Kobo Aura covers

[user38]

Originally Posted by user38

Hi
I bought an Aura two days ago. No covers available in Australia yet.

I bought this one from ebay yesterday for $US9.90 (with free postage):

Attachment 117153

Here is the ebay link: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/221333040...84.m1497.l2649

Stephen

Well, my cheap $10 ebay cover arrived today, 10 days after I ordered it.

Here are some photos:



The cover is faux leather, and not very convincing. It is functional rather than beautiful. It feels a little flimsy, but it only weighs 78gms.

Here are some photos with the reader in the cover.






The reader is secured in a plastic cradle. It fits snugly but is also quite easy to remove. You will see the cover is the exact size of the reader. The front of the cover also bends backwards quite easily (the spine is some kind of flexible plastic). All the ports and switches are accessible. It seems to be well designed and well constructed albeit the materials are a little cheap.

The sleep function works perfectly and the front cover is secured by a strong magnetic clasp.

For a cover that cost $10 including postage, I am very happy. I suspect that, in practice, I would rather have the official cover as it is a little oversized and that may make the Aura easier to hold and give some protection to the SD card. However, this cover works, and it is cheap and light.

Stephen

[Josieb1]

I put a small amount of black electrical tape over the SD Card, going from the front of the reader to the back, it's neat and doesn't stand out and that way I don't have to worry about the SD Card coming out, and it's easy to peel off (and doesn't mark the reader) if I do want to remove the card.

[user38]

Good tip. My biggest fear with the Aura is the SD card popping out. Not because I might lose it, but because I popped it out once while it was running to see what would happen. What happened was the Aura reset itself. I lost all the books on the internal memory and the books on the SD card became disassociated from their collections. No big deal because all books were sideloaded from calibre and it was easy enough to restore my library.

I have just put tape on my Aura and, even though the SD card still moves in and out a little, it does not disconnect from the reader.

Stephen

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by user38

Good tip. My biggest fear with the Aura is the SD card popping out. Not because I might lose it, but because I popped it out once while it was running to see what would happen. What happened was the Aura reset itself. I lost all the books on the internal memory and the books on the SD card became disassociated from their collections. No big deal because all books were sideloaded from calibre and it was easy enough to restore my library.

I have just put tape on my Aura and, even though the SD card still moves in and out a little, it does not disconnect from the reader.

That's interesting. For both my Touch and Glo, there is no issue with ejecting the card while the devices are running. I never bother powering off before ejecting.

[user38]

Originally Posted by davidfor

That's interesting. For both my Touch and Glo, there is no issue with ejecting the card while the devices are running. I never bother powering off before ejecting.

My resetting problem may have something to do with the way calibre creates collections on the Aura. The Aura did not reset immediately. I think I put the Aura to sleep and then switched it on again. I then navigated to a collection on the SD card. I noticed the books on the SD cards had lost their covers. When I tried to open a book the Aura reset. (I had to re-enter my wi-fi and Kobo account details). When I did so there were no books on the internal memory. All the collections on the SD card were empty, but the books were still there.

[slp13]

Has anyone seen these online anywheres for a decent price?
I like the bright bold colors and have had a very hard time finding ones i want

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/14...ard_Shell.html

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by user38

My resetting problem may have something to do with the way calibre creates collections on the Aura.

There is no difference in how calibre creates the collections for the Aura and any of the other Kobo devices. The database is updated in exactly the same way as when you create the collection using the device.

The Aura did not reset immediately. I think I put the Aura to sleep and then switched it on again. I then navigated to a collection on the SD card. I noticed the books on the SD cards had lost their covers.

Covers for books on the SD card are always a little bit of a pain. The device generates them on the fly and stores a few in cache. Sometimes a restart will solve the issues. You can use calibre to send the covers with the books and the device will use them.

When I tried to open a book the Aura reset. (I had to re-enter my wi-fi and Kobo account details). When I did so there were no books on the internal memory. All the collections on the SD card were empty, but the books were still there.

A restart when opening a book usually means the book was corrupt or the database details for it were very out of sync with the book. With the rest of it, I suspect the database was actually corrupt and that the device couldn't recover it enough during the restart so had to replace it with a new one. That would explain the need for the setup and the missing collections. The books on the SD card will probably get readded the next time you connect and disconnect from the PC, do a restart or eject and insert the card. If you are using calibre for collection management, it will fix them when you connect after the books have been readded.

[user38]

Davidfor
thanks for your reply. I am now not 100% sure that simply ejecting the SD card corrupted the data base. It happened in the first few days I owned the Aura and I was doing a lot of fiddling including sideloading and deleting books.

Back to the topic, I saw this cover on ebay here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SMART-PU-..._qi=RTM1430839





And I also saw this cover here: http://www.ebay.com.au/itm/SMART-PU-...item3386efad3d






Stephen

[toddos]

Originally Posted by slp13

Has anyone seen these online anywheres for a decent price?
I like the bright bold colors and have had a very hard time finding ones i want

http://www.alibaba.com/product-gs/14...ard_Shell.html

There doesn't seem to be yellow, but otherwise that looks like exactly the same product as this which was linked earlier in the thread. I just got mine in the mail today, purchased 12/28. Estimated shipping was supposed to be 1/15 to 2/15, so it arrived much quicker than expected. I went with green, and it looks pretty nice. See User38's review above for more details, though mine doesn't feel as cheap as User38's review implies (though what do you expect for a $10 product?).

[user38]

Regarding the $10 ebay cover I commented on above, it is worth every penny of the $10 I paid for it and I am very happy with it. It is also well made and well designed. However, I was actually looking for a $20 cover and the materials used in the construction of the $10 cover are less luxurious than I would have preferred. There is nothing wrong with the $10 cover: it's just that the naked Kobo Aura is so beautiful it is a shame to cover it up with a cover that is not equally beautiful.

Stephen

[neil74]

Originally Posted by user38

Well, my cheap $10 ebay cover arrived today, 10 days after I ordered it.

Here are some photos:
Attachment 117496
Attachment 117497

The cover is faux leather, and not very convincing. It is functional rather than beautiful. It feels a little flimsy, but it only weighs 78gms.

Here are some photos with the reader in the cover.

Attachment 117498
Attachment 117499
Attachment 117500
Attachment 117501

The reader is secured in a plastic cradle. It fits snugly but is also quite easy to remove. You will see the cover is the exact size of the reader. The front of the cover also bends backwards quite easily (the spine is some kind of flexible plastic). All the ports and switches are accessible. It seems to be well designed and well constructed albeit the materials are a little cheap.

The sleep function works perfectly and the front cover is secured by a strong magnetic clasp.

For a cover that cost $10 including postage, I am very happy. I suspect that, in practice, I would rather have the official cover as it is a little oversized and that may make the Aura easier to hold and give some protection to the SD card. However, this cover works, and it is cheap and light.

Stephen

Personally I think these cheaper covers are great. I have an official cover for sale though if you are interested.

[RobertJSawyer]

Originally Posted by user38

For a cover that cost $10 including postage, I am very happy. I suspect that, in practice, I would rather have the official cover as it is a little oversized and that may make the Aura easier to hold and give some protection to the SD card. However, this cover works, and it is cheap and light.

Stephen, I have both the official Kobo Aura Sleepcover (in aqua) and the same type of no-name cover from eBay that you bought (although I got the brown "leather") one. I like the eBay one much better; it's much more comfortable to hold -- unlike all other Kobo Sleepcovers, the Aura Sleepcover clamps to the sides of the reader, with uncomfortable sharp-edged clamps. Trust me: you've already got the better cover.

[user38]

Thanks all for the feedback on the cheap cover vs official cover issue. I do like my cheap cover, although I feel a little guilty that it was probably manufactured in a Chinese sweat shop. However, that is a systemic problem and I trust that the problem will be solved either by a rise in the standard of living in China or a worldwide crash of civilization when the fossil fuel run out.

Stephen

[chrisridd]

I just received my cheap cover from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261356533354 and it appears to be identical to @user38's cover that he posted pictures of earlier in the thread.

I think someone else already pointed out that the blue on the clasp is just the blue protective plastic that needs to be removed. The magnet protrudes about 1mm from the other part of the case and has quite sharp edges. Nevertheless, Kobo's sleepcover functionality works fine.

I'd echo everything Stephen says about it, with one addition - the cover feels quite slippery in the hand at the moment. That may change as it ages, but I feel I need to grip it quite tightly to avoid dropping it!

[Mnementh]

Originally Posted by chrisridd

I just received my cheap cover from http://www.ebay.co.uk/itm/261356533354 and it appears to be identical to @user38's cover that he posted pictures of earlier in the thread.

I just received mine from the same seller, excellent service and the case is just what I wanted. It's not too heavy and it's comfortable to hold though as mentioned it is slightly slippery, just means I need to take more care holding it in the bath

Ordered late Monday night, was sent the next day and was received wed morning couldn't ask for any better.