Kobo Touch N905-KBO-L 6" eReader (Lavender) at 1994 Mrp 7999

dragon master wrote:


There are two things you are mixing up here. Not every eReader is intended for reading books. The ones with screen sizes above 8-9 inches are intended at specific use cases aimed at lawyers, doctors, research professional etc. They are excellent options for those use cases, but are terrible options for people who prefer to read books. These large size eReaders are primarily aimed at note taking, annotations, and personal/professional documents

For casual readers who prefer reading books, the size of kobo and kindle is perfect. You can hold them in a single hand for long hours of reading. These eReaders are aimed at replacing physical books. Their primary aim is not to help you take notes or access your personal documents and whatever little they try to do in this regard is an added bonus functionality

I am anti-Apple to the core, but comparing Amazon to Apple is incorrect here. Amazon doesn’t restrict you to their ecosystem. You can sideload any book/personal document without “jailbreaking” or losing your warranty. Kindle in no way stops you from sideloading your books from other sources

Another major difference between Amazon and Apple ecosystem is that unlike Apple, Amazon fiercely competes on price. Though there is the option to buy books from other sources and sideload them to kindle, till date I haven’t found a reason to do so since EVERY single time the price of the book I wanted to buy is cheaper on Amazon. That’s the beauty of Amazon ecosystem. They don’t bind you to their ecosystem through locking down the hardware but by fiercely competing on price.

You can do the research by yourself. Take any top ten best sellers and compare the price on Amazon, Google Play, Kobo and iBooks. I won’t be surprised if Amazon wins every single round. I personally find buying books on Kobo to be way more expensive than other sites. In some cases, the price is 2x-3x times that of Amazon or Google Play

Finally, Amazon is a complete ecosystem. They have integrated Goodreads, Audible, Ebooks all into one service/product. Not to forget if you buy the Kindle 3g version (I have that), you can download books anywhere around the world without paying anything. It’s a completely hassle free experience

Sure, I agree you can’t tinker much (custom fonts, dictionaries etc) with Kindle and you can rate it inferior on those grounds, but when it comes to simple stupid reading, it is difficult to beat Amazon/Kindle. Their ecosystem and apps across platform works consistently well. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Kobo apps or services

Regarding slowing down progress of advanced eReaders using patents etc, well I would think it’s altogether a different debate and you may very well be right on those grounds/points

No, I am not really mixing up the two things. All the ereader brands, that i have mentioned, produce 6inch ereaders that are light-weight and intended for casual users only.

Their disadvantages:-
– they lack ability to purchase books with once click. But it will take only 2-3 clicks to buy once you install relevant app or set up an ecosystem or sync mechanism with laptop.
– They are also always behind by 1 generation in terms of display technology used, because once again evil Amazon buys exclusive rights to latest screen tech.

Their advantages are:-
- Excellent support for all type of file types
- Physical page turn buttons+touch screen. This was lacking in Amazon readers till voyage
- Dual touch screens : Wacom + IR/Capacitive touch
- Ability to tinker with fonts and custom dictionaries.
- A2 refresh mode developed by Onyx and available in rooted nooks, tolino shines and Kobos. A2 refresh mode is a fast refresh mode that gives users ability to browse books and webpages at high speed.

Many users have said that their ideal ereader should have physical page turn buttons. Some want better TTS which amazon doesn’t provide. Some want ability to completely turn off front-light, which amazon doesn’t provide again.

Few points for mighty Amazon:
1) Amazon is the only manufacture that has exclusive rights to 6inch Carta display of 300 ppi. Amazon is a bully and considered evil empire in eReaders. Hopefully, Kobo Alyssum will be the next 6inch device with 300 ppi

2) Ivona Text To Speech is considered the best TTS. Onyx distributor and Ivona are from Poland and they introduced IVona in Onyx devices. Shortly after that, Amazon bought Ivona and now ivona is not available for any other ereader. But we can install it in Android based ereader such as Boyue and Onyx Boox.

3) Although Amazon allows users to side-load books, but the space for sideloaded books was restricted to 300 mb only in earlier models. And very few formats were supported. In this way, Amazon is like Apple but with different strategy.

All bloggers were paid by US/Canadian sites to promote kindle, nooks and Kobos only. Other brands are from Europe, Ukraine, Russia and China. Sony and Irex have left ereader scene but they were producing excellent ereaders even before first Kindle came.

I said Kindle and Kobo to be dumb, because most users still assume that you are locked to the device manufacturer. This was actually the case initially.
Softwares like calibre (developed by Kovid Goyal) have completely changed the scenario.

All i am saying is that i will buy a good and advanced eReader, and then buy books from Amazon.
I want my preferred font and dictionaries and TTS etc. My recommended eReaders are Boyue T62+, Onyx Afterglow2, Onyx T68 and Kobo H2O. Onyx is not producing dumb ereaders, it is producing eink screen based tablets!

Just see Onyx I86 playing a video smoothly: http://bbs.onyx-international.com.cn/thread-229…

I can bet 90% of users don’t even know abcd of ebook formats like epub and mobi, and how easy it is to convert them from one format to another. My post is simply to make users aware that they need not bind themselves to one ecosystem.

dragon master wrote:

Finally, Amazon is a complete ecosystem. They have integrated Goodreads, Audible, Ebooks all into one service/product. Not to forget if you buy the Kindle 3g version (I have that), you can download books anywhere around the world without paying anything. It’s a completely hassle free experience

Can you please tell me about 3G service. I always wanted to know more about it, i.e., how it operate. How does this service work? Do we need anything else and who is Amazon’s partner in India. Someone must give them 3G network access.

micke wrote:

dragon master wrote:

Finally, Amazon is a complete ecosystem. They have integrated Goodreads, Audible, Ebooks all into one service/product. Not to forget if you buy the Kindle 3g version (I have that), you can download books anywhere around the world without paying anything. It’s a completely hassle free experience

Can you please tell me about 3G service. I always wanted to know more about it, i.e., how it operate. How does this service work? Do we need anything else and who is Amazon’s partner in India. Someone must give them 3G network access.

micke wrote:

dragon master wrote:


There are two things you are mixing up here. Not every eReader is intended for reading books. The ones with screen sizes above 8-9 inches are intended at specific use cases aimed at lawyers, doctors, research professional etc. They are excellent options for those use cases, but are terrible options for people who prefer to read books. These large size eReaders are primarily aimed at note taking, annotations, and personal/professional documents

For casual readers who prefer reading books, the size of kobo and kindle is perfect. You can hold them in a single hand for long hours of reading. These eReaders are aimed at replacing physical books. Their primary aim is not to help you take notes or access your personal documents and whatever little they try to do in this regard is an added bonus functionality

I am anti-Apple to the core, but comparing Amazon to Apple is incorrect here. Amazon doesn’t restrict you to their ecosystem. You can sideload any book/personal document without “jailbreaking” or losing your warranty. Kindle in no way stops you from sideloading your books from other sources

Another major difference between Amazon and Apple ecosystem is that unlike Apple, Amazon fiercely competes on price. Though there is the option to buy books from other sources and sideload them to kindle, till date I haven’t found a reason to do so since EVERY single time the price of the book I wanted to buy is cheaper on Amazon. That’s the beauty of Amazon ecosystem. They don’t bind you to their ecosystem through locking down the hardware but by fiercely competing on price.

You can do the research by yourself. Take any top ten best sellers and compare the price on Amazon, Google Play, Kobo and iBooks. I won’t be surprised if Amazon wins every single round. I personally find buying books on Kobo to be way more expensive than other sites. In some cases, the price is 2x-3x times that of Amazon or Google Play

Finally, Amazon is a complete ecosystem. They have integrated Goodreads, Audible, Ebooks all into one service/product. Not to forget if you buy the Kindle 3g version (I have that), you can download books anywhere around the world without paying anything. It’s a completely hassle free experience

Sure, I agree you can’t tinker much (custom fonts, dictionaries etc) with Kindle and you can rate it inferior on those grounds, but when it comes to simple stupid reading, it is difficult to beat Amazon/Kindle. Their ecosystem and apps across platform works consistently well. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Kobo apps or services

Regarding slowing down progress of advanced eReaders using patents etc, well I would think it’s altogether a different debate and you may very well be right on those grounds/points

No, I am not really mixing up the two things. All the ereader brands, that i have mentioned, produce 6inch ereaders that are light-weight and intended for casual users only.

Their disadvantages:-
– they lack ability to purchase books with once click. But it will take only 2-3 clicks to buy once you install relevant app or set up an ecosystem or sync mechanism with laptop.
– They are also always behind by 1 generation in terms of display technology used, because once again evil Amazon buys exclusive rights to latest screen tech.

Their advantages are:-
- Excellent support for all type of file types
- Physical page turn buttons+touch screen. This was lacking in Amazon readers till voyage
- Dual touch screens : Wacom + IR/Capacitive touch
- Ability to tinker with fonts and custom dictionaries.
- A2 refresh mode developed by Onyx and available in rooted nooks, tolino shines and Kobos. A2 refresh mode is a fast refresh mode that gives users ability to browse books and webpages at high speed.

Many users have said that their ideal ereader should have physical page turn buttons. Some want better TTS which amazon doesn’t provide. Some want ability to completely turn off front-light, which amazon doesn’t provide again.

Few points for mighty Amazon:
1) Amazon is the only manufacture that has exclusive rights to 6inch Carta display of 300 ppi. Amazon is a bully and considered evil empire in eReaders. Hopefully, Kobo Alyssum will be the next 6inch device with 300 ppi

2) Ivona Text To Speech is considered the best TTS. Onyx distributor and Ivona are from Poland and they introduced IVona in Onyx devices. Shortly after that, Amazon bought Ivona and now ivona is not available for any other ereader. But we can install it in Android based ereader such as Boyue and Onyx Boox.

3) Although Amazon allows users to side-load books, but the space for sideloaded books was restricted to 300 mb only in earlier models. And very few formats were supported. In this way, Amazon is like Apple but with different strategy.

All bloggers were paid by US/Canadian sites to promote kindle, nooks and Kobos only. Other brands are from Europe, Ukraine, Russia and China. Sony and Irex have left ereader scene but they were producing excellent ereaders even before first Kindle came.

I said Kindle and Kobo to be dumb, because most users still assume that you are locked to the device manufacturer. This was actually the case initially.
Softwares like calibre (developed by Kovid Goyal) have completely changed the scenario.

All i am saying is that i will buy a good and advanced eReader, and then buy books from Amazon.
I want my preferred font and dictionaries and TTS etc. My recommended eReaders are Boyue T62+, Onyx Afterglow2, Onyx T68 and Kobo H2O. Onyx is not producing dumb ereaders, it is producing eink screen based tablets!

Just see Onyx I86 playing a video smoothly: http://bbs.onyx-international.com.cn/thread-229…

I can bet 90% of users don’t even know abcd of ebook formats like epub and mobi, and how easy it is to convert them from one format to another. My post is simply to make users aware that they need not bind themselves to one ecosystem.

Dr Anshuman wrote:


Onyx T68 is plagued with many issues. The reviews bear this out.

Yes, I know. But the hardware issues were related to first production batches, which released in 2014 and it applies to mostly those devices sold by Artatech .
Devices being sold by eReader-store.de don’t have hardware issues as such.
That is related to competition between Artatech and eReader-store. They are two big distributors based in Poland and Germany. Artatech released half baked devices in order to capture user base.

I have used M92 for 3 years, which hasn’t given me a single problem. So i will take my chances with Onyx again

@micke

It’s coming to the same point again. You are defining a good eReader based on “Extras”, while I am defining a good eReader based on the core reading experience. I am not saying you are wrong, but you form a very small subset of users with similar requirements. For the “Extras” you are willing to compromise on the core feature of being able to buy any ebook in just a couple of clicks, while most normal consumers might simply give up those extras for the book store and sync features.

The simple point I am making here is if it’s Kindle Hardware vs Others, the brands you mentioned might win, but if it is hardware + ecosystem + support, they lose the battle

I am not going to comment on who is evil vs who is not, because it takes us nowhere in this debate. Same with paid reviews. I was not trying to prove you wrong or argue with you, but was just trying to engage in a healthy debate. Apologies if offended

The one thing I disagree though is the comparison between Apple and Amazon. You can fill the entire 1 or 2 gb of Kindle local storage with ebooks from other sources without any issues. Regarding cloud syncing, I don’t know what is the limit, but definitely I have uploaded more than 100 books so far without any issues. After all, most ebooks are around 300 kb-1 mb and so don’t take up much space either

Regarding the Kindle 3G question, Amazon has entered into an agreement with network operators across the world for free downloading of books from Amazon book store without any extra charge for lifetime. Initially they used to even allow browsing and wikipedia look up for free, but I guess now they have limited to only downloading and syncing ebooks. The last time I checked, they were using Tata Docomo network, not sure which one they are using currently in India. But it’s working flawlessly from the past couple of years.

If you like listening to books, then try Audible. Also check out Blinkist service. It’s my new addiction

One last thing. Personally, I don’t like eReaders running Android or few entertainment apps. Notifications and distractions ruin the entire reading experience. That’s why I gave up reading on my Nexus 7 and got this Kobo Glo. Otherwise, my set-up was Moon Reader+ and Dropsync along Google Play Books

Blinkist looks awesome! Thanks for sharing it.

I liked knowing your views and how you use the ereader. I never considered the ability to buy books easily an essential for myself. But other than this feature, i will still say that reading experience is same on Android/Linux devices and Kindle. I was seriously considering Kindle Voyage because of its screen but then i felt that it was too limiting. There are no distractions in Android/Linux for me because i use them for reading purpose only. I will be buying a Kobo device next – H2O or Alyssum

Any one tell me if I can purchase titles on Amazon Kindly store and then convert them into Calibre so that the same can be read at Kobo Glo device of mine?

tycoon wrote:

Any one tell me if I can purchase titles on Amazon Kindly store and then convert them into Calibre so that the same can be read at Kobo Glo device of mine?

Yes. U need to hv Kindle for PC installed. And u will need a tool from Apprentice Alf’s blog to break the Kindle DRM. After that u can convert to the format of ur choice in Calibre. Link https://apprenticealf.wordpres…m/
Amazon provides most of the titles in AZW/AZW3/KF8 format. For these u dont even need to convert to epub. Just install Kindle unpack plugin in Calibre . Link wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/KindleUnpack U can extract the epub(present in Mobi 8 folder) Why does this matter? Cuz conversion can introduce some unintentional errors in formatting etc. So its better this way and nearly instantaneous!Some older titles are available in Mobi format. These can be converted to epub with ease. But say u downloaded some free titles on Kindle for Android then it can be a problem as no Android equivalent exists for decryption. But this is an edge case. If u buy from Kindle store on ur PC u are good to go. Another edge case concerns Kindle Print Replica but these are actually PDF wrappers. Textbooks are available in this format. They do nt support text reflow. Anyways 6.0" devices are nt suitable for PDF’s. So in a nutshell yes u can indeed buy from Kindle store and read them on the Kobo.
Edit: Use the standalone tool: https://apprenticealf.wordpress.com/2011/01/14/… not the Calibre plugin in the link posted above.
Edit2: Looks like I hv been out of touch for too long. AZW4 as Kindle Print Replica is known can also be DeDRMed resulting in a PDF file which can be read anywhere. Not very relevant to ur query but I thought I would include this for the sale of completeness.

Guys got kobo touch but how is the battery life.?
I read a pdf for 2hrs and lost 10%of battery….
How about yours.

@micke wrote:

dragon master wrote:


There are two things you are mixing up here. Not every eReader is intended for reading books. The ones with screen sizes above 8-9 inches are intended at specific use cases aimed at lawyers, doctors, research professional etc. They are excellent options for those use cases, but are terrible options for people who prefer to read books. These large size eReaders are primarily aimed at note taking, annotations, and personal/professional documents

For casual readers who prefer reading books, the size of kobo and kindle is perfect. You can hold them in a single hand for long hours of reading. These eReaders are aimed at replacing physical books. Their primary aim is not to help you take notes or access your personal documents and whatever little they try to do in this regard is an added bonus functionality

I am anti-Apple to the core, but comparing Amazon to Apple is incorrect here. Amazon doesn’t restrict you to their ecosystem. You can sideload any book/personal document without “jailbreaking” or losing your warranty. Kindle in no way stops you from sideloading your books from other sources

Another major difference between Amazon and Apple ecosystem is that unlike Apple, Amazon fiercely competes on price. Though there is the option to buy books from other sources and sideload them to kindle, till date I haven’t found a reason to do so since EVERY single time the price of the book I wanted to buy is cheaper on Amazon. That’s the beauty of Amazon ecosystem. They don’t bind you to their ecosystem through locking down the hardware but by fiercely competing on price.

You can do the research by yourself. Take any top ten best sellers and compare the price on Amazon, Google Play, Kobo and iBooks. I won’t be surprised if Amazon wins every single round. I personally find buying books on Kobo to be way more expensive than other sites. In some cases, the price is 2x-3x times that of Amazon or Google Play

Finally, Amazon is a complete ecosystem. They have integrated Goodreads, Audible, Ebooks all into one service/product. Not to forget if you buy the Kindle 3g version (I have that), you can download books anywhere around the world without paying anything. It’s a completely hassle free experience

Sure, I agree you can’t tinker much (custom fonts, dictionaries etc) with Kindle and you can rate it inferior on those grounds, but when it comes to simple stupid reading, it is difficult to beat Amazon/Kindle. Their ecosystem and apps across platform works consistently well. Unfortunately, I can’t say the same about Kobo apps or services

Regarding slowing down progress of advanced eReaders using patents etc, well I would think it’s altogether a different debate and you may very well be right on those grounds/points

No, I am not really mixing up the two things. All the ereader brands, that i have mentioned, produce 6inch ereaders that are light-weight and intended for casual users only.

Their disadvantages:-
– they lack ability to purchase books with once click. But it will take only 2-3 clicks to buy once you install relevant app or set up an ecosystem or sync mechanism with laptop.
– They are also always behind by 1 generation in terms of display technology used, because once again evil Amazon buys exclusive rights to latest screen tech.

Their advantages are:-
- Excellent support for all type of file types
- Physical page turn buttons+touch screen. This was lacking in Amazon readers till voyage
- Dual touch screens : Wacom + IR/Capacitive touch
- Ability to tinker with fonts and custom dictionaries.
- A2 refresh mode developed by Onyx and available in rooted nooks, tolino shines and Kobos. A2 refresh mode is a fast refresh mode that gives users ability to browse books and webpages at high speed.

Many users have said that their ideal ereader should have physical page turn buttons. Some want better TTS which amazon doesn’t provide. Some want ability to completely turn off front-light, which amazon doesn’t provide again.

Few points for mighty Amazon:
1) Amazon is the only manufacture that has exclusive rights to 6inch Carta display of 300 ppi. Amazon is a bully and considered evil empire in eReaders. Hopefully, Kobo Alyssum will be the next 6inch device with 300 ppi

2) Ivona Text To Speech is considered the best TTS. Onyx distributor and Ivona are from Poland and they introduced IVona in Onyx devices. Shortly after that, Amazon bought Ivona and now ivona is not available for any other ereader. But we can install it in Android based ereader such as Boyue and Onyx Boox.

3) Although Amazon allows users to side-load books, but the space for sideloaded books was restricted to 300 mb only in earlier models. And very few formats were supported. In this way, Amazon is like Apple but with different strategy.

All bloggers were paid by US/Canadian sites to promote kindle, nooks and Kobos only. Other brands are from Europe, Ukraine, Russia and China. Sony and Irex have left ereader scene but they were producing excellent ereaders even before first Kindle came.

I said Kindle and Kobo to be dumb, because most users still assume that you are locked to the device manufacturer. This was actually the case initially.
Softwares like calibre (developed by Kovid Goyal) have completely changed the scenario.

All i am saying is that i will buy a good and advanced eReader, and then buy books from Amazon.
I want my preferred font and dictionaries and TTS etc. My recommended eReaders are Boyue T62+, Onyx Afterglow2, Onyx T68 and Kobo H2O. Onyx is not producing dumb ereaders, it is producing eink screen based tablets!

Just see Onyx I86 playing a video smoothly: http://bbs.onyx-international.com.cn/thread-229...

I can bet 90% of users don’t even know abcd of ebook formats like epub and mobi, and how easy it is to convert them from one format to another. My post is simply to make users aware that they need not bind themselves to one ecosystem.