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Kobo e-Readers in the UK
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Andy Joannou
13-10-2011
Quote:
“WH Smith has today announced a partnership with Kobo to sell the company's range of e-Reader products in the UK and Ireland.

From October 17, two models of the Kobo e-Reader will go on sale in more than 750 WH Smith stores in high streets, airports and railway stations.”

Thoughts on this? I have been considering purchasing a Kindle for a while now but have never really taken the leap. With this being more accessible (not that Amazon isn't easy to use), does this seem like a good starter alternative?

Related content from Digital Spy:

WH Smith to sell Kobo e-Readers in the UK
home_alone
13-10-2011
In my opinion, one of the reasons Kindle has been so popular is the ease of adding 'content' via Amazon's 'whispernet' 3g option or by wifi, using only the standalone kindle unit.

All the other options, Kobo included, require interfacing with a computer to add content, whether directly or by using 'external' storage.

- for many people this convenience, given that it works, effectively, worldwide, seems to have been the main selling point of the kindle.

The W.H. Smith option adds nothing to the existing kobo other than access to content - but that content potentially still needs computer access to make it viable???

It remains to be seen whether having that content in Epub format & accessible via 'swappable' memory appeals - the option of providing rental content via memory cards could be one option that might sell?
InsideSoap
13-10-2011
The first comment in the DS article sums it up for me. 'You'll have to pry my kindle from my cold dead hands before I'll try another e-reader.' So true. Once you've used a Kindle there's no way you could possibly want to use anything else. (Although I'm sure one or two do make the wrong decision and go with another e-Reader).
noise747
31-10-2011
Got the wi-fi version on Sunday, pretty good to be honest, I have not seen a kindle, so I don't know how fast they are. The Kobo is fast enough at page turning and the text is clear. some classic books pre-loaded, which I have never thought about reading until now.

Ok it is not perfect, trying to set it up is a bit of a pain as the text is so small in the set up, I need a brighter bulb in the sitting room, a 60 watt bulb just don't cut it.

It is not a big problem getting books onto the unit to be honest, and since it can use the epub format there are a lot of books for it.
bobcar
31-10-2011
Originally Posted by InsideSoap:
“The first comment in the DS article sums it up for me. 'You'll have to pry my kindle from my cold dead hands before I'll try another e-reader.' So true. Once you've used a Kindle there's no way you could possibly want to use anything else. (Although I'm sure one or two do make the wrong decision and go with another e-Reader).”

It's never that simplistic as different people differ in their requirements and the best eReader for one person is not necessarily the best eReader for someone else.

I checked before buying and the best eReader for me at the time of buying was the Sony PRS-350, that doesn't mean that I think people who got the Kindle made the wrong choice for them.
noise747
31-10-2011
Originally Posted by bobcar:
“It's never that simplistic as different people differ in their requirements and the best eReader for one person is not necessarily the best eReader for someone else.

I checked before buying and the best eReader for me at the time of buying was the Sony PRS-350, that doesn't mean that I think people who got the Kindle made the wrong choice for them.”

You are correct, i suppose being able to see and use the unit before I paid for it was a bonus for me, with the Kindle I would had to have it delivered and if I did not like it I would have to send it back.

If the Kobo got a problem I just take it back to WHSmith, but I did hear that Tesco are selling the Kindle.
InsideSoap
31-10-2011
Originally Posted by noise747:
“You are correct, i suppose being able to see and use the unit before I paid for it was a bonus for me, with the Kindle I would had to have it delivered and if I did not like it I would have to send it back.

If the Kobo got a problem I just take it back to WHSmith, but I did hear that Tesco are selling the Kindle.”

And Currys/PC World, John Lewis and others. You can try them in store so need to buy from Amazon and send it back if you don't like it. I did see the Kobo eReaders in London Euston but didn't have time to try one. Does anyone know how many WHSmith are actually selling? Putting them in travel locations is silly I think, they might come pre-loaded with 'classics' but how many of them do people actually want to read? I know of one or two travel locations that haven't sold a single unit. It's hardly an impulse purchase.
noise747
31-10-2011
Originally Posted by InsideSoap:
“And Currys/PC World, John Lewis and others. You can try them in store so need to buy from Amazon and send it back if you don't like it
”

we don't have a John Lewis and I have not been in our Currys, since the combined with the PCworld shop a couple of months back, come to think of it,, I think it may be six months since I been in any of them

Quote:
“. I did see the Kobo eReaders in London Euston but didn't have time to try one. Does anyone know how many WHSmith are actually selling? Putting them in travel locations is silly I think, they might come pre-loaded with 'classics' but how many of them do people actually want to read? I know of one or two travel locations that haven't sold a single unit. It's hardly an impulse purchase.”

The wi-fi version comes pre-loaded with 100 classics, Depends on your tastes I suppose.

I been reading the Adventure of Sherlock Holmes, something I never even thought of reading before, and I am enjoying it.

I don't know how many they are selling, the girl in the shop seemed to get excited when I took the box to her. I like the Kobo, sure the Kindle may be better, but it is nice to support a smaller fish, not that Kobo is that small as they have Indigo Books & Music and Borders.as partners.

The other thing like is it being open, ok E-pub is a Adobe format, but there are a few other e-readers that uses the same format, so it is easy to swap free books.

The one big problem with E-books is lending books to people. If I buy a normal book, I can lend it to a friend , can't be done with a ebook, so if you pay say 3% for a book, once you read it, that is it.

The other problem is that books are not always cheap in ebook format
moley
01-11-2011
I was tempted to buy a new kindle, but then started looking around.
I spotted the Kobo which apparently is compatible with Overdrive for borrowing ebooks (free) from your local library. The kindle isn't even compatible! Why buy ebooks when you can borrow them?
Rather than splash out on either yet, I have started using my Ipad with the overdrive app and have borrowed several books without problems. This is certainly making me lean away from the kindle and towards an overdrive compatible device.
bobcar
01-11-2011
The problem with the libraries is that not many support ebooks at the moment, my library only supports e-audio books.

However when this becomes more common it will for many of us be the most important factor in choosing an ereader, if Kindle doesn't support this then that is a massive minus.
noise747
02-11-2011
Originally Posted by moley:
“I was tempted to buy a new kindle, but then started looking around.
I spotted the Kobo which apparently is compatible with Overdrive for borrowing ebooks (free) from your local library. The kindle isn't even compatible! Why buy ebooks when you can borrow them?
Rather than splash out on either yet, I have started using my Ipad with the overdrive app and have borrowed several books without problems. This is certainly making me lean away from the kindle and towards an overdrive compatible device.”

The kindle can't support Epub, I can understand why because Amazon would not make any money as people will have more choice of free or cheap books.

i presume Amazon don't make a lot of money on their E-readers, hoping to make it back on E-books, just like sony makes money on their games and not the PS3.

I have no idea what overdrive is, I doubt our library have got it, saying that I have not been in our Library for years, I doubt my card is even valid now.
moley
02-11-2011
Originally Posted by noise747:
“The kindle can't support Epub, I can understand why because Amazon would not make any money as people will have more choice of free or cheap books.

i presume Amazon don't make a lot of money on their E-readers, hoping to make it back on E-books, just like sony makes money on their games and not the PS3.

I have no idea what overdrive is, I doubt our library have got it, saying that I have not been in our Library for years, I doubt my card is even valid now.”

I haven't been near one in years. Not sure about other counties, but mine lets you apply for a free card online. Then with the library card number you can log in to download books.
IvanIV
02-11-2011
Originally Posted by noise747:
“The kindle can't support Epub, I can understand why because Amazon would not make any money as people will have more choice of free or cheap books.

i presume Amazon don't make a lot of money on their E-readers, hoping to make it back on E-books, just like sony makes money on their games and not the PS3.

I have no idea what overdrive is, I doubt our library have got it, saying that I have not been in our Library for years, I doubt my card is even valid now.”

Given the state of other online shops (selection and price), Amazon still come on top, but I guess they do not want to encourage people to start shopping elsewhere and help to build up the other shops. Kindle could easily support epub, technically it's no problem, it's a political issue that it does not.
noise747
02-11-2011
Originally Posted by moley:
“I haven't been near one in years. Not sure about other counties, but mine lets you apply for a free card online. Then with the library card number you can log in to download books.”

I was shocked to learnt hat we have computers in our library , amazing. The chance of ours allowing people to download books would be slim.

I expect the council will cut their budget even more next year, so I expect the library to be in a tent in the cathedral grounds next year
noise747
02-11-2011
Originally Posted by IvanIV:
“Given the state of other online shops (selection and price), Amazon still come on top, but I guess they do not want to encourage people to start shopping elsewhere and help to build up the other shops. Kindle could easily support epub, technically it's no problem, it's a political issue that it does not.”

political? I think you mean business issue. Amazon come out on top for what? I had a look at the Kabo website and it looks easy enough to buy books and put them onto the e-reader either via wi-fi or via USB.

Most of the books on Kindle is available on epub I think, I noticed that sometimes the price is higher in Epub, sometimes it is lower.

The main reason I choose the Kobo is because I want to shop elsewhere, I don't want to be tied to one supplier.

Waterstones sell epub books as well.

I am not saying if one is better than the other, Different strokes for different folks.
IvanIV
03-11-2011
I meant 'political' as an opposite of technical, but yes, it's business. The reasons why they don't do ePub are not technical, they could upgrade the Kindle firmware and support it. They won't do it, because they do not want to help the competition. They could make money on selling epub ebooks, too, they have infrastructure for it, but apparently they prefer not to create competition with their own product. I do not know the situation on epub ebook market now, but 2 years ago it did not look good and I was glad when I switched to Kindle 3 a year ago.
Esot-eric
03-11-2011
Originally Posted by noise747:
“The main reason I choose the Kobo is because I want to shop elsewhere, I don't want to be tied to one supplier.”

It no longer matters whether you're tied to one supplier or not. Since Apple helped the publishers push through the change to the agency model ebook stores have no control over the prices for ebooks.

Publishers now set the price and get 70% with the retailer taking 30%. Previously the publishers set a RRP with the retailer paying a set % (around 50%) of that and then selling it to the customer for whatever they want, whether it be a loss or not.

This agency model may only apply in the US (though it wouldn't surprise me if UK publishers try it on), since it's exactly the same at the Net Book Agreement which was made illegal in the UK in 1997.

Quote:
“I am not saying if one is better than the other, Different strokes for different folks.”

ePub is technically superior to the mobi format that Amazon currently uses, but Amazon's new KF8 format is superior to ePub 2.0. Of course ePub 3.0 was released last month (no eReaders for it yet) with lots of improvements, so it remains to be seen which is the best. KF8 may even be ePub3 in an Amazon DRM wrapping.

Originally Posted by IvanIV:
“The reasons why they don't do ePub are not technical, they could upgrade the Kindle firmware and support it. They won't do it, because they do not want to help the competition.”

Not just the competition in eBook sales, but the competition in DRM. Currently Amazon have their own DRM for their eBooks, whereas everyone (except Apple) selling ePubs use Adobe DRM. To interoperate with other retailers Amazon would have to give up control of the DRM used and have to pay Adobe for the privilege.
noise747
03-11-2011
Originally Posted by Esot-eric:
“It no longer matters whether you're tied to one supplier or not. Since Apple helped the publishers push through the change to the agency model ebook stores have no control over the prices for ebooks.



Publishers now set the price and get 70% with the retailer taking 30%. Previously the publishers set a RRP with the retailer paying a set % (around 50%) of that and then selling it to the customer for whatever they want, whether it be a loss or not.

This agency model may only apply in the US (though it wouldn't surprise me if UK publishers try it on), since it's exactly the same at the Net Book Agreement which was made illegal in the UK in 1997.
”

There are some differences, not much, but some.


Quote:
“ePub is technically superior to the mobi format that Amazon currently uses, but Amazon's new KF8 format is superior to ePub 2.0. Of course ePub 3.0 was released last month (no eReaders for it yet) with lots of improvements, so it remains to be seen which is the best. KF8 may even be ePub3 in an Amazon DRM wrapping.
”




I don't understand about all this superior stuff to be honest. they are e-book readers, not computers, not tablet computers. They do one thing and one thing only and that is to allow you to read a book.


I know the kindle allow you to have bookmarks and some other functions, like a browser. Hello, what on earth do you want a browser on a monochrome system for anyway?

Like e-readers that now have colour screens, for what reason?

The Kobo is a e-reader, that is what I got it for.

.
Gormond
03-11-2011
Originally Posted by noise747:
“Like e-readers that now have colour screens, for what reason?”

No real E-Book readers use colour screens yet as far as I know. They will soon use Eink Triton though, probably at some point next year.

Colour screens and fast screen refresh has many advantages, comics for one but more importantly you could make a tablet computer with amazing battery life.
Esot-eric
03-11-2011
Originally Posted by noise747:
“I don't understand about all this superior stuff to be honest. they are e-book readers, not computers, not tablet computers. They do one thing and one thing only and that is to allow you to read a book.”

I'm not talking about the readers, but the file formats.

I'll give a couple of examples:

Mobi doesn't allow you to embed your own fonts, so on the Kindle you're stuck with the default (your Kobo does allow you to change the fonts even with Mobi files). ePub allows you to embed a font in the file, so even if your ereader doesn't have it you can display the book using it. KF8 now allows font embedding.

ePub and KF8 allow the use of SVG for artwork meaning images will scale properly on different sized devices without looking like crap.

KF8 (and i think ePub 3.0) now have support for proper drop-caps so you no longer need to emulate them by using different sizes for your fonts.

It's just these little touches (and there are hundreds of them in the new KF8 and ePub 3.0 formats) that make the reading experience much richer and a more pleasant experience.
Starcaller
05-11-2011
I bought my mother one of these. For a first time e-reader (was seriously considering the Kindle) and for someone who isn't technically minded, it serves its purpose just fine.
goomba
06-11-2011
I am thinking of asking Santa for an eReader for Xmas, and so have had a play with the Kobos on display in WHSmiths and the latest keyboardless Kindles in a few shops.

The page turning on the Kindle is almost instantaneous, but the Kobo is very slow. So slow that I can't imagine reading on it being a comfortable reading experience. Given they are roughly the same price, I know where Santa's money will be going....
bobcar
06-11-2011
Originally Posted by goomba:
“The page turning on the Kindle is almost instantaneous, but the Kobo is very slow. So slow that I can't imagine reading on it being a comfortable reading experience. Given they are roughly the same price, I know where Santa's money will be going....”

I would suggest that the page turning speed is largely irrelevant in practice as your mind just blanks it out as part of the reading experience. You noticed it because you are looking for it in the shop. Somebody complained about the Sony eReader page going black when turning pages and it does but I had to go and check mine to confirm this because despite reading several hundred books on it I had never noticed.

In a similar vein I was slightly concerned about the size of my PRS-350 screen and the extra page turns this would mean but again in practice it doesn't matter a tiny bit when you are stuck in a book. The small physical size of the device does matter though and is a big advantage in many situations.

That doesn't mean the Kindle isn't right for you but I would advise you not to choose on the basis of something unimportant like page turning speed.
InsideSoap
06-11-2011
About the page turning, one of the first things I did when I got the new Kindle was download the new update so I could make each page turn a full refresh, can't remember the word for it but it's annoying still seeing the previous page underneath the current pages text like when you highlight a word to see its meaning. Also the Kobo must turn a page quicker than it would take to turn the page of an actual book?
IvanIV
06-11-2011
Yeah, it may look irritating when just observing the page turns, but when reading you just stop noticing. Even when I had PRS-300 with relatively slow page turns it was OK when reading. You look elsewhere or blink and the next page is there. And I'd rather "suffer" this than see ghosts of previous pages.
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