E-Reader Reviews

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This is too little to be a success, especially when it comes to the design and the technical gadgets. The fact that it doesn’t have integrated 3G makes it impossible to use where it would be perfect for, which is developing countries and everywhere where access to books is restriced. And where there are no books, Internet is probably just a dream. I hope somebody will build something usefull for the same price though, the idea is really good!

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honestly its a cheap dumbed down ereader without any of the bells and whistles, they managed to do what they set out to, make an affordable ereader that was uncomplicated to use.

no 3g? big deal we deal with syncing our ipods to the computer anyways, and we have enough other toys that can get us on the internet

im definately looking foreward to the actual release

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No access to books, no internet, but plenty of 3G for everyone in so-called “developing” countries?! You’re kidding, right? What about bluetooth then…?
Are we even talking about the same planet?

This is supposed to be a basic reader, to allow the average reader what he is appreciating most: a decent reading device, affordable and well supported.

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Received mine yesterday. I pre-ordered it last Sunday. Nice, light and it does the job it is suppose to do. Read books. The instructions on downloading a book were not clear but I got it after a few minutes. Comes pre-loaded with a lot of interesting classics. Not the fastest to navigate between menus but that is ok for me. A good ereader and I am sure it will evolve well in the future.

This eReader SUCKS big time. VERY, VERY slow. Mine will not shut off when I try to shut it off. I have to re-try over and over to get it to shut off finally going into the help section where if FINALLY will shut off????
Don’t waste your money – wish I’d spent the extra $30 and got the Sony version.

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If it had worked as indicated it would have been four or five stars all the way – but it didn’t. The “plug and play” Kobo desktop application refused to function (despite 7 or 8 different attempts), help was helpless – which meant that although I could read the books pre-installed there wasn’t a chance of getting a new one downloaded. Am returning it to the store this morning – and wouldn’t get one now until all glitches are sorted.

I really like Kobo for my Blackberry. I bought 6 books for it (using the coupons they sent out), and liked the idea that I could read them anywhere, anytime. When they announced the release of the new Ereader, I thought it sounded like a pretty good deal. $100 cheaper than the Kindle, but I could like with the inconvenience of loading books through my Blackberry or comouter for the savings. That was, until I looked into what happened to the price of their books. Those 6 books that I purchased increased in price $36 dollars and they no longer seam to send out coupons, adding another $12, for a total price increase on 6 books of $48. Then I compared the same 6 books on Kindle. Kobo was now $13 higher. I have decided the Kindle’s extra price will pay for itself in book price savings and will no longer purchase books for my Blackberry through Kobo. I don’t like doing business with companies that “Bait and Switch”!

Read More http://www.wired.com/gadgetlab/2010/03/150-kobo-ereader-the-real-kindle-killer/?dsq=48563785#comment-48563785#ixzz0n5lcA6Do

I was really looking forward to this, but instructions were poor. I had problems charging the reader. Red light sais it was charged but indicator icon said it was dead. Plug it in and lite would indicate fully charged in 15 minutes but icon still showed very low. Now it is froze and despite several reboots still locked. Help says to return it but have to wait 5 to 6 weeks for replacement.

I still like the Kobo but advise caution. There are bug that need working out.

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I had a lot of questions before buying this device. Specically how it would handle non Kobo store purchased stuff. After a week of using the Kobo everyday I wrote a thorough review at http://tinyurl.com/24n6utz

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I Love It!! Very simple and user friendly. The software downloaded easily, and the battery life is sufficient. I am not a huge fan of the preloaded classics and wish I could erase them, and the navigation from page to page is slow. But overall, a great deal for the money, and very easy to use.

Hi,
I just bought a Kobo-reader, but the display magnification function is useless. When I open a file in the documents, which I downloaded to the reader, and use the magnification function such as 125%, the text shift to the right and the portion of right side text disappeared and leave large blank space at the left side. If I pressed the left button, the text shift to the left and the portion of left side text disappeared and leave large blank space at the right side. It can’t keep the text in the center. Would you help me fix the problem?

Thanks.

Solomon

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Unfortunately, the Kobo book reader takes too long to start up. I timed it at the store. To return to the page you were reading takes about 90 seconds. I was going to buy one for my wife, but she wouldn’t have used it.

That needs to be optimized before I’d recommend it to anyone.

Cheers,
Mike

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For the type of price, this little gadget here is a good starter kit that cater for the “non sophisitcated” and “no frill” person.

As compared to the other e-readers that has a little bit more features, truely how many of us has actually fully exploit and use all the features ?

If it keeps the price right and manage to target certain segment of the readers,
I am sure this little product will improve as time goes on

What a waste of money. I returned mine today. I couldn’t get it to do anything except slowly read really old books. I would have prefered a couple of new book vs 100 crap books. I also had problems with the power. It took lots of attempts to finally get it to shut off. And for the wonderful support ….. right! I sat on the phone for 20 minutes. Finally hung up and returned the stupid thing.

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Have only had mine 24hrs but I love it!
Seems almost like there are 2 separate devices out there from these reviews – one lot that goes absolutely fine and another that is slow, plays up won’t turn off etc.
Can only say mine is faultless, turns pages at perfectly adequate speed etc.
So much easier and more portable than paper books.
Anyone know how/where to download ANY kind of edictionary for it? ( not integrated, just a dictionary)

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This is nice device. It is light and comfortable in the hand when reading. It doesn’t play PDFs well which is a major drawback. It only displays the pages as images but you cannot resize the fonts. The reason to buy an eReader is so you can resize the fonts. The Kobo reader and the Kobobooks site has some bugs when syncing books that have embedded images. I would lose the images when syncing with the Kobo site. I had to remove the book from my reading list and then use Adobe Digital Edition software to load the book in order for the images to load. Strange behaviour. It’s a bit slow in the page turns and can be irritating. Nevertheless, I really like this unit. I hope they fix the PDF reading soon because there are too many books out there that are not in epub format.

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Total rubbish, a Beta release at best.

The unit itself is nice, easy to read and not bad to get around at all. Easy to hold and quite light.

Don’t expect to be able to read pdfs. Load them, yes, read them, no.

The supplied “software” is 4th rate at best. Doesn’t even allow you to see what books you have on the device.

The 100 included books cannot be (easily) removed. Nor can you remove or organize other books.

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I wish I could score it higher, but the technical problems are just too much. I bought mine through Borders, and after two days of trying to solve the problems that popped up, with frequent reference to online faqs (the lack of a detailed guide with the device is very crippling) I finally called up tech support, where I was talked down to and told to do the things I had already done. At the end of all of that I was finally told that the Borders Desktop Application was the problem, and that I’d have to return or exchange my ereader because of it.

Joy.

Beyond that? I despise the “I’m Reading” list, dislike the need to download several programs to do one thing, do not find customer support to be at all helpful in general (their responses are hardly ever useful, and they don’t quite explain anything at all). The charging light makes no sense when it actually bothers to show up (and the battery cannot be replaced, so someday, however far down the road, you will simply have to buy a new ereader).

The device is sold with nothing but a usb cord. You can charge it with that. If you want a case it is a /thirty dollar/ addition, separate. There’s no wall charger out, but when it is, that will be additional, too. You can’t delete any of the free 100 books, and if the file gets corrupted (which seems oddly easy, without meaning to?) the only way to fix it is to delete all 100, which you can’t get back.

There definitely needs to be more communication between Borders and Kobo (and I couldn’t get in touch with Borders on the topic at all, really. Whatever). And updates to the software, and…well, a lot of things. I wouldn’t mind lag if the books would load, but when the books I bought from the Kobo site are corrupted and won’t load because of (according to Customer services) the Border desktop application, whatever. That just seems really, really worthless.

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Give it a break. This is a very good ereader. Sure there are more fancy readers but, it is for reading. Thats the whole point and it looks great and works very well. Use it and enjoy your books and forget all the tech crap. This is a good product at a fair price.

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Love it! Charges fast, incredible battery life, fast downloading! and great price! I’m a huge reader, take it with me wherever I go – and best of all: Total privacy! No one knows what I’m reading in public

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Amazing how much inconsistency in these reviews. Only have tried a borrowed Kindle, but KOBO nicer to handle and display fine – having no trouble adjusting font and moving thru book. Downloads easy once you get hang of it. Like any tech thing, just takes a few minutes to get used to. Will be watching price comparisons of books carefully – Kindle almost identical at this point. Couldn’t load the Borders app on older computer without Service Pack 3, so put it on a Vista laptop and flawless. Should stimulate some competition and these readers should get better and cheaper!

What a fiasco. Yes, it’s simple but that does not mean good. The directional button requires a very hard press and exact placement of the finger to operate, the page turn is slow and the menu functions are not that easy to access. To top it all off, the two books I downloaded were blank after the first couple of chapters. After calling support desk 3 times on the escalated issue and no one calling me back over a one week period, I took the darn thing back. Yes, they were very apologetic each time I called but no one ever helped me.
Have since bought a Sony and the difference in quality is amazing. Kobo, you missed the boat.

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I bought the Kobo EReader from Chapters in May and have been very happy with it. It is a basic reader, a bit slow on initial start up and turning the pages, but overall all it works well. Setting up the Kobo downloader was bit finicky – worked well with Windows 7, but had problems with XP on a Netbook. If you buy books from sites other than Kobo you can use the Adobe Digital Reader to manage your books. If you already have books, you can just drag and drop them into the reader. The only drawbacks is that the font size does not work on some books and the PDF viewer does not resize. Otherwise it is an excellent product.

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I bought the Kobo from Borders and was excited, however with pdf files they are almost impossible to read (as they are not only small print, even after increasing to largest font), but there’s no continuation from paragraph to paragraph or page to page. If you like to manually page down after reading each SENTENCE then you’ll enjoy this reader. You also waste a ton of memory because you can’t delete their 20+ books that come pre-installed. I even purchased some epub books from kobo and the print was still too small to practically use. For $50 more I bought the Sony ereader and it lets you read any pdf (not restricted by adobe digital), you can make notes, easy to turn pages, touch screen works well despite what others have said). Thankfully I was able to return the Kobo to Borders.

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This is an inexpensive eReader that does its job well. No 3G, big deal. I bet all of you guys own a iPod and maintain its content with your PC! So where is the problem? The latest software upgrade has addressed the issues about the battery and other annoyances, so get the update and enjoy your Kobo. Eh!

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I must say that Jane B. (May 5th) said pretty much my experience. I didn’t even get to the reading a book because I had so many problems with the downloading of books both from Kobo and Borders. Had virtually no tech support from Kobo. They kept telling me to take it back to Borders and Borders kept telling me to call Kobo for support. So I got sick of try to get my books onto my Kobo I took it back and now I’m looking for something that works.

Purchased the Kobo for my wife, and have had no problems with it. Have added books to it from Kobo Canada very easily. As I use the Sony PRS300, I already had Calibre installed and running on my desktop. It recognized the Kobo first time and no problems. The software upgrade to the Kobo earlier this month has fixed some of the small annoying shortcomings. All in all a good reader for the price.

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LOVE IT!!!!!!!!!! <3 i love this it is the best thing ever it is the best when people say "What is that?"
i love telling them about it and normally they end up getting it. they all say that they lover it to!
Great all around.
I love that the books are cheeper on the kobo ereader site so eventually you will save money.

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We purchased this as a secondary unit to a Sony PRS-505 and it really paled in comparison. It’s lighter and it has a nice feel to it but it is very,very slow and counter-intuitive compared to the Sony product. We started using the Kobo site for books and have been happy with it but the reader needs some work. We took it back and purchased a Sony Pocket reader for $20 more and it was well worth the extra money.

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Nothing BUT problems, and no support after waiting days for reply from technical on a number of issues.
Purchased book disappeared, no recourse.
No such thing as technical assistance.
DON’T buy this unsupported piece of you know what!

I would like to join my comments to all those who have proble3ms with the Kobo reader. I wish I had reviewed their comments before purchasing this very ‘buggy’ and unreliable device. My advice to those considering a purchase? “Dont.”

I also wish I had reviewed all the comments, I bought the reader and yet to purchase a book to download. The software does not work, I’ve downloaded it a dozen times or MORE with no success. Tech support say they are working on it, that was 2 weeks ago. Would love to return this but too much time has passed. Don’t buy one, you’ll be sorry.

I bought the thing for the express purpose of reading pdf documents. As Solomon already pointed out the magnification function for documents is useless. I have to read with a magnifying glass and I don’t normally need reading glasses. Extremely poor engineering.

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I bought this when it first came out. I really liked the fact that it came pre-loaded with many books. I also didin’t mind that I had to have a wired connecton to download anything. I had a problem with the dark screen. It was far to gray for me and hurt my eyes to read. The contrast was terrible. Enlarging the font made no difference. Also the page turning was very slow and the button was cumbersome. These two issues were a deal breaker for me. I sent it back within the 30 day period via UPS and tracked it to confirm it made it back in the 30 days. Borders did NOT refund my credit card and sent me a gift card instead. I had to call and complain and prove they recieved it within the 30 day window. They then refunded my card. I would not buy a reader from Amazon again based on the customer service alone….

I borrowed one from the college library where I work. I found it very slow, and with one of the books the font was unreadably small. The interface isn’t very intuitive, and because it’s so slow it takes forever to backtrack after pushing the wrong button. I read one book on it, and really liked it, but that ran the battery down, and the thing froze. When I attempted to recharge it, it locked into an endless reboot cycle. I can’t shut it down, and resetting it makes no difference. It’s sitting on my coffee table right now going reboot … reboot … reboot …. reboot .. like the stupid little thing it actually is.

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Stay away from this product. The factory that made this little gem obviously got paid by product shipped. Quality is all over the map!
I have one the is a POS and I’m taking it back!
Sony E-reader here I come…

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Got one for an xmas present and just set everything up with no problems and I’m not tech savy at all. I think I’ll enjoy it for what it is intended for, a reader.

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Are all trhe positive reviews from Borders employees? This is a horrendous product. Way behind the times technology wise. I don’t need a top of the line e-reader but when I purchase an e book for $13.00 but the book will not load because their server is too busy. Not once, twice, three times but all day long and into the night. I wanted 1 book, changed books thinking maybe this would help. Just to navigate log in name & password is way out of date and takes far too long, simple concept but very inefficient.
Finally, when I returned it to Borders, I was to they would not take it back, even though I had a receipt. Borders told me I could exchange for the same product but I could not get my $ back. I refused to leave and finally was given my $ back. Though, even though it was a gift, I had to return to my home to get my wife’s credit card in order to get my $ back. No wonder why Borders is in trouble.

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my kobo reader lasted 1 week before the screen scrambled. It has now taken 3 months to get any service from technical support and feedback. I have received 2 emails and have waited 2 months for them to send me a box to post it back in!! No-one will answer my emails. It’s a joke!!. I bought it from angus and robertson and they have nothing to do with it either

The eReader is light and easy to use, but one seems quite tied to the Kobo website for new books. Not much in the way of options if you don’t like them.
The book purchase website is very simplistic and you must have an account with a valid credit card on file. They really have you at their mercy. They changed me for what was supposed to be a free promotional book they were offering, and now I am having difficulty getting my money back. How do you “return” an eBook as unused?

I have had the same problem as Scott. Got this as a Christmas gift and have been trying to download books ever since. Have yet to get one to actually work after trying daily for a week, and at all hours. Still getting the “server is too busy” message…at 2am?! I’m going to take this thing back ASAP, and hopefully I won’t have any problems doing so.

I am not a Borders employee

I would suspect that the week of Christmas, a smaller company would see A LOT of activity on their servers with so many Kobo’s being bought for the holiday.

I’m starting to see the Kobo more and more which makes sense…once people find out about this easy-to-use reader, they will be buying it up. It also has space for an extra card to expand your memory – you don’t have to buy a new ereader like with some brands. I’ve had no problems with my Kobo and I love the convenience of having it with me everywhere. What a price, and with WiFi? I’m thrilled! It supports ePub, PDF, and Adobe DRM! ~Sandy, ShesConnected Community Manager

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Here are my ratings

I am not really familiar with any e-readers other than my Kobo. I am NOT impressed. From the get-go I realized I was purchasing vapor not paper and was prepared for a trade-off. The only advantage is my luggage is lightened- very important as I travel extensively. But the downs-side is multi-faceted. No pictures! No photos! No maps! No graphics! Are all e-readers lacking in this regard??? Are no other customers bothered by this? This is a MAJOR drawback. Page-turning- such a pain! A glossary or annotated notes at the back of a book are worthless. One would need the patience of Job. Impossible to quick-scan or quick-search. The reader is isolated on the open page.
I can live with the slow start-up, the slow speed, the awkward filing system, the general inflexibility of the unit but my patience is limited. As to downloading from the KOBO site – that would lead me to the use of expletives. Enough to say I am simply disappointed by this e-reader phenomena (if KOBO is typical). The game is not worth the candle. And considering I am purchasing vapor, the paper prices are looking far more attractive. If KOBO is typical, When I finish traveling I am finished with e-readers.

After reading Kobo reviews (which were all good) I purchased the Kobo. It took almost 2 months to get it to me. Borders put the wrong zip code on package. After my leg work, no help from Borders or Kobo, I finally recieved it. Then the trouble really began. I could not purchase any books on the desktop app. for several weeks. Numerous phone calls made to Borders site, always put on hold for hours listening to that awful music. I was able to eventually purchase a book and now I can’t sync it to the Kobo. More phone calls and awful music. I am sending it back tomorrow. I am at the end of my patience with the thing. My advice stay away from this reader. Don’t think I will ever purchase another one.

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Purchased Kobo from Chapters. Wanted to be a good canadian and purchase a canadian ereader. It is not good. Would not recommend this ereader to anyone. It is very slow and does not respond to the commands in the menu file. It is very frustrating trying to use this reader. Plan to take it back to Chapters and insist on a reund. Will look at other readers.

I just boght this last night. I went to purchase the Nook…they were out..so I looked at the Sony…no wi-fi so by default (I’m traveling and really wanted one for my flight out tonight) I got the KoBo. Thus far its good. It does what its supposed to do..all of my favorite aurthors are included in their library. I will wind up giving this one to my daughter and getting the Nook as originally intended but, I have no doubt she’ll enjoy this. Good job KoBo. Enexpensive, easy to use and very light. Kuddos!

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Bought this in January before a weeklong trip out of town… Could never get it to display the 100 books, or to work properly. Took it back.

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I bought my Kobo on Feb. 15th, so I haven’t had it very long. No problems encountered so far. I downloaded the Borders application and was then able to sync. I was a little confused when I only saw 5 books. (It says it comes with 100.) Once I clicked on Update Library, it loaded the other 490 books. Reading is simple enough. Since this is my first e-reader, I have nothing to compare it to. It does the job for me and I like the fact that I can change the font and letter size. For $99, I think it’s a good deal. I don’t need something with a lot of bells and whistles. My phone and laptop do that.

My first week was good with this ereader, but when I tried to claim an egift, no luck……when I called about the problem, I got a “ticket #”….I called back 6 hours later to find out what’s up and now they tell me it will take “several days” to research the problem…………….NOT A HAPPY BUNNY

I am somewhat amazed by occasional positive review. Quite frankly, this is the worst e-reader on the market. It takes 1.5 MINUTES to start up. Then it just sits there saying “connect to Wifi” endlessly. If you press a few buttons it will get you to an ultra-confusing “management” screen – but not to your books.

Honestly this is a slow, buggy, second rate hack of an e-reader. The software is a mishmash of uninspired and non-integrated spaghetti code – it’s just a mess from beginning to end.

Summary: It takes minutes to boot up. There is no 3G. PDFs look terrible. The menus make no sense. Two books of mine disappeared for no reason. Custom service is non-existent. DO NOT BUY THIS FORSAKEN DEVICE.

I have actually been quite happy with my ereader. It is certainly slow to start up I have to say but once it gets going its not too bad. I have to say however that the customer services from KOBO is abismal. I made the mistake of trying their free trial newspaper. I misunderstood when I was to cancel this trial and was one day late. I did not request a refund but rather that as I was charged $15 and did not receive a single paper for my money that I would be able to purchase an ebook that I could then read instead. That was two months ago and my discussion with KOBO continues. People on the phone are not able to assist in credits and apparently they don’t have supervisors. In addition I have had two who full out agree that in my position they would be upset aswell. I have emailed back and forth with several members of their client care team and received less than satisfactory responses. Kobo could have had my continued business as a happy client (and kept the $15). Instead they have my $15 and the poor reviews I feel obligated to post. Buy the Kobo if you like but I strongly urge you to buy your ebooks from an established company that actually cares about providing quality customer service. My friend has the Sony ereader and I have to say I think hers was a much better spend. What a waste of time and money the Kobo is.

Do not buy, device is fine, but trying to buy books is almost impossible, Server Busy… Had problems with books I bought being blocked at random…

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my g/f bought the kobo from borders 1 week ago……she absolutely loves it .it is a GREAT investment!!!

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I have had the Kobo for about 3 weeks and love it! It is lightweight, clear display, simple controls, holds a charge for weeks (I charge every 2 weeks – whether it needs it or not!
I have a Kindle, but needed something for library books, and when Borders was having the big liquidation sales I picked up a Kobo for $69. I have since read several library books. Money well spent.
(Have to admit thought, don’t like the page turner button thing, but I got used to it.)

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I have had the Kobo since January (4 months) and have found all the software and other irritating problems.
You can only buy one book at a time; I like to get several but it processes only one book per purchase.
The biggest aggravation is trying to sync the Borders Desktop with the Kobo. It downloads every book in your library from the desktop library to the e-reader even if all but one book was already in the e-reader. And then it marks all the books you have already read as 1% read. So now all the books you have finished — you have to go back into the book to the end and “turn pages” until it thinks you have finished the book AGAIN.
I have tried to use the wireless connection to avoid the desktop sync. One book downloaded fine; the second one did not and I had to go back to desktop sync. ARGHHH!
The software support personnel say that the download-all-the-books is the way it was designed. I suggest you forget this ereader as an option.

Bought the Kobo for my wife for xmas.now april….. have a good understanding of the operations of this unit.. It was recommended by our librarian….who since has changed her mind with all the problems associated with the Kobo.. We also have a Kindle….no comparison…better by lots. The Kobo is slow, not friendly, cumbersome,and slow……probably the worst ereader on the market…..,buy a Kindle/or Sony. Dont worry about the epubs for Kindle as there are ways to convert.

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I find the Kobo to be great. No issues with it what so ever. Yes, it may be slow to start up, but it great from there. I get around the slightly slow page turn by hitting the page turn button before I read the last word on the page. It works well for me. I have the latest firmware version that fixed a lot of the bugs, plus I use calibre to sync with. Reading pdf files are poor, there is a lot of scrolling up and down and across. So I use calibre to convert the pdf to epub and it works very well. Sure I could wish for more features and stuff, but do I want to spend the extra bucks on it. Probably not, I just use it to read books which it excels at.

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I like my kobo reader I got on sale at borders when borders was going out of buisness but before that i bought books on kobo.com for my ipod touch so now that i have the kobo reader it’s
way better

I bought my Kobo wireless for $60 at a close-out Borders and that’s just about what its worth. EPub only and Adobe books are a problem as the page size is too small and the words can’t be enlarged to fit the page. Gadda turn it sideways ‘n move down the page then turn. I have no idea what the wireless does, yet, as it has no web function so you can’t get past a sign-in at the public library WiFi to download books directly. Maybe it works directly with a home router.

It does prevent me from splurging on books from the internet as Border’s prices being 30% higher than elsewhere. No meaningful magazine or newspaper selection, unless you’re into Canadian newspapers – ‘Woodsman, spare that tree!” buy a Kobo.

I have trouble moving PDF files converted by Adobe to the Kobo inserted SD card directly rather than first to the SD card on a separate adaptor box, then insert it into the Kobo. First page is OK, but the rest are all 2/3ds blacked out.

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Screen died the first day I used it.

It was my Mother’s Day gift and I started it up 14 days from Mother’s Day, Chapters was closed as well as the next May 24 long weekend Monday. Chapters wouldn’t refund it, yet if I had bought it at Chapters online, I;d have a 30 day guarantee. Best store is Walmart with a 90 day hassle free return policy. All the other retailers are also 30 day guearantee which is risky with this poor quality product in my opinion.

This Kobo ereader has NO AC adapter so if you need to charge it on vacation be prepared to lug your laptop on vacation – no way for me. I’m going back to fight for my money back at Chapters tomorrow.

Had bought a KOBO in December. 14 days later the screen locked up. KOBO service after a number of tries said they would send me a box to mail it back for them to determine if it was their problem or mine. After 2 weeks without receivinf a return box I went to Borders store where it was purchased. they immediately gave me a new one and took the old one back. Was really happy with their service. I got the return package from KOBO about 10 days later. Sent the box and the replacement KOBO that was in the box back. No problem.
3 weeks later I dropped the reader onto my couch seat when i stood up. distance of 1 to 2 feet. When I went back to restart the screen locked up essentially the same as the previous time.

I have been checking other sites and see that the KOBO has had lots of screen issues. I have done nothing more with the machine since. Even if they wanted to send me a new one at no cost why bother.

As far as the overall usefullness it did what i needed in terms of convenient purchasing over my wireless home router. Going from one chapter to the next was weird but acceptable. Text reading was fine. I did not like the factthat everytime i asked for an update it would download all my books and indicate they were unread even if I had finished them. If I was a new ereader user i would likely give up which is what i did. I will say I loved the convenience and portability but not worth the frustration.

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Nice little unit. It plays EPUB books the best. PDF books are too small to read. But before you give up on PDF know that there’s an easy way to solve the problem. Simply convert your PDF books with the free program Calibre to EPUB and you’re in business. The 100 included books are a good little bonus.

At least some of you got to return yours; mine was a Xmas gift from my son and I was told we couldn’t return it because it wasn’t a problem with the Kobo; apparently it’s a problem with my Mac? This is a very poor product from a very poor company who don’t stand behind it. I still can’t download books from it even when I use Adobe; there Help Desk just gives me the same instructions which don’t work. A horrible waste of money; don’t buy this product

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A number of problems right off the bat. It was very slow to recharge and the charge lasted a short time. The buttons were extremely awkward to use – you had to press the page turner several times and hard to get it to respond. Sometimes it would lose my place in a book. Downloading books from the kobo site wasn’t a problem but it was annoying to have all the books marked as unread and have to press those awful buttons to get to the end of a book to mark it as unread. One of the downloads from the site ended up corrupting some files on my computer which I phoned “help” about…they were useless and not too concerned about solving the problem – very poor customer relations. I have not purchased any books from kobo since, because I do not trust their downloads nor do I like their prices, nor have I used the kobo (Chapters would not take it back because it was over the guarantee period). I have since bought a kindle which is amazing and the amazon site sells their books at a more reasonable price. The kobo has been retired to a junk drawer.

This e reader is a piece of unfinished technology that no one including the tech help seem to understand. I have called for help 4 times now just to get a book transferred from my laptop to the reader and we always go thru the same rig a ra mole and yeah they get it transferred but
can t explain why I CANT and don t really seem to care. They are just happy you were stupid enough to buy the thing and are still trying to make it work. Its slow, the buttons are small and too close together and I am going to buy a kindle touch and give this one the ole heave ho.

If you’re thinking of buying a Kobo don’t! I bought the Kobo Gen 1 for my Mother but she never used it. A year later she gave it to me. I started reading an old book just to familiarize myself with the Kobo. A day later I decided to purchase a book from the online store. That’s where the trouble began. I called the help line and was told I needed to download an application. After many attempts, several phone calls to the help line and much frustration I was told to expect a return box from Purolator. I sent it back and was told I would receive a “refurbished model”of my color choice, white. I told them I didn’t think it was fair since mine hadn’t even been used. They said too bad but would escalate my complaint. I asked to speak to the escalation department on the phone but was told that’s not possible. Kobo outsources customer service to a call centre. After the initial contact any corrospondence is through email. A couple weeks later I called them to ask what was happening with my complaint. They said a black, refurbished ereader had been shipped to me. I told them I was going to refuse it at the door and wait until they send a white one. Sure enough that’s what I did. I’m still waiting for a satisfactory result. I sent a letter to Kobo and Chapters Indigo. Kobo read the letter and emailed to say I’d better take the black, refurbished model and stop complaining. This is the absolute worst customer service ever. It’s a joke.

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I had so many issue downloading books I called Boarders and they transfered me to Kob we go the issues resolved but it is slow and continues to download every book i bought in the past each time I synce it which makes me crazy and it takes a long time. Then Boarders stoped selling books which meant all my point went away as well as Kobo didn’t honor them OK I still was ok not exactly pleased but OK enough. But now the straw that breaks my back is the pager turner button has deveolped a crack after only 9 month of use. I called and was told I would have to mail it to be repaired and that there would be a charge for the repair which they couldn’t tell me what it would cost. I am buying a kindle as we speak.

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I agree with Mary Kerr. DON’T BUY FROM KOBO. I got a new Kobo Touch in June. I was really enjoying it but I noticed that within a week my battery would be half down. Since it said it was supposed to last a month I wrote the company. They told me everything to do to use less power. I did what they said. It didn’t help. They said they would send postage to return the reader for service. When I got the postage I immediately sent the reader by Fedex. A week later I checked to see where the reader was and discovered that it was tied up in customs and customs was saying that phone calls to Kobo were not being returned. I contacted Kobo and Fedex. Over a week later, after I got the info from Kobo and gave it to Fedex, the reader went on to Kobo. After another week I got a message from Kobo that they had received the reader and would check it out. Oh, by the way, they said they would fix it because I had an extended warranty. I had had the reader approx. 1 month when all this started.
Yesterday I emailed them to see what was going on as it had been another week and I figured it shouldn’t take that long to replace a battery. They replied that after a week the battery was half down and they were going to run it completely down to see how long it took. I mentioned that their advertising said it should last a month and got back an email telling me all the things that could run a battery down faster. I felt is was a little snotty. I wrote back and said I had done all those things before sending it to them. I also told them I didn’t feel they were interested in honoring their warranty and to just send the reader back to me and I would charge it when necessary. I am through playing games with them. I agree with Mary that they arn’t interested in taking care of their customers. I warned them that I would not purchased from them again or encourage anyone else to buy from them and would write this message.

The reader was easy to read but the customer service is the worst I have ever had to deal with. I feel the model is only worth as much as the company behind it and Kobo rates at the bottom of the list.

I am to the point that I don’t care if I get it back or not. It isn’t worth the hassle!

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N647B
I am sorry I bought this ereader.
Software problems + customer service useless.
I can send you correspondence emails if you want to use my material as evidence to warn others away from this product and kobo in in general.
Andrew MacArthur