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Kobo Touch first impressions

I thought I’d take a few minutes and tell you what i think of the KT.

It’s a little slow. I tap to open a book and there’s a noticeable wait. I tap to select something in the TOC and there’s await (at first I thought it was frozen). I’ve confirmed that this is probably the firmware that will ship, so that concerns me.

 

On the plus side, you can turn the page by tap and swipe. A double tap opens the menu at the bottom of the screen, and you have library, font size, goto options. There’s actually 2 options to jump around inside a book, the TOC and a slider bar. There’s even a back button and a jump to next chapter button.

It’s slow, but I’m impressed with the menu design. It has a number of good features including the new Reading Life (which I don’t care about because I’m not social).

P.S. You can fondle the Kobo Touch yourself at BEA this week or at Borders Columbus Circle (here in Manhattan) tomorrow between noon adn 2pm.

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Comments


Rich Adin May 23, 2011 um 10:42 am

Nate, if the touchscreen is the same as Sony’s, why do you think it is slow compared to the Sony? Or at least I’m assuming you don’t think the Sony is slow. I don’t think my Sony 950 is slow.

Nate Hoffelder May 23, 2011 um 12:02 pm

It’s a software issue, I’m sure.


Mike Cane May 23, 2011 um 10:48 am

"Slow" is a word I had hoped not to read applied to this. Slow is deadly for them.

Mike Cane May 23, 2011 um 11:11 am

OK, I just saw an Engadget video. The eBook slowness leads me to think they’re still using that SQL scheme for their books. Because opening and zooming a PDF was FREAKING BLAZING FAST. Seriously, that was The Shit!


New Kobo Reader Is All-Touch « Mike Cane's xBlog May 23, 2011 um 10:54 am

[…] Update 2: Kobo Touch first impressions […]


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[…] Kobo has a brand new eink reader. It’s basically like the Sony Reader: touchscreen and Pearl eInk with a much faster processor. The best part? It’s only $129.99. […]


jorgen May 23, 2011 um 12:53 pm

The Sony PRS-650 is fast and nice in use, but likely also very much more expensive than the Kobo will be. You want something nice, you gonna pay. 🙂


elmonica May 23, 2011 um 2:57 pm

What interested me was the weight comparison with the Kindle. I think at least an ounce lighter.


s. barnes May 23, 2011 um 3:47 pm

Still don’t like how kobo has limited formating, wide margins, no paragraph indents and too much space vertically between paragraphs.


Michael June 14, 2011 um 11:39 am

DON’T BUY THE NEW KOBO TOUCH until they uncripple the dictionary. Good news: it is probably the best ereader out there. Bad news: they have stupidly crippled the dictionary function for all books other than those loaded directly to the device from the Kobo store (even if you buy the book from the Kobo store onto your computer and then load it to the device, the dictionary has been intentionally disabled). If I had know this, I would never have purchased the device until they uncrippled the dictionary. They should do this immediately and apologize to their customers.


Rob September 10, 2011 um 9:15 am

Kindle … and no more questions!


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