this post was submitted on 17 Oct 2024
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I still have an old Kindle and it still gets months of battery life. I occasionally read comics so this may get me to upgrade.

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[–] myopic_menace@reddthat.com 130 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 week ago) (10 children)

I'd recommend everyone to buy a Kobo over these, it's much easier to read your own .pdf and .epub files than on a Kindle.

[–] firepenny@lemmy.world 20 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Thanks for this. Was in the market for an e-reader and didn't really feel like jumping through Amazon bullshit

[–] iturnedintoanewt@lemm.ee 10 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] BeMoreCareful@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

How's their store? I'm kind of ashamed at how often I'll finish a book and then instantly buy and start another, but I also love being able to do that.

[–] forgotaboutlaye@lemmy.world 17 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I also love my Kobo. I've heard you can unlock it and flash a community supported OS, which might be another true benefit over Kindle depending on your needs.

[–] Estebiu@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago

Im just using KoReader on mine. I don't remember the last time that I've seen the stock interface.

[–] Matt@lemdro.id 14 points 1 month ago
[–] ALilOff@lemmy.world 9 points 1 month ago (1 children)

I recommend Boox, I don’t know about their dedicated e-reader, but I have the Onyx Boox Air C it’s a little pricier, but it’s an E-Ink tablet so I take all my notes there. (The C versions are color)

As someone who takes a lot of notes during their work, I can’t recommend enough. Gone are the days I’ve bought paper notebooks.

[–] EvilBit@lemmy.world 7 points 1 month ago

The only reason I never bought into Boox is their flagrant violation of GPL.

[–] Brkdncr@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Amazon also bought up a comic distributor a while back which may make this easier to get the content I want.

I’ve never had issues emailing PDFs and epubs to my kindle address to read them.

I’ll need to check out kobu though, they have a color one that’s $100 cheaper.

[–] ben_dover@lemmy.ml 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

interesting, my mum's kindle used to regularly wipe all ebooks i've sideloaded with calibre, only keeping it in airplane mode helped so far

[–] paf@jlai.lu 1 points 1 month ago

Can second that email works great to send Epub, never had issues in years

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 4 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Got a very old kindle for free, from someone getting rid of it. No touch, no backlight, most basic thing ever. I only got my account on it to download a dictionary.

I am never buying anything from Amazon to read on it, but I've been using it quite a bit, only on calibre converted stuff. It was not too hard to set up, and once it's done it's just drag n drop.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 4 points 1 month ago (2 children)

Until it decides to delete every single side loaded book you have on there, which they like to do from time to time. The only way to completely avoid it is to load all your content via email, which unfortunately only supports limited formats.

[–] bossjack@lemmy.world 6 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (3 children)

The type of person to rock Calibre would probably have airplane mode on constantly. Mine's been that way and I still have epubs sideloaded on my Kindle from when I first got mine all those years ago.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Yeah same. Until I accidentally turned it off 1,000 miles away from my computer. That was a sad day.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Second this. Airplane mode is on and books are sideloaded. However, if it hadn’t been a present, I‘d probably have gotten a Tolino (German/European e-reader brand that is identical with kobo) because they support epub directly (and yes I know the Kindle technically does that, too, now but wordwise n stuff only works if you convert them to kfx)

[–] Cheradenine@sh.itjust.works 1 points 1 month ago

Same on my still works fine Kindle Keyboard.

[–] brsrklf@jlai.lu 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (1 children)

Well, good luck to Amazon trying to wipe my kindle remotely with black magic then.

It doesn't have WiFi configured at all.

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

When it happened to me I was staying with a family member whose house I’d never been to before, so I didn’t have their wifi. I couldn’t believe it.

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Some Kindle devices come with a built-in „free“ cellular plan. Maybe it was that?

[–] EncryptKeeper@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Aw man I didn’t even know about that. I guess 4g LTE is Amazon’s “Black Magic”

[–] accideath@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I mean, in general it’s pretty neat. When I was 12 or 13 I had a kindle touch with 3G and since I didn’t have a phone or computer I used the kindle touch to read a lot on wikipedia (it didn’t work for everything, I think. Just a handful of selected sites). Also, it generally costs extra when you buy it, just not monthly.

[–] TheRealKuni@lemmy.world 2 points 1 month ago

Biggest draw to Kindle for me is whispersync. Having my progress synchronized between Audible and Kindle is fantastic.

[–] Pacmanlives@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

I would agree at this point. I love my Kindle but if I am buying a new one that’s they way I would go

[–] gamermanh@lemmy.dbzer0.com 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Did a quick google and the first review that came up shows that's not true at all, it's the exact same process on a kindle as it is a Kobo, though you and this review are both really over-selling it:

Getting ebooks from other stores onto the device is also a hassle. You have to plug the e-reader into your computer and drag and drop files (though Calibre, the ebook management app, does make it a scootch easier). But that problem isn’t unique to Kobo. Amazon and Barnes & Noble also insist you sideload books.

The real reason seems to be that the Kobo is cheaper, honestly, don't see why the kindle is that much more

[–] Lem453@lemmy.ca 7 points 1 month ago (1 children)
[–] Anivia@feddit.org 3 points 1 month ago (1 children)

And with a kindle you can just email the file to it

[–] moonburster@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

As a Kobo user, I want this too :(

Now I just use the internal browser or use a c to c cable and just use my phone as intermediate

[–] Lem453@lemmy.ca 2 points 1 month ago (1 children)

https://send.djazz.se/

This website allows you do email files to kobo

[–] moonburster@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

That's genius, thanks!

[–] kitnaht@lemmy.world 0 points 1 month ago* (last edited 1 month ago) (2 children)

Where's the one with unlimited internet connectivity for the lifetime of the device...I'm not seeing it.

My wife has the oasis that has cellular connectivity so she can read newspapers, rss feeds, etc. But I don't see a Kobu with that feature.

[–] troyunrau@lemmy.ca 6 points 1 month ago

I don't think Kobo has that option. I just toggle on my wifi hotspot on my phone though and that works just fine.

[–] ALilOff@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago (1 children)

Where do u go that doesn’t have Wi-Fi in 2024?

[–] kitnaht@lemmy.world 1 points 1 month ago

Public wifi? Almost everywhere because security protocols changed, and captive portals don't work on a lot of modern hardware due to DNSSEC