Kobo Glo HD

[Raptwithal]

I am seriously considering the new Glo HD.

The Voyage has a capacitive screen and the Glo HD will have an infrared screen (I think this is correct).

In spite of my research, I cannot really get a handle on the difference between capacitive and infrared technology for e-ink screens.

Could someone please post an "e-ink screens for dummies" explanation or point me to one that I could benefit from?

One of my main questions is about the difference in user experience, if any, when using a stylus on the different e-ink screen types.

Thanks!

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by shalym

I don't understand--I just did a search within the book on both my Kindle Voyage and my Aura HD. In both cases it opened a new page with a list of the instances of the word, with a little bit of surrounding text and the location of the word in the book. In what way is the Kindle search different from the Kobo?

Shari

Go to one of the searched pages in both the Kindle and the Kobo. Now advance to the next instance of the word in both readers.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

Go to one of the searched pages in both the Kindle and the Kobo. Now advance to the next instance of the word in both readers.

Ok--now I see what you're talking about. Yes--the Kobo is much easier there. There is one way that the Kindle search is better, though--a friend and I were talking about a specific character that appears in a number of books by a certain author and I was able to search across all of the books in my Kindle to see how many books this character was in.

Both things have their place. I really do wish that I could get a Kobo that had the touchscreen and cloud and indexed search of the Kindles, or a Kindle that had the customization abilities of the Kobos!!

Shari

[arspr]

Originally Posted by Raptwithal

I am seriously considering the new Glo HD.

The Voyage has a capacitive screen and the Glo HD will have an infrared screen (I think this is correct).

In spite of my research, I cannot really get a handle on the difference between capacitive and infrared technology for e-ink screens.

Could someone please post an "e-ink screens for dummies" explanation or point me to one that I could benefit from?

One of my main questions is about the difference in user experience, if any, when using a stylus on the different e-ink screen types.

Thanks!

Well, tell us the truth, you haven't search quite a lot, don't you?

Nevertheless here a brief non-technical summary goes:

Capacitive

• It's something about detecting modifications on an electric field because human body is somehow an electric conductor. So when you touch the screen you modify something electrical on it.
• As touch technology goes, it's probably the best. Because of that, ALL the smartphones and tablets use it. It's quick, very precise and it easily supports multitouch detection so you can implement two finger gestures like zoom or rotation ones.
• Its drawbacks:
  • You need an extra layer for whatever performs the detection. So even being "transparent" you are adding a "glass" on top of your screen so you are slightly affecting its contrast and image quality.
  • It's something electrical so you cannot use gloves or plastic stylus which insulate you from the screen. If you want the touchscreen to work with gloves or stylus they must be "special" ones... And you cannot touch the screen with your finger nails either.

Infrared

• It's just an optical detection. Imagine an array of lamps in one of the sides of the screen and an array of "cameras" in the opposite side. The device detects something touching the screen because some of the cameras are blocked, some of the cameras see a shadow while others see light. So in fact you don't even need to actually touch the screen...
• But instead of visible light, infrared light is used, so you don't see it.
• As touch technology goes it's much worse than capacitive, it's less precise and if, you think about it, implementing multitouch gestures is much more difficult. (Because of that I think no IR ereader supports zoom through touch gesture).
• IR also implies a bezel in the screen. The screen must be recessed because you need room for the light emitters and detectors placed OVER it. So forget about "beautiful" flat devices.
• But it has a clear advantage: you only have "air" over your screen, so you don't lose any kind of contrast or image quality with it.
• And also, you can use gloves or whatever stylus, stick, nails, pen or wooden spoon you want. You just need to block light.

So as I said some posts before, I couldn't think about a smartphone without capacitive touchscreen. But on e-ink readers, I do prefer IR. It's just good enough and I get the best possible image quality.

[GERGE]

Yes, IR is much better for eReaders. Better image quality, touch responsiveness is actually on par with screen responsiveness and, most importantly, you can wear gloves. But if you are living in a warm place, you probably wouldn't care about gloves.

I think recessed screen is beter too, you don't accidentally change the page.

[filmo]

IR touch can have pinch zoom but many most don't have it programed in firmware. Some Kobo IR touch readers without pinch zoom have added pinch zoom with independently developed add ons features. Kobo developer's corner has threads on this that I read more than a year ago. Google IR touch screens should find some interesting links about multiple touch using ten fingers. Not just touching screen but registers how close to screen almost like measuring force on touch screen table as seen on Hawaii Five-O. This is from same company supplying Kobo IR touch.

Posting this from a tablet so not looking for links that I have read years past.

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by shalym

Ok--now I see what you're talking about. Yes--the Kobo is much easier there. There is one way that the Kindle search is better, though--a friend and I were talking about a specific character that appears in a number of books by a certain author and I was able to search across all of the books in my Kindle to see how many books this character was in.

Both things have their place. I really do wish that I could get a Kobo that had the touchscreen and cloud and indexed search of the Kindles, or a Kindle that had the customization abilities of the Kobos!!

Shari

I only keep up to 500 books on my reader at any time, so a search for a character across all books wouldn't work for me. If I wanted to do a search like that, I'd search my Calibre library on my PC with a program that will search the contents of each file. But since it would be possible that I wouldn't have all the novels with a particular character, I'd probably end up using Google. A search like that only works if you have all the possible books on your reader.

So I still much prefer the Kobo search over Kindle any day even with its ridiculous limit of 100 items. Hopefully someday Kobo will do away with that limit and have a real search function though.

[dordale]

Originally Posted by Ripplinger

So I still much prefer the Kobo search over Kindle any day even with its ridiculous limit of 100 items. Hopefully someday Kobo will do away with that limit and have a real search function though.

Even if Kobo would let you choose where to start your search from instead of always starting from the beginning of the book would help.

[Raptwithal]

Thanks, arspr, GERGE, and filmofor the INFRARED vs CAPACITIVE screen replies.

I actually did lots of research before posting, but the information I found, including YouTube videos, was related to LED technology, not e-ink screen technology.

Since I only have a Paperwhite 2 (capacitive), and since the Glo HD will be infrared, I could not "tranlate" information about LED screens into insights about e-ink screens.

Your posts helped, however. One of my "gripes" about the PW2 is that using either my finger or a capacitive stylus continues to be awkward when highlighting passages when the lines-per-inch is minimized. I was hoping that the infrared technology would produce more responsive highlighting results.

Speaking of research, on MobileRead forums when you type in a SEARCH subject, it brings up all the threads in which the search words were mentioned, but not specific posts. Since some of the thread go on for dozens of pages, it is not very helpful in looking for what is needed....UNLESS I'm doing it wrong!

Is there a better way to do research like this on MobileRead?

Thanks again!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Raptwithal

Speaking of research, on MobileRead forums when you type in a SEARCH subject, it brings up all the threads in which the search words were mentioned, but not specific posts. Since some of the thread go on for dozens of pages, it is not very helpful in looking for what is needed....UNLESS I'm doing it wrong!

Is there a better way to do research like this on MobileRead?

The search has an option whether to display the threads with match or the posts with the match. The default is threads, but you should be able to change it each time you do a search.

[Rizla]

Edit: See vid in next post.

Another vid, including a comparison with the Voyage. As is to be expected, the screens are identical and very nice. The reviewer didn't demonstrate or compare the lights. Hopefully someone who can find the light switch will eventually get hold of a Glo HD.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Rizla

Another vid, including a comparison with the Voyage. As is to be expected, the screens are identical and very nice. The dumb-ass didn't demonstrate or compare the lights. Hopefully someone with a brain will get hold of a Glo HD soon and manage to find the light switch.

[filmo]

IR touch used by Kobo and other ereaders is from Neonode.
These links explain IR touch so even I can understand.
http://www.cnet.com/news/the-company...en-technology/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=60uWFqHl3Us
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sUvO8GUxzrg
http:http://www.cnet.com/news/the-company...rs_Article.pdf
http://goodereader.com/blog/e-paper/...eader-industry

[Nick_1964]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Is he on the toilet and get paid by spoken word ?? Looking in all the options to find the light..just move your finger close to the bezel dude... here is a USB port... not that you can see it because the light isn't bright enough,look here is the on and off switch of the Kindle.. where,it is so dark that you can't see it.. Juggle around with some devices and between the lines you can hear he is a Kindle fan.
OMG..they have a cam and think they can make a review.
19 minutes and you have not been able to test wifi,the browser,menu options, "look here is the page", but they don't allow you to zoom in to see it actually, I drop some other devices next to it,but what the people want to see (What I want to see) is by example the same book on a normal Glo, and the same one on the Kobo HD .. you can't compare.. one of the functions is that the screen is so much brighter using 300 dpi.. then show the diference between the lower dpi...
They all do the same, mumble a bit, use the device for the first time,discover the options and show it like you always know it was there, open a PDF, move around a bit, don't let the viewer see what you do.. "i can read the txt on the pdf very good while it is small" perfect, then let us see that to judge but no,we don't zoom...
It is like they test a car, open the hood "here is the engine" slam, close the hood, open the trunck..this is the trunck, boom close the lid.. well that was it folks !

[Ripplinger]

Originally Posted by dordale

Even if Kobo would let you choose where to start your search from instead of always starting from the beginning of the book would help.

Yes, I would be completely happy with that solution, and Kobo still gets to keep their 100 limit for whatever reason they feel it's necessary. Just let us pick the page the search starts from and go forward from that point. Simple solution.