Have Oasis, but not 100% happy

[jamison_io]

Hi,

I bought a Kindle Oasis and though I like the reading experience, many of my books are epub or pdf and I am finding that the majority of the 'features' like goodreads, syncing across devices, and others are limited to amazon purchased items.

Spoiler:

Nevermind on this, addressed by HarryT - I also hate that the recommendations are still there, even though I paid the $20 to get rid of the "special offers."

I know I can rework a bunch of things to maybe get these to work (haven't had much luck so far), but I am wondering if there is a better solution in a Kobo or other. It certainly seems like the quality of screen, lighting and speed of the Kobos are on par if not better than the kindles. I am just not very familiar with the kobo features.

Have to have:

• Use calibre to manage books
• Send book to ereader (via calibre or email) and have it show up on the corresponding app on my iphone, ipad, etc.
• Sync to the latest read page on those devices
• Work with cloud library, rbdigital, hoopla (either send to from site or access from device)

Nice to have:

• ***something like amazon's "vocabulary builder" - i love this feature
• integration with reading app like goodreads, librarything, - tracking status (reading, want to read, etc.) and progress (on page 340).
• use as audiobook player
• sync audiobooks progress with ebook progress
• no ads!
• turn off any and all recommendations

Thanks so much for any help. I am coming up on my kindle return date!

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by jamison_io

Hi,

I bought a Kindle Oasis and though I like the reading experience, many of my books are epub or pdf and I am finding that the majority of the 'features' like goodreads, syncing across devices, and others are limited to amazon purchased items. I also hate that the recommendations are still there, even though I paid the $20 to get rid of the "special offers."

Turn them off, then.

Settings / Device Options / Advanced Options / Home Screen View

[jamison_io]

Thanks.

[HarryT]

I'd also note that, since you say that you manage your ebook library with Calibre, if you convert your ePub books to Kindle format (which, as you know, you can tell Calibre to do automatically) and then send them to your Amazon cloud library, they will then sync between devices just like books bought from Amazon.

[davidfor]

Reading your requirements, there isn't a device that will do what you want. In fact, the Kindle is the closest. Going through them...

Originally Posted by jamison_io

• Use calibre to manage books

There is some support for all devices. But, for some it is fairly basic. In my admittedly biased opinion, Kobo's are best supported. This is because driver support collections, series information and other tricks. Plus choice of drivers and my Kobo Utilities plugin to add a lot of other function.

Collection/shelf support is a popular request and is limited for other devices. The old Sony's had support, tolino uses a directory level as a collection. For Kindles, I believe you need either older firmware or to be able to jailbreak it.

• Send book to ereader (via calibre or email) and have it show up on the corresponding app on my iphone, ipad, etc.

As far as I can tell, only Kindles do this. The tolinos can sideload and then you choose the books to add to their cloud, but it isn't automatic.

• Sync to the latest read page on those devices

Again the Kindles and I believe tolino (I have one, but I haven't tried this).

• Work with cloud library, rbdigital, hoopla (either send to from site or access from device)

I only know that the Kindle can do the "send from site". For the rest, I believe download to the PC and then sideload. And they might need ADE.

Nice to have:

• ***something like amazon's "vocabulary builder" - i love this feature

Kobo has this in a beta form, but it has bugs. I suspect they have decided not to go ahead with it as nothing has changed with it for a while.

• integration with reading app like goodreads, librarything, - tracking status (reading, want to read, etc.) and progress (on page 340).

Kindle only, but, you can use the Goodreads Sync plugin to set status and other things from calibre. That could be done for the other sites, but, no-one has written a plugin to do it. My Kobo Utilities plugin can get the reading status from the device into the calibre library for this. But, that doesn't happen for any other device.

• use as audiobook player

You are probably going to need an Android device for that.

• sync audiobooks progress with ebook progress

I've never heard of anything other than Kindle and Audible books doing this.

• no ads!
• turn off any and all recommendations

Kobo doesn't have ads, but it does have recommendations. They aren't very intrusive. The Tolino home page is about a quarter ads, but not visible otherwise and I don't remember any ads.

Having written that and looking back at your list, you have basically listed the functions of a Kindle The device you have is the one that matches the best with what you want.

[jamison_io]

Originally Posted by HarryT

I'd also note that, since you say that you manage your ebook library with Calibre, if you convert your ePub books to Kindle format (which, as you know, you can tell Calibre to do automatically) and then send them to your Amazon cloud library, they will then sync between devices just like books bought from Amazon.

Thanks for the reply - I am having a heck of a time getting this to work. From all of the threads I have read, they keys are making sure the book is in azw3 format, has the Kindle ASIN, and that it has been converted again into azw3 (after placing the asin in the proper field).

I do that, then sideload the azw3 file via calibre, and still am having troubles.

Thoughts?

[jamison_io]

Originally Posted by davidfor

Reading your requirements, there isn't a device that will do what you want. In fact, the Kindle is the closest. Going through them...

*snip*

Having written that and looking back at your list, you have basically listed the functions of a Kindle The device you have is the one that matches the best with what you want.

Thanks so much for the reply. This is very helpful!

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by jamison_io

Thanks for the reply - I am having a heck of a time getting this to work. From all of the threads I have read, they keys are making sure the book is in azw3 format, has the Kindle ASIN, and that it has been converted again into azw3 (after placing the asin in the proper field).

I do that, then sideload the azw3 file via calibre, and still am having troubles.

My understanding is that you have to use the email function for the the book to be synced via the cloud. Sideloading directly to a Kindle means it is only on that Kindle.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by jamison_io

Thanks for the reply - I am having a heck of a time getting this to work. From all of the threads I have read, they keys are making sure the book is in azw3 format, has the Kindle ASIN, and that it has been converted again into azw3 (after placing the asin in the proper field).

I do that, then sideload the azw3 file via calibre, and still am having troubles.

Thoughts?

If you sideload from Calibre, your book won't sync with Amazon Cloud. You have to convert the book to mobi or dual mobi, then send it to your Kindle's e-mail address or use the Send to Kindle app (https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle). Note that Amazon won't accept azw3, so converting to dual mobi is the best option.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If you sideload from Calibre, your book won't sync with Amazon Cloud. You have to convert the book to mobi or dual mobi, then send it to your Kindle's e-mail address or use the Send to Kindle app (https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle). Note that Amazon won't accept azw3, so converting to dual mobi is the best option.

Having a Kindle ASIN isn't necessary for the process. You can leave the field empty.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

If you sideload from Calibre, your book won't sync with Amazon Cloud. You have to convert the book to mobi or dual mobi, then send it to your Kindle's e-mail address or use the Send to Kindle app (https://www.amazon.com/gp/sendtokindle). Note that Amazon won't accept azw3, so converting to dual mobi is the best option.

Precisely.