Glo Things to cover in Kobo Glo review?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by 9littlebees

Mrs Often, fear not, I will be looking at covers in some detail just for you, and have added a point about ordering the same book in both DRM epub and kepub from the Kobo store. Can you suggest any (cheap) titles?

Aww thanks Any old freebie will do, and I see you've already found some

Originally Posted by 9littlebees

OK, I've completely updated the first post so that it now contains my entire outline for the review. I'll update this list with additional requests as they come up. Here it is, to save jumping back to the first page...

Wow nice huge fat list! Made yourself a big chunk of work there!

I just realised that a lot of our questions (my own included) are things we could find out on the Touch with new firmware as well... more or less. I have another question concerning the front light LEDs... I see you already have some stuff about that in your outline, but as I'm not sure what exactly you're planning to say about them, I'll just add my query.

I'm concerned that the light will be too bright, even at its most dim setting. When I read in the dark, I only need very very little light to read, and the more light, the more tired my eyes get. I have an E-luminator now that (I think) has two or three LEDs in there and three different brightness settings. Even the most dim setting is sometimes too bright, and as the Glo will have more LEDs... well, you get the picture. Could you test it in the dark, and see how much light the dimmest settings gives? I'm not sure how you're supposed to review that, as of course this could be extremely subjective... but it's worth a try I'd say.

Thanks again 9littlebees, I'm sure I can speak for lots (most? all??) of us and say we're extremely happy you're putting so much of your time into this for us!

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Aww thanks Any old freebie will do, and I see you've already found some

Wow nice huge fat list! Made yourself a big chunk of work there!

I just realised that a lot of our questions (my own included) are things we could find out on the Touch with new firmware as well... more or less. I have another question concerning the front light LEDs... I see you already have some stuff about that in your outline, but as I'm not sure what exactly you're planning to say about them, I'll just add my query.

I'm concerned that the light will be too bright, even at its most dim setting. When I read in the dark, I only need very very little light to read, and the more light, the more tired my eyes get. I have an E-luminator now that (I think) has two or three LEDs in there and three different brightness settings. Even the most dim setting is sometimes too bright, and as the Glo will have more LEDs... well, you get the picture. Could you test it in the dark, and see how much light the dimmest settings gives? I'm not sure how you're supposed to review that, as of course this could be extremely subjective... but it's worth a try I'd say.

Thanks again 9littlebees, I'm sure I can speak for lots (most? all??) of us and say we're extremely happy you're putting so much of your time into this for us!

No problem, I'll make sure to comment on light brightness at the lowest level. I'm like you, where I only want enough light to read by when it's dark, so this is definitely something I'm planning on testing, especially since I hate reading on LCD devices. I can't really measure the amount of light, so it will just have to be my own thoughts on the matter.

I've come to realise how much time this is going to eat up, and can't promise that my review will be posted straight away. I'm currently hoping to get it done and posted by the weekend of the 6th/7th, especially since I have a lot going on mid-week during the evenings, with Tues, Wed & Thurs nights taken up...

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by 9littlebees

No problem, I'll make sure to comment on light brightness at the lowest level. I'm like you, where I only want enough light to read by when it's dark, so this is definitely something I'm planning on testing, especially since I hate reading on LCD devices. I can't really measure the amount of light, so it will just have to be my own thoughts on the matter.

Oh goodie, indeed it does sound like your eyes are as sensitive as mine. I hate reading on LCD screens too. I'll choose to trust your judgment then Thanks

I've come to realise how much time this is going to eat up, and can't promise that my review will be posted straight away. I'm currently hoping to get it done and posted by the weekend of the 6th/7th, especially since I have a lot going on mid-week during the evenings, with Tues, Wed & Thurs nights taken up...

Ugh! Well then you get an extra big fat thank you, for giving us all the rest of your precious free time!

[dura]

That's what interests me most too; how well does it really function as a night time reader?
I'm thinking of buying one for on the nightstand.

[Nightyume]

Yay! My first post here ^_^

Okay, now that I've said that...

First of all I'd like to say that your review seems quite well thought out. Secondly I'd like to say that the focus on the reading like as requested above is great (as you seem to concur). Personally I don't mind reading on LCDs during the day but at night they are way too bright, even on the lowest setting (and I've never really enjoyed them for ebooks). But also the light is one of the few things really differentiating things about the glo compared to the Touch (the other two being the higher contrast and higher res screen and the faster processor).

I'd like to mention two things which I think might be of interest to many (even if they don't realize it).

One is the font weights. With the new firmware among all the things one can do is change the weight of the font to make it lighter and darker. It might be interesting to see screenshot of what the font looks like at its lightest and heaviest weight.

You mentioned looking into the dictionaries. I would like to suggest, if possible, testing support for non-English alphabets. This is important for people who read in more than one language but also for foreign words/names which can appear in English texts. Reading Ovid's Metamorphoses on my tablet and phone is annoying whenever they mention names in the original alphabet as then some of those characters show up as those annoying squares. Personally for the sake of simplicity I would suggest testing with French as then that covers at least three kinds of accents ó ô ò, as well as the ç which I think covers the differences of most dominant romance languages (though there's also the ü accent, not to mention the ñ from Spanish). I'm also curious as to support for Asian languages when one thinks of Kobo's acquisition.

Personally the languages that most matter to me are Spanish, Catalan, and Japanese when it comes to secondary language support on the Kobo but I am planning on buying it anyway so don't focus on my needs as I'll find out for myself just how good or bad said support is. I just thought it could be of interest for others.

Also if the supported formats are mentioned in the manual it could he good to mention that as they are mysteriously missing from the specs page despite being mentioned in the mini's and arc's pages, not to mention previous gen readers. Or maybe only mention it if there's a difference when compared to the mini's format support.

Oh, one more comment. You mentioned that you would be testing to see if notes can be exported. It supposedly isn't possible to do so initially but is planned for future firmware update some time after its release (I haven't the foggiest as to when that would be). Just thought I'd mention it. Though it would he interesting to see if they can be conserved when transferring the book to a different device (be it another ereader or to kobo's app on pc or mobile devices).

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Oh goodie, indeed it does sound like your eyes are as sensitive as mine. I hate reading on LCD screens too. I'll choose to trust your judgment then Thanks

Ugh! Well then you get an extra big fat thank you, for giving us all the rest of your precious free time!

You're very welcome!

Originally Posted by dura

That's what interests me most too; how well does it really function as a night time reader?
I'm thinking of buying one for on the nightstand.

The main time I read physical books is at night, in bed, as I am so busy during the day and evenings, so my usage would be probably fairly similar to yours.

Originally Posted by Nightyume

Yay! My first post here ^_^

Welcome!

Okay, now that I've said that...

First of all I'd like to say that your review seems quite well thought out. Secondly I'd like to say that the focus on the reading like as requested above is great (as you seem to concur). Personally I don't mind reading on LCDs during the day but at night they are way too bright, even on the lowest setting (and I've never really enjoyed them for ebooks). But also the light is one of the few things really differentiating things about the glo compared to the Touch (the other two being the higher contrast and higher res screen and the faster processor).

I stare at LCD monitors all the time for work and for two of my major hobbies (programming and digital photography), plus I am often using my Android phone for the usual texting/emailing/random smartphoning, so the appeal of an ink reader is quite high. As I mentioned earlier, the only time I really have to read normally is at night in bed, so the innovation of built in lighting to an ereader is a huge pus for me, and the main reason I decided to buy one.

I'd like to mention two things which I think might be of interest to many (even if they don't realize it).

One is the font weights. With the new firmware among all the things one can do is change the weight of the font to make it lighter and darker. It might be interesting to see screenshot of what the font looks like at its lightest and heaviest weight.

Font weight is a big element of readability and I was planning on testing this quite thoroughly, but obviously forgot to implicitly mention it on my list, so I'll do that now. Also, on the subject of screenshots, I am a semi-pro photographer and I plan on providing an absolute shedload of pictures to go along with my review. I may also post some videos where relevant.

For anyone interested, my photography website is fotokay.net.

You mentioned looking into the dictionaries. I would like to suggest, if possible, testing support for non-English alphabets. This is important for people who read in more than one language but also for foreign words/names which can appear in English texts. Reading Ovid's Metamorphoses on my tablet and phone is annoying whenever they mention names in the original alphabet as then some of those characters show up as those annoying squares. Personally for the sake of simplicity I would suggest testing with French as then that covers at least three kinds of accents ó ô ò, as well as the ç which I think covers the differences of most dominant romance languages (though there's also the ü accent, not to mention the ñ from Spanish). I'm also curious as to support for Asian languages when one thinks of Kobo's acquisition.

Personally the languages that most matter to me are Spanish, Catalan, and Japanese when it comes to secondary language support on the Kobo but I am planning on buying it anyway so don't focus on my needs as I'll find out for myself just how good or bad said support is. I just thought it could be of interest for others.

Again, these are things I am planning on addressing. My girlfriend is German and I speak the language at an intermediate level, so displaying non-English characters (umlaut, esszet, grav, circumflex, etc) is one big element I plan on looking into. I will ensure that I look at all the supported languages and will endeavour to find an ebook in the relevant language to test whether the script is displayed correctly. I can't stress supported enough, though. If Kobo do not support a non-Latin alphabet (i.e. Cyrillic, Arabic, Japanese), then I will obviously not be able to test it. I'll be providing a full list of supported and availabe languages in the review, naturally, as well as commenting on how much space they take up on that 1GB system partition (if I can figure out where they're stored!).

Also if the supported formats are mentioned in the manual it could he good to mention that as they are mysteriously missing from the specs page despite being mentioned in the mini's and arc's pages, not to mention previous gen readers. Or maybe only mention it if there's a difference when compared to the mini's format support.

As mentioned in a previous post, although not displayed on the kobo website, a bit of digging on the interwebs turns up a Kobo Glo factsheet, which provides data for the following supported formats:

EPUB, PDF, JPEG, GIF, PNG, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RFT, CBZ, CBR.

Oh, one more comment. You mentioned that you would be testing to see if notes can be exported. It supposedly isn't possible to do so initially but is planned for future firmware update some time after its release (I haven't the foggiest as to when that would be). Just thought I'd mention it. Though it would he interesting to see if they can be conserved when transferring the book to a different device (be it another ereader or to kobo's app on pc or mobile devices).

I appreciate this probably won't be supported initially. As suggested in the first reply, I'll be providing updates to the review when things are fixed, so I'll provide an update on note exporting once it has been patched in. The point in my list is more of a holding point and to ensure I mention that it is being planned in future, if it isn't provided from the outset.

I'll add a point in about syncing notes with the book to another device, but I believe that if this is supported, it would only be supported on official kepubs and not on sideloaded ebooks, as only kepubs are synced between devices. Fear not, I'll look into it.

[John F]

How about trying footnotes? Particularly, a Discworld book.

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by John F

How about trying footnotes? Particularly, a Discworld book.

Ah footnotes, good thinking! My local library offers an eBook service and they have a large Terry Pratchett collection, so this will enable me to kill two birds with one stone - checking out eBooks from a library and commenting on footnotes.

[jeffdonnelly]

Thanks to 9littlebees and Davidfor...to 9littlebees for the huge list of info to plan to check inro/review for us, and to Davidfor for the info on new Kobo driver, shelving, and impact/interactions of uSD cards and shelving with Kobo.

Finding this out is and will be a big help and is a huge time saver in trying to determine what's the correct purchase decision to make.

Jeff

[Canuck_in_Japan]

My God if this review even covers half of the outline it's going to be epic. Do people who do reviews actually plan things out like this or do they just start writing/talking into the camera?

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by jeffdonnelly

Thanks to 9littlebees and Davidfor...to 9littlebees for the huge list of info to plan to check inro/review for us, and to Davidfor for the info on new Kobo driver, shelving, and impact/interactions of uSD cards and shelving with Kobo.

Finding this out is and will be a big help and is a huge time saver in trying to determine what's the correct purchase decision to make.

Jeff

No worries.

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

My God if this review even covers half of the outline it's going to be epic. Do people who do reviews actually plan things out like this or do they just start writing/talking into the camera?

No idea how reviews are planned. This is my first proper review of anything (other than a few paragraphs on some Amazon products) and I am a Project Planner by profession and a Mathematician by education, so maybe I'm being overly technical and anal retentive!

Regardless, I'm planning on writing the review over multiple posts at the start of its thread (seperated into the sections I've outlined) and will include the use of spoiler boxes so that the wall of text and images doesn't make people's heads explode.

[Woodstonian]

I would be interested in knowing the impact of the removal of the Home Button. I have a KTouch and I very seldom use this button. However, I'm not sure how I would accomplish what I do use it for if I didn't have it. First, while reading a book, I get to the Home Page by pressing the Home Button. I know I can also get there by tapping the centre of the screen then tapping "<--Home", so I don't really need the Home Button there. Once on the Home Page, I tap Library then Reading Stats ... how do I easily get back to the Home Page then to the book I'm reading without the Home Button? Is there anything new in the Glo firmware?

[Mrs_Often]

Originally Posted by Woodstonian

I would be interested in knowing the impact of the removal of the Home Button. I have a KTouch and I very seldom use this button. However, I'm not sure how I would accomplish what I do use it for if I didn't have it. First, while reading a book, I get to the Home Page by pressing the Home Button. I know I can also get there by tapping the centre of the screen then tapping "<--Home", so I don't really need the Home Button there. Once on the Home Page, I tap Library then Reading Stats ... how do I easily get back to the Home Page then to the book I'm reading without the Home Button? Is there anything new in the Glo firmware?

Good question, I wonder about the missing home button too. They're usually links to the previous page etc, and from a book indeed you can go to the home screen via the book menu... But I'm worried that it'd be a bit tedious. The home button works nice and quickly... tapping twice instead of hitting the button once --although it doesn't seem like a hassle when I type it now--sounds annoying. Especially if you want to quickly switch to a different book or something...

Also, as we're on the home button missing subject... Could you measure Glo to find out where the 8mm it is smaller than the Touch has been taken away from? Eg. is the bottom bezel smaller, or the top one, or both and then it what ratio... This could be important for beautiful cases people might have for their Touch and want to be able to keep using for their Glo...

[9littlebees]

Originally Posted by Woodstonian

I would be interested in knowing the impact of the removal of the Home Button. I have a KTouch and I very seldom use this button. However, I'm not sure how I would accomplish what I do use it for if I didn't have it. First, while reading a book, I get to the Home Page by pressing the Home Button. I know I can also get there by tapping the centre of the screen then tapping "<--Home", so I don't really need the Home Button there. Once on the Home Page, I tap Library then Reading Stats ... how do I easily get back to the Home Page then to the book I'm reading without the Home Button? Is there anything new in the Glo firmware?

Originally Posted by Mrs_Often

Good question, I wonder about the missing home button too. They're usually links to the previous page etc, and from a book indeed you can go to the home screen via the book menu... But I'm worried that it'd be a bit tedious. The home button works nice and quickly... tapping twice instead of hitting the button once --although it doesn't seem like a hassle when I type it now--sounds annoying. Especially if you want to quickly switch to a different book or something...

Also, as we're on the home button missing subject... Could you measure Glo to find out where the 8mm it is smaller than the Touch has been taken away from? Eg. is the bottom bezel smaller, or the top one, or both and then it what ratio... This could be important for beautiful cases people might have for their Touch and want to be able to keep using for their Glo...

OK, I'll add a point to the "Functionality" section about the mechanics of going back to the Home Menu. Could one of you please expand a bit on how the Home button on the Touch works exactly? One touch brings up some kind of menu and two touchs takes you to the home screen?

As for the reduced 8mm, I have no Touch to compare this to, but some Google searching makes it appear that the lower bezel has been reduced in size (see image below). I'm not sure how I can measure this myself without having a Touch handy...

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 9littlebees

OK, I'll add a point to the "Functionality" section about the mechanics of going back to the Home Menu. Could one of you please expand a bit on how the Home button on the Touch works exactly? One touch brings up some kind of menu and two touchs takes you to the home screen?

The "Home" button function is simple: Press it and the home screen is displayed. There are no options in the Library view to get back to the Home screen. When reading a book, the bottom menu will show a path back to wherever you opened the book from. So, if you opened it from the Home screen, it has the "Home". The other places it will hold is "Library" and "Search". The only other way I can think of to return to the home screen from a book is to finish it.