Kindle versus Kobo?

[John F]

I thought Kobo stopped supporting old hardware a while ago (the first two models).

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by bookyboy

You have no idea what resources it does or doesn't consume and/or what burden that places on Kobo's software team.

Kudos to them for supporting very old hardware, but please don't pretend that you have some intricate knowledge of what sacrifices they are or are not making to provide that support.

Nor do you. Others around here who have looked at Kobo's firmware probably have a much better idea than most of us as to what effort it is taking.

Originally Posted by bookyboy

Try to be a bit more impartial in your analysis.
Honestly your posts sometimes come across as "homer for Kobo" posts.

You never read his earlier posts when he was still using Sony's ereaders?

Originally Posted by bookyboy

These are mega corps - don't get too enamored with any of them.

Personally, I'm loyal to none of them and purchase and use what suits my needs and preferences best. I recommend all do the same.

I would hardly call Kobo a mega-corp. They are owned by one but Kobo itself is a pretty small company.

As for loyalty? That's what calibre is for. My ebooks are the major cost of my ereading. The cost of the ereader is a very small fraction of that cost. What I do look at is the ability to manage my ebooks on the ereader. So far, I haven't found anything since Kindle's stopped being easily jailbroken that offers close to functionality my Kobos offer. My old Kindle is now a serial number for downloading for USB transfer.

I will admit that I use my ereaders for reading. The one I carry with me lives in the same laptop bag as my P52 and iPad Pro. At times, the trio is joined by a Nexus 2013, Chromebook or whatever other device I'm playing with at the moment but the those three are with me pretty much all the time.

[bookyboy]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Nor do you.

Which is why I don't claim any knowledge about it

Originally Posted by DNSB

You never read his earlier posts when he was still using Sony's ereaders?

No

Originally Posted by DNSB

I would hardly call Kobo a mega-corp. They are owned by one but Kobo itself is a pretty small company.

That ownership part matters when extending legacy support and financial decisions around it are considered.

[bookyboy]

Originally Posted by DNSB

As for loyalty? That's what calibre is for. My ebooks are the major cost of my ereading. The cost of the ereader is a very small fraction of that cost. What I do look at is the ability to manage my ebooks on the ereader. So far, I haven't found anything since Kindle's stopped being easily jailbroken that offers close to functionality my Kobos offer.

You mention Calibre, but then are speaking about "on-device" management concerns. I'm curious, what are you doing in terms of on device management that Kobo is allowing for but a Kindle isn't?

And how does Calibre tie into that for you?

For me, every reader I've had for about 6 years now works equally perfectly with Calibre at least.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by bookyboy

You mention Calibre, but then are speaking about "on-device" management concerns. I'm curious, what are you doing in terms of on device management that Kobo is allowing for but a Kindle isn't?

And how does Calibre tie into that for you?

Kobo's database can be accessed directly by Calibre. Kindle and Nook's databases cannot. So Calibre can create collections and add series info on a Kobo. The same cannot be done with other readers. With both Kindle and Nook (the only ones I'm familiar with besides Kobo) if you want, say, all your fantasy books in a collection, you have to do it directly on the device. But with a Kobo, you can tag all of your fantasy books and when you send them to your device, they will wind up in the fantasy collection.

(Sorry if I repeated info. My eight year old niece came in and asked me thirty seven questions as I was typing this.)

[shalym]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

What could be a problem with buttons is that you cannot hold the Reader at that place on the bezel because the buttons are in the way and may get pressed. Buttons are best under the screen on the bottom if you have to have them.

For me, and the way I hold my reader, that wouldn't work at all. I rest the corner of the reader in the palm of my hand, with my pinkie on the bottom supporting it, other three fingers in the back, and my thumb resting on the button (or next to edge of the screen, for touch only devices). If the buttons were on the bottom, I'd have to completely change the way I hold it.

Shari

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by bookyboy

You mention Calibre, but then are speaking about "on-device" management concerns. I'm curious, what are you doing in terms of on device management that Kobo is allowing for but a Kindle isn't?

Hmmm... Series, collections, subtitles, Overdrive. Seeing that an ebook I was looking at in the Kobo store is on hold at the library. Being able to search the library and check books out or place holds from my Kobo. Yes, I know about Kindles and libraries but since I am not a resident of the USA, it's a useless bit of information.

I haven't used a Kindle in a few years (the old Kindle I was gifted with is retired to being a serial number for download for USB transfer) so perhaps Amazon has now implemented a series display and search capability, is allowing collections to be managed other than manually from the ereader GUI, is able to borrow from Canadian libraries, etc.

Originally Posted by bookyboy

And how does Calibre tie into that for you?

For me, every reader I've had for about 6 years now works equally perfectly with Calibre at least.

How does calibre tie into that for me? I maintain subtitles, collections and series in calibre. They are automagically updated onto my Kobo. No jailbreak needed. No need for manual collections.

I'm reading an ebook on my Kobo, I connect to calibre and the reading percentage, location etc. are updated into their columns. I finish the ebook and on the next connection to calibre, the finished column is updated and the ebook is moved into the Finished collection. This took a bit to set up but now the computer is doing the scutwork just the way the ghods intended.

As an example, I look at Golden in Death. It's finished and the last read data was 2020-Feb-08. Then I look at The Shaman of Karres. It was last read on 2020-Apr-07, it's at 75% read and the last read location was OEBPS/Text/9781982124564__20.xhtml. Sadly I won't be able to finish the book until the rest of it is released in May, 2020 since this is one of Baen's 75% pre-releases from a monthly bundle.

Other ereaders work with calibre. Kobo's ereaders take it to the next level. I am very grateful to Kovid Goyal and DavidFor for what they have done.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

end-of-life is when the company (in this case, Amazon) stops supporting the device with updates.

I think, in this case, "end-of-life" is when the device no longer works for its intended purpose. As far as I know, all Kindle models can still access Amazon and be used to download books stored at your individual account — unlike the Kobo WiFi. Fairly recently (a year and a half ago?) Amazon updated the security on their older models so they could continue accessing books stored on Amazon.com. I know all Kindles I own (4NT, original Touch, Keyboard, Basic 8th Gen, Voyage and PW 2 and 3) can access my account. (I think Kobo is exceptional here, too, btw.)

Personally I wish I could have frozen my Voyage at 9.5.7 (like I did my PW3) because that release works better for me than do the newer releases (especially with Send-to-Kindle documents).

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by bookyboy

You have no idea what resources it does or doesn't consume and/or what burden that places on Kobo's software team.

Kudos to them for supporting very old hardware, but please don't pretend that you have some intricate knowledge of what sacrifices they are or are not making to provide that support.

Try to be a bit more impartial in your analysis.
Honestly your posts sometimes come across as "homer for Kobo" posts.

These are mega corps - don't get too enamored with any of them.

Personally, I'm loyal to none of them and purchase and use what suits my needs and preferences best. I recommend all do the same.

When Kobo has released newer firmware for newer devices and not the older ones (just yet), if you extract just the firmware and not the OS, it can be installed on some earlier devices. So to me that means that Kobo is making fairly compatible devices that don't need a lot of work to support (for the older devices).

I am allowed to like Kobo for keeping support of older devices. If I was using a Kindle, the device I would have had been using may no longer be supported. It's possible that the PW3 is now no longer supported. But my H2O from 2014 is fully supported.

Amazon has at least 9 devices that are end-of-lifed. So to me that means that when you buy a Kobo, it will last for a very long time before being end-of-lifed.

There are only two Kobo Readers no longer supported and those do not have touch. The Kobo Touch was released in June 2011 and it can still run the current firmware.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

I thought Kobo stopped supporting old hardware a while ago (the first two models).

Yes, just the first two non-touch models. Everything with touch is still supported.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rcentros

I think, in this case, "end-of-life" is when the device no longer works for its intended purpose. As far as I know, all Kindle models can still access Amazon and be used to download books stored at your individual account — unlike the Kobo WiFi. Fairly recently (a year and a half ago?) Amazon updated the security on their older models so they could continue accessing books stored on Amazon.com. I know all Kindles I own (4NT, original Touch, Keyboard, Basic 8th Gen, Voyage and PW 2 and 3) can access my account. (I think Kobo is exceptional here, too, btw.)

Personally I wish I could have frozen my Voyage at 9.5.7 (like I did my PW3) because that release works better for me than do the newer releases (especially with Send-to-Kindle documents).

https://www.reliant-technology.com/s...osl-difference

EOL or "End of Life", means that the OEM has decided that a specific product has reached the end of its “useful lifespan”. This is when they usually recommend doing a hardware refresh to the latest generation of their hardware. This is also when the OEM will no longer be selling or marketing the hardware in question. There are still extended OEM hardware maintenance options at this point in your equipment’s lifecycle, but this stage is a good time to evaluate your support needs.

In terms of computer equipment, EOL is when support has stopped. So for a Reader, EOL is when new firmware stops being developed for it.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

In terms of computer equipment, EOL is when support has stopped. So for a Reader, EOL is when new firmware stops being developed for it.

Except in Amazon's case, upgrades WERE issued relatively recently so older devices could continue working on Amazon's website. That's continued support, not EOL. EOL has NOTHING to do with what specific version of firmware is on a particular device.Personally I was surprised when my older Kindles got those updates.And who knows, they may get updates again if Amazon upgrades their security certificates again.

EDIT: That "fairly recent" firmware upgrade happened over four years ago (March 22, 2016 was the original deadline, but if I remember correctly, they fudged on that deadline by a couple months). Amazing how fast time flies.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Yes, just the first two non-touch models. Everything with touch is still supported.

Except for the Mini.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Except for the Mini.

The most recent firmware still works for the Mini, doesn't it?

Though I do agree that unofficial support doesn't count.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

The most recent firmware still works for the Mini, doesn't it?

Though I do agree that unofficial support doesn't count.

Yep. The Minis still sync with Kobo if you upgrade the software beyond a certain point (don't know exactly what that point is anymore, but I know the Minis now work). They'll even see (and download) Overdrive books if they've been borrowed on an "Overdrive-enhanced" Kobo. But you're right, you have to use "unofficial" (or as see it) "semi-official" support on MobileRead — and download firmware not officially designated for the Minis.