Libra 2 Serious buyer's remorse with Libra 2

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by cliffsloane555

I confess that some of this was going on with me. But not just that it was unfamiliar. I blamed myself for wasting time on a shiny new toy when my backlog of unread articles was not getting smaller. So I set aside the hard part (modifying the device to include integration), did it the old-fashioned way (side-loading) and hit a wall. Thus this thread.

Well, it’s good that you reached out. Somebody might have a solution for you, and I’m glad you replied to the comments in the thread. We get dramatic farewells or rants often, then people step in to help, but the OP is long gone.

I have Kindles and Kobos. I prefer the Kobo, but I’m comfortable with both platforms. I just don’t use Pocket anymore, so I can’t test things on my end to offer help. After Firefox clumsily took over, I lost my Pocket account. All those years of unread articles…gone! I have to admit feeling a small level of relief. 😅

About Dropbox, though, modifying the Kobo eReader.conf may seem daunting at first, but it honestly isn’t overly complicated. If you set aside 30min to follow the steps, you can get Dropbox support on your Libra soon. If you run into trouble, there are plenty of folks in that thread that can help you work it out.

I hope you give the Libra a chance to grow on you. There are many things about Kobo that are better than Kindle. Switchers usually focus only on the shortcomings. I find having both gives me the best of both worlds.

[Sirtel]

I confess I don't really understand the desire to read web articles (which usually include photos, hyperlinks etc) on an eink reader. IMO it's a pain. I just read them on a tablet or a laptop. True, I don't read hundreds of articles per month, but I do read quite a lot. I also read Wikipedia articles on my laptop for the same reason. My eink readers are for regular novels.

[Quoth]

I use LO Writer and Calibre to read web content as ebooks. Far more flexible than Pocket.
I save an odt and when I've cleaned it up I save again and a docx for calibre.

I never turn on WiFi on my Kindles or Kobos.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I confess I don't really understand the desire to read web articles (which usually include photos, hyperlinks etc) on an eink reader.

I use Pocket/Kobo for F/SF short stories/novelettes from online magazines. I don't think I've had any not turn up yet, and I find them much more pleasant to read on the Kobo.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I confess I don't really understand the desire to read web articles (which usually include photos, hyperlinks etc) on an eink reader. IMO it's a pain. I just read them on a tablet or a laptop. True, I don't read hundreds of articles per month, but I do read quite a lot. I also read Wikipedia articles on my laptop for the same reason. My eink readers are for regular novels.

It's handy if a subject is long and especially if it needs more than one web site, or it will be part of a reference article.

But otherwise I just read it on the desktop, laptop or tablet.

[cliffsloane555]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

I confess I don't really understand the desire to read web articles (which usually include photos, hyperlinks etc) on an eink reader. IMO it's a pain. I just read them on a tablet or a laptop. True, I don't read hundreds of articles per month, but I do read quite a lot. I also read Wikipedia articles on my laptop for the same reason. My eink readers are for regular novels.

I am the sort of person you do not understand. I bought an ereader because there were just too many articles, and I was in a situation where I could not concentrate reading on the computer. I fell in love with eink display as a medium; the bright light of a monitor (or phone) seems to bring out my impatience.
Now, even if I could read a short one online (like obits), I still send them to the ereader. Good thing too, because there are often interesting hyperlinks, citations, etc for followup.
But the real value comes on those longform essays, such as in the NYRB or NYTimes Magazine, where a comfy sofa makes it easier for me to concentrate.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by cliffsloane555

I am the sort of person you do not understand. I bought an ereader because there were just too many articles, and I was in a situation where I could not concentrate reading on the computer. I fell in love with eink display as a medium; the bright light of a monitor (or phone) seems to bring out my impatience.
Now, even if I could read a short one online (like obits), I still send them to the ereader. Good thing too, because there are often interesting hyperlinks, citations, etc for followup.
But the real value comes on those longform essays, such as in the NYRB or NYTimes Magazine, where a comfy sofa makes it easier for me to concentrate.

I get the comfy sofa part. I read web content on my tablet or a laptop (the latter is on a stand on a small table) often on my sofa also. But I'm not a particular fan of long essays; they're too subjective for my taste, although I do read them occasionally. I prefer my web content to be more impartial and fact-oriented. For longform, I strongly prefer regular books, especially fiction, and that is where eink really shines.

To each their own, I guess.

[Desertway]

Have you looked into Android eInk devices? As you consume so much web content, and prefer eInk, it seems a natural thing to explore.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by Desertway

Have you looked into Android eInk devices? As you consume so much web content, and prefer eInk, it seems a natural thing to explore.

A web browser is ghastly on eInk. I've tried stock, einkbro, firefox, chrome.

[cliffsloane555]

Originally Posted by Desertway

Have you looked into Android eInk devices? As you consume so much web content, and prefer eInk, it seems a natural thing to explore.

Do you have such a device? If so, would you be willing test a file? I finally gave up when it was clear that Kobo had problems with certain WA Post files in epub format. I cannot tell if it's epub or kobo.

[Desertway]

Originally Posted by cliffsloane555

Do you have such a device? If so, would you be willing test a file? I finally gave up when it was clear that Kobo had problems with certain WA Post files in epub format. I cannot tell if it's epub or kobo.

I have the cheapest eInk device in the world, a little Likebook that was mass produced for school children. And I was not really thinking of using the browser to read articles, but to send articles from desktop to Pocket or Instapaper (the latter works better on eInk) and then reading via the Android app on the device.

If you want to send me a link to the original article, I can try with the eInk browser and/or sending it to Instapaper, if that's useful to you. But again, performance on my particular device is going to poorer than a new Meebook or Boox.

(You can also use a variety of Android eBook apps on these devices, my favorite being KoReader. But the Kindle app leaves a lot to be desired on eInk, at least in my experience. Other people seem to be okay with it.)

[shamanNS]

I find it quite interesting that nobody mentions Libra 2's absolutely appalling battery life.
That was by far the biggest disappointment for me. When compared to Kindle PW5's battery life Libra 2 is a terrible terrible device.
3-4% battery drain as best case (and sometimes as much as 10%) for each 24h in standby / sleep mode should be unacceptable to anyone that has ever owned a non-Basic Kindle.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

I find it quite interesting that nobody mentions Libra 2's absolutely appalling battery life.
That was by far the biggest disappointment for me. When compared to Kindle PW5's battery life Libra 2 is a terrible terrible device.
3-4% battery drain as best case (and sometimes as much as 10%) for each 24h in standby / sleep mode should be unacceptable to anyone that has ever owned a non-Basic Kindle.

Not all of us care about battery life. I only use my ereaders at home and it's easy to charge them whenever necessary. Plus, I used mainly the Oasis models before switching to Kobo, and those had worse battery life than the Libra 2. I guess you have never used an Oasis, if you think the Libra 2 is considerably worse than Kindles.

Other factors (screen and ergonomics, for example) are far more important to me than battery life.

[Quoth]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

I find it quite interesting that nobody mentions Libra 2's absolutely appalling battery life.
That was by far the biggest disappointment for me. When compared to Kindle PW5's battery life Libra 2 is a terrible terrible device.
3-4% battery drain as best case (and sometimes as much as 10%) for each 24h in standby / sleep mode should be unacceptable to anyone that has ever owned a non-Basic Kindle.

I have 3 Kindles inc PW3, and did have an Oasis (2nd) which is was worse than the Sage. Your claim about Libra 2 'appalling battery life' is massive hyperbole.
My Libra 2 has fantastic battery life when sleeping compared to the Kindles (which have no OFF) and has an off setting.
Reading life is excellent.
It needs several days sleep or more to drop by 1% charge.

Perhaps you have sync, WiFi, BT and frontlight all on and a faulty sleep cover?

The Sage has the poorest battery life of any Kobo and it's still acceptable.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by shamanNS

I find it quite interesting that nobody mentions Libra 2's absolutely appalling battery life.
That was by far the biggest disappointment for me. When compared to Kindle PW5's battery life Libra 2 is a terrible terrible device.
3-4% battery drain as best case (and sometimes as much as 10%) for each 24h in standby / sleep mode should be unacceptable to anyone that has ever owned a non-Basic Kindle.

I'm going to disagree with you on this. The battery of the Libra 2 is not appalling. It's not as bad as you are saying.

The Sage and the Elipsa do have appalling battery life.