Kobo Glo HD

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by chanfm

Kobo Glo HD sounds great but the absence of an SD card is a real problem. With Kindles, you can keep your excess books in their cloud but Kobo does not offer such facilities. I am wary of loading too many books in the Kobo in case page turning, etc is slowed down.

Is there any way of connecting Kobos to cloud services such as dropbox?

I know that one can keep excess books on a laptop and transfer as and when necessary but I am often without a laptop when I travel.

Kobo has a web browser, which I believe lets you download from Drop Box. Also any ebooks purchased through them can be stored in the cloud.

[chanfm]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Kobo has a web browser, which I believe lets you download from Drop Box. Also any ebooks purchased through them can be stored in the cloud.

Thanks for your reply. I will certainly try the web browser and dropbox.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I'm in the US so I'm unable to directly access the London Public Library, but the overdrive the LPL has them at 4,600 some odd fiction titles. I imagine libraries here in the states are similarly limited, with major metropolitan libraries having larger selections than their smaller town counterparts.

My local library isn't the London. It's the Essex County digital library.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by chanfm

Kobo Glo HD sounds wonderful but the absence of an SD card is a real problem. With Kindles, you can keep your excess books in their cloud but Kobo does not offer such facilities. I am wary of loading too many books in the Kobo in case page turning, etc is slowed down.

Is there any way of connecting Kobos to cloud services such as dropbox? It would be nice if we could sync across Kobo devices.

I know that one can keep excess books on a laptop and transfer as and when necessary but I am often without a laptop when I travel.

Yes you can easily download from Dropbox. I automatically convert epubs to kepubs when sending via Calibre and if download an ePub from Dropbox on the rare occasion I've needed to I find the ePub display on the screen quite bad. So if you are used to reading kepubs my suggestion to to ensure you have kepubs in Dropbox.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Josieb1

Yes you can easily download from Dropbox. I automatically convert epubs to kepubs when sending via Calibre and if download an ePub from Dropbox on the rare occasion I've needed to I find the ePub display on the screen quite bad. So if you are used to reading kepubs my suggestion to to ensure you have kepubs in Dropbox.

If you want to download kepubs using the browser, they need the extension ".kepub.epub" just like when sideloading. If you put you kepubs on dropbox with that as the extension, you should be OK.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I'm in the US so I'm unable to directly access the London Public Library, but the overdrive the LPL has them at 4,600 some odd fiction titles. I imagine libraries here in the states are similarly limited, with major metropolitan libraries having larger selections than their smaller town counterparts.

Wow, I wouldn't have thought the LPL e-collection would be that limited. Here in sleepy Western Australia we have access to >23 000 ebooks on Overdrive, 14 000 of those fiction, with lot more available to recommend (the library has purchased most of the ebooks I've recommended). No Kindle format, of course.

[Josieb1]

Originally Posted by meeera

Wow, I wouldn't have thought the LPL e-collection would be that limited. Here in sleepy Western Australia we have access to >23 000 ebooks on Overdrive, 14 000 of those fiction, with lot more available to recommend (the library has purchased most of the ebooks I've recommended). No Kindle format, of course.

Thats exactly why for me an ereader for library books is pointless, we just don't have them, but its not the same everywhere. I would love to have access to a library such as yours it sounds like heaven, instead I have to buy my books which is why Amazon wins hands down.

[rcentros]

As an aside ... Is Kobo getting out of the tablet business? Out of curiosity, I checked the prices of their Kobo Arcs. The Arc (cheapest one) and Arc 10hd (most expensive) both show out of stock -- (but the 10hd was priced at $170 instead of the $400 it shows in the comparison chart). Meanwhile the Kobo Arc 7 and Kobo Arc 7hd are priced at $80 and $110 -- almost half their normal prices of $150 and $200. I don't know how good Kobo tablets are -- they look like standard Android tablets -- but it looks like Kobo is quitting that part of their business.

(A Google search shows that I'm way behind the curve here -- but the article (from October of last year) said they would continue selling the models they already made. Looks like they're on clearance to me.)

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Rizla

I do think the knowledgeable e-reader buyer will be not quite so eager to buy a Voyage at the current price because of the Glo HD pricing. It just makes the Voyage...less premium.

If I were trying to decide, I would go with the Glo HD over the Voyage. I wanted a 6" with 300 DPI, so that's why I got the Voyage. If I had waited, I wouldn't have gotten it. But now I'll have both

[Anak]

Originally Posted by rcentros

As an aside ... Is Kobo getting out of the tablet business? Out of curiosity, I checked the prices of their Kobo Arcs. The Arc (cheapest one) and Arc 10hd (most expensive) both show out of stock -- (but the 10hd was priced at $170 instead of the $400 it shows in the comparison chart). Meanwhile the Kobo Arc 7 and Kobo Arc 7hd are priced at $80 and $110 -- almost half their normal prices of $150 and $200. I don't know how good Kobo tablets are -- they look like standard Android tablets -- but it looks like Kobo is quitting that part of their business.

(A Google search shows that I'm way behind the curve here -- but the article (from October of last year) said they would continue selling the models they already made. Looks like they're on clearance to me.)

It would not surprise me as the specs of tablets are upgraded very often. I don't think Kobo can keep up (or want to) as this is very expensive and not their core business.

Well, IMHO Kobo should negotiate deals with tablet manufacturers to preinstall Kobo app(s) on their tablets. Bloadware, but it's a cheap option for Kobo to get their apps on many devices. It also targets the wides demographics.
Offer some very good deals to encourage to create an account at Kobo website.

[chanfm]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you want to download kepubs using the browser, they need the extension ".kepub.epub" just like when sideloading. If you put you kepubs on dropbox with that as the extension, you should be OK.

Many thanks to all who replied. I just tried to download an ePub from Dropbox to my Kobo Mini and it worked! I will try to convert to, and save, as kepubs soon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by pssquirrel

Don't get me wrong, I am very happy with my Kindle Voyage and I am happier with the transition to Amazon than I thought I'd be. So now, please, will some kind persons please convince me that I really don't have to pre-order the Glo HD right this minute like I sooooo want to do?

You DO WANT the Glo HD. You WILL use it more then the Voyage. You WILL want to SELL the voyage.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mr_nihilism

If history is anything to go on, Kobo will once again prove to have the better lighting. And maybe it's just my imagination but doesn't good-e-reader always make sure the text on a Kobo device look less than ideal? Oh well. There is no credibility at all.

A fair and subjective review is just too much to ask.

The idea is not to show both Readers using similar settings. The idea is to show both readers in their best light and in that case, thw Glo HD wins hands down.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Rizla

The review demonstrated a glitch in the Kobo's intial rendering of the pdf. It was small and in the top left corner. A couple of clicks fixed it, and it wouldn't bother me as long as I only had to do it when I open the book, but it's clumsy and looks bad. Is the glitch they showed accurate?

I was impressed with the zoom on both devices, but they should have displayed pdfs on both devices in landscape. That's the only practical way to read an a4 pdf on a 6" screen.

I cannot speak of the supposed glitch as I've never tried PDF on my H2O. But one thing that really stood out (I;ve seen it elsewhere too) is that the dithering for the graphics in the PDF were very poor on the Voyage. The image was dark and muddy and had much less detail then the same image on the Glo HD.

In the attached image from the GoodEReader video, the Glo HD is on the left and the Voyage is on the right.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Mercador

I wonder if it could be a nice upgrade to my Kobo Aura...

My wife is still using her Kobo Mini so I could give her my Aura and switch to the new Glo HD. I could bring the mini to the office, that would be nice.

I wonder why they made a deep screen again ? I got used to have a flat screen on my Aura, might be a turn-off for me. I don't need SD extra card, 4gb is more than enough for me, never used the extra card and I'm a kobo fan since the Touch.

Decisions...

Yes, the Glo HD is a nice upgrade. The reason is that the Glo HD is using IR touch and not capacitance. That does remove on layer from in front of the screen.