This is a heavily edited ebook comparison and review posted at around the same time last year. I love my Kobo eReader. It’s clunky but “honest.” My iPad is cool, too but my Kindle 3 hardly leaves its sleeve.

Everyone’s going on about the new Kindle 3 and how you can annotate the book you’re reading, download Audiobooks, mp3s and play Sudoko … Meh! Too “try hard” IMHO. Also too many moving parts – more to go wrong. Here’s why I like the Kobo v2 and the iPad v1 …

All my Kobo (ver 1) does is read ePub formatted files – and it does that pretty well. I have since purchased a Kobo v2. which has wi-fi functionality and more robust software. I don’t use the wi-fi.

Unlike the Kindle, on a Kobo, I can load up books from anywhere. It’s not tied to the one store. They have one available via wi-fi, but you are not obligated to use it. Prices are getting better and are comparable with the very cheap Amazon store. Rarely is a book over about $10. Newest releases can be more. But the Kobo store NOW has fairly reasonable prices. And it reads ePub files.

The Kindle. You can convert Kindle books using special software, but until they sort out DRM (digital rights management), you’re likely to bump into trouble. Kindle uses .azm file type, but will also read .mobi. It won’t read the non-DRM ePub format (ePub is an open source format based on html (like this page)). However, you can now go to Guternberg.org and download free Kindle-optimised books. Because html is text and .ePub = the text of a book + a book cover image (.jpg file) zipped into the one .zip file, You can store hundreds of books on a 1Gb Kobo. For the geeks out there, try renaming “twilight.epub” to “twilight.zip” and check out what’s inside the zip file. It’s mostly text. This means that ePub files can be compressed to make them really small. Really tiny!

I had to take my Kobo 1 back to the shop after about a month of really hitting it hard. I read 3 novels back to back before the screen froze. One year on, a charge lasts about one day or 5hrs of use. Tech issues aside, for $99 I still think it’s the best value e-reader on the market. Why? Well for one thing, it’s not locked to any provider. I can transfer any old eBook or PDF file onto the Kobo. There’s no syncing with proprietary software or downloading from a special store (you can do that but it’s really not necessary). Apple and Kindle products can also read open source, but they don’t make it particularly easy. The Kobo 1 shows up as an external drive and I drag stuff onto it. That’s it. Like any digital device, it starts to slow down the more you put on there. If there’s an SD Card in the slot (it can read up to 2Gb) then that shows up as a separate drive when you plug the Kobo into your computer (via a non-proprietary mini USB to USB cable). A full SD card slows the Kobo down considerably. I like to transfer ePubs to the Kobo itself and PDF formatted eBooks onto the SD card. But the emptier you leave the device, the quicker it runs. The Kobo 2 seems to run smoother, but the build is basically the same.

Which brings me to PDFs. PDF isn’t so good to read on small readers. I wouldn’t like to read a PDF on the smaller Samsung Galaxy because I’ve already been frustrated trying to read on the small-screen Kobo.

The iPad excels at displaying PDF files. In fact, that’s all the reason I needed to purchase one. It’s about the right size for US Letter and A4 pages and PDFs looks great – especially those with colourful diagrams, photos and graphics. On the Kobo, you have to scroll with the big blue “up / down / left / right” button which is a Royal pain. Similarly so with the small-screen Kindle. And because Kobo and Kindle are e-ink (as opposed to fast-reacting back-lit LED pixels) page scrolling is sloooow. On the iPad, it’s very easy to move a PDF page about and the 132 pixel-per-inch resolution is pretty glorious (a basic computer monitor is about 72dpi-100dpi).

The iPad has its faults. It HAS to synchronize with stupid iTunes in order for it to work! Everything runs, updates and loads via iTunes. Plus many apps can still crash the iPad. So, with a lot of apps, the iPad crashes as often as a PC IMHO.

I had to take my iPad 1 back to the Apple store after a week. I’m suspicious of over-wrought customer care policy in all its forms. Especially when products are presented as being a part of the new “family” – Urgh! Within a week my screen dropped down to 256 colours and became fuzzy – like a badly tuned TV. What annoyed me most was that I had to “make an appointment with an Apple Genius.” The Apple Genius Bar is basically a row of about 5 or 6 early 20s male nerds at the back of the Apple store. To give credit where credit is due, my Genius admitted there was nothing he could do and handed me a new iPad. Interestingly, the exchange invoice I signed was for half the cost of what I paid, which to me, reveals their profit margin at around 100% markup. I have since purchased an iPad2 which freezes all too regularly. A friend of mine also had to take his iPad2 back because the button was a bit dicky. So I’m liking the robustness and better build quality of my iPad 1.

Three months after purchasing a Kindle 3, the very fragile screen cracked. Because it feels much more delicate than the Kobo, I kept my Kindle in a gel-cover embedded in a leather holder. That was inside a padded bag and yet the screen still cracked. Kindle were quick to send me a replacement, but the fragility of the device – along with its very sticky on / off button (the first button became sticky very quickly and now this replacement has also turned sticky). The Kindle feels like it wants to be jack of all trades, so I’m starting to admire the Kobo for its simplicity.

The Kobo has no “loyalty.”

Kobo does have its own “store” (and all the same world domination aspirations as Apple I’m sure). They’ve basically released a generic 1Gb Hard Drive onto the market that just happens to have a pretty cool 6″ e-ink screen attached to it. Unlike my iPad, I can manhandle the Kobo. I can, literally, chuck it in my backpack without a cover and not worry about the screen cracking. It’s not quite the Princess that is an iPad. “She” gets wrapped in a t-shirt or tea towel and then into a deep inner-pocket if I’m cycling somewhere. The Kobo is right up the back – on the fall side. I’ve dropped it onto hard floors several times and my cousin – who has a Kobo 2 (with w-fi) – confirms that it’s pretty robust. One day my Kobo 1 will break my fall and I’ll prolly still be able to read novels of it.

Reading on an eReader

As a reader, the Kobo 1 & 2 are great. It hangs a bit, battery life is crap after a year and page turn is not as good as the Kindle 3, but the Kobo is not pretending to be a multimedia device. IMHO that’s admirable. The Kobo 2 is … just a A$100 reader. I haven’t tried the touch-screen version. It doesn’t do PDFs very well but you can read them. Sony and a whole bunch of other eReader companies seem to have out-priced themselves in this market.

The iPad isn’t the greatest thing to read a novel on, but unlike the Kindle and Kobo, it lights up at night – which is when I get my reading done. Up until recently, copyright issues wouldn’t allow me to read my Kindle books on my iPad Kindle app. But now that Asimov SF magazine and Philosophy Now are wirelessly delivered to my Kindle app, there’s almost no reason to use the Kindle. My iPad 1 is a bit heavy and the screen’s a bit bright and computery – and if you fell asleep and dropped it, the beautiful glass may crack – but he iPad is a solid multimedia all-rounder and unlike the Kindle or Kobo, I find myself using it daily.

The Kobo’s size and light-weight makes it okay to chuck around and it would easily survive hitting the pavement. If you want to read plain, black and white novels – definitely buy an e-ink reader. Because the Kobo 2 will now be cheap (now that the touch-screen version is out) maybe get that. You could probably fit the entire works of Harry Potter onto it and it would slip easily into a handbag or largish pocket.

The iPad is ultimately as good as its apps, but it’s also great to read at night. You can get the Kindle and Kobo apps on it anyway, so I find myself reading the iPad. The iPad 1 is a bit heavy in bed but suits the couch fine for surfing the web, faffing around with music apps and reading in the dark. For games, music, videos and artwork – the iPad is possibly the best multimedia player on the market. I originally wrote this review on my (replacement) iPad. The keyboard is a lot more responsive than I thought it would ever be and I’ve always loved the beauty and silence of Apple’s products. No glaring fans or hot knees. Having said that, a laptop’s clunky keyboard is probably more practical to write on than the virtual touch-screen type.

Here, in order of what I’d get first knowing what I know now…

1. iPad v1.
2. Kobo v2.
3. iPad v2
4. Kindle 3
5. something else.

I pretty much don’t use the Kindle, but I DO use the Kindle app on the iPad a LOT! Now that Apple has stopped Kindle linking to their own store in app, I find myself using the Kindle app even more (perhaps out of spite). I buy neither books or music from the price-inflated Apple store. I also use the Kobo app as it comes with a free version of Darwin’s “Voyage of the Beagle” which I got half way through a couple of years back. I’d also be interested to see how Kobo’s reading community idea evolves over time. You can see the functionality in the Apple Kobo App.

Hope these reviews were of use to you.

Enjoy your device!

This entry was posted on Monday, August 22nd, 2011 at 3:07 am and is filed under Reviews, Technology. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response. Pinging is currently not allowed.