On Fence for a Aura H2O

[pelissarim]

Hello All!

So I have the Keyboard Kindle, which I have barely used outside of my first year having it. Mainly because of the lack of backlight. I found most of the time I want to read it tends to be darker or not well light places.

I finally concluded I need to get a new e reader as my tablets/phone are just crap for books.

I am familiar with the features of the kindles and what not, but the larger screen on the H2O really appeals to me.

But what about the software firmware side. I know the Kobo devices are really open in terms of that.

What really are the benefits of this? Like what are must haves and things to make reading a more enjoyable experience on a Kobo. Or heck even just the Aura HD

[meeera]

The benefits are all the various tweaks and hacks you can use - from fine font and display control, sideloading your own fonts, to installing alternative reading software like Koreader, tweaking to include night mode and fullscreen mode, etc. None of these need rooting, you can just install them.

If all you want to do is read in a handful or fewer of default fonts at the sizes and margins you're given, and have a great ecosystem and customer service and good dictionaries etc, grab a Kindle. But the H2O is lovely hardware I confess, and I greatly prefer the flexibility of the firmware too. And the fact that if it gets grubby I can just wash it down. The screen size makes quite a big difference to me too.

[pelissarim]

Originally Posted by meeera

The benefits are all the various tweaks and hacks you can use - from fine font and display control, sideloading your own fonts, to installing alternative reading software like Koreader, tweaking to include night mode and fullscreen mode, etc. None of these need rooting, you can just install them.

If all you want to do is read in a handful or fewer of default fonts at the sizes and margins you're given, and have a great ecosystem and customer service and good dictionaries etc, grab a Kindle. But the H2O is lovely hardware I confess, and I greatly prefer the flexibility of the firmware too. And the fact that if it gets grubby I can just wash it down.

The water proof thing is whats getting me, but I imagine a Voyager update is coming, which urks me because I still think they are a little slow. I'm a big computer geek.

But I kinda want to get one like yesterday. I am also in the US, so there is no where near me to touch a physical Kobo in person =/

[meeera]

Originally Posted by pelissarim

The water proof thing is whats getting me, but I imagine a Voyager update is coming, which urks me because I still think they are a little slow. I'm a big computer geek.

But I kinda want to get one like yesterday. I am also in the US, so there is no where near me to touch a physical Kobo in person =/

If there's anything you want to know, just ask - lots of knowledge here.

[pelissarim]

Originally Posted by meeera

If there's anything you want to know, just ask - lots of knowledge here.

Alright so what is up with the Koreader? I know from some compare videos I saw, the PDF function is wonky.

Also in terms of the highlighting and Annotaion functions how good would you say they are?

[Ken Maltby]

Originally Posted by pelissarim

Alright so what is up with the Koreader? I know from some compare videos I saw, the PDF function is wonky.

Also in terms of the highlighting and Annotaion functions how good would you say they are?

Koreader was originally created as an improvement over the Kindle's poor PDF performance. A number of users find it to be much better than Kobo's stock software, for reading PDF documents.

Annotation is something that never seems to be perfected at the GitHub Koreader project, but it is something that is now pretty good, for a number of purposes, and is very often being worked on. The "Evernote" plugin works well for highlighted items.

Luck;
Ken