Kobo vs Kindle
One of my leftover Blaugust prompts from last year was "Kobo vs Kindle." I've been using e-readers for years. My first one was a gift, the Kindle DX. Yes, the big chonky one with an almost 10" display! I got a cool leather cover for it that almost makes it look like some kind of grimoire:
I got that big boy in 2010. I hadn't used him for quite a while but I put a new battery in him a couple years ago. I bought a Humble Bundle of informational zines on topics like how to grow things, how to build things, how to hide things, how to fix things, etc. Survival from the Margins by Microcosm, pretty cool stuff. Anyway, I was thinking that I'd put them on the DX but that is not something I've gotten around to yet.
A few years after getting the big Kindle, I upgraded to a Kindle Keyboard. I *loved* my little guy! I liked the keyboard, it had physical page buttons, it was much more portable than the DX. I thought me and the Keyboard would be ride or die FOR LIFE.
There was just one thing lacking on the Keyboard - a backlight. Having a book light clamped on and shining down just wasn't the same as other readers that had a true backlight. My eyes started wandering. And when its little folio cover fell apart because it was used to death and I couldn't find an easel-style replacement cover, well, then, my eyes started to wander even more.
Even though I was ready to jump ship on this relationship, I was picky. If I was going to leave, it was going to be for something better and I now wanted that backlight. But I also wanted physical page buttons. And for it to be similar in size. A 6" e-reader fits nicely in my purse. Anything bigger probably wouldn't work. I did not want a color screen. I wanted a similar style cover. And I wanted to leave the Amazon system.
And one day, I found it! The Kobo Libra 2. It was the right size! It had not just a backlight but one with adjustable brightness and color temperature! It had physical page buttons! And my poor little Keyboard was like:
I still have my Keyboard. I've been thinking about maybe repurposing it. I found a really cool project where with the help of a Raspberry Pi you can turn it into something that people can send messages to. That's all way above my technical skill level but I bet I could bang my way through that one of these days.
I've been rocking the Kobo now for maybe 3 years? And I really like it! I'm happy with the Kobo. Do you hear the implied, "But!"? I read about a new e-reader from XTEINK. They make TINY ones! I just love tiny things and my attention was definitely caught by a tiny e-reader (never mind my eyes saying, "How the hell are we supposed to read that??"). Well, my son recently ordered a couple of them, one in each size (3" and 4"). He brought them over so I actually got to hold them and check them out and now I'm like:
Since I'm here talking about e-readers, let me pass on a couple of links I've found very helpful. First is the MobileRead Forums. Did you think old school forums were dead? Not this one! This is a very active community that discusses all aspects of e-readers and has discussion areas for more e-readers than I ever knew existed.
The second link is for BookDrop, which lets you send books to your Kobo, Kindle or Tolino. My son doesn't understand why I just don't use the USB cable to transfer but I like using this.
What about you? Do you have an e-reader preference? Or do you eschew them and stick to actual books? I have no personal beef with actual books but as I get older and the arthritis in my hands progresses, I find it much easier to hold an e-reader.
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