Aura HD Kobo Aura HD Impressions Thread

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by flips01

Yes, but I found the navigate/mini page box to steal valuable space. (Maybe I can hide it? Just did a quick test.)

+ Reading large documents where you have to zoom and scroll a lot for each page, don't seem like a good option to me. (Unless there's some smart "tap to skip to next column/page" function like GoodReader on iOS has.)

you definitely can get rid of the box, just tap.

i see...if you have lots of columns, i could see that might be annoying. the pdfs i want to read look good zoomed in to fit width...then i just have to scroll once to read the bottom half of the page. then when i flip the page, it goes to the start of the next page without me doing anything and stays zoomed in. so all i have to do is read top half, scroll, read bottom half (well more like bottom 1/3 or 1/4), flip page, read top 1/2 etc. One scroll per page. So in my case, it's not that far from reading an epub.

The pdfs i want to read had a huge margin, so i had to use a programme on my computer to crop off the crazy-sized margins, but after that, i found scrolling to be very easy.

But I see why it might not work so simply if you have many columns.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by Canuck_in_Japan

Seeing as the front light is a front light and not a back light I'm not sure the inverted mode will do anything for you. The whole point of inverted mode is to reduce the amount of light coming out through the screen. Since zero light comes out through the screen of a front lit reader anyway it probably wouldn't have much effect.

Whether backlit or frontlit there has to be light coming from the screen to your eyes, emitted or reflected, for you to see anything.

How would the aura lit screen look inverted, I don't know. But there will less light coming back at your eyes with a black background for sure.

[93terp]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

Yeah, I know about that but I don't want to have to go in and "delete" stuff right after I purchase it every single time. I was hoping there was a setting I was missing somewhere.

YMMV, but to prevent the Aura from syncing firmware updates automatically I changed the User field in the SQLITE file (database) on the device. However, if you only load books from your Kobo via WiFi sync then you won't want to change the database. I only sideload via Calibre.

[jiminrussell]

Originally Posted by Barty

Whether backlit or frontlit there has to be light coming from the screen to your eyes, emitted or reflected, for you to see anything.

How would the aura lit screen look inverted, I don't know. But there will less light coming back at your eyes with a black background for sure.

I expect it would look much the same as it does on the glo as shown in the developers forums here where someone has got inverted view working on glo, touch and mini, I haven't read the whole thread so not sure if they have it working on the Aura or not yet.

[flips01]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

you definitely can get rid of the box, just tap.

i see...if you have lots of columns, i could see that might be annoying. the pdfs i want to read look good zoomed in to fit width... [...]

The pdfs i want to read had a huge margin, so i had to use a programme on my computer to crop off the crazy-sized margins, but after that, i found scrolling to be very easy.

But I see why it might not work so simply if you have many columns.

It definitively works better than the Kindle on PDFs (mainly due to the better resolution). The Kindle's pinch zoom is easier, though.
For my multi-column PDF's I would need to split the pages in some program before syncing to the Aura.

Two questions:
1. If I set the page refresh from 6 to 1 (due to that bug), will that decrease battery time notably?
2. Is it possible to turn off the "Page # of #" in PDF viewing? (Especially in Landscape mode that would be nice)

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by flips01

It definitively works better than the Kindle on PDFs (mainly due to the better resolution). The Kindle's pinch zoom is easier, though.
For my multi-column PDF's I would need to split the pages in some program before syncing to the Aura.

Two questions:
1. If I set the page refresh from 6 to 1 (due to that bug), will that decrease battery time notably?
2. Is it possible to turn off the "Page # of #" in PDF viewing? (Especially in Landscape mode that would be nice)

My advice would be to set page refresh to 1 ONLY when reading PDFs. If you are reading mostly PDFs, you could leave it at 1 all the time, but if not it will probably save you battery at least some to have it on 6 when reading epubs. It is one thing you *can* change after opening a PDF (or epub), ie you don't have to do it from the main menu. Just bring up the bottom menu, tap the spanner, tap "reading settings". 2 firmware versions ago we didn't have this bug, it just automatically cleaned up after moving around in zoom mode...maybe they'll fix it again soon.
If you find changing back and forth annoying, but still want to save on battery, you can do the 2nd work around:
Move your document to the appropriate place on the screen. Bring up the menu (touch bottom of screen, or right side when using landscape). Touch anywhere to close menu. This will also refresh the screen. But you will also have to do this when you turn a page in portrait and it sends you to the top, which if page refresh is on 1 will load properly.
I find it less distracting and frustrating to just change the page refresh when using PDFs, but as I say, best of all worlds is if they fix this silly bug ASAP.

One note with landscape...I don't know why, but it doesn't go to the start of the next page when zoomed and you turn the page. So after turning the page, you have to scroll up. Annoying. Portrait does this properly, which is why I tend to use portrait, even though landscape allows for bigger font.

Unfortunately, there is no way to turn off the page of page setting. BUT if you are zoomed in they disappear! So if you are using zoom anyhow, it isn't an issue. For non-column based PDFs, I recommend using the fit to width zoom if you don't have excessive margins...for me that makes it zoom the perfect amount. Of course this may vary on what your base document looks like.

[beckybug3]

Does anyone know where and what I can get to use a glare-free screen protector for my Aura?

Thanks!

[sebasdoes]

Originally Posted by Uschiekid

Yup. I have the Glo, not the Aura.

I ended up buying the Glo, and it works like a charm. First Kobo device.
I won't hijack the Aura thread with more Glo stuff, but just wanted to say thanks!

[Uschiekid]

Originally Posted by sebasdoes

I ended up buying the Glo, and it works like a charm. First Kobo device.
I won't hijack the Aura thread with more Glo stuff, but just wanted to say thanks!

Glad to hear it!

You're welcome!

[RZetlin]

I decided to take the plunge and purchase the Aura at Chapters Bookstore last night.

My first pick would have been to purchase the eReader from Future Shop or Best Buy, because they have better return polices. Unfortunately, they don't sell the Aura in-stores.

The Aura comes a beige plain looking box - I wanted the packaging to look better for a "premium" reader.

The box comes with a device, braided USB cable, and start-up booklets.

The setup is the same as other Kobo devices which requires a plug into a PC for the first time.

I transferred my micro SD card from my old Glo to the Aura. Be warned, if you have a lot of books on the card, it takes a long time for the Aura to process all the books. For me it took about 2 hours for Aura to process all my books!

The shelves were transferred, but some of the books were missing in the shelves.

I ended up using cailbre to retransfer the books back to the shelves.

The shelves show more books now.

On my Glo only 6 books can be shown on a page, with the Aura about 12 books can be shown on a page.

Unlike the Glo, there is no scroll bar shown at the bottom of the screen in the shelves. You have to flick your finger to turn to the next page.

There was a glitch were all the books were listed by title alphabetically in descending order. The glitch seems to have correct itself when I switched from date added back to title.

The screen looks amazing. Definitely the highlight of the device. Text looks crisper on the Aura compared to my Glo. Images benefit greatly with a larger screen. Compared to my Glo I no longer have to zoom-in a lot to read manga now.

Unfortunately, I cannot take the Aura outside until I get a proper cover for it.

I will post more when I have the time to I explore the device.

[taming]

Check to see if the missing books from the bookshelves were sideloaded. They do not sync, so would not be stored on the Kobo server as being on your shelves. I believe that the box was an attempt at understated elegance .

[jackie_w]

Originally Posted by RZetlin

Unlike the Glo, there is no scroll bar shown at the bottom of the screen in the shelves. You have to flick your finger to turn to the next page.

In case you don't already know this, from the library booklist you can tap the 'Page x of y' to type in the page you want to go to. May be helpful if you've got a large library.

[flips01]

Originally Posted by jiminrussell

I expect it would look much the same as it does on the glo as shown in the developers forums here where someone has got inverted view working on glo, touch and mini, I haven't read the whole thread so not sure if they have it working on the Aura or not yet.

I got it working on my Aura HD. Oress and hold the light switch two seconds to toggle inversion. It seems very promising. Thanks!

[Barty]

Originally Posted by flips01

I got it working on my Aura HD. Oress and hold the light switch two seconds to toggle inversion. It seems very promising. Thanks!

Could you post a picture of it with the glo light on. I'd like to see what that looks like. Thank you.

[samhy]

Now that the Aura is available in stores, I went to compare it to a Glo. And I ended up exiting said store with an Aura because of the great front light, if nothing else.

It feels surprisingly light for 240g and the back is thinner than the videos led me to believe.

Well, I don't think I can add anything that hasn't been said already so I'll stop here

Edit: the displayed devices were just out of the box and not connected to WIFI, so all of them were running the firmware 2.4.3 (or was it 2.4.2?). With this firmware the home screen is exactly the one we are used to with other Kobo devices (carousel and everything, no tiles to be seen).