Sage Kobo Sage opinions

[lesley9]

Originally Posted by davidfor

It is probably more that you are a new user and have made a number of posts quickly. You might have triggered an anti spam check.


As you mention reading public domain books, you might want to look at https://standardebooks.org/. They produce kepub versions of their books. The books are put together very well and better than many other sources for public domain books.

I've looked at Standard. Actually mobileread produces some very nice public domain versions from their volunteers . I actually am willing to spend a few bucks on versions put out by Delphi Classics for instance. I love the illustrated ones, especially Dickens which have the originals.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by lesley9

I've bookmarked it. There's a warning that it's experimental, etc and I just got my Sage and don't want to take a chance. It looks super promising. I'll monitor it for when the author has perfected it. Here's something Kobo could add to their product/service that even their users are creating.

Since Kobo already offers an alternative that provides effectively the same functionality, Dropbox integration, it would seem there's little incentive for them to add email. The Dropbox feature even serves to ameliorate the cross-device sync issue that concerns some.

[lesley9]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Remember that most (if not all) user created mods are experimental.

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

It's very new and there's no user reviews evident yet. If something went wonky, I'm not skilled enough to undo any damage.

[lesley9]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Since Kobo already offers an alternative that provides effectively the same functionality, Dropbox integration, it would seem there's little incentive for them to add email. The Dropbox feature even serves to ameliorate the cross-device sync issue that concerns some.

Dropbox isn't converting....it's just file transfer, yes? I'm new to it.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by lesley9

Dropbox isn't converting....it's just file transfer, yes? I'm new to it.

Yes, it is just file transfer. I supplied a link to online kepub conversion, if that is deemed indispensably necessary. As another thread shows, you may be overstating the "conversion" Amazon does, especially of files like PDFs. Your Sage supports the following formats with no conversion required:

Books: EPUB, EPUB2, EPUB3 PDF, and MOBI
Documents: PDF
Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, and TIFF
Text: TXT, HTML, and RTF
Comic Books: CBZ and CBR

So the reality is that the only formats that NEED to be converted are Kindle proprietary formats, which would need DRM removed anyway. Send any of those formats to your Dropbox and download them on your Sage - that's as easy as emailing them, surely?

[lesley9]

Originally Posted by Uncle Robin

Yes, it is just file transfer. I supplied a link to online kepub conversion, if that is deemed indispensably necessary. As another thread shows, you may be overstating the "conversion" Amazon does, especially of files like PDFs. Your Sage supports the following formats with no conversion required:

Books: EPUB, EPUB2, EPUB3 PDF, and MOBI
Documents: PDF
Images: JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, and TIFF
Text: TXT, HTML, and RTF
Comic Books: CBZ and CBR

So the reality is that the only formats that NEED to be converted are Kindle proprietary formats, which would need DRM removed anyway. Send any of those formats to your Dropbox and download them on your Sage - that's as easy as emailing them, surely?

Kindle owners have more need for file conversion services than a Kobo user, for sure, given how important the epub and pdf format is. It would be nice if Kobo offered a way in-house or official 3rd party to convert something they don't natively support. What that might be, I don't know but Calibre's popular for a reason.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by lesley9

Kindle owners have more need for file conversion services than a Kobo user, for sure, given how important the epub and pdf format is. It would be nice if Kobo offered a way in-house or official 3rd party to convert something they don't natively support. What that might be, I don't know but Calibre's popular for a reason.

Kobo can't offer to convert proprietary Amazon formats. That would not be legal. Calibre is popular because it can help in the DRM removal and after removing the DRM, you can convert. No one can officially and legally offer a DRM removal service, at least not in the US and EU.

[Uncle Robin]

Originally Posted by lesley9

Kindle owners have more need for file conversion services than a Kobo user, for sure, given how important the epub and pdf format is. It would be nice if Kobo offered a way in-house or official 3rd party to convert something they don't natively support. What that might be, I don't know but Calibre's popular for a reason.

Again, you're missing the point. Effectively The ONLY format Kobo doesn't natively support is Kindle's own proprietary format, converting of which requires DRM removal. Kobo is never going to offer conversion that includes DRM removal, any more than Amazon would.

Calibre is popular for MANY reasons, most especially because it is quite simply the ne plus ultra of ebook library management software - but it also has great plug-in support, including the DRM removal plugin. That is a plugin, not a native Calibre feature, for legal/ethical reasons, and any Kindle user who wanted to read a DRM-protected epub would need such a function exactly as any Kobo user wanting to read a Kindle format ebook would.

To sum up, again, Kindle's send to email service does not offer ANY functionality not available to Kobo users by other means. Kindle's send to email only works on DRM-free ebooks, and those Kobo devices with Dropbox integration don't need any drm-free formats converted.

The other thread I linked to showed that Kindle's "conversion" of PDFs is nothing more than wrapping them in Kindle's proprietary format and often renders them unreadable on e-ink devices, while the Sage not only handles PDFs as is but at 8 inches is bigger than any Kindle. Having tried reading PDFs on 6 inch, 6.8 inch, 7 inch and now 8 inch devices, the 8-inch is imo the smallest size that I'd consider for reading PDFs.

[lesley9]

I've wondered about that with Calibre...yet users talk about it all the time. Go figure.

So if you had an android tablet only, how would you go about converting epub to kepub as the latter apparently formats better with the Kobo. For folks without computers, conversion seems unavailable.

(am I going too off topic here...it's suppose to be about Sage impressions)

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by lesley9

It's very new and there's no user reviews evident yet. If something went wonky, I'm not skilled enough to undo any damage.

If it goes wonky you either uninstall using it's documented uninstall, or do a factory reset

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by lesley9

I've wondered about that with Calibre...yet users talk about it all the time. Go figure.

So if you had an android tablet only, how would you go about converting epub to kepub as the latter apparently formats better with the Kobo. For folks without computers, conversion seems unavailable.

(am I going too off topic here...it's suppose to be about Sage impressions)

There was a link to an online conversion site a few posts back.

[lesley9]

Originally Posted by PeterT

If it goes wonky you either uninstall using it's documented uninstall, or do a factory reset

Sent from my Pixel 4a using Tapatalk

I'll think about it....

[lesley9]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

There was a link to an online conversion site a few posts back.

You mean KOReader. It looks like it needs to be sideloaded into the Sage's directory and I need a computer for that.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by lesley9

You mean KOReader. It looks like it needs to be sideloaded into the Sage's directory and I need a computer for that.

No. The website for conversion, not KOReader, which is not a converter at all.
https://pgaskin.net/kepubify/try/

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by lesley9

You mean KOReader. It looks like it needs to be sideloaded into the Sage's directory and I need a computer for that.

You might be about to connect the Sage to your phone or tablet with an OTG adapter. I'm fairly sure people have had success with other Kobo devices, but, I don't have the adapter with me to try.