Computers >
Hardware, Reading >
(on Wikipedia)
https://www.kobo.com/
https://ca.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura-one [ 1 ]
An E-book reader.
Because this is my first e-reader, I can't judge it against it's peers. It works well.
It is spectacular hardware-wise. Its software works, but it is sometimes obviously or even critically lacking. It lacking a file browser and respecting directories is bad enough that I can't really use it for its intended purpose, and almost regret buying it.
- See also: e-book websites
- Important: Improving e-reader speeds for Internet Archive books
-
2024-01-08 - I started using KOReader with it.
-
I was unable to get the limited edition, though I doubt it matters since 8 GB ought to be enough for me for a beginner e-reader.
Features ∞
todo
- 8 GB storage
- TODO - Dimensions (about 8")
-
Black-and-white e-ink
- TODO - more
-
Waterproof
- TODO - IPXX water/dust rating
- Acts as a plug-and-play no-driver USB mass storage device.
The good ∞
Why I bought it ∞
-
Works just like a USB thumb drive, with no drivers or special things.
- Works in Linux.
- In fact, I haven't used it with any sort of management software, and none came with it.
-
Native OverDrive support.
- OverDrive explicitly states Aura ONE support.
- My library explicitly states OverDrive support.
- Allowing me to check out DRM-disabled library eBooks, and with no computer required.
- Waterproof.
-
An integrated beta web browser
- While slow and with predictable and acceptable ghosting, works well enough for Wikipedia.
- As of 2023-08-07 it's still in beta.
:(
-
Many formats supported: (EPUB, EPUB3, PDF, MOBI, JPEG, GIF, PNG, BMP, TIFF, TXT, HTML, RTF, Comic book archive: CBZ, CBR)
- HTML with CSS has not been tested.
- RTF is pretty cool.
- CBZ and CBR was a shock!
Other goodness ∞
-
Great packaging.
- Too great. I wish more time and money had gone into the software.
- 8 GB ought to be enough for everyone™
- Very light.
-
A good size that balances between too small and too difficult to pocket.
- It fits in my (rather large) inside coat pocket.
- Great rubberised back.
- Very positive first impression for the initial setup.
-
The top-right light can be turned off while charging.
- Yes, this sort of thing matters to me. In this case it doesn't, but I appreciate such functionality.
-
Beautiful screen.
- Great fonts.
- Including OpenDyslexic.
- Great fonts.
-
Sensitive and very functional touch capability.
- I was pleasantly surprised.
- Easy firmware update functionality. Go online and get prompted.
-
Trivially easy to sideload files and directories.
- Very fast updating of its list.
The bad ∞
- Typing on a virtual keyboard is pretty slow.
-
There are a number of places where there is an ellipse I have to tap to pull up a menu, but that spot is too small to tap predictably.
- For example, with the list view.
- It has gamification of reading, which I find both childish and creepy.
-
I immediately noticed the source of the various LEDs. This made the lighting look cheap or even broken.
- After using it for a while, I don't notice it any more even when looking for it.
- Annotations are comically difficult, outright bad, and trivially easy to delete.
- Has no functionality to edit the metadata for items.
-
Very slow page-turning for PDF/large books.
- However, it's possible to fix some documents. See Improving e-reader speeds for Internet Archive books.
- Cannot adjust the brightness by swiping up/down on the left side, when in the configuration screen.
The awful ∞
2020-05-03 - There is no easy way to connect with the development team; they are stonewalling. Their live chat cannot help. I am trying through their feedback system.
Holy shit, these things are beyond unacceptable.
-
The way I instinctively hold it is with my left hand, and to grasp it like any object by having my thumb in the middle of the screen. This, however, is a tap/swipe zone.
- This ends up hurting my hand.
-
Really terribly slow for high-quality image-based books.
- See Improving e-reader speeds for Internet Archive books. Me jumping through hoops helped a lot, but this won't work for all problem-cases.
- All files are mangled into one flat list based on filename.
- Cannot use directories.
- No file management.
-
The web browser does not work well with Project Gutenberg or Internet Archive, because it does not properly identify itself as a tablet or phone.
- .. or those websites don't have support for such screen sizes, which I highly doubt.
-
Annotations and highlighting functionality don't work with all supported file types.
.pdf
;.txt
;.jpg
or.tiff
inside a.cbz
and anything other than a regular e-book (I think I did it with a.mobi
)..htm
works, and so I could convert a text file into HMTL.. which just highlights how odd it is to not support text files out of the box. It would be easy if comments were simply put in a sidecar file. Maybe they're directly embedded into the item, but I doubt it.- Adding notes to your book on your eReader
- Highlighting text on your Kobo eReader
TODO - Bugs ∞
-
It once forgot my WiFi password, which was annoying.
- I am unable to reproduce this.
-
If I manually adjust the brightness, such as swiping vertically on the left side, automatic-mode for brightness is disabled. Going into the display settings (at the top), I see there are sliders and a switch for "auto", but they don't work.
- The workaround is to go into those settings, swipe natural light to the right, then toggle natural light to auto. Then brightness and natural light auto-adjust and presumably stay auto-adjusting. Even then, this isn't consistent. This automation is a selling point, but it's just broken.
-
Energy settings > Show current read
- This is not right, it shows something else!
Software Improvements ∞
-
Be able to "crop" the view of text, disable scrolling, and have that setting maintained by page.
- Be able to set that to be different for alternating pages.
- The reason I want this is so that I can enlarge a smaller-print scanned book, to crop out its whitespace, and perhaps a top title and bottom page number.
- Landscape mode.
- Be able to disable all gamification.
-
The annotations and eBook bookmarking functionality needs a complete interface overhaul. It's awkward, unintuitive and all-around awful.
- It would take me a significant time to describe everything that needs to be done. It's just so bad that it feels like an afterthought.
-
A proper file manager.
- Renaming, deleting, editing, moving.
- Text editing functionality.
- A text file associated with every eBook, with an easy dropdown to access it.
- Be able to disable refreshing the page every x amount (e.g. every chapter).
- Be able to disable refreshing the page when pulling up the top bar (e.g. tapping the top of a page) and then tapping the middle.
-
Be able to manipulate line-wrapping of plain text files, such that a
\n
followed by text has the\n
removed. This would make (for example) a 72-column text file line-wrapped to look much better.- As it is, it's pretty awful reading old Project Gutenberg text files that are hard-formatted in that old style.
- Migrate all eBook annotation and other data functionality into sidecar files.
- Make all eBook data plain text and user-editable.
-
The very slow page-turning for PDF/large books would be solved by a "look ahead" caching feature.
- In the meantime, I need to find some software that will "lower the quality" or otherwise compress large eBooks.
- Allow the entire left or right side to be set as a dead space.
-
Have the bottom-left, bottom-middle, and bottom-right work like the same areas on a phone.
- Bottom-left pulls up the books list.
- Bottom-middle goes back to the home page.
- Bottom-right goes back.
- Add way more fonts.
-
Be able to add user-fonts.
- So I could add various free fonts.
- .cb7 support.
- Per-document brightness settings.
-
(Per-document) contrast settings.
- As I turn pages, some items "blink" and there is a fraction of a second when the text is fantastic.
- Treat
.zip
files the same as.cbz
- Implement a list view which does not display a cover.
- Implement a list view which uses a smaller font and will show the complete title, even if it has to extend the height of a long-titled-item's entry.
- Annotations needs to be reworked with a pair of pliers, but at the very least it should show the actual locations. Locations are a page number, not a percentage.
-
Slow-swipes, fast-swipes, long-swipes and short-swipes could be treated differently. For example, if I were to fast-long-swipe, maybe it could skip more than one page.
How annotations could be improved ∞
Oh god they're bad. So bad.
- View an item. For my tests I used a
.htm
file. - Tap and hold over a word.
- Wait for an indeterminate amount of time.
-
Oh, there's an underline hidden underneath my finger.
- Instead, highlight the word.
- Drag my finger.
- The underline expands, but hops up and down lines inaccurately.
- Lift my finger
- Two circles appear, at the left and right of the highlight.
-
I would think I could tap-and-drag them to change their location, limiting the highlighted area, but it doesn't work most of the time.
- Make those buttons twice the size.
- Or let me click on one. Then display nice big cursor controls.
-
.. more TODO
Last updated 2024-01-09 at 11:49:42
Added more annoyances and suggestions.
Beginning some notes on improving annotations.
Added a couple more notes.
Poked-at.
Also, I'm attempting to contact them through their feedback system to make suggestions.