Clara Colour…

[WigglePig]

Afternoon all.

So, having been a Kindle user for some while and finding that the Kindle Scribe, whilst good just won’t fit in my pocket. So, today I ordered a Clara Colour that should fit in my pocket for commuting.

What suggestions do people have for the best experience with these units? Should I load up some different software or is the Kobo UI reasonably decent?

I shall probably try jailbreaking my Kindle soon, although I have a couple of books to finish on it.

Tra for now.

Piggly.
DahDiDah

[PeterT]

Stick with the Kobo UI.

Sent from my Pixel 7a using Tapatalk

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Stick with the Kobo UI.

Ditto.

I would suggest trying another software only if you find yourself really unhappy with the stock UI.

[Mr_H_Poirot]

I found the stock UI really very good

Only thing I did was install the Bookerly font. That was a little tricky as I had to modify the font (using instructions found on here) because it showed things as bold it shouldn't. But now it is modified it works perfectly

If you do want to have to go through that hassle, but want that font, DM me here and I can send you the modified font files. Then all you need to do is create a 'fonts' folder on your kobo and drop the files I send you in it

[bluepeter]

IMO, the Kobo UI is greatly superior to Kindle's. The awful Kindle UI was the major reason why I switched from Kindle to Kobo a few years ago. If you've been content with Kindles, there's no reason why you shouldn't be very happy with the standard Kobo.

It's also possible to tinker with Kobos a bit if you find yourself so inclined after you've got used the UI.

1. Kobopatch allows you to tweak the UI to suit your own tastes. For example,

"Remove footer (row3) on new home screen" will remove the advertising that normally appears just above the icons at the bottom of the home screen;
"Don't uppercase header/footer text" changes the book title at the bottom of the reading screen from all upper case to mixed;
...and so on.


2. NickelMenu adds custom menu items to various menus in Kobo's eReader software.

3. Setting your device to Sideloaded Mode might be a bit extreme for you, but I've found that I like it. It disables Wi-Fi downloading direct from Kobo entirely (both books and firmware), and requires you to load books manually, using something like Calibre (which I favour) or Adobe Digital Editions. It also disables the home screen altogether.

[Aleron Ives]

Originally Posted by bluepeter

Setting your device to Sideloaded Mode might be a bit extreme for you, but I've found that I like it. It disables Wi-Fi downloading direct from Kobo entirely (both books and firmware)

Are you sure about that? You can still sync dictionaries while in sideload mode, so I figured firmware updates would work, too.

[rashkae]

I'm a big fan of Sideloaded mode myself, but I think most people, by far, would not want that. Even if it's just for the Library intergration, (a major Kobo feature.). I would not even suggest it unless someone explicitely state they only use their own library of DRM free books.

[bluepeter]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Are you sure about that? You can still sync dictionaries while in sideload mode, so I figured firmware updates would work, too.

Ah. No, I'm not sure. That was poor phrasing on my part. I should have said that it "disables Wi-Fi downloading books direct from Kobo...". I wasn't aware that dictionaries could be updated that way, and don't know about firmware - I simply don't turn my Wi-Fi on any more.

Thank you for raising the point.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Aleron Ives

Are you sure about that? You can still sync dictionaries while in sideload mode, so I figured firmware updates would work, too.

Dictionaries, Firmware updates and Nebo resources for Notebooks all still work via WiFi in SideloadedMode=true. It's only activities that need the user account that are disabled. Re-enabling user account is on Settings, which makes SideloadedMode=false in the file automatically, So a file edit only needed to enable, not disable.

[WigglePig]

Many thanks everyone, it looks like I might have waited far too long to try out another manufacturer! Having said that, had Sony e-readers back when they first came out but I have used Kindle’s for a long time.

I shall give the Kobo UI a go for a while and see how I get on with it, many thanks for the tips.

One further question if I may…does Kobo use DRM on ebooks it sells?

Tra for now

Piggly

[bluepeter]

Originally Posted by WigglePig

One further question if I may…does Kobo use DRM on ebooks it sells?

Yes. Kobo sells epub books subject to Adobe Digital Editions DRM. (The DeDRM plugin for Calibre can remove it, though, if you so wish.)

[salamanderjuice]

Originally Posted by bluepeter

Yes. Kobo sells epub books subject to Adobe Digital Editions DRM. (The DeDRM plugin for Calibre can remove it, though, if you so wish.)

They actually have two DRM schemes. ADE is what you get if you download straight off the Kobo website, books downloaded to a Kobo or the Kobo desktop client use Kobo's own DRM. You can remove the latter with the Obok plugin also in DeDRM.

Kobo also sells some books DRM free and they tell you in the details of the store page.

[WigglePig]

Ok, that all makes sense. Many thanks all!

[WigglePig]

Yay! I have my new ereader.
The Clara Colo(u)r is pretty nice and it is great having a reader that fits in my pocket again...when I chopped in my smaller Kindle for the Scribe it wasn't something I had really given much thought but it is too big to carry everywhere.

The display is nice, reasonable resolution in BW and a bit softer for colour stuff, although at the moment that is only really book covers.

I like it.

I still don't like DPD who are an absolute pain.

[rantanplan]

By the way, you asked about 3rd party software. To my knowledge, 3rd party software doesn't has no handwriting support at the moment. So no handwritten notes in KOreader.