Recently I purchased an inexpensive little ereader called a KOBO. The Kobo is a plan jane, bare bones ereader. It’s small, light, plan and devoid of heaps of features. However, I have decided that this is why the KOBO is a sexy little ereader and has not been far from my reach for the past two weeks. I won’t go into all the technical specs of the KOBO, I’m sure there are better reviews that can give you that information. But I will highlight the strengths and weaknesses as I experience them.
We are a very bookish family. We live in a bushfire prone part of Australia and are often confronted with very real situations where we have to pack belongings and leave until the bushfire crises subsides. As a family we all agree that in the event of the worst case scenario, we would be most devastated to lose our shelves and shelves of books rather than jewelry, electronics or other keepsakes. There’s something about being surround by volumes, lazily browsing titles and handling most favorite books.
So my family was surprised I got a KOBO. It’s practically the antithesis of the what we collectively value. It’s a piece of technology, small and without character. However, I was fascinated with the small size, weight and ability to store a large volume of books in the device.
After buying the KOBO I quickly striped off the box and got down to business. I was impressed with the 100 or so books that came preloaded. Only after the purchase did I wonder if the device was compatible with my linux systems. The answer is yes and no. I plugged it in and the device was recognised by my Ubuntu system however the preloaded software on the KOBO was not linux compatible (familiar story for linux users). I surfed over to the KOBO website and was impressed with the selection of ebooks. I found the book I was looking for, Snow Crash by Neil Stephenson, and made my online purchase. This was when I realised that KOBO was not going to play nicely with linux. I could not download the ebook purchase.
I rebooted into windows and installed the preloaded software. Arg!. Another problem. The preloaded software was branded to the store (Angus & Robertson) the KOBO was purchased from and could not download or install my purchase from the KOBO site. It was also very apparent that the preloaded software was very limited and only managed purchases from the Angus & Robertson online store. After a little googling I installed Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) and was able to download Snow Crash from KOBO site and then install it on my KOBO. All seeming was well.
But, when adding ebooks to the KOBO from ADE, the front covers are lost as is the ability to change font size. This was important because the font was so small it made reading on the KOBO very tedoious. A little more google later, I learned how to hack into the Snow Crash epub file and delete the css sheet. Like magic, this allowed me to then change the font size on the KOBO for Snow Crash.
The preloaded software is annoying and basically useless. I contacted KOBO support and they were quick to reply but could not offer any real solutions except to say that in the coming weeks, the KOBO site will release their own KOBO software.
I have downloaded the ereader Calibre on linux and this does a great job of managing the books on my KOBO without having to boot into windows. It doesn’t manage to install books purchased online and copyright encrypted. I still have to use ADE to do this although I have managed to get ADE running under Wine on linux.
So what’s the verdict? I love it. It has rarely left my side in two weeks. I like being able to carry several books on the train, to work and around the house in one small tiny device. I like the fact that it is very simple and focuses on only being an ereader. I like the fact that it’s very small, light weight and easy to handle. It makes reading in bed with one hand very easy! The screen was designed specifically to read books from and works well in the sunshine and shade. It is not back-lit and is very easy on the eyes. Almost like a real book. It uses very little power. I’m almost finished with Snow Crash and have started a number of other titles and have recharged it only once.
I’m a convert and you’ll find the KOBO on my bookshelf.
July 2 2010 – UPDATE
Kobo have released a firmware (1.4) update that resolves the issues I mentioned with the font and covers. If you have a Kobo and have not upgraded the firmware, check out this post from Michael Tamblin, EVP of Content, Sales and Merchandising at Kobo discussing the firmware upgrade in detail. Kudos to Kobo for listening to customers and promptly responding. Let’s hope this sort of collaboration continues!
Can you relay the mechanics of installing a book on the Kobo after it’s imported into ADE? I have several books in my ADE library, but can’t figure out how to get them on the Kobo. I tried importing them into Calibre from the My Digital Editions folder, and Calibre sees them, but after loading them on the Kobo, it still insists they’re locked. Google has not been my friend in this regard – nothing I’ve read works.
Hey Mate,
As best I remember, I transfered the ebook directly from ADE into the Kobo.
Check out http://www.mobileread.com . I found the folks in the
mobileread.com Kobo forums to be especially helpful and much more informed
than myself http://www.mobileread.com/forums/forumdisplay.php?f=223 . Best
of luck.
Basically, you plug your Kobo in and you’ll see it pop up in the column on the left in ADE. You then just drag books from the area that displays their covers over to the aforementioned icon of the Kobo in the left pane (much like you would drag songs into your ipod in iTunes).
Hi Folks,
Dale, great review, thanks for taking the time out to write it. I too am a linux user, and recently just received a Kobo -so we, and others I notice are on similar paths. Keep up the great work, very much appreciated.