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- Hacker News
- I switched to buying books from Kobo this year because removing DRM from books bought at Amazon is getting too difficult and unreliable.by criddell
- I bought one in July, I chose Kobo because it's hackable and you can ssh in. So far I've had as much fun with that as with reading.by fred_is_fred
- You can't SSH into kindles anymore? I know that used to be a thing.by delecti
- I had no idea! I'd switched from Kindle to Boox because Boox runs Android, which is more hackable, but if Kobo supports SSH, I'll have to give it another look!by rpdillon
- They’re also just more user friendly in general. I have a nearly decade old Kobo that still serves its purpose well and I love how it shows up as a mass storage device when plugged into my computer. No clunky management software (Calibre may be functional, but its UI is godawful) or file conversions required, you just manage plain old epubs in your file browser. That functionality can’t randomly vanish one day, either (unlike e.g. Amazon’s email-to-Kindle service). It’s great.
As a side effect of its openness I’ve bought more books through the Kobo store than I would have otherwise. A perfect counter example is my Oculus Quest 2 which I go out of my way to not buy games from its associated marketplace on; as long as that device is hard-tethered to Facebook and its software, I’m better off as using it as a “dumb” headset with VR purchases going to PC marketplaces like Steam.
- If you aren't reading comics I wouldn't recommend color e-readers yet. The screens are dimmer and have a noticeable filter over them.by int32_64
- Public Service Announcement: if you're loading epubs to Kobo via Calibre, make sure to convert them to kepub (the Kobo's "enahanced" version of epub). Calibre can do that with no loss of quality with a checkbox, and page turns are much much faster.
- 70% women is about what I see in bookstores, and frequently the main display cases are geared towards genres more popular among women, like romantasy.by guillybarres
- My wife and I both had kindles since they were first a thing and we both switched to Kobo a few years ago. So nice not getting ads.by ryanmcbride
- Amazon wiping people's e-books they had already bought was probably the straw that broke the camel's back. Yeah, they swore to never do it again but what's that worth?
I've been steering clear from Kindle even though their devices are an attractive buy. It wouldn't surprise me in the least if Amazon left the e-reader market in a few years since their Kindles are tainted.
by hn_submit - Fun fact: I searched for Kobo Clara on Amazon, and the algorithm has labelled it "Amazon's choice". A subtle agreement with you maybe :)by kitd
- The camel is doing just fine. Amazon ereaders have 70+% market share.by criddell
- Love Kobo. I switched from Kindle to the Libra Colour a while back. It's a superior device and I don't have to give money to Amazon. It's more responsive, it has physical buttons for turning pages and the screen looks great. The built in book store is ok. I haven't had trouble finding anything, but there aren't many reviews if you're into that sort of thing. I was able to sideload my Kindle library easily too.by jm4
- Does it have Goodreads integration? Not that it'd be a dealbreaker for me to switch, but I do enjoy that it syncs my reading progress / library with Goodreads. Which is how me and my friends tend to share what we're reading and then discuss the books at times.by Insanity
- Interesting observation here. I still read a lot, but airplanes have become a place I rarely do. I used to always pick up a book every time I flew and would finish it on the flight home. I would still much rather read a real book on the beach than doomscroll though.
> "We're losing the person who reads one book a year," he says. "And that was the person who bought their one Tom Clancy novel when they went on vacation, because you needed something to read on the plane because there was nothing else to do on the plane. Now that the plane has Wi-Fi, and so does that beach, that person is scrolling, not reading."
by strictnein - Personally, I have basically stopped reading since my 20s, but I used to read a ton. I like pulp fantasy and scifi and noir detectives and other nonsense, no one seems to write that sort of thing anymore. I loved Dragonlance when it was around
I don't want fantasy with "the most unique magic system ever created" or "the most complex society" I want to read about dudes and ladies with huge swords and magic killing dragons and conquering kingdoms
I get it, I'm boring but I guarantee the whole "men don't read anymore" would be less true if publishers still put out books like I'm describing
Instead when I go into a bookstore for the one time a year I shop for my wife for Christmas, I'm greeted by the likes of "Morning Glory Milking Farm"
- I love that Kobos can still be set up completely offline. At the setup screen you can mount the device, set a flag in the config file, unmount/reboot, and boom, it's ready for your books.
My Clara BW is my daily driver. As much as I'd like to use an open reader, their rendering and screen quality are still not quite as polished as the corpo options.
by Pfhortune - Yep, this is the reason I chose a Kobo.by lynndotpy
- I just bought a Kobo Clara Color after purchasing various Kindles for years.
It requires an online setup (account).
A quick search did not find what your saying. Can you please post a how-to or link one (that I couldn't find)?
by rationalist - It’s nice that they have it but strange that it’s hidden.
It would be better if it was an option on the setup screen, and even better if it was the default option and if the login screen was in the parameters.
Because as an hidden option I always fear that they remove it and that we have to find an alternative. And so far DIY e-reader do not seem great.
by koalp - I got a Kindle Paperwhite as a gift from my work and I fell in love with e-readers. Then I really didn't like how Amazon was locking down getting your own epubs onto the device (it's only gotten worse), so I quickly found Kobos were an excellent device for my use case. I found that buying ePubs online was way more available than I would have thought and now I get to keep my digital books. Just drag and drop them onto the Kobo.
Kobo also has a "sideload mode" that (despite the slightly confusing name) just remove all online features all together.
by jjice - what you mean by locking down? your epub is your epub . i read third party epubs on kindle all the time. i am not sure if i am missing something here dont understand the downvotes. I've read third party books on kindle for decades with no issues.by dominotw
- Amazon heavily subsidises the Kindle calculating they can make the money back with selling books. That's why you can get one for 70 euro.by expedition32
- We have kindle scribe and a kobo at home, the kobo experience has been way more rough for epubs. On amazon all I do is access amazon.ca/sendtokindle and I can upload the same epub to my phone and ereader AND keep the current page in sync. The experience with the Kobo is absolutely not even close to that.
And I agree with you I don't like the lock in factor, but I felt more locked on a Kobo than on a Kindle
- > Amazon was locking down getting your own epubs onto the device
Curious about what has changed? I've only ever used the email method and that continues to work.
by criddell - I got the Libra Color awhile back. I rediscovered my love of reading. Chewed through dozens of Star Trek books (some are quite good!). And a comic, which surprised me with the color and resolution the Libra offered.
The store seems to work well and the prices are pretty cheap, but you can also load them manually through something like Calibre if you already have a collection of ebooks.
I love how thin and light it is. I originally thought the small size would be a downside, but being able to fit it almost anywhere has made it great for plane/train rides or any kind of trip.
The battery lasts quite a long time, though it seems to discharge quickly if you don't use it for a while.
I think my favorite part is that it's just super intuitive. It feels purpose-built and does everything in the way I expect it to.
Overall, highly recommend. Very good product.
- How did the comic handle on your Libra? I use an older Clara BnW and it really struggles with graphic heavy pdfs - slow page changing etc.