[taming]

I am one of the beta testers so i have been running 2.1.4 for a few days on the Touch. I can't swear that it is exactly the same as the version that will be released, but it is probably darn close. I got my Glo this afternoon. Here are a few of my first impressions.

I chose to do the update over USB. It went smoothly. My PC loaded the driver without issue, but it said it was a Touch. I was prompted to download a new version of the desktop. It doesn't seem all that different to me as an end user, but the Kobo logo has changed a bit. I downloaded 47 kepubs in 13 minutes. I think that is a bit faster than I had seen before.

When I ejected, the Kobo processed the firmware update. It does that in two parts. The first part happens and then almost immediately, after you briefly see the home screen, part 2 begins. When both are over, you are good to go.

You would think the first thing I would try would be the light, but it was not. Touch devices have notoriously NOT liked some SD cards. I inserted an Adata class 10 16 GB card that made my Touch act like a person with ADHD and it was great--worked just fine with it.

BIG EDIT: OK, nothing here to see. I managed to bork my Db doing stuff that was simply stooooopid and then thought I had found bad SD card handling on the Glo. It was actually bad Glo handling by my noodled brain and over eager hands. Nothing that couldn't be easily fixed.

The calibre kobo driver hasn't been updated yet, so I will transfer books to the Glo using drag and drop or the web browser and calibre server for now.

I then tried the light. I like the degree of adjustability of the light. i am not a fan of very bright screens, so a setting of 50% looked great to me in my well lit office. I may make a different decision when i read in the dark room tonight. With the light off, the grey seems a bit more yellowish on the Glo than on the Touch but it is not a difference I noticed until I put them side-by-side.

The higher resolution screen on the Glo makes a difference in terms of clarity. It seems like there is less ghosting and I could go more than 6 pages before a refresh if that were an option.

I turned the black bar off--and chose clear instead. There is a narrow shadow at the bottom of the screen, but it does not bother me. I imagine it will not bother most folks, but we are all different when it comes to things like that.

The more powerful processor makes a big difference. It was especially noticeable when I was in "books' in the library and found I did not have to wait for the covers to appear. The screen is responsive to very light touches. I have not had to double tap at all. Of course I have not read very much on the device yet, but it an excellent beginning.

I specified English as my language. Bunches of dictionaries and translation proggies downloaded. I added Spanish. With Wifi on, it just download. With Wifi off, the new choices download the next time you turn it on and initiate a sync.

The Glo comes with 11 fonts, 7 of which can be fine tuned. The 11 are: Document default (cannot be fine tuned) then Amasis, Avenir, Caecilia, Georgia, Gill Sans, Kobo Nickel and Malabar, which an be adjusted for weight etc. The three remaining fonts are Gothic MB 101, Ryumin, and OpenDyslexic. These cannot be fine tuned. OpenDyslexic will look odd to most of us, but if you have dyslexia, you will be amazed by what a difference a font like that can make (mom of a dyslexic son here). Kudos to Kobo for including it.

Touch users will recognize that several of these are new and having 7 adjustable ones is more than we are used to.

I'll probably have more to say later, but my initial impression is that this is a big step forward and a remarkably unbuggy build.