Sony Oxford dictionaries. But other things are not so great in the Kobo ereader firmware. Probably the most stupid disadvantage in my opinion is that nested ToCs are fully flattened... (in kepubs, epubs or pdfs). In this way, complex ToCs are nearly useless as they are converted into pages and pages of meaningless entries. It's just a matter of preferences but I also prefer the interface of Sony devices in general (maybe I'm just more used to it). Nevertheless some procedures in Kobo are quite a PITA, no matter how you look at them. As example, you cannot select several items (books, annotations inside books, whatever) in order to delete them (or to perform any other operation). You must delete them one each time. And I do miss an alphabetic scroll bar in book lists so I could easily jump to books/authors starting by "L". Another nasty bug also present in latest revisions of FW is about reading pdfs in landscape mode, because the navigation areas are not rotated from the default portrait mode and each new page is not loaded to the upper left corner but to the lower left one IIRC. I suppose Kobo will eventually fix it but the bug has been present in the last 2 or 3 revisions of the firmware.