Touch Best way to get Kobo touch in Australia?

[molman]

They need to get a move along, the new Kindles to be sold in stores here soon;

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/10...om-november-7/

[MorganM]

Originally Posted by molman

They need to get a move along, the new Kindles to be sold in stores here soon;

http://www.lifehacker.com.au/2011/10...om-november-7/

Wow Kobo should be trying a little bit harder....

[molman]

Originally Posted by MorganM

Wow Kobo should be trying a little bit harder....

Yeah, well known brand, wide distrubution, good price (cheaper than last model). I think these will sell well for the xmas period.

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by molman

If and when you get the SONY in house I'd be interested in what you think of it in comparison to your Kobo. I agree re: Kobo loosing having any kind of lead in the AU market, but then when it is the difference of focusing on our market that is a blip on the world stage and getting units to say Germany I can see why we may not be high on the list.

Will do, Molman. We expect it some time in the next week to 10 days, assuming no delays.

[sabredog]

Well I bit the bullet yesterday and ordered a PRS-T1. I still have my original Kobo and enjoy using it. However I am not waiting any longer for the KT to be released in Australia. My efforts to order one via online stores has come to nought.

Bit of a shame really.

[Bookpossum]

My husband's PRS-T1 has arrived, so yours should come in another few days, sabredog.

It is charging up now so I shall report later on how it compares with the KT. From what I have read, the really desirable thing it has in my eyes is the ability to create "folders" to sort the Library into genres - Classics, SF, short stories, whatever.

Well, looks like the Kobo will still have a decent chance if the Touch ever comes out in Australia. For the foreseeable future, at least, Woolworths will only carry the Kindle Keyboard 3G and the non-Touch Kindle Wifi. So no competition from the Kindle Touch.

[sabredog]

Actually there is. Sony are selling the PRS-T1 locally.

[Bookpossum]

Molman asked me to report on the Sony T1 in comparison with the KT. Now my husband has had a chance to get familiar with it, we have compared them. I think the Sony is a bit more complicated than the Kobo, at least until you get used to it, and I think the Kobo home page looks a bit more elegant than the Sony's. The big plus items that the Sony has, some of which are things I have seen people say they would like put into the Kobo in the future, are:

- ability to sort books into genres of one's own choosing.
- ability to read books as well as PDFs in landscape as well as portrait mode.
- ability to make multiple bookmarks if needed.
- ability to enlarge what you are looking at by pinching and spreading thumb and forefinger on the screen. Useful for PDFs with small print.
- ability to go back to the table of contents while within the book.
- book list without the covers so you get more to the page.

According to the blurb, but not yet tested, the battery life seems to be longer than the Kobo's, but who knows. It isn't really an issue for us anyway but I suppose it could be if you were traveling and not able to find an electricity supply/didn't have a charger.

So in summary, the Sony does have a few little extras which the Kobo doesn't have at this stage. However, I remain very happy with my Kobo and don't feel the need to change any time soon!

[IxiaAurea]

My sister ordered a sony prs t1 and it arrived at our doorstep yesterday. In my opinion, the home page is cluttered and there's so many rectangles, squares, boxes! My sister commented on how she likes my Kobo touch's home page better because there's less to 'see'.

[HarleyB]

Originally Posted by IxiaAurea

My sister ordered a sony prs t1 and it arrived at our doorstep yesterday. In my opinion, the home page is cluttered and there's so many rectangles, squares, boxes! My sister commented on how she likes my Kobo touch's home page better because there's less to 'see'.

I've been looking at the PRS T1 online as my original Kobo has died. As I currently can't get a Kobo Touch in Australia I'm thinking about the Sony. But I also thought the home page looked very cluttered.
I haven't been a huge fan of the Kobo home page with the 5 books (especially when they are either not the 5 that I'm reading or more than one of them doesn't have a cover!) but after seeing the Sony home page my opinion of the Kobo page improved dramatically.

[molman]

Originally Posted by Bookpossum

Molman asked me to report on the Sony T1 in comparison with the KT. Now my husband has had a chance to get familiar with it, we have compared them. I think the Sony is a bit more complicated than the Kobo, at least until you get used to it, and I think the Kobo home page looks a bit more elegant than the Sony's. The big plus items that the Sony has, some of which are things I have seen people say they would like put into the Kobo in the future, are:

- ability to sort books into genres of one's own choosing.
- ability to read books as well as PDFs in landscape as well as portrait mode.
- ability to make multiple bookmarks if needed.
- ability to enlarge what you are looking at by pinching and spreading thumb and forefinger on the screen. Useful for PDFs with small print.
- ability to go back to the table of contents while within the book.
- book list without the covers so you get more to the page.

According to the blurb, but not yet tested, the battery life seems to be longer than the Kobo's, but who knows. It isn't really an issue for us anyway but I suppose it could be if you were traveling and not able to find an electricity supply/didn't have a charger.

So in summary, the Sony does have a few little extras which the Kobo doesn't have at this stage. However, I remain very happy with my Kobo and don't feel the need to change any time soon!

Hey thanks for the report back, and friendly PM. Been a little busy of late. I'm curious how you find the device physically - from memory it is meant to be a little lighter than the Kobo, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of the glossy boarder? Also how is the performance overall - page turns, navigating around etc?

[IxiaAurea]

Originally Posted by molman

Hey thanks for the report back, and friendly PM. Been a little busy of late. I'm curious how you find the device physically - from memory it is meant to be a little lighter than the Kobo, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of the glossy boarder? Also how is the performance overall - page turns, navigating around etc?

My sister's red one has a really glossy border and that means finger prints. Border quite glare-y using book light. One thing I find about turning pages is that it doesn't respond to a tap, only swiping ! This can be good (no accidental changing of page) or bad (hard to read with one hand).

Sorry to get off topic in this board...

[Bookpossum]

Originally Posted by molman

Hey thanks for the report back, and friendly PM. Been a little busy of late. I'm curious how you find the device physically - from memory it is meant to be a little lighter than the Kobo, but I'm not sure I'm a fan of the glossy boarder? Also how is the performance overall - page turns, navigating around etc?

They feel just about the same weight to me. I agree about the glossy border, but it doesn't seem to be a problem once you start reading. My KT has a Casecrown cover that is a bit like a picture-frame, all round the screen and with just a gap for the one button. Probably they or someone will design a case for the T1 along the same lines that will cover up most of the gloss, though with all the buttons at the bottom, that sort might not work. The back is matte, and I don't know why they didn't use that for the front as well.

It seems to take longer to turn on than the KT. Maybe it has more to sort out as it has the capacity to take recordings and also images. Page turning is the same as the KT (I was swiping as I am used to that, but also tried the buttons back and forward.) It does seem a bit more "flashy" with each page turn - a bit hard to explain, but the whole screen goes to black and then white with the next page, where the KT just blinks the words over to the next page as it were - though now I flick through several pages of a book, it sometimes does the same black/white flash as the Sony.

Navigating in terms of going to the full list of books is quick and easy. The home screen shows the most recently read book at the top, then three "recently added" (presumably the last three). Then at the bottom of the screen are Books (ie the Library), Periodicals (which is within Library in the KT), Reader Store (Sony version of the Kobo store) and Collections where you can find a list which is set - Unread Books, Unread Periodicals, Purchased Books, and then whatever collections you have set up. At this stage my husband has only one of these but will no doubt add more as he puts in more books.

The buttons at the bottom are from left to right: previous page, next page, home, back to previous screen and menu. When you press menu in the book it offers you: navigate page, notes, font, customize view, handwriting and more. When you press more it offers: search, orientation, settings.

There doesn't seem to be the option of a Shortlist as on the KT, but then I suppose you can use the Collections button to get to whatever you feel like reading next.

Sorry - that's a bit long-winded, but I hope it covers what you need to know.

[HarleyB]

Thanks for all that information. I hope to actually see one this weekend in the Sony store.