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Old 08-25-2012, 09:42 AM   #22
Peakcrew
Avid reader of sci-fi
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Posts: 384
Karma: 36724
Join Date: Sep 2011
Location: Scotland
Device: Kobo Touch, Lenovo X61, Samsung Galaxy Note with Aldiko reader app
Impressions after a week's heavy use ...

Right - back from holidays with some new observations about the KT.

First of all, I was very good, and didn't do much playing with it. As a reader it is lovely - the screen is great, the text clear, and, missed page turns aside (I still haven't got used to just giving the screen the slightest brush!), the page-turn speed is only a fraction slower than my old Jetbook (which had a TFT screen). I successfully created shelves which have given no problems, and I haven't had the problem of the wrong cover showing. All to the good, no?

Ah, weeeelllll ... there are some oddities I've discovered. Nothing I can't cope with, but, well, they are odd!

1. I have been making a lot of use of the "Annotations" function - it is great to be able highlight a spelling mistake or grammar error and make myself a note so that I can edit them later. However, I cannot work out what system is used to order the annotations. The last note rarely takes up a position at the beginning or the end of the list (where I would expect to find it), and it doesn't seem to be alphabetical. For instance, one short story has four notes, which are in the order: 1 - p10 (Screamed), 2 - p6 (tag-along), 3 - p9 (bad), 4 - p3 (-). If there is a way to order them myself, I haven't found it, and there doesn't seem to be a way to search for highlighted items. This makes it potentially a great tool, but not terribly useful at the moment. (I haven't looked yet to see if I can extract the annotations file and do anything useful with it, or (idea just occurred!), whether there is something in the Kobo Desktop that will allow manipulation of the file.)

2. Also from making notes, I found that the drag-along highlighter has a mind of its own! More often than not, when dragging the marker at the end of a section, the marker at the start will jump to the top-left corner of the page. This might be something to do with my technique, as with page turns, but it is a nuisance. Sometimes it does work properly, but I don't know what, if anything, I'm doing differently.

3. The screen became distinctly less sensitive in high temperatures. In the shade at 33 deg C it was very difficult to get any page turns to register first or second time. I know that high temperatures are not good for electronic performance, but this definitely seemed to be only related to the screen sensors - once a touch was registered, the turn happened at the usual pace. This is one area that the Nook has the advantage, what with it having buttons as well.

4. Nothing that can be altered now I have the KT, but that on/off switch is hellishly fiddly, especially with may case on (it isn't one with an elastic strap over it; the switch is not obscured, but it could do with some ridges to make it easier to use).

5. Given the text input facility, why is it tied only to individual books? A notepad would be useful.

6. Battery-use seems to be quite high when using the Annotation function, but that is to be expected due to the number of page-refreshes involved. What I didn't expect is that the battery use seemed to be less if I merely let the KT go to sleep, rather than lapse to off and then boot up again. I haven't run any proper tests on this - I only charged it up before I went to the airport for safety (there was still about a quarter of the indicator showing black when I did) - but I will try to keep some records. Oh, and like others have said: I'd like to be able to see the battery indicator when I'm reading, or at least have a pop-up to tell me if I'm running out.

7. My dislike of the carousel hasn't gone away - I'd really like the option to have a configurable list of titles/authors.

8. I miss the Jetbook's ability to sort books into folders. The shelves are a step in the right direction, but folders are good!

9. I wish it was possible to set the page-turn options on the screen to left- and right-sides = page forward, centre = page back, but perhaps I'm the only one!
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