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I’m so happy I downloaded all my Kindle books when I still had a chance and then moved to the Kobo ecosystem, which albeit not perfect is much much better

by wrxd 6mo ago

cyberpunk 6mo ago
I was kinda amazed to find out how hard it was to buy a kobo libra colour in .de -- apparently there's some kind of cartel thing going on where amazon somehow convince entire markets not to sell their competitors products. I had to order it from Hungary or something iirc.
- MrGreenTea 6mo ago
  I don't know if that is Amazon in Germany. Here all the book stores sell Tolino devices, even my local libraries loan them out.
- hollandheese 6mo ago
  That's because Kobo's sister company Tolino operates in Germany. It has nothing to do with Amazon.
  - cyberpunk 6mo ago
    Ah that makes a little more sense. Do they jut rebrand kobo devices to tolino? I see they also have a colour e-reader but i can’t really tell if it’s the same device or not…
vlod 6mo ago
Would you mind elaborating on the problems you have with the Kobo? I'm thinking of getting one of these once my kindle dies.
- lostlogin 6mo ago
  Im in NZ, no issues. Setting up syncing with a home library is a bit messy first time, but very doable. The only other e-reader I’ve owned is a Kindle Paperwhite and it’s similar.
- jm4 6mo ago
  No issues here. I liberated my kindle library and put it in Google Drive. The Kobo can download books from there out of the box. The Kobo store works fine too, although a lot of books barely have any reviews if you’re into that. I have the Kobo Libra Colour and it’s by far the best reader I’ve ever owned.
- kimos 6mo ago
  I’m in Canada. I’ve had a couple of Kobos and I’ve loved every single one of them. The Kobo bookstore works fine. No complaints.
- wrxd 6mo ago
  It works well and I haven’t had any issue. It doesn’t get full marks because it’s not an open device itself but more a device that’s easy to hack. For example, most books in the kobo store have DRM (to be fair I don’t think it’s entirely their choice), albeit an easy one to break. You see people here recommending “get a Kobo and install koreader”. That works and there is a one-click install process but it’s still an hack. Another common thing to do is to keep the stock reader but tweak a file to point the store API to a self-hosted Komga/Calibre Web Automated/Grimmmory instance to get your own books in the system. Again, it works well enough but it’s not like these are documented API. The bottom line is: it works very well and you can very easily tweak it but the way you tweak it are hacks (reasonable clean ones) rather than officially supported features. Thats why it loses a few marks
  - wrxd 6mo ago
    Said that, if you are not in the business of self-hosting, you can easily load books via USB or and it even has Dropbox or Google Drive integrations that work out of the box if you prefer network synchronisation

I’m so happy I downloaded all my Kindle books when I still had a chance and then moved to the Kobo ecosystem, which albeit not perfect is much much better

by wrxd 6mo ago

I’m so happy I downloaded all my Kindle books when I still had a chance and then moved to the Kobo ecosystem, which albeit not perfect is much much better

cyberpunk 6mo ago

I was kinda amazed to find out how hard it was to buy a kobo libra colour in .de -- apparently there's some kind of cartel thing going on where amazon somehow convince entire markets not to sell their competitors products. I had to order it from Hungary or something iirc.

MrGreenTea 6mo ago
I don't know if that is Amazon in Germany. Here all the book stores sell Tolino devices, even my local libraries loan them out.
hollandheese 6mo ago
That's because Kobo's sister company Tolino operates in Germany. It has nothing to do with Amazon.
- cyberpunk 6mo ago
  Ah that makes a little more sense. Do they jut rebrand kobo devices to tolino? I see they also have a colour e-reader but i can’t really tell if it’s the same device or not…

vlod 6mo ago

Would you mind elaborating on the problems you have with the Kobo? I'm thinking of getting one of these once my kindle dies.

lostlogin 6mo ago
Im in NZ, no issues. Setting up syncing with a home library is a bit messy first time, but very doable. The only other e-reader I’ve owned is a Kindle Paperwhite and it’s similar.
jm4 6mo ago
No issues here. I liberated my kindle library and put it in Google Drive. The Kobo can download books from there out of the box. The Kobo store works fine too, although a lot of books barely have any reviews if you’re into that. I have the Kobo Libra Colour and it’s by far the best reader I’ve ever owned.
kimos 6mo ago
I’m in Canada. I’ve had a couple of Kobos and I’ve loved every single one of them. The Kobo bookstore works fine. No complaints.
wrxd 6mo ago
It works well and I haven’t had any issue. It doesn’t get full marks because it’s not an open device itself but more a device that’s easy to hack. For example, most books in the kobo store have DRM (to be fair I don’t think it’s entirely their choice), albeit an easy one to break. You see people here recommending “get a Kobo and install koreader”. That works and there is a one-click install process but it’s still an hack. Another common thing to do is to keep the stock reader but tweak a file to point the store API to a self-hosted Komga/Calibre Web Automated/Grimmmory instance to get your own books in the system. Again, it works well enough but it’s not like these are documented API. The bottom line is: it works very well and you can very easily tweak it but the way you tweak it are hacks (reasonable clean ones) rather than officially supported features. Thats why it loses a few marks
- wrxd 6mo ago
  Said that, if you are not in the business of self-hosting, you can easily load books via USB or and it even has Dropbox or Google Drive integrations that work out of the box if you prefer network synchronisation