My first week with a Kobo (Clara BW) - some thoughts

[John F]

Originally Posted by rashkae

I don't think getting rid of the home screen (as useless as it might be) is motivation for anyone to enable sideloaded mode. Sideloaded mode simply lets you use your kobo without bothering with adding account login. It also prevents synching with Kobo's cloud account from causing any of the many known side effects. (Battery drain, and the occasional, rare but real database errors that can occur from sync bugs.). If you *only* sideload your own books, there's no reason I can think of to *not* turn on sideloaded mode.

On my reader, I enabled sideloaded mode, and I am logged in. I do always keep wifi off. I may have cleared my wifi connection.

I manage my mom's reader and only sideload on it. The Home screen is enabled. I tend to load several books at a time. The home screen is nice in that it shows the most recent read (so I don't have to remember it).

[rashkae]

Edit: Sorry, I think I misunderstood.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rashkae

I don't think getting rid of the home screen (as useless as it might be) is motivation for anyone to enable sideloaded mode. Sideloaded mode simply lets you use your kobo without bothering with adding account login. It also prevents synching with Kobo's cloud account from causing any of the many known side effects. (Battery drain, and the occasional, rare but real database errors that can occur from sync bugs.). If you *only* sideload your own books, there's no reason I can think of to *not* turn on sideloaded mode.

I can think of good reasons not to it on. I'm already registered and I don't dislike the home screen.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by John F

On my reader, I enabled sideloaded mode, and I am logged in. I do always keep wifi off. I may have cleared my wifi connection.

I manage my mom's reader and only sideload on it. The Home screen is enabled. I tend to load several books at a time. The home screen is nice in that it shows the most recent read (so I don't have to remember it).

If my Mom had not died when she did, I was going to get her a Kobo to replace her Sony T1. I manager her Reader and only side loaded to it.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by John F

I manage my mom's reader and only sideload on it. The Home screen is enabled. I tend to load several books at a time. The home screen is nice in that it shows the most recent read (so I don't have to remember it).

The My Books can show the most recent better than the default home screen. Either reading, finished or unread by "Most Recent".

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

The My Books can show the most recent better than the default home screen. Either reading, finished or unread by "Most Recent".

It isn't about showing "most recent" better, it is about less taps.

4 taps using the home screen, 8 using sideloaded mode.

For my usage, YMMV.

[Quoth]

Same number of taps, or less on My Books as it has more.
And one tap on either if the book is visible.

If Sideloadedmode is true, then My books is the home screen. The default home screen has less recently used titles and noise.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Quoth

If Sideloadedmode is true, then My books is the home screen. The default home screen has less recently used titles and noise.

Not if you patch.

[John F]

Originally Posted by Quoth

Same number of taps, or less on My Books as it has more.
And one tap on either if the book is visible.

...

How do you get fewer taps?

With a Home screen, eject the reader from calibre, Kobo ends up on home screen:

1. Tap on (most recent) book
2. Tap on bottom (for menu)
3. Tap on my books
4. Tap on book

With sideloaded mode, eject the reader, kobo ends up on my books:

1. Tap on filter
2. Tap on reading
3. Tap on (most recent) book
4. Tap on bottom (for menu)
5. Tap on my books
6. Tap on filter
7. Tap on all
8. Tap on book

[DNSB]

My main use for the home screen is when I queue up multiple books for reading. 4 show on the home screen and as I finish a book, the next book joins the end of the visible four.

[dewd]

Originally Posted by Graham44

Well tomorrow will be a week of owning my first Kobo, the Clara BW, after owning Kindles for many, many years, the last being the Kindle Paperwhite Signature edition, so I thought I would posts some thoughts - these are just my personal thoughts/ opinions (not facts!)

I'm in a similar situation, having had my first Kobo for two or three weeks now. I was using a Kindle Voyage, now using a Kobo Clara Color. Here are my thoughts:

Size - the KCC is very similar in size to the KV, but slightly thicker and, I think, very slightly heavier. Like you, I find the more rounded corners more comfortable. I do prefer the KV's "flat" screen to the KCC's bezel though.

Home screen/reading - I much prefer the Kobo home screen. I love having Collections and Authors and Series all within easy reach. The sliding-finger to change screen brightness is handy, but can be fiddly - I find myself looking for a space without text to do it, because otherwise I often end up highlighting text instead. The pinch/spread to zoom text is, again, handy - but I do miss having the reading themes on the Kindle (I know KOReader offers similar functionality but I prefer using the standard Nickel UI). Dark mode on the KCC is nice, but interactions other than page-turns are still bright white. (Using day/night toggle with NickelMenu avoids this, but refreshes/flashes on every page turn, so no better for night-time reading.)

In a direct comparison, the Voyage is noticeably crisper, but the Voyage is, of course, the Best Kindle Ever. The difference is much less when I compare the Kobo to an older Paperwhite. And the Kobo is a colour device, so I was prepared for a bit of a trade-off. In real-life usage, when I'm not usually holding two devices side-by-side, I don't find myself noticing the difference at all.

Note on the colour: I do like having the book covers in colour. I also like highlighting in multiple colours (I just wish I could get the highlight colours into Calibre).

Bugginess: this is where the Kobo falls down for me. I've had it freeze/crash a number of times, something I think my Voyage has only ever done once in six or seven years. There's also an issue with page-turns: sometimes the page doesn't turn when I tap, and then when I tap again, it turns two pages. I've found lots of reports of this problem with Kobos, going back ten years of more.

Battery life - I've not noticed any difference, but I'm not someone who lets a device get very low on battery before charging (too afraid of running out in the middle of reading a good bit lol).

Using with Calibre - the Kobo wins in every way, and this is probably the main reason I'm keeping it, despite my above complaints about page-turns and highlighting. It connects faster, it sideloads books faster, the conversion to kepub is automatic, more information is shared to & from the Kobo, the stats are great if you're even a teensy bit nerdy, managing collections is so, so easy, and importing annotations is substantially faster than with any of the Kindles I've owned.

[dewd]

Originally Posted by DNSB

My main use for the home screen is when I queue up multiple books for reading. 4 show on the home screen and as I finish a book, the next book joins the end of the visible four.

Do you just "queue" them by opening them, or is there some clever feature I'm missing?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by dewd

Do you just "queue" them by opening them, or is there some clever feature I'm missing?

Nope, you aren't missing anything. I locate the books and then open them in the reverse order to which I will be reading them. A bit of a kludge but I've stacked up to 20 books that way and I just find it easier to do one search rather than searching after each book is finished.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by DNSB

Nope, you aren't missing anything. I locate the books and then open them in the reverse order to which I will be reading them. A bit of a kludge but I've stacked up to 20 books that way and I just find it easier to do one search rather than searching after each book is finished.

I do that too. Though currently "My Books" Reading, sort by recent has over 100.

Anyone that thinks 8 taps are needed is holding it wrong