Kobo and side laoding Question(s)

[Mairiiv]

Hi

I've been looking at purchasing an ebook reader. After reading quite a bit up I'm leaning towards the Kobo readers and either the Aura HD or Glo to be more specific.

My understanding is that the term sideloading refers to loading extra books onto the reader that you don't purchase through the official store. Further I've found on the wiki faq for the kobo reader it seems that you can use itunes for sideloading, this is however a no-go for me due to neither my wife nor myself having had good experiences with itunes. I am wondering if there is other applications that can be used to sideload onto the Kobo readers (esp the Aura HD and Glo)

Thanks

[PeterT]

You don't even need an app. to sideload; you can copy material over via Windows Explorer.

Of course, what many of us find to be an easier solution is to use calibre. Check out the official support forums here and you can download it from here

[dragon77]

Well, when you connect your Kobo to your computer with the USB cable, it functions just like a USB flashdrive and you can simply copy/cut and paste books on your computer directly on to it.

Or, there's a wonderful free application known as Calibre which can be used to organize, sideload, and even convert the file type of books.

*Edit*
Yeah, basically what PeterT said.

[Lynx-lynx]

Also you can save your books to an SD card and then install that into the Kobo.

That way you get boosted memory as well.

[dragon77]

I believe that's the whole point of the SD slot, so yeah.

[bartveld]

I strongly advise you to look into Calibre. It may be a bit daunting first, but once you get the hang of it it's an incredible program that let's you manage your book collection in any way you can think of and will save you a lot of time and headache.

[taming]

The other issue that comes up is loading books with DRM (digital rights management) onto the device. Kobo has its own proprietary flavour of drm. Those books load via WiFI sync or by USB using the Kobo desktop app.

If you are using books from Google Play, Sony and a number of other places, you will often get books with Adobe Adept DRM. You can download that format from Kobo as well. To get those DRM bearing books onto your device, you will most likely use Adobe Reader software and then load it onto the Kobo device through USB sync. Barnes and Noble, iBooks, and Kindle use other DRM schemes, though B&N also uses Adobe Digital Editions.

Where calibre excels is in managing your library and loading books that are drm free onto whatever reader you own. Of course, you will have to remove the drm to make full use of it. We can't talk about the specifics of removing drm on Mobile Read, but searching for Apprentice Alf will provide answers.

[Mairiiv]

Thanks all for the answers.

I had all intention to look into calibre as I read good things about it. I just wasn't sure about the sideloading and the only reference I got was the wiki article of itunes which was a huge red flag for me.

Next step is getting it

[mutant_matt]

If you *only* want to "sideload" (via whatever method you prefer), you can also bypass the registration with Kobo completely if you want to (via a USB connection and sqlite).