Kindle v Kobo

bogart99

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Need one or the other. Basic kindle currently available for £75 using Quidco etc Like the look of the touchscreen Kobo at £110 ish
Unsure as to which way to jump. Now am I correct in thinking the Kobo can download PDF books/documents etc whereas the Kindle cannot. And finally as the Kobo is supposedly an Android in disguise is there an application that will let me get Amazon books onto it?
 
I've always been able to drag'n'drop pdf documents into my Kindle*. Not quite so easy to handle as straight text documents, but quite readable, including illustrations and diagrams. I carry a number of large instruction manuals in pdf on my Kindle. You can always convert the pdf back to text and then load it either directly or via the free program 'Calibre'.

Talking of 'Calibre' it will convert stuff to a number of eReaders. Not designed to overcome any DRM issues and break copyrights.Worth checking to see if it works with Kobo.

* Version 3 , keyboard device. Previous models were unable to cope with pdf


edit: Apparently it does, but it would be advisable to check their website for details.
 
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mike7 said:
I've always been able to drag'n'drop pdf documents into my Kindle*. Not quite so easy to handle as straight text documents, but quite readable, including illustrations and diagrams. I carry a number of large instruction manuals in pdf on my Kindle. You can always convert the pdf back to text and then load it either directly or via the free program 'Calibre'.

Talking of 'Calibre' it will convert stuff to a number of eReaders. Not designed to overcome any DRM issues and break copyrights.Worth checking to see if it works with Kobo.

* Version 3 , keyboard device. Previous models were unable to cope with pdf

edit: Apparently it does, but it would be advisable to scheck their website for details.

I thought that they keyboard device was version 2. So do both the new keyboard-less Kindle and the previous keyboard version support PDF?
 
The Kindle with the keyboard is Version 3. The current firmware is 3.3. It was released about a year ago and one of its features over the previous versions was the ability to display pdf better (downloaded from a computer). In order to bring down the price the £89 version has no keyboard. You have to pick letters out from an onscreen keyboard which is a bit slow without a touch screen. I would imagine that the spec is pretty much the same otherwise. The 3G +Wireless keyboard version remains on sale at a lower price than previously. There is no ongoing cost to retain the 3G service. The Kindle can, in a rudimentary way, display internet pages.

If it's cheap and free books you are after there are 1000's that are free or less than a £1 from the Amazon Kindle service. All out of copyright stuff is free and no need to do any converting. You can try it out by downloading Kindle for PC from Amazon (free). If you have an Amazon account you can start downloading books. Any that are free you will receive an eBill for £0 ! If you buy a Kindle later your books will automatically be sync'ed across.
 
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kobo will work with local libraries, kindle will not. But might next year as they have support in the US and its the same company (overdrive).

I love the way you can email documents/books to the kindle for free - you get your own email address, and if you send it to the '[email protected]', then its downloaded over wifi for free. And you can send pdfs and word documents and amazon will convert it before sending.

I use that a lot with calibre to convert and send web articles to read - eg BBC news
 
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Took the plunge and bought a Kindle. Happy with it except I'd love the screen to be bigger. I need reading glasses for everyday reading and frankly I find the screen just too small. Now if someone out there made say an 8inch one I'm sorted. Heard so many bad things about LCD screens for prolonged reading I'd like to stick to e-ink.
 
Took the plunge and bought a Kindle. Happy with it except I'd love the screen to be bigger. I need reading glasses for everyday reading and frankly I find the screen just too small. Now if someone out there made say an 8inch one I'm sorted. Heard so many bad things about LCD screens for prolonged reading I'd like to stick to e-ink.

Of course you can make the typeface bigger, although it means you have to turn the page more often. I assume this option is still available on the keyboard-less version. Alternatively you could get it to 'read' to you, if you don't mind the American accent. Frankly it puts me to sleep! Again I'm assuming that this facility has been retained. Can anyone point me to a full spec for the £89 Kindle?
 
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Took the plunge and bought a Kindle. Happy with it except I'd love the screen to be bigger. I need reading glasses for everyday reading and frankly I find the screen just too small. Now if someone out there made say an 8inch one I'm sorted. Heard so many bad things about LCD screens for prolonged reading I'd like to stick to e-ink.

What you need is the Kindle DX

http://www.google.com.au/url?sa=t&r...sg=AFQjCNHBn9aN1VrVURbwPINojvm6kQIDSQ&cad=rja

Price: $379.00 US

Yes, it's eInk ! :thumbsup:
 
You can alter the type size but there is no reading facility.

Thanks for letting me know this. I couldn't find it in the spec for the new model. Have a friend who has very poor sight and was thinking of getting one. I guess the speakers have been left out as well which could, after a fashion, play music files.
 
The 9.7in looks nice. I'm not sure re the works everywhere statement. As the thing is registered to your Amazon account for downloading Kindle books and unsure if a US version can be registered to a .co.uk Amazon account. Its a pathetic state of affairs and the sooner Amazon over here gets its act together the better.
Anyway I am getting used to mine the more I use it. Nightime reading is useless even with one of these clip on LED lights. They do not cast a uniform light over the whole screen. Mind you I didn't buy it for reading in the dark.
 
Just out of interest, do all K4's have adverts (UK model), and is there any way to remove these adverts without having to pay Amazon for the privilege?
 
UK Kindle isn't ad supported I don't believe, which is why its dearer than it is in the UK.
I'm quite tempted by the Kobo actually, but can anyone tell me if it will sync books across platforms? i.e on the Kobo eReader and the Kobo App on my Playbook?
 
I guess the display models could be US models supplied by Amazon but the actual UK model certainly has no ads.
 
chrism_scotland said:
I guess the display models could be US models supplied by Amazon but the actual UK model certainly has no ads.

Phew, that's a relief. Thanks :)
 
And finally as the Kobo is supposedly an Android in disguise is there an application that will let me get Amazon books onto it?

The Kobo Touch works happily with mobi, Amazon/Kindle eBooks !

"The Kobo also supports .mobi, PDF, TXT, HTML, RTF, CBZ and CBR files along with JPG, GIF, PNG, BMP and TIFF images."

From: Sydney Morning Herald 'Kobo Touch Review'
 

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