Kobo Rocks (reclaimed)

[Mostly Math]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

snip

Now regarding the Aura, apart from it's bigger, is there any other difference between that and the Glo?
At this point I'm not really sure what the Aura offers me that the Glo hasn't already got.
Seeing as I only use my Glo for reading novels, I don;t see what benefit a bigger screen will give me.

The screen resolution is sharper (I am sure that is not the correct terminology).

I love my Aura.

S

[savbeowulf]

Originally Posted by aceflor

Could you do me a favor ? Could you switch your Aura on, and then hold a mini magnet (kitchen fridge magnet works perfectly well) at different spots around the bezel, and tell me where more or less you need to hold the magnet for the Aura to switch off ? This would help me and anyone trying to build their own sleepcover greatly. Thanks !
My Aura will take some more days to arrive, I want to be creative in the mean time

I have a original sleep cover on my Ivory Aura the magnet in the cover is what I'm pointing to in the picture hope it helps!

[93terp]

Originally Posted by samhy

To be fair, you'll have this with the kepubs (ebooks bought to Kobo through the device or Kobo desktop). Sideloaded ebooks will be epubs and then the page numbers won't change according to the settings.

I should have clarified in my earlier post that I'm getting the updated page numbering as a result of side loading de-DRM'ed epubs with the KOBOTOUCHEXTENDED plugin, which gives me kepub functionality.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by John F

Where can you see the number of pages for the book?

Thanks.

At the bottom margin - it's always visible while reading.

If you are reading a kepub, then you will see pages remaining in the current chapter. If you are reading an ePub then you will see pages remaining in the book.

[PeterT]

Remember though the page counting mechanism is different; the ePub displays an arbitrary number based on 1024 characters per page.

The kepub count is based on the characters displayed on the screen.

[TongueTied]

I too love Kobo; not just my Kobo reader. I have been and sometimes still am critical of both the Kobo readers and the company but it is usually due to specific reasons rather than a general dislike. My love of the company started a long time ago. My venture into reading ebooks was when I used to use various versions of Palm handhelds and eventually my Palm Treo to read ebook. I never really got into reading on my computer screen but started to a couple of years ago when my beloved Treo finally died. At the time, I was posted to Malaysia for work and most ebook retailers had a odd relationship with Malaysia. Amazon was always on-again-off-again. You could order deadtree books and then you couldn't and finally, you could order (and pay for them) but they wouldn't send them to you (and that is another long story). So, it probably isn't a surprise that Amazon wouldn't sell either the Kindle or ebooks to people in Malaysia. In fact, they still wont. At the time, Kobo were proudly stating that they sold ebooks in 150 countries and I found that Malaysia was one of them. One of the reason I like the company. So, I started using Kobo. Once they launched the Touch, I was sold. I contacted a friend in Toronto (I'm from Toronto, hence using a friend in Toronto to help) and they bought the Touch for me and posted it out (in the middle of yet another Canada Post strike). The postage cost a fortune but I was really please to have my Touch. Since getting it, I have moved on to Australia where I can get both the Kobo ereaders and the Kindle online or in store. Have been tempted with the Kindle a few times but there has never been enough of a reason to get one besides, the lock-in restriction in Amazon's Kindle ecosystem rubs me the wrong way and that has always been the thing that stops me from adding a Kindle to my library. The Aura is very tempting but at $220 and the fact that it isn't going to be available until sometime in or after June, I might go Glo instead. So for me, Kobo Rocks (they have issues but they Rock )

[John F]

Originally Posted by 93terp

...

One thing I have noticed recently - that I absolutely love! - is that when you modify font type, size, line spacing, margins, etc..the Aura will update the number of pages remaining (chapter or book) accordingly! Not so with the Kindle.

...

Originally Posted by 93terp

At the bottom margin - it's always visible while reading.

If you are reading a kepub, then you will see pages remaining in the current chapter. If you are reading an ePub then you will see pages remaining in the book.

Originally Posted by PeterT

Remember though the page counting mechanism is different; the ePub displays an arbitrary number based on 1024 characters per page.

The kepub count is based on the characters displayed on the screen.

So I'm confused. I don't think the number of pages for the book ever changes. Page numbers for the entire book are only displayed in ePub, and they are not updated based on font size, line spacing, .... ?

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by John F

So I'm confused. I don't think the number of pages for the book ever changes. Page numbers for the entire book are only displayed in ePub, and they are not updated based on font size, line spacing, .... ?

The number of pages calculation is different for epubs and kepubs. For epubs, it is fixed and calculated by dividing the size of the compressed files inside the epub by 1024. For kepubs, it is the number of screens used to display the current chapter at the current settings.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by paola

If I were in your position, I'd definitely get the Aura, without even thinking about it - well, obviously if money is no object! But perhaps you can just savour the moment when you'll enter a FNAC and handle both Glo and Aura and choose at that point

That's pretty much what I intend to do in just two weeks (if Italian web site Mondadori is right). Chances are I'll leave the shop with an Aura

But I've never paid an eReader full price before. I paid almost half price for the 650 and about two-thirds for the Mini.

[Nil Einne]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

Now regarding the Aura, apart from it's bigger, is there any other difference between that and the Glo?
At this point I'm not really sure what the Aura offers me that the Glo hasn't already got.
Seeing as I only use my Glo for reading novels, I don;t see what benefit a bigger screen will give me.

The screen size will likely be an advantage when reading novels if you use larger fonts or if you don't like changing page for whatever reason. I guess neither of these apply to you otherwise you would have considered them but thought I should mention them just in case.

[aceflor]

I have read that the Aura light is not as blue tinged and can be set dimmer than the Glo light. Can anyone confirm ?

[FJames]

Originally Posted by danskmacabre

Now regarding the Aura, apart from it's bigger, is there any other difference between that and the Glo?

The bigger screen is definitely the primary advantage of the Aura, just as the glow light is the main advantage of the Glo over the Touch. 0.8" doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds significantly more text to the page, making it almost equal to a paperback book page. It also allows the home screen to show more, and the web browser is a bit more effective. Unfortunately the down-side is that it makes the whole device proportionately bigger.

The Aura screen has a higher resolution than the Glo, just as the Glo has a higher resolution than the Touch. But really I doubt that most people would notice, aside from photos rendering a little better.

According to Kobo the screen on the Aura is harder and more resistant to scratches and dings. But I don't know anyone who has dared to test that.

Some people think the glow light on the Aura is a bit better. It can be adjusted all the way down to a very low light level for comfortable reading in the dark, lower than the Glo. It doesn't appear blueish. It has no visible edge light leakage (although it's not perfect - mine is very slightly darker along the right side and at the top right corner).

The Aura has 2x the battery capacity, which helps if you are using the glow light a lot. Unfortunately that makes it thicker and heavier (about 1/3 heavier than the Touch or Glo).

The Aura has 2x the memory, 4 Gbytes instead of 2 Gbytes. But I doubt most people would care unless they are storing something other than books (comics have been mentioned).

The processor in the Aura may be slightly faster than the Glo, which is a bit faster than the Touch. Nobody seems to be sure though.

On the down-side, aside from the extra size and weight, the Aura takes a step backward by using a slick hard-plastic case instead of having the soft quilted back and matte surface of previous models.

Personally I doubt I would trade a Glo for an Aura if I were just using it for reading text ebooks. But I did buy the Aura after trying to decide between the Glo and the much more expensive Aura for a week, as an upgrade to my Touch. I have to give credit to Kobo for still trying to innovate in e-readers, even if they don't get everything right.

[Sharkus]

Originally Posted by FJames

The bigger screen is definitely the primary advantage of the Aura, just as the glow light is the main advantage of the Glo over the Touch. 0.8" doesn't seem like a lot, but it adds significantly more text to the page, making it almost equal to a paperback book page. It also allows the home screen to show more, and the web browser is a bit more effective. Unfortunately the down-side is that it makes the whole device proportionately bigger.

The Aura screen has a higher resolution than the Glo, just as the Glo has a higher resolution than the Touch. But really I doubt that most people would notice, aside from photos rendering a little better.

According to Kobo the screen on the Aura is harder and more resistant to scratches and dings. But I don't know anyone who has dared to test that.

Some people think the glow light on the Aura is a bit better. It can be adjusted all the way down to a very low light level for comfortable reading in the dark, lower than the Glo. It doesn't appear blueish. It has no visible edge light leakage (although it's not perfect - mine is very slightly darker along the right side and at the top right corner).

The Aura has 2x the battery capacity, which helps if you are using the glow light a lot. Unfortunately that makes it thicker and heavier (about 1/3 heavier than the Touch or Glo).

The Aura has 2x the memory, 4 Gbytes instead of 2 Gbytes. But I doubt most people would care unless they are storing something other than books (comics have been mentioned).

The processor in the Aura may be slightly faster than the Glo, which is a bit faster than the Touch. Nobody seems to be sure though.

On the down-side, aside from the extra size and weight, the Aura takes a step backward by using a slick hard-plastic case instead of having the soft quilted back and matte surface of previous models.

Personally I doubt I would trade a Glo for an Aura if I were just using it for reading text ebooks.

A nice summary, and as said, I'm still in two minds about wether to upgrade. I have had about a total of 5 minutes using an Aura, and most of that was spent outside of the reading experience, which is where I would spend most of my time, and I read just books, ie; not comics.

The back change is interesting, it is I believe meant to resemble folded / creased paper (pretty sure Pamela and / or Damian make reference to it in this video), and the Aura is meant to be a little bit of a departure from our normal eInk devices, something a little special.

[samhy]

Originally Posted by FJames

Personally I doubt I would trade a Glo for an Aura if I were just using it for reading text ebooks.

That's interesting. I'm still not sure which one to get

The light seems to have improved between those devices (more even and less bluish). Wouldn't that be enough to make you replace the Glo?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by John F

So I'm confused. I don't think the number of pages for the book ever changes. Page numbers for the entire book are only displayed in ePub, and they are not updated based on font size, line spacing, .... ?

The page numbers in a epub are based on the number of files and the number of characters. To make it more fun, that number of characters is a compressed count. Depending on exactly what the compression ratio for a file is, the number of characters that make up a page can and does vary. One novella I am currently reading has 26 files making up it's text content which are 197,468 bytes of compressed data. Dividing the individual file sizes by 1024, rounding up to the next integer and then adding the numbers gives me 204 pages total. That number is consistent across any device that uses Adobe's page algorithm so page 92 is the same page no matter what you open it on -- handy for saying check the odd language used on a page

However, the page number has no relationship to the number of page turns I need to get to that page. With the Aura at it's smallest font size using my usual font and reading an epub, I get 2 page numbers in the right margin. At it's largest font setting, I need to flip 15 screens to get the next page number.

Hope this is of some use.

Regards,
David