Kobo Aura Questions

[Gazella]

The Kindle Paperwhite 1st gen. is my first and only ereader. I’m looking into getting myself a Kobo ereader. I have the 6” Aura in mind and so I’d like to hear from someone who owns both the Paperwhite and Aura; which do you use more? Is there any particular reason why you prefer one over the other?

For Kobo users, I have a couple of general questions. Do side-loaded ebooks purchased from Amazon and other online ebook stores show up/look fine on the Kobo (layout, page numbers, book covers, etc.)? Will TypeGenius work with non Kobo ebooks? I’m aware of Alf’s tools so DRM won’t be an issue.

Kobo is not available in my region. However, I have a US address and I can use that, but will I be able to actually use the Kobo Aura even though it’s not available here? Any features that won’t work (Reading Life)?


Any information would be greatly appreciated!

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Gazella

The Kindle Paperwhite 1st gen. is my first and only ereader. I’m looking into getting myself a Kobo ereader. I have the 6” Aura in mind and so I’d like to hear from someone who owns both the Paperwhite and Aura; which do you use more? Is there any particular reason why you prefer one over the other?

For me, the main reason was that the Kobo ereaders used epub which is a standard. In past, I've had too many unpleasant experiences with proprietary formats.

Originally Posted by Gazella

For Kobo users, I have a couple of general questions. Do side-loaded ebooks purchased from Amazon and other online ebook stores show up/look fine on the Kobo (layout, page numbers, book covers, etc.)? Will TypeGenius work with non Kobo ebooks? I’m aware of Alf’s tools so DRM won’t be an issue.

I've never purchased an ebook from Amazon -- not even sure if they sell epub format ebooks -- and Kobo's mobi support is quite limited since it supports a subset of the original .mobi/.prc format in my limited testing. I could purchase from Amazon, break the DRM if needed and then use Calibre/Sigil to generate the epub but much easier to purchase an epub elsewhere.

I have purchased quite a few epub books from other sites, downloaded public domain from Gutenberg and so on. Since epub is a standard, the books work well. The page numbering used by Kobo for .epubs is the standard Adobe page number generation algorithm. Covers and so on work though you can get some nasty looking covers -- one ebook that used a 120x160 image which even on a 600x800 eInk screen looked pathetic.

TypeGenius is font dependent so it depends on using a Kobo modified font and not on the format of the ebook. You might want to look at Metazoa's patcher which included the ability to apply TypeGenius to any font including sideloaded ones. However, without the hinting in the font file, the results can be rather spotty.

If you are not purchasing .kepub.epub (Kobo's modification of .epub) books from Kobo's site, they do not automatically synchronize. Kobo also does not synchronize bookmarks, annotations, etc. for non-kepub.epub books. Under Canadian law, if they did collect information on your sideloaded ebooks, they would end up with having to let you access the information and an obligation to ensure privacy of that information. So easier for them not to open that can of worms.

The other item of interest is that the Kobo ereaders have two renderers. For .epub, Kobo uses the Adobe Reader Mobile so you have compatibility with library and other books that use the Adobe's ADEPT DRM. For .kepub.epub, Kobo uses ACCESS's NetFront renderer. This is an epub3 (more or less) compliant ereader which makes handling languages such as Japanese much easier. For that format, Kobo has created their own DRM scheme which has been broken.

It would appear that Adobe/Datalogic's Reader Mobile is going to using the Readium code base and adding their DRM management in the future so Kobo would be able to revert to using a single renderer.

I also tend to use Sigil to edit most of the non-DRMed epubs I purchase. For me, the average of 15 minutes to make the book conform to my ideas of what an ebook should look like is time well spent.

Originally Posted by Gazella

Kobo is not available in my region. However, I have a US address and I can use that, but will I be able to actually use the Kobo Aura even though it’s not available here? Any features that won’t work (Reading Life)?

You would be able to use the Kobo Aura even if it is not sold in your area. The only possible issue would be with geolocation being used to prevent some books from being purchased outside certain areas. But that's what proxy servers were invented for.

There have been complaints about Kobo's shipping to US addresses being on the slow side but, as a Canadian, I have the same complaints about Amazon, for example, delivering from the US to Canada. Something about crossing the Canada/USA border seems to require parcels to be stored for a week or two.

Good luck!
David

[Gazella]

Thank you, David, for the helpful information. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there is a Kepub plugin for Calibre, is there not? I won't be limited to getting my ebooks from Kobo. I can still buy from Amazon, B&N, etc. and then use the plugin to convert the ebooks to Kepub, correct?

Also, what do you mean by bookmarks won't synchronize?

Yes, you are right about geolocation. I have purchased a couple of ebooks from Kobo before and I had to use a VPN, but that's not really an issue.

[Lyn2012]

I previously had Sony readers but bought a PW1 just after launch last year and now have an Aura.

I always buy from whichever bookshop has the book I want at the best price, liberate and side load so the famed Amazon ecosystem was for me completely irrelevant. In fact the wasted space on the home screen, (and possibly others I can't really remember), taken up with their publicity (no I didn't have the subsidised version - I am in the UK) I found really annoying. Even when never connecting to Amazon servers the screen was not allowed to display all my books, instead just a tree image where the normal publicity would be. Another annoyance was the fact that the clock wouldn't keep correct time unless I connected to Amazon servers. All my Sonys and the Aura never had this problem, it seems unique to Kindle.

However my main complaint was not being able to use Calibre to create and maintain my collections, doing it manually on the reader just seems ridiculous. I did jailbreak and use the Collection Manager but it still wasn't the seamless experience as with Sony and Kobo readers.

I am very pleased with my Aura, I love the form factor, lightness, Calibre integration, font customisation. The only thing I miss from the PW is the time left in chapter, and this is because I use epubs not kepubs as I don't like the wasted screen space with kepubs (eg title bar at top). All in all I would pick the Aura over the PW (1 or 2) any time.

I have never had any problems with page layout, page numbers or book covers, however as David has said, TypeGenius will only work on Kobo installed fonts - unless you use Metazoa's patch. I would like to try the patch myself, but as far as I am aware, there is no Mac version, only PC.

When you use the Calibre kepub plugin, your books remain as epubs on your computer but are changed to kepubs upon being sent to the reader. I've never tried, (as I've said, I use epubs), but I should imagine that you'd need to use Calibre to convert the Mobi to epub first, and then it auto converts to kepub on its way to your device.

[Gazella]

Thanks, Lyn2012. It's great to know that you love the Aura. I forgot about the Time Left in Chapter feature! I love it and always use it on my Paperwhite. I wish Kobo ereaders had something like that.

[paola]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there is a Kepub plugin for Calibre, is there not? I won't be limited to getting my ebooks from Kobo. I can still buy from Amazon, B&N, etc. and then use the plugin to convert the ebooks to Kepub, correct?

Sure, if DRM is not a barrier for you, you can get book from wherever you like.
As David said, there are two "readers" on the Kobo (in fact, you can add two more), one for epub and one for kepub. You can see which one you prefer, and either download the epub version of the book bought from kobo (or hoover of DRM the original kobo epub book) and use that one, or "koboify" with the Calibre plugin a normal epub: this will determine which reader software is used.

Originally Posted by Gazella

Also, what do you mean by bookmarks won't synchronize?

The sync will only sync books bought from Kobo and downloaded on your device directly, as they will be linked to your account, not sideloaded books.

Originally Posted by Gazella

Yes, you are right about geolocation. I have purchased a couple of ebooks from Kobo before and I had to use a VPN, but that's not really an issue.

well, suppose you move to the US (so that you have a US address), regardless of your physical location you will be able to buy books in dollars from the US site. Kobo looks at your account info to determine which site/currency/offers to show you.

David, hope you won't mind my intrusion

[Lyn2012]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Thanks, Lyn2012. It's great to know that you love the Aura. I forgot about the Time Left in Chapter feature! I love it and always use it on my Paperwhite. I wish Kobo ereaders had something like that.

There is a Time Left function for those books purchased from Kobo - kepubs. Also sideloaded kepubs worked as well, however I believe that it no longer works (for s/l kepubs) on the latest firmware. I'm sure someone who uses kepubs will be along shortly to check this for you.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Thank you, David, for the helpful information. Correct me if I'm wrong, but, there is a Kepub plugin for Calibre, is there not? I won't be limited to getting my ebooks from Kobo. I can still buy from Amazon, B&N, etc. and then use the plugin to convert the ebooks to Kepub, correct?

A Kobo ereader will handle either epub or kepub.epub format ebooks. There is no need to convert epub to kepub.epub before sending them to your ereader. Amazon ebooks will require you to convert from Amazon's proprietary format to epub while B&N ebooks are epubs but with a different DRM scheme which will need to be removed to read them on a Kobo. Most other epubs that are DRMed will use the Adobe ADEPT DRM and you'll need to use ADE to download them. You can send them to your ereader from ADE or remove DRM and do what you will.

Originally Posted by Gazella

Also, what do you mean by bookmarks won't synchronize?

Kobo epub books purchased from Kobo will synchronize information about your reading to Kobo's servers. Set a bookmark, make an annotation, read the book on multiple devices and that information will be synchronized. So if I am reading a Kobo epub on my Aura HD and use the Kobo app on my iPad to continue reading, I will be informed that the reading position has been changed and do I want to continue from there. Handy in some ways for those who use multiple devices.

Non-Kobo epubs whether in .epub or .kepub.epub files will not have this information synchronized. Personally, I don't really like having information about my reading habits floating around on someone else's server begging for some hacker to grab the information.

Originally Posted by Gazella

Yes, you are right about geolocation. I have purchased a couple of ebooks from Kobo before and I had to use a VPN, but that's not really an issue.

Some people have been rather surprised when they found the prices, books on offer, etc. changed depending on your location.

Regards,
David

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by paola

David, hope you won't mind my intrusion

You mean this was a private conversation? Well, cover me in chocolate and call me a doughnut!

Seriously, I have no illusions about having all the information or that someone else is not going to be able to explain concepts better than I can. As one of my co-workers once said, her main job was translating my techese to English.

Regards,
David

[Gazella]

Thank you paola, Lyn2012, and David! You've answered all my pre-purchase questions.


Now I just need someone to clarify the below information.

Originally Posted by Lyn2012

There is a Time Left function for those books purchased from Kobo - kepubs. Also sideloaded kepubs worked as well, however I believe that it no longer works (for s/l kepubs) on the latest firmware. I'm sure someone who uses kepubs will be along shortly to check this for you.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Thank you paola, Lyn2012, and David! You've answered all my pre-purchase questions.


Now I just need someone to clarify the below information.

Comment about sideloaded kepubs and time left in chapter.

On my Kobo, I don't see have the bar graph icon for sideloaded kepubs which is used to bring up the time left to finish reading the current chapter, read the next chapter and complete reading the book. I still see the time remaining to read the book on the home page tile.

One issue for me is that I find the times displayed are horribly inaccurate. Since I did a factory reset before sideloading the 3.0.1 firmware, I now show 25 books read in 18 hours. One kepub (Thankless in Death) I have open claims I will take 17 minutes to read the rest of the chapter (19 pages to go) and 18 minutes to read the next chapter with a total of 8.5 hours to read the entire book. The size of book that when I used to take the bus to work was my riding to work book with another in my bag as the riding home book. It could simply be that since I do factory resets rather often and so do not give the time required to do build a large enough sample of kepubs being read to give a decent estimate on my reading speed, a default and rather slow reading speed is used to estimate those times.

There have been reports that Kobo will be re-enabling that feature for sideloaded kepubs in a future firmware. With that and $2, I can buy a coffee at Starbucks.

Regards,
David

[paola]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As one of my co-workers once said, her main job was translating my techese to English.

LOL! But I don't believe you, you are among some other people here who have te gift of clarity and patience

[Gazella]

Concerning reading stats, awards, and the Reading Life feature in general; will Reading Life work for sideloaded books?

[samhy]

The stats (original kepubs) are quite accurate for me, but I don't do factory resets.

[Lyn2012]

Originally Posted by Gazella

Concerning reading stats, awards, and the Reading Life feature in general; will Reading Life work for sideloaded books?

I don't normally have reading stats switched on, but I did so recently and here is what shows for my sideloaded pubs. (A quick shot taken with my phone so not best quality.) I have no idea about the Awards side of Reading Life though.