Unboxing the Kobo Ebook Reader

I waited and studied the market before I made the decision on the Kobo Ebook Reader.  Here is the short list of why I chose it:

• Price Point - at 150 CAD it is the best deal
• Supports ePub and PDF - All those Gutenberg books load up without a problem
• Come pre-packed with a bunch of out of copyright books (some that you'd actually read)

The Kobo, in your choice of white or black

Now you'll probably read lots of reviews about how it operates and how much it weights and what kinda gelaskins you can buy for it.  I wanted to take a look at more of the technical components of it.  After all, if you really want to see the device in action head to Chapters and you'll find some demo models to play with.

The unit itself comes with a usb cable and not much else.  As soon as you plug in the device it maps as a drive.  On it preloaded is the client software for both Windows and Mac.  I tried to install it under Wine on my Ubuntu machine but it didn't work out so well.  Once you install the client you can fire up the Exe and if you haven't done so yet you need to create an account with the Kobo store. 

The Kobo Desktop App

You login and you'll be presented with a few free books from the Kobo Store, but here is where it gets complicated.... The five titles you are presented are already loaded on your Kobo reader but there is not a clear indication that is the case.  In fact the only thing that ties in with your reader is a little box on the left side of the window that offers to Sync your ereader to your Kobo account.  I guess this is my biggest pet-peeve with the device, the coupling between the Kobo application and the reader is not the best.

Another interesting hitch is that you need to install Adobe Digital Editions to package up the ePub files that you hope to read on the device.  Here is were nasty DRM pokes his head in.  I'm haven't yet embarked on the process of loading content on it from my Overdrive account from the local public library. More on that later.

In other news, there is supposedly a firmware update coming within a week or two which should hopefully fix some of the small glitches users have been reporting.

Old firmware is old

Now I've had the device for less then 24 hours but there are two observations I'm comfortable making:

1. I can read about 3 times quicker on it then paper.  How do I know that?  Well I was in the middle of a book when I got the Kobo.  I began reading the Kobo version and ended up tearing through the remaining pages of the book in a third less time then my pace on the paper version.  Why?  I think it has to do with less eye movement.  I also think the e-paper is easier on the eyes because it reflects less light.
2. I think the Kobo ereader will become the 20$ DVD player. How do I mean?  Well the DVD didn't get popular when Sony made a $1000 player, it really took off when DVD was put in the hands of everybody with a reasonably priced player.  The Kindle, and Sony eBook reader cost a bit more (200$ - 500$ easily) and have a whole host of bells and whistles that probably wouldn't get used by the masses.  The Kobo does exactly what you want it to do.  It reads books.

 To sum up, the only drawback to the Kobo is the less then solid experience of the Desktop App.  In exchange you get an excellent ebook reader with some good on-board content at a decent price.