Libra 2 Experience

TheSmitty · 05-20-2023, 04:36 PM

I wanted to share my experience and opinions since getting this device almost two week ago.

I am a long time Kindle owner/user and have always enjoyed them. I have an Oasis 3 and another Kindle Paperwhite that was gifted to me. For me, having page turn buttons is a big deal because I hate the smudges that I leave on the screen so I used the Oasis 3 mostly.

Years ago I tried the Libra H2O, it was nice and I was able to learn a few things about it from the folks here. However, it never fully clicked with me and I ended up gifting it to someone.

Flash forward to the present and I decided to give the Libra 2 a go. I got it with the sleep cover this time. I also did more homework this time as to what I could and would do with it in regards to Calibre integration and patching the OS.

I must say, I really am liking it. I have only had it a couple of weeks but have been using it exclusively since then which is longer than the few days I messed with the H2O. I guess the Libra 2 is basically a minor upgrade from the H20 but this time it just is working out better for me.

So the pluses...

I love the Calibre integration. I have my entire Kindle collection of books that i have bought over the years (1000+) loaded into Calibre. A transferred a couple of books from calibre onto the Libra 2 to see how it would handle the tags and how to get the tags to be used for Collections (with the help from the forums here). Once I understood it all, I tagged all my books in Calibre the way I wanted them then loaded them all on the Libra 2. PURE MAGIC I SAY! I also learned how Calibre keeps those tags up to date to the collections every time I attach the Libra 2 to Calibre. Very nice!

I love the battery life. My Oasis 3 battery pales in comparison. Oasis never has been known as having a great battery. This is most notable when you do not use it for a day or a few days or so and the battery drains some. Other Kindles do better in this regard but still will drain down over time. Libra 2 is much better in this regard. I think the fact that you can configure to go from sleep to full power off really will help the shelf life of the battery. Kindles only ever sleep and never turn off unless the battery dies.

I love the ability to customize the OS. NickelMenu, love it. I tried it before with the H20 but never spent the time to properly figure it out. This time around I have (again with help from the info here) and I have it installed and find it actually useful. I still have much to learn concerning what I can do with NickelMenu and why but I can see the benefit now. Cannot do anything like this with Kindle.

I love the screen. To me, the display on the Libra 2 is certainly better than the Oasis 3 and still marginally better, contrast wise, than the latest Kindle Paperwhite. I know some disagree about this which I ultimately think it does depend on the individual.

The negatives...

The biggest thing I miss is the ability to have the software sync between ereader and audiobooks. I commute about 2 hours a day (driving) and the ability to buy and ebook and the audiobook and switch between the two seamlessly is huge. Unfortunately, Kobo cannot do this. I know they sell audiobooks but they just do not have this feature. I wish they did.

While reading a book on Kindle there is a option to get a graphical representation of where you are in the book. It displays 9 thumbnails of the pages before and after the page you are currently on. I used this sometimes to see how much further I have to go to finish a chapter or a section break within a chapter. It is a nice feature to me. I recently told her how Kobo has a progress bar on the bottom of the display plus the page number you are at in the chapter with total pages in the chapter displayed on top. It works and gets me mostly what I want and need.

Those are really the only two negatives (missing features) for me for the Kobo.

Just a note, I actually bought all my ebooks. I know piracy is a big concern and the discussion about DRM can be toxic. But I remove the DRM from everything I buy for various reasons (being able to move from Kindle to Kobo being one). I just wanted to say that, I do believe in supporting authors.

So to conclude... I love my Libra 2 and have been using it exclusively for almost two weeks. Managing the switch between Audiobook and the ebook on my Kobo is a challenge so not sure how long I will be able to continue to do that. I got the Libra 2 while in the middle of a books so I am making do while I can. If Kobo every added this ability it would be huge to me. Anyway, just wanted to post my thoughts and experience thus far.

JSWolf · 05-20-2023, 04:52 PM

You can pick up the eBook where you left off in the audiobook. You just have to listen for some words and then search the eBook for those words.

And to do it in reverse, finish the chapter you are reading with the eBook and then it's just a matter of using the audiobook's ToC to go to the chapter you are starting.

issybird · 05-20-2023, 05:12 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can pick up the eBook where you left off in the audiobook. You just have to listen for some words and then search the eBook for those words.

And to do it in reverse, finish the chapter you are reading with the eBook and then it's just a matter of using the audiobook's ToC to go to the chapter you are starting.

Sometimes Kindle is just better. One might as well admit it. These two workarounds are not nearly as user-friendly as the Kindle WhisperSync experience. You're talking about a fair amount of fiddling and even reading more than you want to get it to "work". It's not the same.

JSWolf · 05-20-2023, 05:31 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by issybird

Sometimes Kindle is just better. One might as well admit it. These two workarounds are not nearly as user-friendly as the Kindle WhisperSync experience. You're talking about a fair amount of fiddling and even reading more than you want to get it to "work". It's not the same.

Yes, I know it's not as easy as using a Kindle. But for me, I find that if I like the audiobook well enough, I won't be reading the eBook. And if I find I'm wanting to read the eBook, I'm not liking the audiobook well enough to listen to it.

I am listening to an audiobook and reading the pBook at the same time. It's The Last Hero by Terry Pratchett. I'm doing so because the pBook is heavily illustrated. The audiobook is read by Stephen Briggs and he does an excellent job with Discworld. His voices are very good and the way he reads works very well.

The Discworld book The Truth is funnier listened to then read because of the way Briggs reads the sound effects. I woke up my wife when I was listening to this because I could not help laughing.

TheSmitty · 05-20-2023, 05:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by JSWolf

You can pick up the eBook where you left off in the audiobook. You just have to listen for some words and then search the eBook for those words.

And to do it in reverse, finish the chapter you are reading with the eBook and then it's just a matter of using the audiobook's ToC to go to the chapter you are starting.

Yes this what I am doing. It works well enough for now at least.

Aleron Ives · 05-20-2023, 06:11 PM

I also got tired of leaving smudges on the screen, so I bought a cheap stylus that I use instead of my finger. Now I need to pull out my microfiber cloth 10x less often.

Regarding chapter management, there are a couple of things you can do. When you tap in the middle of the screen, you can open the reading menu, which shows a progress bar at the bottom, as well as the current page number. Tap the >| arrow on the right to jump to the start of the next chapter, and then look at the page number to see how far away it is. You can then tap on the handy "Back to page x" on the left side of the progress bar to return to where you were.

If you're reading a book with sub chapters, you can press and hold the page turn button to rapidly flip forwards a few pages to see if a new sub chapter is nearby, then hold the other page turn button to rapidly flip back to where you were. You can press and hold in the lower right and lower left corners of the screen to flip pages, too. Note that this only works in KEPUB books; if you sideload a regular EPUB, Kobo will display it using ADE, which lacks this feature (among others). It's generally worthwhile to convert all your books to KEPUB before you sideload them, which is one of the many things Calibre can do for you.

Sirtel · 05-20-2023, 06:22 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by TheSmitty

I love the screen. To me, the display on the Libra 2 is certainly better than the Oasis 3...

That was my experience also.

Quote:

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

I also got tired of leaving smudges on the screen, so I bought a cheap stylus that I use instead of my finger.

I've done that since I bought my first touchscreen reader.

BookCat · 05-22-2023, 11:43 AM

Two of your problems:

Know where you are in a chapter and how many pages left to read in that chapter.

And:

To know your progress through a book.

Go to the Home page, click the More symbol in the lower right corner. Choose Settings. Choose Reading Settings. Under Reading Progress select for Header: Pages Left in Chapter; for Footer choose Pages Left In Book; click On the Show Book Progress Bar.

When you're more accustomed to the Libra2, you can alter these settings to suit your preference.

05-20-2023, 04:36 PM	#1
TheSmitty Addict Posts: 318 Karma: 1181422 Join Date: Dec 2017 Location: DFW, TX area Device: Kindle Colorsoft, Libra Colour, Voyage, iPad Pro 11, iPad Mini 7	Libra 2 Experience I wanted to share my experience and opinions since getting this device almost two week ago. I am a long time Kindle owner/user and have always enjoyed them. I have an Oasis 3 and another Kindle Paperwhite that was gifted to me. For me, having page turn buttons is a big deal because I hate the smudges that I leave on the screen so I used the Oasis 3 mostly. Years ago I tried the Libra H2O, it was nice and I was able to learn a few things about it from the folks here. However, it never fully clicked with me and I ended up gifting it to someone. Flash forward to the present and I decided to give the Libra 2 a go. I got it with the sleep cover this time. I also did more homework this time as to what I could and would do with it in regards to Calibre integration and patching the OS. I must say, I really am liking it. I have only had it a couple of weeks but have been using it exclusively since then which is longer than the few days I messed with the H2O. I guess the Libra 2 is basically a minor upgrade from the H20 but this time it just is working out better for me. So the pluses... I love the Calibre integration. I have my entire Kindle collection of books that i have bought over the years (1000+) loaded into Calibre. A transferred a couple of books from calibre onto the Libra 2 to see how it would handle the tags and how to get the tags to be used for Collections (with the help from the forums here). Once I understood it all, I tagged all my books in Calibre the way I wanted them then loaded them all on the Libra 2. PURE MAGIC I SAY! I also learned how Calibre keeps those tags up to date to the collections every time I attach the Libra 2 to Calibre. Very nice! I love the battery life. My Oasis 3 battery pales in comparison. Oasis never has been known as having a great battery. This is most notable when you do not use it for a day or a few days or so and the battery drains some. Other Kindles do better in this regard but still will drain down over time. Libra 2 is much better in this regard. I think the fact that you can configure to go from sleep to full power off really will help the shelf life of the battery. Kindles only ever sleep and never turn off unless the battery dies. I love the ability to customize the OS. NickelMenu, love it. I tried it before with the H20 but never spent the time to properly figure it out. This time around I have (again with help from the info here) and I have it installed and find it actually useful. I still have much to learn concerning what I can do with NickelMenu and why but I can see the benefit now. Cannot do anything like this with Kindle. I love the screen. To me, the display on the Libra 2 is certainly better than the Oasis 3 and still marginally better, contrast wise, than the latest Kindle Paperwhite. I know some disagree about this which I ultimately think it does depend on the individual. The negatives... The biggest thing I miss is the ability to have the software sync between ereader and audiobooks. I commute about 2 hours a day (driving) and the ability to buy and ebook and the audiobook and switch between the two seamlessly is huge. Unfortunately, Kobo cannot do this. I know they sell audiobooks but they just do not have this feature. I wish they did. While reading a book on Kindle there is a option to get a graphical representation of where you are in the book. It displays 9 thumbnails of the pages before and after the page you are currently on. I used this sometimes to see how much further I have to go to finish a chapter or a section break within a chapter. It is a nice feature to me. I recently told her how Kobo has a progress bar on the bottom of the display plus the page number you are at in the chapter with total pages in the chapter displayed on top. It works and gets me mostly what I want and need. Those are really the only two negatives (missing features) for me for the Kobo. Just a note, I actually bought all my ebooks. I know piracy is a big concern and the discussion about DRM can be toxic. But I remove the DRM from everything I buy for various reasons (being able to move from Kindle to Kobo being one). I just wanted to say that, I do believe in supporting authors. So to conclude... I love my Libra 2 and have been using it exclusively for almost two weeks. Managing the switch between Audiobook and the ebook on my Kobo is a challenge so not sure how long I will be able to continue to do that. I got the Libra 2 while in the middle of a books so I am making do while I can. If Kobo every added this ability it would be huge to me. Anyway, just wanted to post my thoughts and experience thus far.

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05-20-2023, 04:52 PM	#2
JSWolf Resident Curmudgeon Posts: 79,792 Karma: 146391129 Join Date: Nov 2006 Location: Roslindale, Massachusetts Device: Kobo Libra 2, Kobo Aura H2O, PRS-650, PRS-T1, nook STR, PW3	You can pick up the eBook where you left off in the audiobook. You just have to listen for some words and then search the eBook for those words. And to do it in reverse, finish the chapter you are reading with the eBook and then it's just a matter of using the audiobook's ToC to go to the chapter you are starting.

05-20-2023, 06:11 PM	#6
Aleron Ives Wizard Posts: 1,689 Karma: 16307824 Join Date: Sep 2022 Device: Kobo Libra 2	I also got tired of leaving smudges on the screen, so I bought a cheap stylus that I use instead of my finger. Now I need to pull out my microfiber cloth 10x less often. Regarding chapter management, there are a couple of things you can do. When you tap in the middle of the screen, you can open the reading menu, which shows a progress bar at the bottom, as well as the current page number. Tap the >\| arrow on the right to jump to the start of the next chapter, and then look at the page number to see how far away it is. You can then tap on the handy "Back to page x" on the left side of the progress bar to return to where you were. If you're reading a book with sub chapters, you can press and hold the page turn button to rapidly flip forwards a few pages to see if a new sub chapter is nearby, then hold the other page turn button to rapidly flip back to where you were. You can press and hold in the lower right and lower left corners of the screen to flip pages, too. Note that this only works in KEPUB books; if you sideload a regular EPUB, Kobo will display it using ADE, which lacks this feature (among others). It's generally worthwhile to convert all your books to KEPUB before you sideload them, which is one of the many things Calibre can do for you.

05-22-2023, 11:43 AM	#8
BookCat C L J Posts: 2,911 Karma: 21115458 Join Date: Dec 2008 Location: Birmingham UK Device: Sony e-reader 505, Kindle PW2, Kindle PW3, Kobo Libra2	Two of your problems: Know where you are in a chapter and how many pages left to read in that chapter. And: To know your progress through a book. Go to the Home page, click the More symbol in the lower right corner. Choose Settings. Choose Reading Settings. Under Reading Progress select for Header: Pages Left in Chapter; for Footer choose Pages Left In Book; click On the Show Book Progress Bar. When you're more accustomed to the Libra2, you can alter these settings to suit your preference.

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