Aura H2O H2O Owners. Sell to me why I want one

[cybmole]

huge difference in screen sizes, when this & the voyage were released I made some cardboard cut outs - using published dimensions - to hold & compare, using published info. the voyage ( which I did not buy) is tiny!. the H20 is close but not identical size to aura HD; just enough difference to force purchase of a different cover, if ever I get one of those

Originally Posted by ryuji35

Actualy, I don't know how to answer this one. Of course, in the web, this device is always compared to VOYAGE and the latter always wins due to the "Amazon Kindle Store.."

Not really. For some people, being able to read books from the public library is a more important factor. In many, if not most, regions that means a subset of ePub based readers.

But what if we factor out the stores. Let's say all of our books are sideloaded and we are more on the device only, why should we get the H20?

Another perk of the H2O is the screen in conjunction with koreader for reading PDF files. The large screen and resolution, in conjunction with decent cropping options, means that you can read those PDF documents with minimal navigational fuss (and without the need to reflow a document that isn't meant to be reflowable).

[cybmole]

If you read mostly library loans then you are not seeing benefit of kepub format and features. Sony did library loans better, but with both it is much easier to use pc for library interface, into ade ,then sideload.
Overdrive in e ink browser is painful

[jackastor]

Originally Posted by dillsandwitch

Seriously considering upgrading from my Sony PRS-T1 to the Aura H2O.

What do you love? What do you hate? What features do you wish it did or didn't have?

TIA
Dill

Well My main reason for recommending one... is if you decide to go swimming with it its waterproof... Works great in the bathtub or shower too. or even the whirlpool tub. Basically its a kick ass product and you should get one. Also the soft ice cream feature is a nice touch too.



regards

Jack

[dordale]

I don't have either an Kobo Aura H2O or the Kindle Voyage--but I do have an Aura HD and a Kindle PW2.

Both are great readers, but for me the Kobo is the better reader. I appreciate the customisability of the Aura HD--the ability to adjust margin sizes, line spacing, and fonts. Being able to add my own fonts to the Aura HD is wonderful.

Where the Kindle wins out is it has a better dictionary. I've said before that I find the Kobo's dictionary adequate, but the Kindle's is superior--having much more detailed definitions (in the American English dictionary at least.)

Since I side load almost all of my books through Callibre, the availability of books is mostly a non-issue for me.

[kobayashi]

I would recommend buying from Chapters/Indigo if you decide to purchase. I recently bought an H2O from them and while it was massivly defective, they are making things right.

The screen on the H2O is fantastic, especially if you prefer a more yellow-white as opposed to a more blue-white. I do as I find it easier on the eyes and more like normal paper.

[Alan_S]

On H2O, the clock is thing I notice the most. Clock is 12hour, not 24hour. And you can't see it all the time. Well, solution is alternate readers (I don't know how it was on T1, but I still have PRS 650 and had tweak for clock in footer) which have it.

Also, H20 is very unstable software wise. I have numerous bugs, instabilities, USB problems... Well, it is true that most of them are resolved with turning device off and on again (not sleep, but really turning it off).

Sony is much stabler device.

Regarding pluses, well, people said it, better screen, better resolution, waterproof...

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

Also, H20 is very unstable software wise. I have numerous bugs, instabilities, USB problems... Well, it is true that most of them are resolved with turning device off and on again (not sleep, but really turning it off).

I have to disagree that the H2O is very unstable. It's not. I have an H2O and have not had to shut it off due to anything freezing or being unstable. I've had it since Thanksgiving weekend.

[mathil]

Originally Posted by Alan_S

On H2O, the clock is thing I notice the most. Clock is 12hour, not 24hour.

That might depend on the timezone you live in. It's 24h for me (CET).

[meeera]

Originally Posted by mathil

That might depend on the timezone you live in. It's 24h for me (CET).

It doesn't depend on timezone, but it does depend on language - for example, it switches to 24hr time if you set the system language to French.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by meeera

It doesn't depend on timezone, but it does depend on language - for example, it switches to 24hr time if you set the system language to French.

It actually depends on the Locale. I don't know what locale is used for French, but for English it is set to "en_US". This is in the config file. If you change it to "en_AU", the dates will be displayed as "dd/mm/yy" instead of "mm/dd/yy". I know one of the English locales uses the 24 hour clock, but I can't think of which it is right now.

If you want to play, look for "CurrentLocale" in the config file. You need to use a valid value, but these are available on the web somewhere.

[jackie_w]

en_GB shows the 24-hour clock.

[Alan_S]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I have to disagree that the H2O is very unstable. It's not. I have an H2O and have not had to shut it off due to anything freezing or being unstable. I've had it since Thanksgiving weekend.

Probably it depends on ... I don't know, horoscope sign you're born to, or something else.

For example, I have it for much shorter period of time and experienced numerous strange things. You have this thread: https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=254167

Although I reported ejecting works, it stopped working again. Don't know why.

Also, I uploaded about two dozens ebooks in one go with USB connection (sideloading is term I see people use, but without calibre, just copied it to device). It took pretty long time for device to process them, after that I noticed that I can't change font's size etc. Actually, I changed it, but change didn't reflected.

I needed to restart device and after that it worked.

Only yesterday when I tried to connect device to computer it, you could here sound of USB device connecting immediately. As you know, device asks you if you want to connect to PC and if you allow it, only after that device allows connection, you here that sound...

And yes, the problem was that connection wasn't successful. I couldn't see my device. Standard solution to this problem was restarting device. After that it worked as it should.

Too many problems on my device in really short period looks to me as unstable software (firmware 3.12.0, upgrade was done immediately from 3.7.0). But, mentioning upgrade, there was problems also, but you can read it in thread I mentioned before.

All in all, it's far from stable. Maybe my device is for some reason unstable, your stable, I can't tell, but I see how my device acts from time to time. Luckily for me, restarting device (it's pretty fast cycle, so it's good thing) solves problem for some time, so I can live with it.

Next example is what I write down about changing time to 24 hour format:

Originally Posted by jackie_w

en_GB shows the 24-hour clock.

Thanks to all who suggested it.

I successfully changed my local to en_GB and now I have 24 hour format (and dd.mm.yyyy date format).

Strange thing is, it didn't worked at first. I found where I need to change info, edited file, but it didn't helped. I restarted device. No luck. I tried another time. Restarted device, no luck. This time before restart of device I noticed corrupted info in config file. It was corrected after restart.

Third time was successful. But, why, what? Well, only different thing I did that maybe had impact is I copied changed version from device to PC.

Maybe it really is my device "misbehaving" and others don't have such problems?

[JSWolf]

When I got my H2O, I installed the 119 eBooks that I have on my T1. I've never had a problem disconnecting from two different computers. One running Windows 7 and the other running Windows 8.1.

Have you tried a different USB cable? Sometimes a cable can have a lose connection so it works and then it doesn't.

[Alan_S]

Well, upload part (the one that involves USB cable) was fine and fast. Processing part was a bit on a slow side, but problems afterwards was what required restart of device. I don't know what caused device to start to behave, I just know that it was after I uploaded two dozens of books on device. It may be connected, but also maybe isn't.

And yes, I tried (as described in thread I mention and you also participated in that thread) with different USB cable, as I also thought that maybe I have faulty USB cable.

To sum it up, not all men (ops, H2Os) are made equal.

Lucky you, you got one without problems. I have one with mild bugs. They happen, device is not "rock solid", but nothing really major. It just annoys me. I'd like to have device more like yours, but I guess I'll need to live with one I have.

And yes, I think that it isn't so hard to believe that some device might have more problems than others.