Did you buy one of the new Kobos (or do you plan to)?

[abdirahim]

I bought the Libra 2 today and am very happy with it so far.

For me, the most important features for any ereader are the quality of the text and the quality of the front lighting. (I do a lot of reading in the dark.)

By way of comparison, I bought the Kobo Forma on its first day of retail availability and have always been disappointed with it. Don't get me wrong, in daylight or room lights the screen is beautiful. But in the dark the front lighting makes the "page" look messy and uneven. It's a distraction I did (and still do) not like to be forced to learn to overlook.

So I was skeptical about the similarly shaped Libra 2. However, I saw reports/comments that the lighting was much improved and decided to take a chance on it. Happy to report that the screen and the lighting look great to me.

The Libra 2 is a bit heavier and smaller than the Forma, but not enough to matter to me in the least. Also, I have no issue with the page turn buttons on either device. Both devices feel comfortable and natural to hold while reading.

So far, so good...

[martinot]

Originally Posted by dmapr

Haven't tried Forma. I do miss the physical buttons of my old Sony PRS readers, but I've learned to live without them. What I do prefer about A1 though is that it fits into my pants pocket, while Forma won't. But the main reason I haven't upgraded is I don't see anything in the new readers that is worth $200+ over A1 at this point for me.

Ok, I see your point about being able for you to have it in your trousers (I never had my A1 in my trousers). A true pocket rocket e-reader.

What I like about the A1 more than the Forma, is the power button. Much better on the A1.

I understand that you do not need upgrading. The A1 is still today a really very excellent device.

[martinot]

Originally Posted by abdirahim

I bought the Libra 2 today and am very happy with it so far.

For me, the most important features for any ereader are the quality of the text and the quality of the front lighting. (I do a lot of reading in the dark.)

By way of comparison, I bought the Kobo Forma on its first day of retail availability and have always been disappointed with it. Don't get me wrong, in daylight or room lights the screen is beautiful. But in the dark the front lighting makes the "page" look messy and uneven. It's a distraction I did (and still do) not like to be forced to learn to overlook.

So I was skeptical about the similarly shaped Libra 2. However, I saw reports/comments that the lighting was much improved and decided to take a chance on it. Happy to report that the screen and the lighting look great to me.

The Libra 2 is a bit heavier and smaller than the Forma, but not enough to matter to me in the least. Also, I have no issue with the page turn buttons on either device. Both devices feel comfortable and natural to hold while reading.

So far, so good...

Great to hear!

I almost only read in the total dark (bed time), and also depend on the natural light being good.

That was actually the main reason for me to switch from A1 to Forma. Never got any good even ligting on the A1. Returned four of the to the store. Was perhaps lucky with the Forma. I have an artefact with a small black band on the right side (on the screen just next to the wedge), but otherwise the light is so great and really perfect on my Forma.

Perhaps I was very unlucky with the A1, and very lucky with the Forma.

[Karellen]

Yes, I purchased a new Kobo a few days ago. My last ereader was a Kindle Gen 2

I am still loading ebooks and playing with settings to set it up exactly as I want.

I am really liking it. I love what you can do with book Series, which is really important to me. The Kindle had no series sorting for sideloaded books, and for purchased books it performed pretty poorly by missing a lot of books that were part of the series, but were not added. eg two of the Harry Potter books weren't sorted into the series.

I must be doing something wrong, but seems to take quite a few steps to add series books. Transfer book, unplug and reconnect, adjust series and order number. Not sure why that does not happen automatically when sideloading from calibre.

Just starting to look at Collections. I can't figure out a way to add books to collections manually while the device is plugged in to Calibre. I can see how to do it on the actual ereader, but if I want to manually add a few more books to the collection, I can't see how it is done. I thought clicking on the Collections field in Calibre view would be enough. I can't see any obvious "Manage Collections" button anywhere.

I am looking forward to the reading experience. I guess coming from such an old ereader, anything will be great

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by martinot

Great to hear!

Perhaps I was very unlucky with the A1, and very lucky with the Forma.

I don't recall the A1 having any major lighting issues when it was released, I know my A1 was good in terms of the light. The Forma you ran into what a considerable amount of folks ran into. Some were more bothered by it than others, to the degrees that some felt it ruined the device, and others didn't notice it until they looked for it, and even once aware of it didn't notice it once they started reading.

My 8GB Forma had more of a band than my 32GB Forma, they were purchased a decent amount of time apart (the 8GB at launch, the 32GB in I think 2020). I of course can't be sure when the 32GB unit was manufactured, it's possible it was a launch unit it's more probable it was made later (I also forget off hand if the Forma launched w/ an 8gb and 32gb option or if the 32gb was added later).

To add more devices into the mix my Aura H2O v1 and Sage also have good lighting. I don't think the H2O had any major complaints about uneven lighting. I know the biggest complaint about the Sage is that there's a slightly brighter strip near the button side though this seems to be much more intermittent than the Forma's darker band. To be fair I've not turned the light up beyond ~10 because I don't read with it above 10, some people have turned both the light and natural light up to 100 to look for issues, or because that's how they need the lights set. It appears from most reports that the lighter band becomes more apparent the higher the light is, while some say the natural light can help lessen the effect.

My rule of thumb with things in general is if you go looking for faults, you'll find them. So unless something in your actual usage brings up a fault, why look for it?

[mezzanine]

The Aura One had MASSIVE lighting problems from the moment it was released.

It was restricted to the functioning of the warm light, probably because it was the first time that feature had been implemented on an e-reader. They used RGB LEDs instead of the amber LEDs I believe are used in all subsequent models that have incorporated the warm light feature.

If you were lucky, you got a darker gradient on the lower half of the screen with light green blotches in one corner. If you were unlucky, you got full on green and red blotches coming from the bottom edge.

Don't get me wrong; some people got uniform warm lighting, but I have to believe it is the worst implemented of any modern comfortlight by a significant margin.

There are way too many posts of people returning three and four devices trying to find one unaffected for me to believe less than 50% came without some irregularity.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I must be doing something wrong, but seems to take quite a few steps to add series books. Transfer book, unplug and reconnect, adjust series and order number. Not sure why that does not happen automatically when sideloading from calibre.

Because it can't. The firmware does not read the series information from the metadata in the device. The driver in calibre updates the database on the device with the series info. This can only happen after the database has the book details in it. That means you have to let the device import the book. Which means you put the book on the device, disconnect the device and let it import the book. Then reconnect and let the calibre update the metadata. Annoying, but it works.

And as with all problems, I recommend reporting them to the those responsible so that they can look at fixing them. In this case, telling Kobo you want them to read the series information when importing books. Of course, there are issue with them doing this as series info is not part of the ePub 2 metadata standards. They can rightly say no because of that. There is support in the ePub 3 standards, so it might be easier to convince them of that.

There is also a hack available in the forum that will load the series information as the book are imported. I don't use it, and never remember it's name (even though it is obvious) but it is one of the things from @geek1011.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Because it can't. The firmware does not read the series information from the metadata in the device. The driver in calibre updates the database on the device with the series info. This can only happen after the database has the book details in it.

Perfect. Thank you, I understand now.

[MGlitch]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

The Aura One had MASSIVE lighting problems from the moment it was released.

Don't get me wrong; some people got uniform warm lighting, but I have to believe it is the worst implemented of any modern comfortlight by a significant margin.

There are way too many posts of people returning three and four devices trying to find one unaffected for me to believe less than 50% came without some irregularity.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...=284795&page=3

That poll would seem to indicate you’re overstating the issue. Yes several people had issues but a clear majority had zero issues. That majority grows when you factor in that you could vote for multiple answers, thus inflating the results for spots in various corners vs the ‘no’ option which obviously would be exclusionary to the other results.

Also factor in that people are more likely to voice complaints than to say everything is fine.

Though I’ll grant I was mistaken that it had no issues. Clearly it had some. On the plus side Kobo rectified the issue in subsequent models.

[koboy]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

peoples biases become clear the more they say, such as is the case with JSWOLF and koboy..

i agree that the more people say the more their own bias becomes crystal clear.

best wishes koboy

[koboy]

Originally Posted by mezzanine

The Aura One had MASSIVE lighting problems from the moment it was released.

It was restricted to the functioning of the warm light, probably because it was the first time that feature had been implemented on an e-reader. They used RGB LEDs instead of the amber LEDs I believe are used in all subsequent models that have incorporated the warm light feature.

If you were lucky, you got a darker gradient on the lower half of the screen with light green blotches in one corner. If you were unlucky, you got full on green and red blotches coming from the bottom edge.

Don't get me wrong; some people got uniform warm lighting, but I have to believe it is the worst implemented of any modern comfortlight by a significant margin.

There are way too many posts of people returning three and four devices trying to find one unaffected for me to believe less than 50% came without some irregularity.

for me this forum is invaluable for finding out the pros and cons of the Kobo e-reader world

best wishes koboy

[hobnail]

Originally Posted by Karellen

Just starting to look at Collections. I can't figure out a way to add books to collections manually while the device is plugged in to Calibre. I can see how to do it on the actual ereader, but if I want to manually add a few more books to the collection, I can't see how it is done. I thought clicking on the Collections field in Calibre view would be enough. I can't see any obvious "Manage Collections" button anywhere.

Mayhap see again those 2 screen shots of mine (in the other thread); I have collections set up from the genre column I added. The column type is "comma separated, like tags, shown in the tag ..." (rest chopped off). Then in the Edit Metadata window in the Custom metadata tab there is a Genre pull down I can fiddle with, likewise in the list view I have a Genre column. If I change the Genre or add one and the Kobo is connected and the book is already on it I could probably right click the Device button and select Update cached metadata on device and push the change to it.

Think of your calibre library as being like a spreadsheet, or even better, joined database tables.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by hobnail

Mayhap see again those 2 screen shots of mine (in the other thread); I have collections set up from the genre column I added. The column type is "comma separated, like tags, shown in the tag ..." (rest chopped off). Then in the Edit Metadata window in the Custom metadata tab there is a Genre pull down I can fiddle with, likewise in the list view I have a Genre column.

I'll check it out again. Thanks @hobnail.
I was trying to avoid having to set up new columns and link to them. I naively thought that because I could see the field, I could just click on it and add a value to it. But seems like that is not possible. Worst case I'll just add books to the collection on the ereader. They have a nice interface for bulk selection.

I am trying to achieve two separate libraries/listings- Books that belong to a Series (which is already available), and stand-alone books (no series books). I just want to avoid browsing duplicated listings. Browse series, don't find anything, browse books, and I am looking at series books again as well as stand-alone books.

I was just this moment browsing the SQL database, and now starting to understand how it works. Though, for the life of me I could not find the Series information. But it must be there, so I'll keep investigating.

I love all this. Being able to manipulate and tweak to my own requirements. Something that I could never do with a Kindle, so I definitely do not have any regrets jumping across to a Kobo.

[John F]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Because it can't. The firmware does not read the series information from the metadata in the device. The driver in calibre updates the database on the device with the series info. This can only happen after the database has the book details in it. That means you have to let the device import the book. Which means you put the book on the device, disconnect the device and let it import the book. Then reconnect and let the calibre update the metadata. Annoying, but it works.

...

Can't?, or doesn't because that is the way it is implemented? In theory, couldn't Calibre (or the plugin), insert/update everything in the DB when a new book is added. May be a lot more work (a possible understatement), but since the database is public, the epub and kepub formats are understood, ... it should be possible?

And I do realize it is easy for me to say as I am not doing it, and have no detailed knowledge of the code.

[martinot]

Originally Posted by MGlitch

I don't recall the A1 having any major lighting issues when it was released, I know my A1 was good in terms of the light.

My rule of thumb with things in general is if you go looking for faults, you'll find them. So unless something in your actual usage brings up a fault, why look for it?

I bought my A1 in 2017, so perhaps it was a problem with later batches?

Anyho; I was not looking for errors, but the natural light was so uneven that it really irritated me everytime I used the e-reader. I also manged to return it to the store and got it exchanged for brand new models four times. Every time the store acknowleged and verified the problem with the uneven backlight on my devices, before accpeting the retrun to the vendor and giving me a brand new one in exchange.

After four models I got tired and got a full refund from the store, with an apology from them with the problems I have had with my A1s.

Originally Posted by MGlitch

Though I’ll grant I was mistaken that it had no issues. Clearly it had some. On the plus side Kobo rectified the issue in subsequent models.

Yes, I agree. It was first when Forma was released that I was brave enought to give the Kobo e-readers a second chanse. This time it worked perfectly on my first device. Been happy ever since.

Love the Overdrive integration, clean easy user interface, customziability with fonts, Nickle Menu, etc. I buy a lot of stuff from Amazon, including their Alexa Echo dot devices, but the Kindles holds no candles for me compared to the Kobos. I really love the Kobo e-readers.