Kobo Glo, or Nook Touch Glow/wait for nextgen

MorningSong · 10-14-2012, 02:07 AM

I've been using a Kindle 3 for a couple years now, and while it's served me well, the features popping up in the latest generation of e-readers is a bit too compelling to pass up.

The first thing is that I'd rather get one with native ePub support, and while calibre can convert, and the K3 had a couple third-party programs for it, I'd rather have something that can just read them out-of-the-box. So I'm not really interested in the KPW.

The second is that I'm something of a typesetting snob--the biggest problem I had with third party epub readers on my K3 was in things like page breaks not happening between chapters, chapter headings being misrendered, or the occasional outright formatting error like paragraph text being centered. I'm also addicted to being able to use my own font when there's no embedded/publisher-specified font.

Lastly, I have a lot of Kindle books that'd need sideloading--getting them into a state where that's doable isn't a problem for me, but the reader would need to be able to reasonably handle sideloaded books without losing too many things. (I'm thinking of things like page numbering or browsing by cover--Requiring calibre to make it work is acceptible)

With that out of the way, the two I was mainly looking at were the Kobo Glo, and the Nook Simple Touch. I love what I've seen of the Nook's UI, and the moddability of the underlying system is appealing. What I've heard about the Kobo is that the firmware is a little crude still, but that the team is responsive to suggestions--The Kobo also has the lovely new XGA e-ink screen, which appeals to my aesthetics, and to my love of relatively small font sizes.

I'm wondering, from people who've experienced these devices--Is the UI/Formatting on the Kobo Good Enough™, or should I go for the Nook, possibly waiting for a hypothetical new model with an XGA screen to come out? Or would an unmentioned other model of e-reader be perfect?

TL;DR summary: Want native epub, pretty and customizable fonts/text layout, and non-crippled sideloading. What do?

Cdesja5 · 10-14-2012, 08:56 AM

[QUOTE=MorningSong;226389TL;DR summary: Want native epub, pretty and customizable fonts/text layout, and non-crippled sideloading. What do?[/QUOTE]

The Glo will do all that, although I've never done it myself, you can add fonts to it, it's very customizable and all my books are sideloaded (the Glo uses the same firmware as the Mini and Touch) from Calibre and display well and give the page reference at the bottom of the screen as "page 12 of 256" for example.
Someone else will surely chime in with a more technical comment that elaborates on this but I think the Glo answers your wants.

10-14-2012, 02:07 AM	#1
MorningSong Member Posts: 12 Karma: 10 Join Date: Jul 2012 Device: Amazon Kindle Keyboard	Kobo Glo, or Nook Touch Glow/wait for nextgen I've been using a Kindle 3 for a couple years now, and while it's served me well, the features popping up in the latest generation of e-readers is a bit too compelling to pass up. The first thing is that I'd rather get one with native ePub support, and while calibre can convert, and the K3 had a couple third-party programs for it, I'd rather have something that can just read them out-of-the-box. So I'm not really interested in the KPW. The second is that I'm something of a typesetting snob--the biggest problem I had with third party epub readers on my K3 was in things like page breaks not happening between chapters, chapter headings being misrendered, or the occasional outright formatting error like paragraph text being centered. I'm also addicted to being able to use my own font when there's no embedded/publisher-specified font. Lastly, I have a lot of Kindle books that'd need sideloading--getting them into a state where that's doable isn't a problem for me, but the reader would need to be able to reasonably handle sideloaded books without losing too many things. (I'm thinking of things like page numbering or browsing by cover--Requiring calibre to make it work is acceptible) With that out of the way, the two I was mainly looking at were the Kobo Glo, and the Nook Simple Touch. I love what I've seen of the Nook's UI, and the moddability of the underlying system is appealing. What I've heard about the Kobo is that the firmware is a little crude still, but that the team is responsive to suggestions--The Kobo also has the lovely new XGA e-ink screen, which appeals to my aesthetics, and to my love of relatively small font sizes. I'm wondering, from people who've experienced these devices--Is the UI/Formatting on the Kobo Good Enough™, or should I go for the Nook, possibly waiting for a hypothetical new model with an XGA screen to come out? Or would an unmentioned other model of e-reader be perfect? TL;DR summary: Want native epub, pretty and customizable fonts/text layout, and non-crippled sideloading. What do?

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10-14-2012, 08:56 AM	#2
Cdesja5 Wizard Posts: 1,117 Karma: 2094306 Join Date: Oct 2011 Location: Montreal, Canada Device: Lots and lots of electronic gadgets...	[QUOTE=MorningSong;226389TL;DR summary: Want native epub, pretty and customizable fonts/text layout, and non-crippled sideloading. What do?[/QUOTE] The Glo will do all that, although I've never done it myself, you can add fonts to it, it's very customizable and all my books are sideloaded (the Glo uses the same firmware as the Mini and Touch) from Calibre and display well and give the page reference at the bottom of the screen as "page 12 of 256" for example. Someone else will surely chime in with a more technical comment that elaborates on this but I think the Glo answers your wants.

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