Accessing Wikipedia with Kobo Wi-Fi (How-To)

[foldor]

Hey everyone. I got my Kobo yesterday and was loving playing around with it, and setting it up. However, as is my nature I must push the boundaries that they've set up.

I was looking at the files on the Kobo device when I came across this little thing /.kobo/Kobo/Kobo eReader.conf

This file is a little configuration file, that of all things stores the web pages used for the Kobo store. In plain text of all things!

Well being curious I just edited each of them to en.wikipedia.org and unplugged my Kobo (BACKUP FIRST!).

Sure enough, when I tried to load the kobo store, it instead pulled up Wikipedia. I can now browse around, and it seems to be working pretty well. It's not great because of the lack of controls on the device, and scrolling to the link you want is a bit of a pain, but it works!

I'm not sure which of the links I changed were the necessary ones, and if there's more to do, but I thought I would share this find anyways, and let other people play around with it.

One note, I think the Kobo PC Software overwrote my changes, so make sure you don't load it up after making your changes.

Best of luck, and report back if you find anything interesting!

EDIT 2: I discovered mobile.wikipedia.org now. It's much easier to use and works great on the kobo. However, the Kobo automatically redirects the url to /home.html which mobile.wikipedia.org doesn't like. So I've set up my home webserver to redirect that page to mobile.wikipedia. If you feel like trying it out yourself feel free to point your Kobo to removed and see if you like what you get.

Edit 3: I've removed the link to my home server as it's no longer set up for this. However, without testing it yet, I believe if you just add a question mark to the end of the URL it should work, or you could set up a page somewhere else that does this. Mine in the end was just two simple links to mobile.wikipedia.org and m.xkcd.com

Edit for images:

[taming]

I can't see wanting to use wikipedia on my reader, but it sure could be useful to people whose readers are set to shop at something like one of the Borders stores and would prefer to shop at kobobook (or vice versa).

[sunami88]

I think that's really cool. Too bad I don't have a wifi Kobo :P.

I'd probably point it at Google and just use it as a web portal.

[zoran]

Originally Posted by sunami88

I'd probably point it at Google and just use it as a web portal.

Or connect to your own home server. Web interface might process
input and do accordingly. Even better if it takes ssl to handle secu-
rity. There is a way to manage tls and include socat app.

[foldor]

Originally Posted by zoran

Or connect to your own home server. Web interface might process
input and do accordingly. Even better if it takes ssl to handle secu-
rity. There is a way to manage tls and include socat app.

Yup, I've got my home server serving a page with 2 links right now. One is mobile wikipedia, and the other is mobile xkcd. I'm still toying around with it, but it's pretty cool nonetheless.

[JP36]

Very cool, if Kobo had web browsing it would be a real contender for me.

[Nate the great]

Your link goes someplace funky and it doesn't work on my Kobo Wifi.

[fred_yu_job]

I think you uncovered the feature in firmware 2.0 ? maybe ?

[foldor]

Originally Posted by Nate the great

Your link goes someplace funky and it doesn't work on my Kobo Wifi.

Yeah sorry about that. Someone else at my place decided he wanted a Windows home server, and wanted it to be accessible from anywhere. Though without testing, I'm sure you could just add a question mark to the end of the url you're trying to visit and it should work.

[Nate the great]

Yep. That fixed it.

[The Terminator]

Sweet

[The Terminator]

Why doesn't kobo do this right now, The Kindle can do facebook and twitter? it just makes sense

[zoran]

Originally Posted by THE TERMINATOR

Why doesn't kobo do this right now, The Kindle can do facebook and twitter? it just makes sense

Kobo is ereader. To me, it makes sense.
The other product with k makes upgrade via wifi. And it uses internet
more, for reasons beyond my interest for reader. I assume some other
gadgets would fulfill multiple needs better. I stay with kobo for reading.
So far.

[ltr]

If people want to access the internet wouldn't an ipad or similar device be a better idea? Why would anyone want the internet in black and white is beyond me. The Kobo is a book reader.

[JP36]

Originally Posted by ltr

If people want to access the internet wouldn't an ipad or similar device be a better idea? Why would anyone want the internet in black and white is beyond me. The Kobo is a book reader.

JMO but it didn't have to be only a book reader, for that I'd say the price should be lower, I feel that way because other products are close to the same price and offer 'more'. There is more to the internet than color pictures/video, to be able to read webpages, news/blogs or send email etc would 'upgrade' the kobo in my view.

As 'just a reader' it seems to be very good, SD card is big plus IMO over the Kindle along with others, but for nearly the same money other products do the same thing, and offer more, to me this doesn't 'make sense'.