Rakuten / Kobo phasing out Overdrive

[Derf]

Just had a little chat with Customer Service at Kobo... The rep I chatted with said Rakuten is phasing out Overdrive.



https://ibb.co/iPgWK8

[thangcuoi]

Is it possible that this support person is referring to OverDrive software being replaced by Libby?

https://play.google.com/store/apps/d....android.libby

Sent from my PH-1 using Tapatalk

[Derf]

Perhaps, I really don't know. I thought Libby was just an app front-end to Overdrive.


https://ibb.co/bOiHsT

http://library.austintexas.libanswers.com/faq/202798

[stumped]

No, libby is a separate, and much improved stand-alone app. the only thing it shares with overdrive is that option to sign in with the same credentials
I have removed overdrive from all my mobile devices and use only libby, which works fine without it . it even does audio book mp3 loans , direct to tablet

[teija]

I may be missing something here, but when I use Overdrive to borrow library books and put onto my Kobo I'm still downloading the file as an ePub, then loading onto my Kobo Aura via Adobe Digital Editions. Is there a more direct way to do this?

[stumped]

Originally Posted by teija

I may be missing something here, but when I use Overdrive to borrow library books and put onto my Kobo I'm still downloading the file as an ePub, then loading onto my Kobo Aura via Adobe Digital Editions. Is there a more direct way to do this?

With e ink devices, you may have to do that.
But With Libby on an android tablet you can simply open Libby, browse library checkout books and read them, return them., Place holds... No pc needed

You can even go to pc and download the epub that you already checked out via Libbey, to read in ade.

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by teija

I may be missing something here, but when I use Overdrive to borrow library books and put onto my Kobo I'm still downloading the file as an ePub, then loading onto my Kobo Aura via Adobe Digital Editions. Is there a more direct way to do this?

If you have a Kobo Aura ONE and live in the right country, you can connect your Kobo account to your OD/library account and borrow books through the Kobo store. Or borrow them through the library, OD or Libby and have them download to your device from Kobo.

[stumped]

Originally Posted by davidfor

If you have a Kobo Aura ONE and live in the right country, you can connect your Kobo account to your OD/library account and borrow books through the Kobo store. Or borrow them through the library, OD or Libby and have them download to your device from Kobo.

NB is a specific feature of that flagship model e reader ONLY.

AFAIK you cannot do that on any other Kobo
also, various workarounds have been tried using browsers on e-ink devices but don't work

so if you have an e-ink Kobo, which is not an Aura ONE, you have to use a PC as an intermediate device to license and move the epub.

If you have an e-ink device which also runs android apps, then you may be able to install libby, from google play store, but books borrowed via libby have to be read in libby- you can't opt to read them in a different app on your device.

That's not too bad - libby has features to let you tweak how it looks and behaves, as a reader. I use the custom preferences, with maximum line height, & 2 pages in landscape mode layout. It syncs well between my different tablets

[davidfor]

Originally Posted by stumped

NB is a specific feature of that flagship model e reader ONLY.

AFAIK you cannot do that on any other Kobo
also, various workarounds have been tried using browsers on e-ink devices but don't work

so if you have an e-ink Kobo, which is not an Aura ONE, you have to use a PC as an intermediate device to license and move the epub.

And where in my post did I say anything else? I was responding to a post that asked if there was another way to do something, so I told them. Unfortunately, it currently requires a specific device. But, we live in hope that Kobo comes to their senses and adds this to other devices.

If you have an e-ink device which also runs android apps, then you may be able to install libby, from google play store, but books borrowed via libby have to be read in libby- you can't opt to read them in a different app on your device.

That's not too bad - libby has features to let you tweak how it looks and behaves, as a reader. I use the custom preferences, with maximum line height, & 2 pages in landscape mode layout. It syncs well between my different tablets

Whereas your solution requires the user to have e-ink device that runs Android at a version that is capable of running Libby. I'm not sure which of us is limiting the device choice more.

[rcentros]

Originally Posted by teija

I may be missing something here, but when I use Overdrive to borrow library books and put onto my Kobo I'm still downloading the file as an ePub, then loading onto my Kobo Aura via Adobe Digital Editions. Is there a more direct way to do this?

Only with the Kobo Aura ONE (or tablets). And (I've recently found) that the Tolino will directly download (and return) ePubs from Overdrive without a computer. My Sony PRS-T2 will download them, but won't let me return them (the borrowing time has to expire). But, both the Tolino Page and Sony T2 require you borrow through their built-in browsers, so it's not the easiest thing to do (eInk web browsing is no treat). But at least it's an option as I use Linux and don't use Wine or ADE on my main computer. (I do have it on a dual-boot partition on a laptop, but hardly ever boot to Windows.)

[SteveEisenberg]

Originally Posted by thangcuoi

Is it possible that this support person is referring to OverDrive software being replaced by Libby?

Considering the alternative, I hope it is nothing more drastic!

As of this morning, Libby help still says:

Will Libby replace the OverDrive app?

Not anytime soon! We have no plans to remove the OverDrive app.