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hollowpoint · 07-24-2020, 02:34 AM

OP in general (not all details, but most) I'd affirm your experience with Kindle PW and recent Kobos.

I've gone full circle. Started years ago with the earliest Kindles. Then several years ago tired of them, went through several Kobos including most recently the Clara and Forma. Enjoyed them, especially the Forma. Now after living with the quirks and limitations of the Kobos, I get why some still like them, but I've come back to a combination of Kindle PW4, and the Kindle apps on my Samsung phone and Ipad Mini.

My perspective is the Kobos are more customizable, and are really nice for folks who like to tinker. You see a ton of software developers (of which I am one) and IT folks using Kobos, and I had my fun patching and customizing and loading alternate OS's. Also I thought Kobo provided better support for more file formats. And and finally, I thought Kobo had the screen sizes down better, with several 7" screens and even the 8" Forma.

What brought me back to Amazon, despite it being more 'canned' and less options to customize, were the following considerations:
* Consistently slow, clunky, or poorly performing features and software on the Kobos. Good enough, maybe. But compared to the Kindles, ALWAYS slower and less polished, and usually less feature rich.
* Lack of true cross-platform applications. Not everyone cares about this, but I do. I want to be able to seamlessly read books across my PC's, phone, Ipad, and Kindle, and have my reading positions and notes sync. Only Amazon and Kindle really do this well, nobody else is even close.

For some of the same reasons as above, I've also given up on all 3rd party reading apps. Mapleread on the Ipad, for example. FB Reader for Ipad, Android. Moon Reader. Many others. Bottom line, again, nobody seems to have the complete feature set and cross-platform syncing of the Kindle platform.

Amazon has some annoying business practices. And yeah, I'd like it if Kindles were more customizable, better ergos and screen sizes. But all things considered, nobody else comes close to overall ecosystem: a huge selection of available books, apps that store and sync your books across all platforms. It's hard to beat, and those are things I value.

As far as being able to 'liberate' and really own my own books that I buy from Amazon, yes I still do that too. I get the serial off my PW4, put it into the DeDRM add-in in Calibre, and remove the DRM encryption just so I'll have the non-DRM'd files that in the future I can use if I need to. But in general, I don't try to load those books back onto my Kindle device and apps. I just use the Amazon versions to get the benefit of full feature support and syncing with minimum hassle.

Nice thing in the ebook world is, there's something for everybody. But I don't think the Amazon Kindle platform is a bad way to go, at least not for me.

07-24-2020, 02:34 AM	#13
hollowpoint Groupie Posts: 155 Karma: 6672188 Join Date: Apr 2019 Device: Ipad Mini, Kindle PW5, Libra 2	OP in general (not all details, but most) I'd affirm your experience with Kindle PW and recent Kobos. I've gone full circle. Started years ago with the earliest Kindles. Then several years ago tired of them, went through several Kobos including most recently the Clara and Forma. Enjoyed them, especially the Forma. Now after living with the quirks and limitations of the Kobos, I get why some still like them, but I've come back to a combination of Kindle PW4, and the Kindle apps on my Samsung phone and Ipad Mini. My perspective is the Kobos are more customizable, and are really nice for folks who like to tinker. You see a ton of software developers (of which I am one) and IT folks using Kobos, and I had my fun patching and customizing and loading alternate OS's. Also I thought Kobo provided better support for more file formats. And and finally, I thought Kobo had the screen sizes down better, with several 7" screens and even the 8" Forma. What brought me back to Amazon, despite it being more 'canned' and less options to customize, were the following considerations: * Consistently slow, clunky, or poorly performing features and software on the Kobos. Good enough, maybe. But compared to the Kindles, ALWAYS slower and less polished, and usually less feature rich. * Lack of true cross-platform applications. Not everyone cares about this, but I do. I want to be able to seamlessly read books across my PC's, phone, Ipad, and Kindle, and have my reading positions and notes sync. Only Amazon and Kindle really do this well, nobody else is even close. For some of the same reasons as above, I've also given up on all 3rd party reading apps. Mapleread on the Ipad, for example. FB Reader for Ipad, Android. Moon Reader. Many others. Bottom line, again, nobody seems to have the complete feature set and cross-platform syncing of the Kindle platform. Amazon has some annoying business practices. And yeah, I'd like it if Kindles were more customizable, better ergos and screen sizes. But all things considered, nobody else comes close to overall ecosystem: a huge selection of available books, apps that store and sync your books across all platforms. It's hard to beat, and those are things I value. As far as being able to 'liberate' and really own my own books that I buy from Amazon, yes I still do that too. I get the serial off my PW4, put it into the DeDRM add-in in Calibre, and remove the DRM encryption just so I'll have the non-DRM'd files that in the future I can use if I need to. But in general, I don't try to load those books back onto my Kindle device and apps. I just use the Amazon versions to get the benefit of full feature support and syncing with minimum hassle. Nice thing in the ebook world is, there's something for everybody. But I don't think the Amazon Kindle platform is a bad way to go, at least not for me.