My Voyage v Kobo H2O experience

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Yes we know you think the ereader should be carried around in a vault everywhere but that is not realistic. I recommend putting your ereader in your jacket pocket and even doing it WITHOUT a cover! Live on the wild side.

What is this thing called a "jacket"? I don't think I'll be seeing one of those, let alone wearing one, for another six months or so...

[Josieb1]

One thing I did notice this morning, I wanted to load a book via dropbox, as an experiment, so I converted my epub into a kepub via Calibre and popped both the epub and the kepub into Dropbox. When I navigated to the folder in Dropbox via the Kobo webrowser I could upload the epub into my H20 as normal but not the kepub, It just would't take. I'm not sure if this is normal behaviour but something to bear in mind if you use Dropbox in conjunction with Kobo devices

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by meeera

What is this thing called a "jacket"? I don't think I'll be seeing one of those, let alone wearing one, for another six months or so...

You must be somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Lucky.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

You must be somewhere in the southern hemisphere. Lucky.

The clue is in the "Location: Australia" .

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by meeera

What is this thing called a "jacket"? I don't think I'll be seeing one of those, let alone wearing one, for another six months or so...

There's a thread around here somewhere with shirts that have pockets and a whole slew of vera wang wristlets that I thought were so awesome I had to blog them. So you could get a shirt with a pocket...smartvest was the name of that site if I recall. I posted it, but now can't remember the name off the top of my head. Dork.

We're just getting to jacket weather here in Texas. For this week anyway.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by BearMountainBooks

There's a thread around here somewhere with shirts that have pockets and a whole slew of vera wang wristlets that I thought were so awesome I had to blog them. So you could get a shirt with a pocket...smartvest was the name of that site if I recall. I posted it, but now can't remember the name off the top of my head. Dork.

Scottevest... yep, they're not for me. I usually have a bag with me anyway, for wallet/keys/etc. And the Kobo Aura slips nicely into the armbag pocket on my chair.

[ersott]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

One thing I did notice this morning, I wanted to load a book via dropbox, as an experiment, so I converted my epub into a kepub via Calibre and popped both the epub and the kepub into Dropbox. When I navigated to the folder in Dropbox via the Kobo webrowser I could upload the epub into my H20 as normal but not the kepub, It just would't take. I'm not sure if this is normal behaviour but something to bear in mind if you use Dropbox in conjunction with Kobo devices

Just rename "XXXXX.kebub" to "XXXXX.kepub.epub" then you can download directly to your kobo and the book looks like kepub in him.

greetings.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by ersott

Just rename "XXXXX.kebub" to "XXXXX.kepub.epub" then you can download directly to your kobo and the book looks like kepub in him.

greetings.

Ohh thank you

[nathany]

Thanks Stingo and sparklemotion for your reviews.

In Canada the situation is the opposite of the U.S. I can walk down to Chapters Indigo and take a look at a Kobo h2o, whereas the Kindle Voyage isn't even available for purchase yet.

Leaving the Amazon ecosystem was a hard choice. I'm coming from a Kindle DX, my second eReader after an early Sony. I had tried the 1st Paperwhite but didn't keep it. I found that I was still feeling eyestrain with the front-lighting, giving it no advantage over using a tablet.

It sounds like things haven't improved much for Kindle?

So I finally picked up an h2o. It took quite some time to setup, but so far so good. Pocket integration is a really nice bonus as well.

[Stingo]

Originally Posted by nathany

Leaving the Amazon ecosystem was a hard choice.

You know, I thought that it would be for me too but I have not minded the buying, downloading, ..., sideloading process so far. Amazon is certainly easier and more integrated. However, I saw something in an Economist article yesterday that made me fee more comfortable with my choice. Supposedly Amazon has been collecting information on Kindle use including details as precise as how long you stay on page, what you look up in the dictionary, what you buy related to what you are reading, what sections of a book you slow down on and pickup on, etc... The article mentioned that Amazon has not explained why it collects the information and has not shared the information with publishers but that they want the information in order to make editing decisions that will massage books to reader desires. Personally I found it chilling. I am happy to give up online purchases and synchronization for a little bit of privacy.

[BearMountainBooks]

Originally Posted by Stingo

You know, I thought that it would be for me too but I have not minded the buying, downloading, ..., sideloading process so far. Amazon is certainly easier and more integrated. However, I saw something in an Economist article yesterday that made me fee more comfortable with my choice. Supposedly Amazon has been collecting information on Kindle use including details as precise as how long you stay on page, what you look up in the dictionary, what you buy related to what you are reading, what sections of a book you slow down on and pickup on, etc... The article mentioned that Amazon has not explained why it collects the information and has not shared the information with publishers but that they want the information in order to make editing decisions that will massage books to reader desires. Personally I found it chilling. I am happy to give up online purchases and synchronization for a little bit of privacy.

And authors have already been requesting this type of information (not me. I'd rather people not be tracked. But I've seen the discussions on how useful it would be. And yes, it would be useful. But Amazon isn't admitting or sharing.)

One of the other discussions is about returns--there are some abusing the system of generous returns (of course) and the question is out--Amazon knows if a book was finished or not. But they aren't using that either when it comes to returns. They could (for the most part, especially if the book was just downloaded and read). But right now they don't. But will they some day?

[rogerinnyc]

So, in part spurred by this thread and in part by my partial dissatisfaction with my new KV (coming from a PW2), I went and ordered a Kobo H2O for comparison's sake. Bottom line? I prefer the Kindle Voyage -- and may even end up sticking with the PW2.

Some details.

1. The Kobo has great font type, font weight, font sizing, line spacing and margin options. Really good stuff. Downside? If you're sticking with the Amazon ecosystem and sideloading epubs, the line spacing and margin options don't work. You have to do a lot of extra effort in Calibre to make sure that the conversion for each book comes out exactly as you want. And, to boot, the sideloading process is quite slow (once you disconnect your Kobo, it needs to process the new files for a fair amount of time)

2. The Kobo's IR screen turning system just isn't as responsive as the KV's capacitive screen. More than I would like, I find myself having to re-tap a page on the Kobo to get it to turn. More importantly, whether you set the screen refresh to every page or every six pages (or somewhere in between, which the Kobo allows), the page turn is noticeably slower than either my KV or my PW2. Less snappy is how I would put it.

3. Even though the Kobo offers you 4 different tap zone set ups, none of them mimic the Kindle set up and, for my tastes, none of them are particularly good. The latest software update added a 4th choice for one-handed reading, with the bottom one-third of the screen devoted to page forward, but it's evenly balanced with settings in the middle and page back at the top, whereas, again only IMO, it needs to be something closer to the entire 2/3rds of the bottom of the screen being page forward to be really useful.

4. Unless you hack your Kobo (which is pretty easy and a plus, for sure), the extra space of the 6.8" screen is eaten up by the header and footer (when using kepubs) and by the footer when using sideloaded epubs (no header for those). Hacking (or Patching in their forum) fixes this, but not everyone will want to do that.

5. I love that the Kobo gives you the bookcover of your current title as the screensaver (and you can optionally choose to include a small overlay with reading stats). I get this on my PW2 with NiLuJe's screensaver hack, but so far nothing is available for the Kindle Voyage in this regard and there may never be.

6. Speaking of screens, all three devices are really good, with, IMO, the KV and the H2O at the very top and the PW2 only slightly -- very slightly -- below. I agree with others that the KV has more of a bluish, cold tint, and the H2O is more yellow and warm. I'm honestly not sure which I prefer. And, unless I am looking at it side-by-side with the KV, I would have thought it would be hard to beat the PW2 display -- especially using the font hack (thanks again, NiLuJe) to put Georgia on it (again, not a current possibility for the KV, but available as one of the font choices on the H2O). There are those who have said the PW2 text looks like it is under glass, whereas the KV text looks like it is floating right on top, and I think there is some truth to this.

7. I wasn't sure I was going to prefer it, but I now like/prefer the flush bezel of the KV, as compared to the inset of both the H2O and the PW2. Obviously, this is totally subjective.

8. I was someone who was upset when Amazon discontinued having buttons on its readers. But I adapted and now find the touchscreen method to be unobtrusive to my reading. But I certainly liked the idea of the pressure points for page turns on the KV -- the execution, not so much. Again, this is personal preference, but for how I hold my Kindles, my thumb naturally falls higher up on the bezel than where Amazon has placed the page forward zones on the KV. It's much easier to move my thumb to the screen then to move it down and align with the pressure point. So I've turned them off.

9. Similarly, I like the idea of auto-dimming on the KV in concept -- but in execution I found it didn't adjust enough for my tastes, so it too is now turned off. One nice H2O feature is the ability to adjust lighting by sliding your finger up and down on the screen's left margin. It's also only two taps to turn wifi on and off on the H2O (but there's no 3G option if you care).

10. I have found battery life on the H2O and the PW2 to be significantly better than on the KV. With relatively heavy use and leaving wifi/3g on, I'm having to recharge the KV every 2 to 3 days. it would be a close call lasting a long weekend.

11. Size and weight are very personal preferences -- and I'm not sure where I come out. The KV is the smallest and lightest and, initially, I thought it was too small (in terms of bezels and ability to hold) as compared to the PW2 -- but with some use and getting accustomed to it, I no longer feel that way and enjoy its feel and small size. The H2O is obviously larger and heavier -- certainly you can still read it with one hand, but you probably will not be able to fit it into a jacket or pants pocket -- and you can definitely tell the weight difference when holding it. Nonetheless, I can also see preferring the dimensions and heft of the Kobo -- it's closer to a trade paperback.

So those are my main comparisons. I think the Kobo is going back and I'll most likely keep the KV -- although I could also (primarily because of the screensaver and font hacks) see myself just sticking with the PW2.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

All good and valid points but I do have to say that when it comes to "hacking" a Kobo to get rid of the headers and footers all it amounts to is opening a text file. If you have basic reading comprehension and know how to use a keyboard then anyone can do it.
But other than that, all good points! I also find the capacitive screens to be much more responsive. I think I'll wait for an H2O v2.

[DuckieTigger]

Originally Posted by Stingo

You know, I thought that it would be for me too but I have not minded the buying, downloading, ..., sideloading process so far. Amazon is certainly easier and more integrated.

That might be ok if every book you read is purchased. If you did not buy the books, then the "..." part (removing of DRM) is questionable. I simply refuse to get tempted into trying other Amazon incompatible (e.g. H2O) readers as most of our reads are not purchased any more. Most reading has happened through Kindle Unlimited ever since we signed up for the trial - and that is not something I want to get involved in to remove DRM on loaned books. Not so much about being honest and delete the books after, but that Amazon won't know how much I did read of the book. If they don't know, they won't be able to pay the author either. In my book that is stealing twice - first for removing DRM from loaned books, and then even denying payment for the book. What good would a ereader do me if I could only use it it for the very rare occasion of a purchased book?

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by DuckieTigger

That might be ok if every book you read is purchased. If you did not buy the books, then the "..." part (removing of DRM) is questionable. I simply refuse to get tempted into trying other Amazon incompatible (e.g. H2O) readers as most of our reads are not purchased any more. Most reading has happened through Kindle Unlimited ever since we signed up for the trial - and that is not something I want to get involved in to remove DRM on loaned books. Not so much about being honest and delete the books after, but that Amazon won't know how much I did read of the book. If they don't know, they won't be able to pay the author either. In my book that is stealing twice - first for removing DRM from loaned books, and then even denying payment for the book. What good would a ereader do me if I could only use it it for the very rare occasion of a purchased book?

If your using Kindle Unlimited they yes you need to stay within the Amazon ecosystem and buy the best Kindle (or tablet) you can find for your needs. I would hope your sentiments are true for all KU and Prime readers.