Kobo Plus now available in US & UK

[DNSB]

I currently have well over 50 books using Kobo Plus and haven't seen any issues. Now you have me wondering if there is a limit in your area, if that limit will be backported to Canadian customers. I know there is a 15 book limit reading offline if you did the trial subscription.

[BrandonGiesing]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I have spotted one flaw, however. You’re allowed up to 50 books at a time, which is five times more than Kindle Unlimited allows, but unlike KU, you can’t manage the books that you have. Meaning, there’s no mechanism that I can see to return the book. At some point, I will hit my 51st book, and then I’ll know how Kobo Plus handles it. Any of you Canadians care to give me a sneak peek?

To return, you choose to remove from My Books, the same way you do for books you own.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by BrandonGiesing

To return, you choose to remove from My Books, the same way you do for books you own.

I’ve tried that. They don’t disappear like with KU. They leave samples. In that way, they function like OverDrive loans.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by DNSB

I currently have well over 50 books using Kobo Plus and haven't seen any issues. Now you have me wondering if there is a limit in your area, if that limit will be backported to Canadian customers. I know there is a 15 book limit reading offline if you did the trial subscription.

Well, I don’t anticipate issues, but I’m glad you didn’t run into any. I just wondered how Kobo Plus handled it. KU let’s you know that you can’t borrow another book until you remove one, but as I stated, Kobo Plus doesn’t offer a way to manage your loans. What happens when you try to borrow fifty-one books?

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Cootey

I’ve tried that. They don’t disappear like with KU. They leave samples. In that way, they function like OverDrive loans.

That behaviour is to allow any annotations that you have made to survive which is why the OverDrive loans also add a sample.

If you don't have any annotations, you can remove the sample though that is another step.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by DNSB

That behaviour is to allow any annotations that you have made to survive which is why the OverDrive loans also add a sample.

If you don't have any annotations, you can remove the sample though that is another step.

Right. Exactly.

So what happens after you hit your fiftieth loan? I’m at #47, so I’ll be finding out on my own soon.

[Cootey]

Well, I was hoping somebody would share their experience when they crossed over the 50 borrows line so that I could compare with my own experience, but that didn’t happen. Here’s what I observed:

I crossed over 50 into 52 books today. Neither the Kobo website nor my Kobo Clara HD gave me warnings about exceeding the borrowing limit. That’s very different from Kindle Unlimited. It’s unlimited, but allows only ten borrows at a time. If you exceed ten, you are prompted to return one of the ten you already have before being allowed to borrow another book.

Kobo Plus doesn’t say it’s unlimited, but doesn’t stop you at 50 either. This is a win for Kobo Plus users.

I also tested removing books today. Curiously, when you remove a Kobo Plus loan from all devices, it disappears completely. There isn’t a preview left over in its place as is done with Overdrive loans.

How are you folks enjoying Kobo Plus?

[sjfwhite]

I am tempted to jump on board, mainly based on the audiobooks. I currently have an Audible subscription. Kobo Plus doesn't have near the selection of audiobooks as Audible, does it?

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by sjfwhite

I am tempted to jump on board, mainly based on the audiobooks. I currently have an Audible subscription. Kobo Plus doesn't have near the selection of audiobooks as Audible, does it?

I haven’t made a comparison between the two audiobook services, so I couldn’t say. However, I’ve been increasingly impressed with the genre selections available for ebooks three months in.

[booklover6]

Originally Posted by sjfwhite

I am tempted to jump on board, mainly based on the audiobooks. I currently have an Audible subscription. Kobo Plus doesn't have near the selection of audiobooks as Audible, does it?

I just started the free trial. I do not find the audiobook selection to be at all anywhere as good as what Audible Plus has.

I currently have 82 books borrowed through Audible Plus. There doesn't appear to be any limitation. I've only found four audiobooks in Kobo+ that interest me so far. The good thing is that the books are notated in the app as being Kobo Plus books. Audible doesn't have any indication in the device library listing. Or in title details. If I go to the website there is a "remove" option. IMO this is not good enough.

update: really loving the book selection in Kobo+ so far. Think I'm going to keep it.