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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.

• Software / Money (Reading):

  • Android > Kobo Books
  • Windows > Kobo Desktop

---

• See also: e-book websites
• Important: Improving e-reader speeds for Internet Archive books

• 2024-01-08 - I started using KOReader with it.

-

• Documentation

  • Using my Kobo Aura ONE
  • https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019127213
  • https://help.kobo.com/hc/en-us/articles/360019123773

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.

• 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

Footnotes