Glo Thinking of a Glo --- Questions

[gabby98]

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

Can you explain this a little more? Add a blank book Calibre can manage it? I'm sure I'm missing something basic here ....

I now have a brand new Kobo Glo (from an indie retailer that had one on display and in her purse for me to HOLD!) that is charging as we speak ....

Congrats....I think you'll love it.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

I now have a brand new Kobo Glo (from an indie retailer that had one on display and in her purse for me to HOLD!) that is charging as we speak ....

Wonderful! Good choice! So small and light....look on ebay or Amazon for a nice, form fitting sleep cover.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

Can you explain this a little more? Add a blank book Calibre can manage it? I'm sure I'm missing something basic here ....

In calibre, if you right-click the add book button, one of the options is "Add Empty book (Book entry with no formats)". This will prompt you for some details to create a book entry. Then you can set or fetch the rest of the metadata and the cover. This is useful for a few reasons. People use them to track paper books, or books on their wish list. Or whether they have read a library book.

When you connect a device, calibre tries to match all books on the device with books in the library. It doesn't matter if there is a format or not. If a match is found, then the other parts of the management will happen. For the Kobo devices, this is shelf management and setting series info.

I now have a brand new Kobo Glo (from an indie retailer that had one on display and in her purse for me to HOLD!) that is charging as we speak ....

Finding a retailer that actually uses what they sell is always good. Welcome to the madhouse

[TechniSol]

Catsnkites,

Congratulations finding the kind of retailer we'd all like to buy from locally! Welcome to "the club." By and large we're a little weird as a group, but there's hardly ever a dull moment...

[Catsnkites]

OK, really dumb question here ... and I know I'm hijacking my own thread ... so please just point me in the right direction or thread ...

Um, I've looked all over Calibre and can't find anything that says "Collections" ... is it the Genre? A Virtual Library?

I figured I'd get Calibre sorted out and then get the Glo up and going ...

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

OK, really dumb question here ... and I know I'm hijacking my own thread ... so please just point me in the right direction or thread ...

Um, I've looked all over Calibre and can't find anything that says "Collections" ... is it the Genre? A Virtual Library?

Have a look at the sticky thread I pointed you to in my first reply Very detailed setup instructions are within.

[eschwartz]

Originally Posted by Catsnkites

OK, really dumb question here ... and I know I'm hijacking my own thread ... so please just point me in the right direction or thread ...

Um, I've looked all over Calibre and can't find anything that says "Collections" ... is it the Genre? A Virtual Library?

I figured I'd get Calibre sorted out and then get the Glo up and going ...

It's a setting in the device configuration, it creates collections based on whichever metadata fields (columns) you specify, like authors,series,tags,etc.

[FrankLee]

My Kobo Glo is one year old (to the week) So if anyone's interested here's a report.

I like the backlight. The old Sony PRS it replaced didn't (nor still doesn't!) have one and it's nice. It would be even nicer if it didn't flicker though. Not on and off, just fluctuations in light levels. This began about four months ago and doesn't 'seem' to be getting worse though it's hard to say because the fault is irregular and intermitent.

And that's the good news... My WinXP machine with Calibre 'can't see' the Kobo it never could. My Linux machine with Calibre can sometimes(?) see it. But as plugging it in, then when it fails unplugging it and waiting for the Kobo to reboot, then trying again then waiting again gets really tedious - I just don't bother and sideload with a memory chip.

The touch screen... Oh dear... imprecise isn't in it. Can anyone actually use the top left [home] button? Fair doos, I've the fingers of a navvie not a surgion but a stylus doesn't work it either. So if I wan't to leave a book I scroll to the end. Trying to click through the library pages more often end up with me on the last page - because next and last... merge? But the dead zone in the middle of the page is probably the biggie. Basically the middle third of the touch screen stopped responding six months ago, just dead.

Sorry forgot the dictionary, another improvement on my 'died of old age' Sony, that's nice. Of course I can't look up a word that appears in the middle of a page but.

Anyway, I got my Sony in 2007 mebe 2008 and as I said it just gave out in december 2012. Pretty good... Got the Kobo one year ago and it's f**king awful and the chances of it lasting as long as the Sony did does not seem good. If Sony did a backlight machine I'd go out and buy one tommorow and drop the Kobo in my box of failed tech.

Haven't updated any firmware, as most of my machines have trouble recognising the device it seems a bit risky.

[Edit] I eventually told my email that stuff Kobo was spam not happy with regestering something online anyway and finally apologies for dislexia.

[meeera]

If you're still within that 12 months, take it back pronto. Midzone touch screen failure is not normal, and neither is your complete inability to use the Home button.

There are two Glos in my family, plenty more here and these are not typical problems at all. You could have gotten a replacement Glo six months ago.

[FrankLee]

Originally Posted by meeera

If you're still within that 12 months, take it back pronto. Midzone touch screen failure is not normal, and neither is your complete inability to use the Home button.

There are two Glos in my family, plenty more here and these are not typical problems at all. You could have gotten a replacement Glo six months ago.

I probably ought to have but the one other advantage I neglected to previously mention is the Glo was inexpensive so I'll just write it off.

Now looking for a reader with backlight AND F**KING BUTTONS! because the whole touchscreen thing sucks I'm afraid. maybe I was spoiled by using the pinpoint acurate WindowsXP Tablet PCs but all the next-gen touch screen tech for me seems horribly imprecise.

Anyway perhaps I just got a bad one (or perhaps I'm one in a million with 'unconductive skin').

[robko]

Originally Posted by FrankLee

Anyway perhaps I just got a bad one (or perhaps I'm one in a million with 'unconductive skin').

It does sound like you have a faulty device. All of the Kobo e-ink line (except the new Aura 6") use IR touch so your unconductive skin has nothing to do with it. Try using compressed air and/or a micro-fibre cloth to clean around the edges of the screen to see if something is obstructing the IR beams for the touch. Does the middle third work if you are selecting a word? If it does check the settings under reading settings and make sure you don't have the option selected where the middle third doesn't turn pages. I use the top left home button all the time with no problems.
And a minor point of correction, all e-ink devices use a FRONT light since a backlight couldn't shine through the e-ink screen.

[FrankLee]

Now that sounds like a plan Robko, I'll take it to a computer store on Monday and ask them to do that and let you know. Dirt may be doing it, as I work in construction and my reader goes with me... there is dirt.

Many thanks.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by FrankLee

And that's the good news... My WinXP machine with Calibre 'can't see' the Kobo it never could. My Linux machine with Calibre can sometimes(?) see it. But as plugging it in, then when it fails unplugging it and waiting for the Kobo to reboot, then trying again then waiting again gets really tedious - I just don't bother and sideload with a memory chip.

have you tried ejecting the drive in Linux instead of "safely remove drive"?
All of my external devices except my kobo work with the safely remove drive option, but my kobo gives an error every time. The eject option works perfectly however and has never caused any issues. I always do this after closing any program that kobo connects with (calibre, ADE, kobo's own program). The other method that works almost always (I did have an issue with one or two versions of calibre) is to eject straight from inside calibre. However for me this only works if I have the calibre library open then right click the arrow of the attached kobo drive and select eject. If I try to do it with the connected kobo as the thing being viewed within calibre, this method doesn't work, as it immediately reconnects once the ejection procedure is complete. Hope I've worded that clearly, I don't have my kobo attached at the moment so it's just from memory.