Does the Aura HD have Favorites?

[kgn]

I currently use a Pocketbook 302 (and loving it), but am thinking of upgrading to something newer.

One thing I cannot do without on the Pocketbook is Favorites. I have thousands of books on the thing, so to find a particular author or book can be difficult. I mainly use the Favorites function to do this, so I would like any new ereader to do something similar.

One real problem with the likes of the Kindle is the (in my opinion) awful software. Much like the Apple iPhone, where the hardware is great, but the software is awful.

I like the look of the Aura HD - but I was wondering what the software is like. The software on the Pocketbook 302 is great - it is simple to organise books by Author first letter/authors/series/books. The Kindles I have worked with have been awful in this regard. I am hoping that the Aura HD is somewhere in the middle or more like the Pocketbook?

Obviously I use Calibre (that goes without saying, I guess).

I would appreciate feedback from Aura HD owners...

[PeterT]

Can you explain how favorites work?

One function many of us use is the Shelf / Collection support builtin into calibre and the Kobo driver. There is a sticky thread here that describes how to use it.

[kgn]

Originally Posted by PeterT

Can you explain how favorites work?

Sure. You just highlight a book or author on the front screen, bring up the menu and then 'Mark as Favorite'. Simple as that. It would be nice if I could do it from Calibre, of course.

There is an option on the main menu called 'Favourites'. That displays all of the previously marked favourites. As I read a book, I simply delete them from my Favourites.

Usually, when I add new books or authors to my reader using Calibre, I make a note of the authors I want to read next. Once I have updated the reader and disconnected from Calibre, I go into the reader and add all the new authors to my favorites list. If I don't, I forget, and basically will never be able to find those books again.

I really should only add those books I want to read next to the reader...might start doing that. After 4+ years using my reader, it has thousands of books on it - 99% of which I will never get a chance to read.

Unlike many people here, I only have ONE ereader!! I know!! Awful, huh. But it has been one of the best things I have ever bought - I use it a couple of hours a day, every day of the year, and for 4 or 5 years now. Probably time to get a second one....

[PeterT]

I tend to use multiple columns to create a range of shelves / collections on my Kobo.

The driver is set to use the following:

#myshelves,  #readstatus, series, #monthadded

myshelves is a column defined as "comma seperated text, like tags, shown in the tag browser"
readstatus is a column based on other columns that ends up being either nothing, "Reading", or "Finished_YYYY" where YYYY is the year I finished the book
series is the series value from calibre
monthadded is a column based on other columns that ends up being "_ZZ_Added_YYYY_MM" where YYYY is the year and MM the month number that the book was added to calibre,

myshelves I set to one or more of these values To be Read, Library, Reference, Manuals, Cooking

All of this ends up with giving me a lot of flexibility in how the shelves are populated, and helps me find books.

[meeera]

Originally Posted by kgn

Sure. You just highlight a book or author on the front screen, bring up the menu and then 'Mark as Favorite'. Simple as that. It would be nice if I could do it from Calibre, of course.

Have a look at the sticky thread on managing shelves/collections with Calibre. Then create a collection called Favourites (or whatever), doing all the stuff you need to do through Calibre.

After that collection is happily on your reader: Manage that shelf on your device, and a tile link to your Favourites collection will appear on your home page.

[paola]

Having used Pocketbooks readers for some years, I agree that creating a shelf "favourites" is the easiest way to reproduce the POcketbook features.
In terms of firmware, however, I am afraid kgn you will be disappointed, simply because Pocketbook (and other "niche" manufatcurers) offer so many customizable features which other more mass market producers simply cannot match.

Having said that, one can "get used" to it, and you will probably find that even with a Mini the screen is a marked improvement (at least it felt so for me as compared with the Pocketbook 360). Highlighting is also much faster than e.g. on the Pocketbook 902 (touch with stylus).

For customization, I would have a good look at the developers' forum, as there are many hacks that you may find an absolute necessity.
On the plus side, I find my Kobo very intuitive to use, and a year after getting one, though I still miss many of the Pocketbook features (from some functionally important ones, like multitasking with the ability to switch between five or six open books, to comsetic ones like themes) I think the next reader I am going to buy will be a Kobo - just simple to use.

[kgn]

Originally Posted by paola

Having used Pocketbooks readers for some years, I agree that creating a shelf "favourites" is the easiest way to reproduce the POcketbook features.
In terms of firmware, however, I am afraid kgn you will be disappointed, simply because Pocketbook (and other "niche" manufatcurers) offer so many customizable features which other more mass market producers simply cannot match

This is not a big deal for me. I never did much to my PB320 except put on a nice skin and rearrange the button functions.

The Shelf function sounds even better than the current Favorites....I am much encouraged. Thanks.

[paola]

Originally Posted by kgn

This is not a big deal for me. I never did much to my PB320 except put on a nice skin and rearrange the button functions.

The Shelf function sounds even better than the current Favorites....I am much encouraged. Thanks.

then you will take to shelves like a duck to water :-) There is no folder structure in Kobo, but the shelves are in a way more flexible, as the same book can belong to different shelves, which for folders would mean multiple copies of the same books.

[taming]

Take a look at the most excellent sticky on shelves that Peter created. He keeps the first post updated with all the new things that have been figured out.