Forma Wishful thinking...

[ottdmk]

I ended up browsing around in my local Chapters store the other night, and came to a conclusion.

I would really like to own a Forma.

I don't need a Forma... my H2Ov1 still works perfectly.

I can't afford a Forma... particularly not the 32GB model I'd prefer.

But I would definltely like to own a Forma, especially after holding one.

[ZodWallop]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

I ended up browsing around in my local Chapters store the other night, and came to a conclusion.

I would really like to own a Forma.

I don't need a Forma... my H2Ov1 still works perfectly.

I can't afford a Forma... particularly not the 32GB model I'd prefer.

But I would definltely like to own a Forma, especially after holding one.

Save up and don't pull the trigger early and buy an 8GB Forma when you really want the 32GB one. I've found having to inconvenience myself a little here and there to save up money for something will show me whether I really want it or not.

[Mercador]

If I may, why would you want the 32Gb one? Even with big PDFs, it would be difficult to max out 8Gb.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Mercador

If I may, why would you want the 32Gb one? Even with big PDFs, it would be difficult to max out 8Gb.

No, it isn't. Many people have huge libraries and want as big a chunk of them as possible on their ereader. Before you ask why have so many books on an ereader, I personally never know what I want to read next. It changes constantly. So I want to have a large selection instantly available. 8 GB is barely enough. My Oasis 3 is 32 GB.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Mercador

If I may, why would you want the 32Gb one? Even with big PDFs, it would be difficult to max out 8Gb.

Though the 32GB versions are oriented towards those reading manga and other graphic content, I'm pushing the limits of the 6.73GB available storage on my 8GB Forma. With ~2900 epubs installed, I'm showing 750MB free.. And that's after making sure the full size parsed images are deleted since I prefer my M. C. Escher image collection as the sleep and power off images.

[binaryhermit]

Originally Posted by Mercador

If I may, why would you want the 32Gb one? Even with big PDFs, it would be difficult to max out 8Gb.

Admittedly, I'm a bit out of my lane here as this is the kobo forum and I only have kindles, but I have over 5000 books (Amazon's manage your content and devices page thinks 3167 docs and 2132 books) on my Kindle Manga (basically a Kindle Paperwhite 3 with 32 GB of storage).
It'd be fair to call me a digital hoarder.

Although it kinda is slow searching and indexing, probably due to the massive amount of content on it.
That might be a kindle issue though.

[hobnail]

Isn't it the case that the AZW3 files aren't compressed while EPUBs are (using zip)? After a while that space difference could add up. So comparing Kindles to Kobos is sort of like apples and oranges.

As a test I used calibre and converted an EPUB (no images or fonts) to AZW3; in EPUB it's 556 kb, in AZW3 it's 789 kb.

Another reason for 32 gb could be traveling; you're not sure if you're bringing enough so to be safe you load a boatload of books from Project Gutenberg.

[binaryhermit]

I think azw3 files are compressed. There's at least 2 levels of compression for .mobi (which AZW3 is a .mobi with only the so-called KF8/"new" format included?) and calibre only uses the less cpu intensive less effective version I think

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by binaryhermit

I think azw3 files are compressed. There's at least 2 levels of compression for .mobi (which AZW3 is a .mobi with only the so-called KF8/"new" format included?) and calibre only uses the less cpu intensive less effective version I think

Yes, that's true for MOBI files. But AZW3's are pretty much EPUB's with an Amazon ribbon around them. That's why the KindleUnpack plugin can 'convert' them so quickly; there is no real conversion involved, just some internal rearranging of files.


At least, that's how I understand things.

[Dr. Drib]

Originally Posted by ottdmk

I ended up browsing around in my local Chapters store the other night, and came to a conclusion.

I would really like to own a Forma.

I don't need a Forma... my H2Ov1 still works perfectly.

I can't afford a Forma... particularly not the 32GB model I'd prefer.

But I would definltely like to own a Forma, especially after holding one.

The Forma has been out for around 14 or so months.

Wait a bit longer and a new version MIGHT be available - and without that light wedge issue.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by mbovenka

Yes, that's true for MOBI files. But AZW3's are pretty much EPUB's with an Amazon ribbon around them. That's why the KindleUnpack plugin can 'convert' them so quickly; there is no real conversion involved, just some internal rearranging of files.


At least, that's how I understand things.

When you use KindleUnpack to shift from KF8 to ePub, you have to use epubcheck to check for errors as there will be some. The errors should be fixed. Also, if it's not a KF8 from one of the big 5 plublishers, the Kf8 can be not all that nice to format shift.

For example, one KF8 I've seen was using a lot of media queries and the book was one big file instead of split into chapters. So you have to check out the ePub once you've shifted to make sue it's OK.

[rashkae]

KF8 are very similar to epubs in the sense that they use Xhtml/html files for content, css file for formatting and a easy to understand text file that tells the reader how to put it all together. The actual packaging, as in, how it's all packed into a single archive, is different. Unlike EPUB, they are not using zip file format. They are still compressed, but the Epub zip compression is just always more efficient in terms of space used.

[ottdmk]

Just to answer people's curiosity: I have a fair number of gaming PDFs that I keep on my current H2Ov1, on the removable SD card. I believe everything would fit into the available space of the 8GB Forma... but I'd rather have some breathing room.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For example, one KF8 I've seen was using a lot of media queries and the book was one big file instead of split into chapters. So you have to check out the ePub once you've shifted to make sue it's OK.

If you love media queries, check out any Amazon azw3/KF8 created with Vellum. Though the overall structure of the extracted epub is pretty decent, there is a second stylesheet devoted to media queries.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

For example, one KF8 I've seen was using a lot of media queries and the book was one big file instead of split into chapters. So you have to check out the ePub once you've shifted to make sue it's OK.

Yep, I'm aware of that. I always use the 'Oversize HTML files' check of the Quality Check plugin to check any resulting EPUBs.