[Wylug-discuss] advice on ebook reader or similar...

[Christopher McLean]

________________________________________
From: wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk [wylug-discuss-bounces at wylug.org.uk] On Behalf Of Smylers [Smylers at stripey.com]
Sent: 14 December 2011 17:11
To: wylug-discuss at wylug.org.uk
Subject: Re: [Wylug-discuss] advice on ebook reader or similar...

Christopher McLean writes:

> Hi, I've had a kobo touch for about a month now and I love it. Screen
> is good, battery life is also very impressive. It works happily under
> Linux with Calibre.

| Thanks for the testimony.

you're welcome

> * Adobe drm'd books (adobe digital editions) can be used (e.g.
>   from leeds library), but you need windows to activate the device the
>   first time - you need to register your device with adobe first time
>   (I think, haven't bothered a great deal with this)

| I take it that means books described on the library's website as being
| in 'Adobe EPUB eBook format'?

yep

|  Do you know where you read this? I'd like to investigate this further,
| since there's no point us buying a device if we won't actually be able
| to borrow library books on it.

here: 

http://www.kobobooks.com/ade

| The Kobo has wi-fo connectivity, so I was hoping it would be possible to
| register directly from the device itself. Failing that, do you know if
| would be possible to register from a public Windows computer in a
| library, or does registration require special software that can't be
| installed on those computers?

again, yep; you'll probably need a windows pc to use Adobe DE. that's adobe's doing. a quick search will turn up various ways to get this going using wine if you're so inclined:

http://appdb.winehq.org/objectManager.php?sClass=application&iId=6326

> > obviously we wouldn't want to get one if it has unbearae user
> > interface or performance.
>
> Missed this bit. I can bring mine to the next meet, or just pop into a
> whsmith for a hands on

| Thanks for the offer. If I'm coming to January's meeting and still
| haven't bought one, I may take you up on it. Though those sorts of
| issues often aren't apparent from a quick demo -- reports from satisfied
| users are much more useful!

it works, and is very good at displaying books. e-ink refresh is set to 4 page turns by default, but this is configurable (battery life), which makes things speedier in general. every 4th page turn on default settings results in a full refresh, which takes a negligible extra amount of time. The touchscreen is IR, not capacitive, so you get what you expect. 

Chris