Aura HD Kobo Aura HD

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

You forgot the part where he hadn't even used the reader enough to know how to change the font sizes. You're right though-everyone is entitled to an opinion, even if it's ignorant.

Er, his only mention of font size is in relation to it using sliders to adjust the settings - and which he struck out and added that he spotted the buttons ("Turns out there are little buttons there, but the bars steal the spotlight so it's easy to miss." - which is true even on the Touch & Mini)

[JD Gumby]

Originally Posted by Pierre Menard

This is the part of the gizmodo review that really confuses me. The main thing he keeps comparing it to is his own Nook Simple Touch, which he obviously likes. But the stats say the Nook is 5.0" (127 mm) wide, and the Aura 5.05" (128.3 mm).

Strangely enough, I can't find "Nook" or "Simple Touch" (case-insensitive search, of course) anywhere in the review. In the comments, it's a commenter (Intending_Acceleration) that mentions his own Nook Simple Touch, not the author.

(and I_A makes points about the Aura that I find also applies to my Touch in regards to reformatting speed and load times, so it's sad to see that those aren't actually improved with the faster CPU - which, as I expected, is probably being bogged down having to deal with the higher resolution and larger screen size)

[Pierre Menard]

Originally Posted by JD Gumby

Strangely enough, I can't find "Nook" or "Simple Touch" (case-insensitive search, of course) anywhere in the review. In the comments, it's a commenter (Intending_Acceleration) that mentions his own Nook Simple Touch, not the author.

Err.... oops. It appears that when I flipped back to the review tab, I didn't realize that I had scrolled down and was looking at comments when that Nook line happened to catch my eye.

So I guess I just disagree. Or have freakishly large hands.

[berklon]

I bought an Aura today... so far I'm very pleased with it - the screen looks fantastic. The only issue - as others have mentioned, is that it feels less grippy and too smooth.

Anyways, have a question. I moved all my side-loaded books from my KT to the Aura and I started marking the books I've already read as "Finished" - since I'd like to keep an ongoing tally of the number of books I've read. However, when I do that - the number of "Books Finished" in the Reading Life - Reading Stats is still at 0. Any idea why they don't get registered as finished?

[Haesslich]

Originally Posted by berklon

Anyways, have a question. I moved all my side-loaded books from my KT to the Aura and I started marking the books I've already read as "Finished" - since I'd like to keep an ongoing tally of the number of books I've read. However, when I do that - the number of "Books Finished" in the Reading Life - Reading Stats is still at 0. Any idea why they don't get registered as finished?

Did you read them on the Aura, or did you just use the option in the long-press menu? I think you'd actually need to flip pages in the book until you get to the home screen for that counter to update. Even if it just means using the table if contents to jump to the last section of the book.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Haesslich

Did you read them on the Aura, or did you just use the option in the long-press menu? I think you'd actually need to flip pages in the book until you get to the home screen for that counter to update. Even if it just means using the table if contents to jump to the last section of the book.

That is correct. Marking a book as finished is not the same as opening it, going to the last page and finishing it there. Doing the latter will get it counted as finished in the reading stats.

[berklon]

Ugh... I was hoping I wouldn't have to open each book and scroll to the last page and do a final page turn just to get it registered as finished. That leads me to ask, what's the purpose of the option to mark a book as finished if it's not even going to be registered in the count?

[Katsunami]

Maybe that's a bug.... I'd submit a question to Kobo.

[robko]

Originally Posted by berklon

Ugh... I was hoping I wouldn't have to open each book and scroll to the last page and do a final page turn just to get it registered as finished. That leads me to ask, what's the purpose of the option to mark a book as finished if it's not even going to be registered in the count?

If you're like me and don't use the stats, then it marks the book as finished in your library and removes it from the homescreen carousel. This is very handy if you open something by accident and want to get rid of it from the homescreen.

[AnemicOak]

Are there any known issues with something causing slow page turns? I guess I didn't notice it until tonight, but I'm getting quite a pause between tapping the screen and the page actually turning. It's long enough that I can tap/turn a second time on my old Kindle Touch in a side by side trial. Not an end of the world type thing, once I get used to the timing, just something I'm wondering about. I think I noticed it more because I just went back to my Kindle and finished up a book I had been reading on it before the Aura arrived. Switching back to the Aura again makes it really stand out. This is with an ePub.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by berklon

Ugh... I was hoping I wouldn't have to open each book and scroll to the last page and do a final page turn just to get it registered as finished. That leads me to ask, what's the purpose of the option to mark a book as finished if it's not even going to be registered in the count?

Marking a book as finished removed it from the home screen for the Touch and Glo.

Regards,
David

[Nil Einne]

Personally, I've never found Gizmodo to be any good, they seem to have an extreme Apple bias for a long time, while I admit I'm not a fan of Apple products, there's nothing wrong with generally liking Apple products, it doesn't mean you have to pretend as if no problems exist or treat all competing product as terrible (when other reviewers and the public don't agree there's clearly a problem). I've heard they've gotten worse since being banned by Apple but I wouldn't know. In addition, while most US sites are fairly US centric, Gizmodo is one of a number which seems to be extremely so.

Personally, I've read several reviews and found most of them fairly useless whether positive or negative. (To be fair, this is a common problem with tech reviews.) I can understand this from blogs and other sites, but a professional review of a device should be sufficiently comprehensive and more then just the author's personal opinion and personal use case. As others have pointed out, they've generally failed to test the high resolution screen much, e.g. with diagrams, comics, technical books. Testing with comics etc also come in to play for the larger screen size which again many reviewers seem to have missed. There are also other aspects of the larger screen size, e.g. as I mentioned before, usage with large fonts which few reviewers seem to have considered let alone tested. Failing to test or consider such things are IMO a major failing of a professional review, particularly so if the authors themselves feel it's a niche product (which means they should be considering the niches).

Similarly, there's nothing wrong with saying you don't find a device comfortable to hold but if there are reasons for a design, you should at least mention what they are even if you don't agree. Ideally you should also get others to test the hold and see what they feel, but this may not always be possible.

I also agree that I expect reviewers to have enough experience, testing and perhaps reading documentation to know how to use the device properly. Again, it would be fine to say it's easy to miss something or I missed something initially, but if it takes a commentator to point out you missed something this suggests you've sort of failed in the review. (At least though it was made clear this happened rather then rewriting history by simply removing the mistake.) I would say particularly so if it's a review for a site which presents itself as a tech/gadget site. (In fact this applies to most of what I've said in this post.)

[david8866]

Originally Posted by Nil Einne

As others have pointed out, they've generally failed to test the high resolution screen much, e.g. with diagrams, comics, technical books. Testing with comics etc also come in to play for the larger screen size which again many reviewers seem to have missed.

Tablets do better than Eink for this type of books. Why not buy a 9" NOOK HD+ for $30 more when on sale? He is a gadget writer, I assume he already has a tablet. When he worte, "You don’t need that extra resolution to read", he probably meant text reading.

[ShellShock]

Can anyone confirm that custom dictionaries (https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=196925) do NOT work on the Aura with firmware 2.5.1? See here https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...0&postcount=33.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Most comics are far better suited to a tablet but manga is a perfect fit. They're basically the same size as the Aura and they're in black and white to start with. Unfortunately I'm not much of a manga reader so I can't take advantage of that.