Cured of Kobo

[WillW]

Kindle really isn't closed and limited if you use it with Calibre. I've never downloaded a book directly onto my Kindle PW2 - the only time it was ever connected to wifi was to register it, years ago. Everything on the device, hundreds of books, has been side loaded via Calibre. That includes many converted epubs from many sources.
I've not found it any more "closed and limited" than Kobo.

[koboy]

i have the Kindle basic (8th generation) and i find it just as easy to books on it using Calibre as i do putting books on my Kobo's. i prefer reading kepub to epub so i use to use Calibre to do that although now i use Kepubify instead, that said i still do use Calibre for tidying epub's up and converting to the Kindle formats.

i prefer the software on the Kobo albeit the older firmware versions therefore i use my orignal Aura 6" (all) of the time, my Kindle basic is sat motionless inside it's cover.

of course it's each to their own

best wishes koboy

[radbaddude]

Originally Posted by ZodWallop

I've attached a picture of my Clara, just to show not all Kobos have issues. Mine was perfect out of the box. Most are.

(Don't mind the weird lighting. I tried putting it under a shelf to emphasize the screen, but got a weirdly lighted photo.)

Thought you would be a KOreader man. Nice amount of books!

[Claude_C]

Originally Posted by WillW

Kindle really isn't closed and limited if you use it with Calibre. I've never downloaded a book directly onto my Kindle PW2 - the only time it was ever connected to wifi was to register it, years ago. Everything on the device, hundreds of books, has been side loaded via Calibre. That includes many converted epubs from many sources.
I've not found it any more "closed and limited" than Kobo.

In wich format do you convert your ePub for the Kindle?

And in what format do you save your books in Calibre?

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

In wich format do you convert your ePub for the Kindle?

And in what format do you save your books in Calibre?

For sideloaded books the azw3 format is best.

I keep my library in several formats. The original (usually epub, mobi or azw3), the edited/cleaned up azw3 for Kindles, and now the epub converted from those azw3 books with embedded fonts and adjusted base font sizes for the Nook.

[Frenzie]

Originally Posted by Pajamaman

IME Kobo hardware isn't as good as Kindle. But Kobo software is open.

Open is a big word. It's probably more accurate to say it's not closed. I could leave my door open with a sign that says everyone welcome, or I could simply not bother locking my door or forget to. Kobo is closer to the latter, except that we're neither morally nor legally wrong in messing with our own devices.

Compare https://blog.bq.com/es/bq-ereaders-developers-program/

[Claude_C]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

For sideloaded books the azw3 format is best.

You don’t mind not having the best format with all the features for your Kindle, like the KFX?

For Kobo, Kepub is the best and with Calibre and the Kepub Output plugin, the conversion of ePub is "over the air". You keep the ePub in Calibre and the Kepub is on the Kobo. No mess with the library with different format.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Claude_C

You don’t mind not having the best format with all the features for your Kindle, like the KFX?

No, I don't want the KFX. For one thing, I dislike hyphenation and already disabled it in the css of all my Nook epubs (in bulk, of course, not one by one). For another, the FONT_RAMP hack (custom font sizes for Kindle) works only with the azw3 format.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by radbaddude

Thought you would be a KOreader man.

Nah, I'm happy enough with the Kobo firmware and I never read PDFs. If I did, I'd read them on my Surface, like I do my digital comics.

Nice amount of books!

Now I just need the time to read them all!

[johnnyb]

I hear you about Kobo. If you are otherwise content with the Kindle platform, why not just keep a very old Kindle 3 or Touch registered on your account? You should be able to get these for very little money and you can use these to either download books to there and copy them to Calibre or to make sure that you will get the KF8 format delivered when downloading books from your user account. I think it should be a while until Amazon completely stops supporting these and the method ceasing to work is as likely as Kobo introducing some new and uncracked version of DRM onto their devices.

[WillW]

If I do find a Kobo which is a keeper, I'll keep the Kindle account open of course, for as long as desktop app 1.17 remains functional. This was always the plan. I'll keep the P.W.2 too, as a spare/backup reader.
I'm waiting for an Aura H20 1st edition to arrive from Amazon - third and final attempt at finding a Kobo without screenlight problems.
Fingers are crossed ...

[Quoth]

You can use the PW2 and select Transfer Via USB, then when asked for which Reader, select the PW2. Better than using the PC App. Put the PW2 serial number into the appropriate Calibre Plug-in to import and convert to ePub. For personal use only. It's years since ANY Kindle App has worked on WINE, on Linux. Calibre works good on Linux.

[WillW]

I don't really understand any of that. All I do, when buying books from Amazon, is have them delivered to Kindle for Mac. Then I add them to Calibre library. From there, with device plugged in to USB, I "send to device". That's all I require really. Very straightforward. I never use wifi on the Kindle, and shan't on the Kobo.

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by johnnyb

I hear you about Kobo. If you are otherwise content with the Kindle platform, why not just keep a very old Kindle 3 or Touch registered on your account? You should be able to get these for very little money and you can use these to either download books to there and copy them to Calibre or to make sure that you will get the KF8 format delivered when downloading books from your user account. I think it should be a while until Amazon completely stops supporting these and the method ceasing to work is as likely as Kobo introducing some new and uncracked version of DRM onto their devices.

Couldn't you use the key from the Kindle app on your PC if you want to remove the DRM and then use Amazon's Your Content and Devices web page to download them to your PC, and from there into Calibre? On that page under Devices I have Default Device set to Lumpy's Kindle Cloud Reader so that it doesn't download them to my Kindle (or the Kindle app if I'd used its key).

[lumpynose]

Originally Posted by WillW

If I do find a Kobo which is a keeper, I'll keep the Kindle account open of course, for as long as desktop app 1.17 remains functional. This was always the plan. I'll keep the P.W.2 too, as a spare/backup reader.
I'm waiting for an Aura H20 1st edition to arrive from Amazon - third and final attempt at finding a Kobo without screenlight problems.
Fingers are crossed ...

To be honest, and I do apologize, but reading about your travails is like some Keystone Cops black comedy.