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572 points bookofjoe | 5 comments | | HN request time: 0s | source
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pfooti ◴[] No.41864842[source]
I have a pretty old paperwhite. When it started deleting books i had side-loaded via calibre, I decided to get a kobo. I have a libra color, and I have to say: price notwithstanding, it's a great device. I don't have a lot of experience with more recent devices, but compared to my 2nd gen paperwhite, it is _amazing_.

Color is good enough to read comic books on it, the google drive integration means it's not too hard to get my CBR/CBZ files on directly. The annotation / notetaking featureas are nice (I haven't leaned into them yet, but they work well even on the small screen size), plus all the regular stuff with normal book reading. Also, since it's kobo/rakuten, the libby integration is better (search and select library books right from the device).

The actual reading app is maybe 90% as good as reading on the kindle (or a more specialized reader like perfectviewer on android). There's some annoyingly fiddly features- font size is kind of weirdly variable, when going through CBR files there's no "read next in the folder" gesture nor is there a "this is read/unread" state in the google drive ui, so you always have to remember which book you are finishing when opening the next in the series.

I tried out one of those boox readers with the android apps, which would be even better software-wise, but the boox hardware seems like garbage (for an N=1 at least). My display came with several rows of stuck pixels, and apparently it's a good thing that I ordered from amazon instead of the boox store, because the reviews indicate getting an RMA from boox directly is a pain.

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jeffybefffy519 ◴[] No.41865560[source]
How do you legitimately buy books on it?
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lidavidm ◴[] No.41866012[source]
Kobo has a store. It's decent, it won't have Kindle indies, and IMO it has fewer/worse sales, but it's not a big deal to me. They do have a subscription plan with unlimited access to certain books but it's not clear to me how good the catalog is.

You can also buy from third party stores, e.g. Weightless Books for sci-fi & fantasy, and just drag-and-drop the epub onto the Kobo.

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atulatul ◴[] No.41866455[source]
Just checked kobo sites due to original comment. The catalog may be smaller but now they (India store) have comparable book prices to kindle. The last time (many years back) I checked, books were not available in India.

I had first edition terrible keyboard kindle and have a paperwhite. It seems libra colour is still not available in India.

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1. sundarurfriend ◴[] No.41868056[source]
> first edition terrible keyboard kindle

That's still my favourite ever Kindle, simply for the side buttons for next/previous page.

Touch interface is so much more inconvenient in comparison, for the main purpose of reading and navigating through books.

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2. dfc ◴[] No.41869349[source]
I got the kindle oasis because of the next/prev page buttons. I don't know why they discontinued it.
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3. fullstop ◴[] No.41869533[source]
YES, I love the physical buttons. I have mine rotated so that the buttons are at the bottom, and it works well. The weight is distributed more evenly this way as well.

Did they actually announce that the Oasis was discontinued or did they just stop making them?

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4. dfc ◴[] No.41873935{3}[source]
It sounds like they did both:

https://www.theverge.com/2024/10/16/24272009/amazon-disconti...

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5. fullstop ◴[] No.41874209{4}[source]
Well, that is a shame. I hope that my Oasis lasts forever!