Quote:
Originally Posted by Glas
[*]What is the tint of the color of the backlight? Does it have a blue tint? Asking this as blue light messes with circadian rhythms, and I like reading before bed. Obviously I can use a normal reading light, but would be nice to know if comfortlight is suitable for bedside reading. |
The tint varies a little from device to device, but overall is pretty neutral. The current Kobos can be dimmed way, way down, and overall put out far less light than a tablet like an iPad. In the research, they had to have people read from an iPad at full brightness (!!) for two hours before bed to find measurable differences in melatonin & sleep. This is a vastly different situation from reading a frontlit e-ink reader at a reasonable brightness setting.
And I fall asleep reading my Kobo all the time, FWIW.
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glas
[*]How reliable is the Glo HD, and Kobos in general? Obviously asking this as I need to replace the expensive Sony after only a few years of use because it's essentially useless due to hangs and crashes.
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You'll get variable stories, as you will with all brands. I have Kobos from the original release of the Touch, through a Glo, Aura and now an H2O, and all are still in use and working well, two of them in the hands of preteen children. One relative managed to destroy the USB connector on their Aura HD, but that was with abuse.
You'll find threads here complaining about broken screens (shattered glass substrates) on all devices, including Kobos. That is completely avoidable with a good case plus reasonably careful handling at all times. (And there are some that would dispute that statement, and their glass screen spontaneously shattered itself sitting on a shelf untouched... believe what you will.)
Quote:
Originally Posted by Glas
[*]Is it really usable for reading multi-column .pdf files? I've seen The eBook Reader PDF demo on youtube, and it seems like it might be rather fiddly. Not a deal breaker, but would be for a friend who's also looking at Glo HD.[/LIST] |
Not with the native firmware, but it is straightforward to install alternate reader software that does reflow. No jailbreak required.
I'll always recommend a tablet if you want an optimal experience with complicated PDFs, though.
ETA: None of these questions really relate to what differentiates the Kobo from other devices like Kindle. Do you have any other features you'd like to ask about? Formatting, ecosystem, library borrowing, collections management, etc etc? What country are you in?