Differences Tolino & Kobo

[rantanplan]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Why? You have the original 8GB SD!

Sure, if you use a new SD-card you're fine

[Peripathetic]

Originally Posted by wdshieh

I am still in the hopes that some reading apps can display Chinese. The attachment is a Chinese ePub file I just made for test. Wish someone could try this in your tolino to see if any epub reading app can display Chinese correctly.

Another data point to confirm it works with a custom font file (TTF or OTF) placed in the Fonts directory on the device. You'd likely want to use custom typeface anyway depending on your preferences.

Examples:

Kaiti



Songti



If you zoom in on the screenshots you might think there are some aliasing issues but in fact it's not noticable on the E Ink screen, all looks well. (Taken on the Shine 3, should not be worse on other devices with the same or better pixel density.)

You might also notice the spacing is off but this is expected as your ePub file uses the standard space. As long as you use the ideographic space (Unicode U+3000) it displays fine as well (I modified the file to test it):



If you read mostly Chinese, you can also consider changing the default fonts. I posted how to do this in another thread.

[swimon126]

Could anyone give me the run-down of some of the software differences between Kobo and Tolino? I've only heard that many features on the Kobo are missing on the Tolino, but I'm curious what these specific features are.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by swimon126

Could anyone give me the run-down of some of the software differences between Kobo and Tolino? I've only heard that many features on the Kobo are missing on the Tolino, but I'm curious what these specific features are.

Main difference:
Kobo is based on Linux, Tolino on Android 4.4.2 and it is easy to install other apps than the Tolino App, which is designed for 2 different DRM Versions - Adobe Digital Editions and CARE based on Readium LCP for Onleihe.
I am using Calibre Companion for library management and for reading AlReader.
My Kobos are lying around somewhere.

[swimon126]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

Main difference:
Kobo is based on Linux, Tolino on Android 4.4.2 and it is easy to install other apps than the Tolino App, which is designed for 2 different DRM Versions - Adobe Digital Editions and CARE based on Readium LCP for Onleihe.
I am using Calibre Companion for library management and for reading AlReader.
My Kobos are lying around somewhere.

Thanks. What about in terms user interface (reading/organization features)? Are most of the features pretty much the same for both and only different appearance-wise or is there something missing from one or the other?

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by swimon126

Thanks. What about in terms user interface (reading/organization features)? Are most of the features pretty much the same for both and only different appearance-wise or is there something missing from one or the other?

With both you can read ebooks - touching on the right side means next page, touching left means previos.
But the differences are big.
But both, Kobo and Tolino Firmware is from Kobo-Rakuten.

[swimon126]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

With both you can read ebooks - touching on the right side means next page, touching left means previos.

Wow. No kidding.

[4691mls]

Originally Posted by swimon126

Thanks. What about in terms user interface (reading/organization features)? Are most of the features pretty much the same for both and only different appearance-wise or is there something missing from one or the other?

Caveat: My Tolino Shine 2 is not the most recent model so it's possible that newer Tolinos have more or different features.

The differences I notice most are:

1. The Clara has more gradations of font size and also more line spacing and font choices, as well as the ability to change the weight of the font. Some people here have reported that it's not difficult to add new fonts to Tolinos if you are not happy with the preinstalled fonts.

2. Search within a book: on my Clara, if you search for a word you get a list of all instances of that word within the book, starting at page 1, and you can page through this list.
On my Tolino, it will say "1 of 10" (or however many there are) and you press arrows to go backward or forward to the next instance.

3. Overdrive library: Syncing the Clara will get library books you have checked out IF the Kobo store has the exact same edition as the library. If this doesn't work, you can use a computer and Adobe Digital Editions to load the book onto the reader.

The Tolino accesses your Overdrive library directly - it looks like what you see on a desktop computer but since it's e-ink it's a lot slower. Any books you check out can be downloaded directly onto the Tolino.

For either reader, I generally prefer to use my computer or phone for browsing my Overdrive library and checking out, then I get the book on the ereader by the methods described above.

4. Page numbers: Tolino uses ADE page numbers. Kobo switched to numbers of screens per book a while back. Some people like this better. Others hate it. There's a long thread in the Kobo forum arguing both sides of this issue so we probably shouldn't start discussing it here, but if you want to read the arguments you can go to:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=323591


Hopefully some more people will come along and tell you what differences they notice the most.

[ottischwenk]

But the Kobo devices cannot be used without registration with Kobo.

[PeterT]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

But the Kobo devices cannot be used without registration with Kobo.

Not true . All that is required is to insert a row into a SQL table on the device to fake a registration.

[ottischwenk]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Not true . All that is required is to insert a row into a SQL table on the device to fake a registration.

To be able to do this you have to be a specialist - and if you are such a specialist, it is even easier to get a Tolino to install other Android applications, which in turn are far superior to the Kobo reading application.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Not true . All that is required is to insert a row into a SQL table on the device to fake a registration.

With the fake registration for Kobo, can you download anything from Kobo? Can you download library books? Can you buy and download books? If you can download library books, how can you do so without giving out any of your info? And if you are able to download library books and are doing it, why then the fake registration?

[PeterT]

I give up. Of course.you cannot download anything from Kobo including library books. If you're paranoid enough not to register why on earth would you want to borrow traceable library books.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by ottischwenk

To be able to do this you have to be a specialist - and if you are such a specialist, it is even easier to get a Tolino to install other Android applications, which in turn are far superior to the Kobo reading application.

So using a SQLite utility to edit one line in a database is easier than the processes I've seen in this forum? Hmmm... download the SQLite utility of your choice, plugin in your Kobo, open the database, execute the one line, close the database. Real specialist qualifications not required.

Yet, somehow this is not easier than the work flows I've seen in this forum and online? Open up your Tolino and make a copy of the SD card? Resize the system partition to have space to install apps? Have fun with ADB, twrp, et alia? Remembering to clean out the tmp folder? We would seem to have different definitions of easier. And lest we forget, SD cards are becoming a thing of the past so no more easy storage space upgrades.

As for ereading applications? I've used a lot of ebook applications and very few of them would be, IMNSHO, superior to the Kobo reading application. Admittedly, I tend to ask little of a reading application other than it displays the text following the ebook's CSS/styles. It sometimes strikes me as strange the sheer number of times I've read posts that proclaim the superiority of an ereading app which is either unable to do this essential task or needs some arcane tweaks to even come close to doing so.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by 4691mls

3. Overdrive library: Syncing the Clara will get library books you have checked out IF the Kobo store has the exact same edition as the library. If this doesn't work, you can use a computer and Adobe Digital Editions to load the book onto the reader.

The Tolino accesses your Overdrive library directly - it looks like what you see on a desktop computer but since it's e-ink it's a lot slower. Any books you check out can be downloaded directly onto the Tolino.

For either reader, I generally prefer to use my computer or phone for browsing my Overdrive library and checking out, then I get the book on the ereader by the methods described above.

Strictly, the tolino can download books with Adobe DRM from the appropriate servers. This means they can download books from the Ovrdrive library, but, it can also download books from stores that use this. I'm pretty sure I have downloaded a book from the Kobo store in this way.

4. Page numbers: Tolino uses ADE page numbers. Kobo switched to numbers of screens per book a while back. Some people like this better. Others hate it. There's a long thread in the Kobo forum arguing both sides of this issue so we probably shouldn't start discussing it here, but if you want to read the arguments you can go to:
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sh...d.php?t=323591

You have forgotten that Kobo still supports the RMSDK for reading epubs. They have not changed the page numbering in that. Only for kepubs. For epubs, the page numbering is the same as on a tolino.

The big differences for me are:

• Tolino shows much less metadata. It doesn't display the comment/description/synopsis or series info.
• Library lists on the Kobos have more functions. Such as filtering and sorting.
• Collections on the Kobos are more flexible. Books can be in as many as you want. The tolino uses a single directory level for collections.
• Annotations on a Kobo work better overall. And don't have the bookmark on every page.

Overall, I feel there is a lack in the UI of the tolino. A lot of that is comparing it to the Kobo that I am very familiar with. I'd have probably been happy with it if I had used if first. But, the missing metadata would probably have been something that I would have complained about.