Aura HD Kobo Aura HD

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by Ansileran

Oh, I thought since they were out of order, they wouldn't have them in stores either... I'll prepare a micro sd card this evening and see how it looks like tomorrow...

One thing to watch out for is what f/w level the display units have; no guarantee it is the current one.

Originally Posted by Ansileran

1. When browsing the library, which types of display do you get? Covers? List? Can you get it to display summaries as well? Which sort options are available?

The home screen displays your most recent activity, including recently read books. The library offers a number of options:

1. List view, with and without covers. It includes 6 books with title, author, percent read, file format, and file size.
2. Cover view. It displays 12 covers on the screen, with no further details.

Both views allow you to show all of the books you own, and just the books that are currently on the device. (All of the books you own means the books you purchased from Kobo, whether they are on the device or not, and sideloaded books that are on the device.)

Both views allow you to sort by the last time you read them (most recently read first). You can also sort by title, author, file size, and file type. These are only sortable in ascending order, but the list loops from the first page to the last page so this isn't a huge issue.

Book details are obtained in this mode by long pressing. This gives you a synopsis (i.e. blurb), details (publisher, language, file size, file format). You can also rate it, mark it as finished, and add it to a shelf from this mode.

2. Can I "rate" the books so that the ones I like best show up first?

Yes on rating a book. I don't know what this is for since you cannot sort, search, or filter based upon the rating. (I suspect this is for their book recommendations.)

3. Can I create collections? Edit / Create collections directly on the Aura?

You can create collections (Kobo calls them shelves) directly on the Aura. It works well for small libraries, but it is cumbersome for large libraries. For large libraries, you are better off using Calibre.

4. Can I edit a book's (let's say epub) metadata directly on the Aura?

No. You can do this on a computer via Calibre.

5. How is the dictionary working? Can I select a word and get the definition / translation immediately or do I need to go through menus to open the dictionary and then paste the word in it? Can it look for definitions / translations in multiple dictionaries at once?

You can long press on a word, and a definition comes up automatically. I believe the language is determined from the system settings. When the definition is on the screen, you can access translations with two taps (dictionary icon then translation menu item). Throw in two more taps if you want to choose a different translation dictionary (one to open the menu, the next to select the dictionary). If you are looking for a definition in a different language, it involves four taps (dictionary icon, then definition menu item, then to open the language menu, finally to select the language). It is somewhat easier than it sounds, but you don't get definitions and translations on one screen if that's what you're looking for.

6. How easy is it to use it one handed? My PRS-505 is great for this, I can hold it in eiter hand and have no trouble turning pages...

Page turns: if you're a tapper, it is difficult because there is some reach involved to tap on the right part of the screen. If you're a swiper, it is easy because you can swipe anywhere. Other UI elements are hard to access with one hand because of the reach involved.

7. Can it handle ebooks/documents in Chinese?

Don't know. There are Chinese characters in one of the languages, but I suspect that it's Kanji.

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by BWinmill

You can long press on a word, and a definition comes up automatically. I believe the language is determined from the system settings.

Don't know. There are Chinese characters in one of the languages, but I suspect that it's Kanji.

The language of the dictionary popup is determined by the language of the book (metadata). If no language is set for the book (most are...and can be set easily in calibre), THEN it is determined by the language used for the interface.

The characters you are referring to are indeed kanji, so japanese, not chinese.

About chinese language use, you can add fonts to make it possible to read in chinese. However, there is no interface in chinese, no dictionary in chinese and you can't write annotations in chinese. In other words, chinese is not a supported language, BUT that does not prohibit you from reading epubs in chinese.

[Ansileran]

Thanks a lot!

I'm not sure if I'm a "tapper" or a "swiper" yet: the PRS-505 doesn't have touch ^^ But I swipe just fine on my phone so...
Too bad about the summary and the rating part... It would be nice to be able to sort books according to preferences.
No Chinese dictionary on the other hand is a pain, probably enough to offset the gains of the bigger screen / better resolution.

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by Ansileran

Thanks a lot!

I'm not sure if I'm a "tapper" or a "swiper" yet: the PRS-505 doesn't have touch ^^ But I swipe just fine on my phone so...
Too bad about the summary and the rating part... It would be nice to be able to sort books according to preferences.
No Chinese dictionary on the other hand is a pain, probably enough to offset the gains of the bigger screen / better resolution.

If you can install prs+ on the 505 then you'll have touch. Not sure if it's only available for the 650 or not.

[Ansileran]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

If you can install prs+ on the 505 then you'll have touch. Not sure if it's only available for the 650 or not.

Really???
I thought you needed a "touch layer" (specific hardware) to get touch on a device! Seriously??? I know I'm a bit out of date on readers but this really sounds like science fiction to me...

There are other nice features on the PRS+ software so I might give it a try anyway

[filmo]

Kobo lists in specifications it's ereaders works with following eBook formats: EPUB, PDF, and MOBI. Anyone buying Kobo reader needs to understand they work best with EPUB books. They might work ok with MOBI books but would be better if MOBI book is converted to EPUB. Yes you can read PDF formatted books but it might be better if it had had text reflow and pinch zoom.

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...31#post2561731

[simond]

Originally Posted by Ansileran

Really???
I thought you needed a "touch layer" (specific hardware) to get touch on a device! Seriously??? I know I'm a bit out of date on readers but this really sounds like science fiction to me...

There are other nice features on the PRS+ software so I might give it a try anyway

The 505 definitely doesn't have any form of touch hardware, not sure how on earth you could manage without that

[John F]

Originally Posted by filmo

Kobo lists in specifications it's ereaders works with following eBook formats: EPUB, PDF, and MOBI. Anyone buying Kobo reader needs to understand they work best with EPUB books. ...

And they also support Kobo Epubs. Some people like Kobo epubs better, and some like regular epubs.

[Ansileran]

I got an Aura yesterday and, as expected, no way to really get a Chinese dictionary (without disguising it as something else or hacking the firmware). That I already knew about. What annoys me is that I can't even get it to display Chinese characters. Japanese kanjis, yes (and as such Chinese characters that are also kanjis, though they don't look exactly the same) but for Chinese characters, I just get blank squares.

I tried a free epub with fonts embedded (bible in Chinese), didn't work. I tried adding a "fonts" folder on the device as this seemed to work on the Glo. Again, no luck... Any idea?

[Ansileran]

Restart the device, right, should have thought of that...

[adbosch]

Just got my brandnew brown Aura and it's amazing. Best reader I've had since I bought my first Irex way before WWI, I think it was.
I can even read comics on it without zooming.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I find your database size very strange. I have around 1800 books on my Aura right now using around 1.4GB and the database is around 80MB. This is about a week after doing a factory reset when removing a couple of tweaks.

As an experiment, can you copy the database to your computer and then use SQLite Database Browser or similar to compact the database and see what size reduction (if any) occurs?

Last time I did this, my database was in the 90MB range and it shrank to 83MB so I'm curious as to what your database will do.

Regards,
David

Dear David,
I have some 1800 books on my Aura too (with only 1 Gb available because I have many "complete works", and a number of illustrated books), but my sqlite database weighs 262Mo. I wonder whether this would be why the Aura is much slower than it was, and why communication with Calibre is so heavy (some 3 minutes to send metadata to the reader). So I'm very interested in compacting the database, and I downloaded the program you indicated but I can't find a user's guide, and have no idea how to compact. Do you know where I can find a guide?
Regards, anacreon

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by anacreon

Dear David,
I have some 1800 books on my Aura too (with only 1 Gb available because I have many "complete works", and a number of illustrated books), but my sqlite database weighs 262Mo. I wonder whether this would be why the Aura is much slower than it was, and why communication with Calibre is so heavy (some 3 minutes to send metadata to the reader). So I'm very interested in compacting the database, and I downloaded the program you indicated but I can't find a user's guide, and have no idea how to compact. Do you know where I can find a guide?

As you are using calibre, install my Kobo Utilities plugin. Among other things, it can compress the database.

[anacreon]

Originally Posted by davidfor

As you are using calibre, install my Kobo Utilities plugin. Among other things, it can compress the database.

Dear Davidfor,

I already use your wonderful Kobo utilities to manage front page tile display and copy reading parameters between my preferred Aura and the "spare" Glo, but I hadn't noticed it could be used to compress databases.

I just used it for the Glo: the database was reduced from 126.7 to 111.8Mb. But it doesn't work for the Aura which is too big: I have an error

calibre, version 0.9.41
ERREUR : Exception non gérée: <b>OperationalError</b>:database or disk is full

Traceback (most recent call last):
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 833, in vacuum_device_database
File "calibre_plugins.koboutilities.action", line 1711, in _vacuum_device_database
OperationalError: database or disk is full

I did have an error "database full" the penultimate time I transferred books from calibre to the Aura, but it worked the last time. Following that, I explored the threads, and found a link to SQLite Database Browser 2.0 b1, but when I tried to use it (after backing up the database), I discovered there was no user's guide and don't know how to discard unused elements.

Regards, anacreon