A Difficult Kobo Touch User!

[Albertde]

Hi everybody,
I have been lurking here for some time, even downloading ebooks for my eReader. Finally, I decided to register.

I first got an eReader, a Kobo Reader with WiFi, the one with joystick-like controls, as a Christmas present from my wife in 2010. However, I use Linux on a Netbook and the Kobo officially doesn't support connecting to a Linux desktop even though the Kobo itself is built from Linux. I did discover that there was an unofficial Kobo Linux desktop. Along the way, I found calibre, which is used to load all kinds of public domain and copyrighted but DRM-free books on the Kobo. Unfortunately, my Kobo broke in Jan. 2012 while returning from vacation. I had placed it in a pocket of a Tilley jacket and must have cracked the machine.

To replace tit, (going back to print was no longer an option), I bought a Kobo Touch from Indigo. I had to re-activate an old windows desktop that I hadn't used in years to download the new Kobo desktop application and use that to start up the new Touch. It lasted a few weeks at most. It was returned because of defective hardware: very slow page turns and loading of books. I received another one that lasted until May. Initially, it worked all right but I had to exchange it again at Indigo. So I am on #3. This one worked fairly well until the firmware upgrade to 2.0. The upgrade was buggy - I could create Shelves but couldn't access them afterwards. Talking to my daughter, who works at an Apple store, I realized that I needed to upgrade my Windows XP box to Service Pack 3. Then I did a factory reset and re-did the upgrade, which worked this time.

So today, I have a Kobo Touch loaded with about 80 books from Kobo and another 420 or so from calibre. It still is slow to load and I am still plagued with buggy ePubs, some from Kobo (History of the Franks, a Penguin we-don't-discount book! and Wait - The Art and Science of Delay, the latter only can load a chapter from the Table of Contents, at the end of a chapter it goes back to the beginning of the book) and some my own fault (I convert websites into ePubs and the process is not foolproof).

Every once in a while I suspect that the Touch will die on me but so far it hasn't.

I read English, French, Dutch, German and Spanish books and use the dictionaries constantly and the translation dictionaries as well. I also used to make annotations but have refrained since every time I change machines I lose them. The ones on Kobo books don't seem to be stored in their cloud and I haven't found a away to do it in general.

Right now, I am waiting to see if and when calibre will be upgraded to support the admittedly buggy version 2 of the Kobo Touch. in the meantime, it would be nice if:

- Kobo implemented Shelves on the Desktop and allowed users to create and update them on the Desktop.

- Kobo gave users a tool to test ePubs before buying.

I've said way too much.

Thanks for reading.
Albertde

[JoHunt]

Hi Albertde and welcome to MobileRead

This forum is normally used just to say hi to new members of MR. You might want to repost your comments on the Kobo board so other Kobo owners can relate to them:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=223

[Valmore Daniels]

Welcome to the boards

[MickeyC]

Hi Albertde and welcome to MobileRead

[StoryEnthusiast]

Welcome Albertde and thank you for sharing your experience.

[ImogenRose]

Welcome to MR!

Imogen