Why do you prefer Kobo ereaders to Amazon ereaders

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Almamida

How do you do that? I updated the author name on few books in calibre but it didn't change it in the Kobo the next sync I did.

Do you have metadata management (under Sending Books to Devices) set to automatic in Preferences? And in the Kobo driver settings, is Update Metadata on the Device checked?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

That's assuming the metadata is intact for the books. Does it never need massaging? Don't you organize them into collections, or alter metadata? What criteria does kobo organize books by?

By the time an incoming ebook makes it from my Intake library to my Main library, the metadata has been cleaned up, covers have been standardized, etc. I don't bother with collections anymore since Series replaces most of the collections I once used.

As for organizing on the Kobo, it has multiple library display options with Books, Authors, Series and Collections as the main heading. Within Books, I can filter by All, eBooks, Unread, Reading, Finished, Purchased, Kobo Plus, Dropbox, Imported and Downloaded. Staying within Books, you can sort by Recent, Data Added, Title, Author, Series, File size and File type.

For the most part, I seldom use any of those options since search allows me to locate a book very rapidly. Looking for one of David Weber's War God series books? Start typing war in the search box and the results pop up. Looking for a book by Daniel F. Galouye? Type galo into the search box and his books are popping up as search results. Heck, you can even search on annotations.

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

And AIU adding a book causes the dB to rebuild. Ive read that on a kindle it can take a while.

Importing books adds them to the database but unlike a Kindle, Kobo ereaders do not do a full word index on a book making it much faster. For my purposes, I prefer to do the full text search using the Power Search calibre plugin.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

A Kindle has to index its books, so yes, loading books to a Kindle takes longer and of course you cannot manage Kindle collections/metadata automatically with Calibre.

I am shocked to hear this. I've never used a Kindle, but I would have thought Calibre was set up to organize files for the most popular e-reader type. Is there something intrinsic to Kindles that prevent this?

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I don't see the point in a dB for a personal ereader. I guess if you have 1000+ books, but the OS again is perfectly suited to handle those sort of numbers. Indeed, the Linux OS is more capable of sorting large numbers of files than Kobos internal DB. I suppose a DB will offer extra functional, but I'm not sure what? Doing a cross book text search? I feel that most users will never use it. But enlighten me. DB on an ereader. What's the advantage over folders?

Does DB mean database here? I'm a little confused by what you mean here. Are you referring to a collection of metadata?

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

I prefer the android "library" system. It's just system folders, a natural function of The OS. I find messing with collections in calibre a superfluous pain. Much easier to simply use a file explorer to drag the file into the appropriate folder on the reader. Done. I appreciate this doesnt include meta data. What does the average user use metada for, other than author, title, and maybe series?

I used to want to set things up this way (much like how Internet Explorer organized bookmarks), but my library is too large, plus it wouldn't really work if I want to organize books in more than one way.

[Almamida]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Do you have metadata management (under Sending Books to Devices) set to automatic in Preferences? And in the Kobo driver settings, is Update Metadata on the Device checked?

Thank you! There was one a thing to select in the driver about the Metadata. Yay!

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I am shocked to hear this. I've never used a Kindle, but I would have thought Calibre was set up to organize files for the most popular e-reader type. Is there something intrinsic to Kindles that prevent this?

Yes. Kindle OS is closed and Calibre cannot access it. Unless the Kindle is jailbroken, which isn't possible to do with the recent firmware versions.

The same with Nooks, unless rooted.

That's also the reason you can't patch and hack non-jailbroken/unrooted Kindles and Nooks, or install alternate readers on them (e.g. KOReader).

[Quoth]

You can only define collections and add to collections via Calibre on Kindles with very old Firmware. Also reading Annotations is better in Kobo Utilities than any method with the Kindle. The Kindle is too locked to Amazon and their Cloud.

[Joliet Jake]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yes. Kindle OS is closed and Calibre cannot access it. Unless the Kindle is jailbroken, which isn't possible to do with the recent firmware versions.

The same with Nooks, unless rooted.

That's also the reason you can't patch and hack non-jailbroken/unrooted Kindles and Nooks, or install alternate readers on them (e.g. KOReader).

I didn't have problems doing this with a Nook Simple Touch. To be fair, this was a 2011 vintage device.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I didn't have problems doing this with a Nook Simple Touch. To be fair, this was a 2011 vintage device.

Yeah, you could do it with the early Kindles too. But not with the later models. The same goes for Nooks, I guess.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

Yeah, you could do it with the early Kindles too. But not with the later models. The same goes for Nooks, I guess.

Yeah, I wish I could control series and collections on my Nooks via Calibre.

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by chickpea

Ads are optional. Just get a device without them.

Amazon could actually stop selling anything and remain solvent - their biggest revenue stream now is from digital services (AWS etc).

Moreover, the only difference with recent firmware is the Lock Screen appearance and behavior. There are no ads once you unlock the device.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by tomsem

Moreover, the only difference with recent firmware is the Lock Screen appearance and behavior. There are no ads once you unlock the device.

Can the recommendations for books you don't own still be dismissed?

[tomsem]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

Can the recommendations for books you don't own still be dismissed?

I’m not sure what you mean by ‘dismissing recommendations’.

The Home Screen (which you never have to visit if you don’t want to) does have recommendations, as a sort of extension of the storefront. And of course those are also in the storefront. These exist whether or not you have Special Offers..

What went away with the recent updates/kindles are the banner ads at the bottom of the Library screen. These used to be part of the Special Offer experience. Now the Library (and what you see on Home) is the same for everybody. It’s just the Lock Screen that is different. There are no ads as such once you unlock. Of course once you are in the storefront, browsing selections, there are ‘sponsored’ items that show up (just as there are on amazon.com).

The Home Screen used to be something you could turn off and render inaccessible (which I did). Now it remains accessible, but if you switch over to Library and just open books from there, when you close the book you’ll go back to Library. So you never have to navigate to Home and be distracted, disturbed, or tempted by recommendations.

This more or less mirrors what the mobile apps (iOS and Android) look like. I think that was the main reason for the re-design, so people like me who read on different devices have a consistent experience. (Of course, if they let me turn off Home I would do it, I know where to find the store)

Also when reading books, there is no longer a direct menu link or toolbar icon to go to Kindle Store (as had been the case since Kindle 1). There’s more of a ‘wall’ between reading and shopping.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

I am shocked to hear this. I've never used a Kindle, but I would have thought Calibre was set up to organize files for the most popular e-reader type. Is there something intrinsic to Kindles that prevent this?

At one point, Amazon removed the database from the user accessible storage. This removed the ability to manage collections for example.

Originally Posted by Joliet Jake

Does DB mean database here? I'm a little confused by what you mean here. Are you referring to a collection of metadata?

Almost all the information on the books, user, etc. is stored in the database on Kobo and Kindle devices. I would disagree with @Pajamaman's claim that a Linux file system is a superior choice since a database is designed for queries/searching.

[LDB]

You left out the most important reason and choice of all.

The ability to sort based on file size. Sometimes you want/need something very short to fit a certain timeframe or you want something quite long to involve you for a good while. Sort by size, an excellent option Amazon refuses to offer.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by LDB

You left out the most important reason and choice of all.

The ability to sort based on file size. Sometimes you want/need something very short to fit a certain timeframe or you want something quite long to involve you for a good while. Sort by size, an excellent option Amazon refuses to offer.

Um... that certainly doesn't apply to me. While I like to know how large a given book is, I don't choose my next read based on that.

Besides, the file size may be influenced by images, including cover image, and not indicate the actual word count at all. I've seen short stories over 1 MB.