This is the new Kindle Paperwhite 4

[radbaddude]

Guess I'll be sticking with my Clara HD for another gen : )

[harriska2]

I’m not sure I would invest in a company (kobo) that doesn’t test its own website. I used 4 different browser apps on my ipad but their menu on the kobo.com site simply doesn’t let me click on the link for hardware.

For $50 less you get the new Kindle PW with water resistance and a flat screen with no bevels. The Kindle PW is hard to sideload as the web browser is super slow. Are the Kobos just as slow?

[stumped]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I’m not sure I would invest in a company (kobo) that doesn’t test its own website. I used 4 different browser apps on my ipad but their menu on the kobo.com site simply doesn’t let me click on the link for hardware.

I had the same experience from my android tablet browser options.. It is inexcusable. They use drop down menus which vanish before you can tap into them, even after much speed practice.

And even when I went there via pc, there is no refund or returns policy shown, nothing about what to do if your order goes missing or turns up broken...

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by stumped

And even when I went there via pc, there is no refund or returns policy shown, nothing about what to do if your order goes missing or turns up broken...

These are the Kobo Terms of Sales. The page is accessible from the foot of the Order page of every Kobo device I checked on the UK website.

Originally Posted by stumped

I had the same experience from my android tablet browser options.. It is inexcusable. They use drop down menus which vanish before you can tap into them, even after much speed practice..

I have CP, so my hand movements are not lightning fast, but still I had no trouble at all just now navigating through the drop down menu to get to the Forma page at kobo.com on my Android tablet.

[spindlegirl]

Neat upgrade. Can't afford to buy a new one, though, as the PW I purchased last year is still going strong. But it's nice to see the new features of gadgets.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I’m not sure I would invest in a company (kobo) that doesn’t test its own website. I used 4 different browser apps on my ipad but their menu on the kobo.com site simply doesn’t let me click on the link for hardware.

Good grief, you're right. I even installed Firefox on my Fire tablet to see if that would work. Nope. The solution I use when I run into these issues. Use one of the search engines and search for "Kobo Clara" (without the quotes) and click on the link which says something about "kobobooks." Once you get to the page for one of these models, there are links on top for the other current models. It's stupid that you have to do it, but it works. (This is also how I find the "sold out" listing for the Clara on Walmart.com.)

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by harriska2

I’m not sure I would invest in a company (kobo) that doesn’t test its own website. I used 4 different browser apps on my ipad but their menu on the kobo.com site simply doesn’t let me click on the link for hardware.

Just tried this on my iPad. Very ugly and not what should be expected.

But, I get different behaviour depending on whether I have the iPad in landscape or portrait orientation. In landscape, the menu behaves as you described. In portrait, the menu works completely differently. The menu is in the top left corner. And it works properly. It's probably actually a screen size/resolution thing. On my much smaller phone, it always uses the menu in the top-left corner. On my PC, as make the browser narrower, the layout of the page change and it changes to the menu in the top-left corner.

For $50 less you get the new Kindle PW with water resistance and a flat screen with no bevels. The Kindle PW is hard to sideload as the web browser is super slow. Are the Kobos just as slow?

I'm pretty sure the browser will behave about the same. It is slow and doesn't support all features more advance browsers do. You can download books from most places, but, navigating to the page is a pain. I only use it to test and see if it actually works,

Originally Posted by davidfor

It's probably actually a screen size/resolution thing. On my much smaller phone

Maybe they don't like iOS?

On my 8.4 inch Android tablet, the website works perfectly in Chrome, in either landscape or portrait. Ditto on my 5.7 inch Android phone.

[dakini]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Just tried this on my iPad. Very ugly and not what should be expected.

But, I get different behaviour depending on whether I have the iPad in landscape or portrait orientation. In landscape, the menu behaves as you described. In portrait, the menu works completely differently. The menu is in the top left corner. And it works properly. It's probably actually a screen size/resolution thing. On my much smaller phone, it always uses the menu in the top-left corner. On my PC, as make the browser narrower, the layout of the page change and it changes to the menu in the top-left corner.


I'm pretty sure the browser will behave about the same. It is slow and doesn't support all features more advance browsers do. You can download books from most places, but, navigating to the page is a pain. I only use it to test and see if it actually works,

I spent a few months dealing with Kobo customer service before I gave up and abandoned ship (never did get my reader fixed, so we're done with them) ... but one thing that was amusing was the CS reps have direct links for a lot of their menus ... I couldn't see a menu the CS rep was directing me to, and he said a lot of people had trouble finding or using menus, so there were direct URLs he could send me too. Interesting to find others in the wild on this site have this issue.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

Maybe they don't like iOS?

On my 8.4 inch Android tablet, the website works perfectly in Chrome, in either landscape or portrait. Ditto on my 5.7 inch Android phone.

did you try getting into any of the 4 home screen menus: ebooks, audiobooks, apps & devices, a superpoints
on my lenovo yoga tablet, in both chrome & in brave, I cannot get into those at all - tried portrait and landscape.
I am probably auto-directed to the UK site - other regions sites may work differently
but would it kill them to make a mobile friendly version of the site?
I bet that kobo's own primitive browser, from a kobo device, does not work there either

Originally Posted by stumped

did you try getting into any of the 4 home screen menus: ebooks, audiobooks, apps & devices

Not all of them, but because the initial complaint mentioned being unable to access the hardware section, I navigated through the menu to apps and devices and then to readers. Both sections worked fine


EDIT: I just tried again. All menu subsections - ebooks, audiobooks, apps and devices, super points. Both devices, 8.4 in and 5.7 in, portrait and landscape. All worked flawlessly in Chrome.

[John F]

Originally Posted by stuartjmz

Maybe they don't like iOS?

On my 8.4 inch Android tablet, the website works perfectly in Chrome, in either landscape or portrait. Ditto on my 5.7 inch Android phone.

On my Android (6.0) tablet with Chrome I have the problem.

Originally Posted by John F

On my Android (6.0) tablet with Chrome I have the problem.

Then I guess it's just me. As posted above, flawless navigation on both devices in both orientations. And, inspired by the mention of the kobo browser, I tried it on my Clara. Definitely NOT flawless, but workable and significantly less clunky than I expected. Certainly very much better than any websites I tried on my Paperwhite 2's browser

[stumped]

Originally Posted by John F

On my Android (6.0) tablet with Chrome I have the problem.

very strange - so on a sample of 3, it does not work for 2 of us, but it does for one person.

maybe it depends on android version or some other subtlety but I can't think how
i will try it one more time with chrome data saver enabled, as that will then serve from an intermediate server....

well the plot thickens - with data saver ON, AND portrait mode, that elusive menu moves off the home page to under a single hamburger on the left ,which expands ok.
in portrait with data server off the hamburger does NOT expand
and back in landscape- sometime the sub menus show briefly but are not accessible, other times they don't show at all

ther must be some background calculation of windows size and orientation which toggles between 2 different presentations. one has the horizontal menu with 4 entire as listed before, the narrow veiw moves those off screen and under a single drop down that is not using the same screen overlay/pop up technique. I can't be bothered to go to display source & puzzle out all the options

and a final caveat, the site somehow knows I am in UK and is serving a UK version, I have no idea what folks in other regions may see...

i will just concluded that if you want to buy a kobo reader from kobo via a tablet, you have to be VERY motivated and persistent