Limitations of moving to kindle PW from kobo?

[richstant]

Hi, I'm a Kobo Glo HD user & was going to buy my wife the same. However I see it's been discontinued & the Aura 2 is lower res. That brought me to the Kindle PW. However I seem to remember once before that I bought a kindle, and the ability to sideload from calibre was crippled - particularly with regards to organising things in collections. I also seem to remember that certain firmwares were a lot more limited as to what you could do. However reading around the forums, it looks like that can be solved by jailbreaking & using collections manager, and that can be done irrespective of firmware version?

So can I just check - as regards ease of sideloading & organising in calibre, are there any limitations of going to the kindle PW?

If I jailbreak to make sideloading easier, can I still buy & load things from the kindle store?

Thanks!

[Cinisajoy]

In answer to your questions.
You do NOT have to jailbreak to sideload to a Kindle.
You will however have to convert the Kobo books to a Kindle format in Calibre.
Third even if you jailbreak your kindle, you can still use the Amazon store.

Now I am curious where you heard you have to jailbreak a Kindle to sideload and that if you jailbreak you can't use Amazon. Both are incorrect. You do not have to jailbreak to sideload and you can still use Amazon on a jailbroke Kindle.
Matter of fact, you have to have a registered to Amazon Kindle to even do the jailbreak.

Now before you even think about a jailbreak. Please read all the instructions and spoilers in the software jailbreak thread. If you do not understand a step, do not attempt it.

[Sirtel]

Cannot comment on jailbreaking (my Kindles are not jailbroken), but sideloading is by no means crippled. All my books are sideloaded via Calibre. Most of the features are available for sideloaded books. It's true you have to sort the books into collections manually on an un-jailbroken Kindle, collection managers work only with jailbroken Kindles.

Personally, I have never felt the need for jailbreaking. Sideloading and all the other things important for me work just fine without it.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by richstant

However I seem to remember once before that I bought a kindle, and the ability to sideload from calibre was crippled - particularly with regards to organising things in collections.

Sideloading isn't "crippled" you can add books just fine, but Calibre doesn't have a way to support the auto creation of collections on Kindle devices.

I also seem to remember that certain firmwares were a lot more limited as to what you could do.

Kindle firmware is more limited in that you don't have the options Kobo's have for adjusting margins & line spacing (Kindle's have only a few settings for each) and also don't have the same font handling options.

However reading around the forums, it looks like that can be solved by jailbreaking & using collections manager, and that can be done irrespective of firmware version?

Looking at the Kindle Collection Manager thread it appears to have some issues in newer firmware and according to the thread only works on some models...
https://www.mobileread.com/forums/sho...d.php?t=186305

So can I just check - as regards ease of sideloading & organising in calibre, are there any limitations of going to the kindle PW?

Sideloading, no. Organising, see the thread linked above.

If I jailbreak to make sideloading easier, can I still buy & load things from the kindle store?

Jailbreaking won't make sideloading (loading via USB) and easier and yes a jailbroken device can still load books from the Kindle store.

[robko]

The Aura Glo HD has been discontinued but they are still relatively available on ebay etc apparently. And fortunately even though Kobo has stopped selling the hardware doesn't mean that they'll stop updating the firmware for it.

[richstant]

Thanks for all the comments - you've jogged my memory further, the problem I ran up against before wasn't sideloading, it was organising sideloaded books into categories. On the older kindles there was a plugin that could arrange books into categories based on a column/tag from calibre. With the newer kindles, it seems as though that plugin doesn't work, and so the only way to organise is by jailbreaking.

But as long as that's the only limitation, and I'm happy jailbreaking to get that functionality, it looks like I'll be getting a PW!

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by richstant

Thanks for all the comments - you've jogged my memory further, the problem I ran up against before wasn't sideloading, it was organising sideloaded books into categories. On the older kindles there was a plugin that could arrange books into categories based on a column/tag from calibre. With the newer kindles, it seems as though that plugin doesn't work, and so the only way to organise is by jailbreaking.

But as long as that's the only limitation, and I'm happy jailbreaking to get that functionality, it looks like I'll be getting a PW!

Be sure and triple check on the jailbreak instructions before you do the jailbreak. Oh and save yourself some headaches and spend the extra $20 for no special offers.

[JSWolf]

I don't think your wife is going to be happy with a Kindle when she sees how limited it is is features and typesetting. Also, you make things more difficult for yourself as you then have to deal with two different formats especially if your wife wants to read the same books as you. You could get her an H2O and that would work just fine.

[Cinisajoy]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I don't think your wife is going to be happy with a Kindle when she sees how limited it is is features and typesetting. Also, you make things more difficult for yourself as you then have to deal with two different formats especially if your wife wants to read the same books as you. You could get her an H2O and that would work just fine.

How do you know what his wife uses on her ereader? She might be one that sets it to a default font she likes and then leaves it alone.
And how is it more difficult to read a book on two different devices? He is reading on his, she Is reading on hers and if they were set to auto sync that could cause problems so your statement makes no sense. He is already going to convert.
With a Kindle and a Kobo, that is way more variety if they want to stick to the stores.
You can convert from Kindle to Kobo format in Calibre. And Amazon does sell DRM-free books.

I was waiting on you to come to this thread with your ever so humble opinion about the Kindle.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

How do you know what his wife uses on her ereader? She might be one that sets it to a default font she likes and then leaves it alone.
And how is it more difficult to read a book on two different devices? He is reading on his, she Is reading on hers and if they were set to auto sync that could cause problems so your statement makes no sense. He is already going to convert.
With a Kindle and a Kobo, that is way more variety if they want to stick to the stores.
You can convert from Kindle to Kobo format in Calibre. And Amazon does sell DRM-free books.

I was waiting on you to come to this thread with your ever so humble opinion about the Kindle.

If he has a Kindle, and wanted to get his wife a Kobo, he might be better off staying with Kindle. But in this case, it's the reverse.

[Barbara1955]

I suggest you stick with Kobo. I just got a Kobo Aura 6" off ebay [they are also on sale at Kobo] Tho the ppi is Lower the Kobo is Far better than the PW 2 or 3 I had both. !st you can adjust how Bright it is on Kobo which is Very Even while on the PW you can see cones. On the Kobo you can make the words Bolder where the PW you cant they have no real choice light print or just a hair darker & to do that you cant pick a font...more font choices if you pick the lighter print only 1 for you need it darker. An the size of the font jumps from real tiny to Huge on the PW... on the Kobo it set where you really need it. I too was disappointed I couldn't find a Glo HD thought it being a higher ppi was important to my old tired eye. But it wasn't! I am actually reading on the Kobo with Lower Light! Darker Bolder Font & it even tiny print ...so to speak. Way less page turns too!

[Cinisajoy]

Jon and Katie lead me to ask, how does your wife use her ereader?

*Though please know that Jon does not own a kindle and Katie has had problems of one sort or other with every Kindle she has owned. So they are both biased against Amazon.

I still say get the PW if that is what you want and then you will have access to two stores.
Depending on what your wife reads, she might find the selection much better at Amazon.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

Jon and Katie lead me to ask, how does your wife use her ereader?

*Though please know that Jon does not own a kindle and Katie has had problems of one sort or other with every Kindle she has owned. So they are both biased against Amazon.

I still say get the PW if that is what you want and then you will have access to two stores.
Depending on what your wife reads, she might find the selection much better at Amazon.

You do not need a Kindle to have access to Amazon's eBooks. I use Kindle for PC to download and then I load into Calibre to remove the DRM and I am good to go. Not having a physical Kindle is not a hinder to buying & reading Kindle eBooks.

[AnemicOak]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

Not having a physical Kindle is not a hinder to buying & reading Kindle eBooks.

No one said it was.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by AnemicOak

No one said it was.

Originally Posted by Cinisajoy

I still say get the PW if that is what you want and then you will have access to two stores.

That makes it sound like you need a physical Kindle to have access to Amazon's eBooks.