Should Kobo have a Send to Kobo like Kindle?

[Gone]

What do you think?

A service that would send any files to your Kobo and convert ePub to Kobo format (KePub) and add a sync across all your devices (phone, tablet computer, ereaders.)

Personally, one thing I love with Kobo is it's great integration with Calibre and how I can manage my books into collections (I use tags.) A "Send to Kobo" service would have to keep that possibility and all metadatas.

PS : This poll is for entertainment purposes only. Have fun discussing it.

[Sirtel]

Don't care. I prefer to load my books via USB, to keep all the metadata and collections, plus it's faster with a large number of books than sending them to Kobo servers and downloading from there would be.

Just recently I re-edited more than a thousand of my ebooks; I then deleted them from my Kobos and reloaded the re-edited versions. Less than half an hour via USB; I don't want to think how long it would have taken to get them to my Kobos via Send-to-Kobo.

Syncing between my two Kobos would be nice, but I don't really need that either - I'm perfectly capable of finding my place manually.

Of course, for many people this feature is a dealbreaker and the main reason why they use a Kindle instead of a Kobo. So it would be nice if Kobo added it.

[Quoth]

It would make more sense for an ereader to have an email client and SFTP client rather than hard coded to privacy busting vendor or a 3rd party you can't change (dropbox etc). Or be able to download ebooks on its browser (I think I did get that to work, but computer + Calibre makes more sense because of stupid formatting and DRM.

I did test the "Send to Kindle". It's not something I'd ever use again even if still mainly using a Kindle.

[graycyn]

Honest answer is yes, I'd like it available. Do I absolutely need it, no. Would I pay for it? Probably not, unless as a one-time payment, or possibly as a low-priced yearly subscription, say $10-20. (I always think long and hard about subscription services.)

One reason for liking the idea is that it would make Kobo more attractive to existing Kindle users who heavily rely on this feature.

For my purposes, I read primarily epub, so it's no big deal to switch between my Kobo devices, and find my last read location via ADE page numbers. Dropbox works fine.

Still, there are times when I'm proofreading, and would enjoy the reassurance of my highlights and/or notes being temporarily backed up in the cloud until I get those changes made in my document.

[Karellen]

While there are 4 options to answer, three of them are slanted to "Yes". I had to answer No, but what I actually mean is "I couldn't care less" if there was that option or not.

I have no need for a "Send to", like Sirtel I just sideload which, from what I recall, you can't do easily with Kindle. Maybe I am wrong, but it has been a few years since using a Kindle and before I joined Mobilereads and discovered the vast store of info. I do recall having to email my books to a specific email address to show up on my Kindle.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Karellen

I have no need for a "Send to", like Sirtel I just sideload which, from what I recall, you can't do easily with Kindle. Maybe I am wrong, but it has been a few years since using a Kindle and before I joined Mobilereads and discovered the vast store of info. I do recall having to email my books to a specific email address to show up on my Kindle.

You can actually sideload to a Kindle (via USB) just as easily as to a Kobo, but you can't transfer the series or collections information.

[Karellen]

Originally Posted by Sirtel

You can actually sideload to a Kindle (via USB) just as easily as to a Kobo, but you can't transfer the series or collections information.

Interesting. I don't remember ever doing that, it was always the email method.
I had an old Gen 2 Kindle with the keyboard that lasted me about 10 years until it died, but for the final few years it was sitting in a drawer as my reading habits fell off a cliff and disappeared.

[Gone]

Originally Posted by Karellen

While there are 4 options to answer, three of them are slanted to "Yes". I had to answer No, but what I actually mean is "I couldn't care less" if there was that option or not.

I hesitated between “Maybe” and “Are you crazy”.

[Pjama]

I don’t think it’s really necessary with the DropBox and Google Drive integration. I picked Maybe, because, why not? I use Send to Kindle every day to send the morning puzzles to my Scribe. I also send epubs to it from time to time. Any puzzles or suchlike I want on my Libra Colour, I send using DropBox. And other files I transfer across from Calibre, after using tags to sort into Collections.

I guess it would be useful for people whose Kobos don’t have DB or GD, and who don't want to do Nickel-based workarounds, or who don’t know about the workarounds.

[Sirtel]

Originally Posted by Pjama

I don’t think it’s really necessary with the DropBox and Google Drive integration. I picked Maybe, because, why not? I use Send to Kindle every day to send the morning puzzles to my Scribe. I also send epubs to it from time to time. Any puzzles or suchlike I want on my Libra Colour, I send using DropBox. And other files I transfer across from Calibre, after using tags to sort into Collections.

I guess it would be useful for people whose Kobos don’t have DB or GD, and who don't want to do Nickel-based workarounds, or who don’t know about the workarounds.

Dropbox and Google Drive don't sync the reading progress, though. Some people read on a variety of devices and rely heavily on that feature.

[Quoth]

Though a search on last few words you remember reading is far faster than sync which involves two connections to the internet and a third party capturing everything.

Also I don't have a data plan on my phone and if I'm somewhere with WiFi I probably have my Sage anyway.

[JSWolf]

If you had a Send to Kobo, you would not be able to do collections, series, B&W covers, and anything else that needs calibre to send to the Kobo and update the database.

IMHO, I'm against Send to Kobo. That would make the firmware larger with a major feature I don't think we need.

[Gone]

I tried Dropbox.

It installed a separate folder on my Mac, just for Kobo.

I thought I could share any folder on my computer, like my Calibre library. But no.

I don't know if it would have been the same process with Google Drive?

So, I have to drop every ePub in that special Dropbox folder. If I want it in KePub, I have to convert the file first, I guess. I didn't tried that.

Since I don't use Dropbox or Google Drive, I didn't enjoy the service enough to keep using it.

I use iCloud for everyday use, and my Calibre library is stored in Mega.

[Sirtel]

I'm a heavy Dropbox user, with a paid account. But I don't use it to send books to my Kobos. After trying it a couple of times, I still prefer the USB connection. And I'm pretty sure I'd prefer USB to a Send-to-Kobo service as well.

I rarely used Send-to-Kindle when I read on Kindles - there, too, I preferred loading over USB.

[rcentros]

I would like a Send-to-Kobo feature, but not like the Kindle's, more like the PocketBook's Send-to-PocketBook feature. I like being to able to buy a book online (basically from anywhere either from a smartphone or computer), downloading the .acsm file, and sending that file to my PocketBook via email and, since PocketBook has ADE built-in, it automatically downloads the book from the .acsm file. Also works for Overdrive ePubs.

I doubt you're going to get it though since Kobo is hoping you'll buy your books from them and most likely aren't anxious to make it easier to buy elsewhere.

For when I do buy books from Kobo on my Kobo (rarely) I would like the option to download the book in ePub format instead of the standard (only) choice KePub.