Onyx T68 - Is it right for you

[FinancialWar]

How is reading PDF on the T68?

I really don't like the way Kobo Aura HD handles PDF, it has no physical button and no software button to turn pages in PDF while zoomed in.

[shalym]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's precisely because I buy a lot of books, and because reading is my main hobby, and because I want to be "future proof" my ebook library, and not have it tied to any particular device, app, or supplier, that for me it's a good investment of my time to consolidate all my books into a single library. It's been quite a lot of work getting it all set up to my satisfaction, but now I have, the time that I've invested in it is paying off. It means that I don't need to have half a dozen different reading apps installed on a device, and I don't need to worry about what app I need to use to access a particular book. It's all there for me in one place.

Of course I appreciate that everyone's needs are different, but for me personally, the time I've spent setting up my Calibre library has been time well spent.

I agree with you, Harry--I backup all of my books, as well. However, I can see mgmueller's side of it, too. Many times when I buy books I am not sitting at my main PC--I'll buy from one of my tablets, or my laptop, or even sometimes (rarely) from my Kindle itself. In those cases, I will gather up all of my purchases at some point when I am at my main computer and I have the time (not as often, lately) and add all of my recent purchases to Calibre. I actually did this today for the 15 books I bought in the past month or so. I started the process over an hour ago, and am still working on getting the metadata updated so that the books can be searched for by genre or keywords. Of course, since I'm also working (and surfing mobileread) while I'm doing this, it's taking even longer. I estimate that if I had done nothing but work on Calibre, it would probably take me at least an hour to do it all--add books to Calibre, download metadata descriptions for each book, make sure tags are correct. I don't consider this a lot of time to spend once a month, but I can definitely see not wanting to bother with it if backups aren't important to you.

Shari

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by shalym

I agree with you, Harry--I backup all of my books, as well. However, I can see mgmueller's side of it, too.

So can I. That's why I said in my previous post that I appreciate that everyone's needs are different.

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's precisely because I buy a lot of books, and because reading is my main hobby, and because I want to be "future proof" my ebook library, and not have it tied to any particular device, app, or supplier, that for me it's a good investment of my time to consolidate all my books into a single library. It's been quite a lot of work getting it all set up to my satisfaction, but now I have, the time that I've invested in it is paying off. It means that I don't need to have half a dozen different reading apps installed on a device, and I don't need to worry about what app I need to use to access a particular book. It's all there for me in one place.

Of course I appreciate that everyone's needs are different, but for me personally, the time I've spent setting up my Calibre library has been time well spent.

Unfortunately, nowadays I only read about 100 books per year.
10 years ago, it had been 1 book every single day, sometimes even 2.
Back then I've put way more emphasis on archiving, converting and the likes.
Now, of those 100 books I read per year, I may repurchase maybe 20 per year (some titles over the years I have bought even 3 to 5 times).
Those 20 books are about € 250 of "unnecessary" purchases.
If I would be focusing on savings, there's a potential of 10 times that amount every month.
But I perfectly understand, if someone does it(downloading, converting, ...) out of fun.
I'm a stickler to details. Once started, I could spend a whole hour on a single book.
So either I'd modify it perfectly or not at all. There's not much wiggle-room inbetween for me...

[voracious71]

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I've only checked it out from a friend about 10 days ago.
I loved the idea, because now I usually have to take 2 to 5 different readers/tablets with me, to cover all potential needs.

But I was quite disappointed about the quality of the screen.
It did seem kind of yellowish/grey. Darker and less appealing than my other readers.
I don't see much of a difference between my Nook GlowLight, Kobo Aura HD or Kindle Paperwhite 2. But the Onyx T68 did seem a bit like what I've had on my readers maybe 2 years ago.

Did my friend get a "monday unit"?
Am I over-critical?
Or do you see the same "yellowish" saturation?
So, does your "best reader on the market" refer to technical capabilities (Google Play)? Or would you say the same about haptic (I wasn't too fond of the build quality of the Android buttons), touch & feel (I like the idea of page turning buttons, but couldn't make them work in Kindle and other 3rd party apps), speed (page turns in Kindle, Nook and Kobo apps did seem painfully slow) and last but not least display quality?

My screen isn't yellow tinted.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by voracious71

My screen isn't yellow tinted.

The screen is yellow-tinted with the light on, but so is the light on my Kindle PW2. It's not something I find in the least objectionable.

[Chi Cygni]

I'm kind of tired with fiddling as well. Once in a while I update my list of what I bought from which bookstore because I wouldn‘t repurchase the same book again for another app. The precise moment when I became fed up was when new update of PW would remove use_alt_fonts. I'd have to embed my font of choice and fiddle with all the books AGAIN. Yes I know you can just select etc. But I had enough. I chose not to update. I find it a bit nauseating already when I have to improve layout of a new book to my liking. My books are backed up in 3 places (need to update that too, zzz) but even recently I read *gasp* left-justified book sent directly to kindle because I didn't want to spend half an hour fiddling with it in calibre.
Btw, my books are future proof anyway, all watermarked, one size fits all.

[FinancialWar]

I prefer the warmer colour of yellow tint, it's better for reading.

[darryl]

I think it is prudent to import all books to Calibre. However, I do understand those who don't. You are in the majority, and time is indeed precious. Personally I don't find it a lot of work to add books to Calibre. The most time consuming task seems to be the metadata. I find many purchased ebooks imported to Calibre are missing metadata, particularly a userful description. This is easily fixed but can take significant time if you have bought a number of books.

By far the easiest and least time consuming route where you can just read and not worry about anything else is to pick an infrastructure and just stick to it, Amazon being the most obvious example. I don't do that, but I am fine with it. I think Amazon is a great company and are doing a fabulous job in dragging the BPH's kicking and screaming into modern times, whilst at the same time giving readers and authors a much better deal. They are not generally "evil" in the Google sense, though they have had their moments, for example removing books from Kindle's without the owners permission. They are not perfect, but since this incident I want my books under my own control, which means in Calibre on my own computer and backed up.

I am not a fan of "the cloud", which is essentially a marketing term coined to sell a number of previously rejected older technologies plus a few newer ones. It has its uses, but I don't really trust my only copies of works to either it or its providers.

[Sweetpea]

Originally Posted by HarryT

It's precisely because I buy a lot of books, and because reading is my main hobby, and because I want to be "future proof" my ebook library, and not have it tied to any particular device, app, or supplier, that for me it's a good investment of my time to consolidate all my books into a single library.

Considering we've multiple devices here (I only use epub readers, my husband has a kindle and we both have a tablet and he even still uses that HP PDA I once bought from you), it's just prudent for me to put everything in a single libary so I can very easily update all devices.

Originally Posted by mgmueller

I always smack my head about people, not calculating/valueing their time.
My sister in law would drive 10km, to save some 10 Euro on household devices.
Most expensive purchase ever!
Actually, she didn't generate any savings, but an enormous loss.
Not even considering life quality or spare time, but simply her time invested.

Free time for me is not worth money. As long as I like what I'm doing, I don't care how long it takes (but I just don't understand people who will drive 10km, because the price for gasoline is 0,01ct cheaper at that other station...)

We'll go to Germany once in a while, (Leer is about 70km drive) because there are some products that are way cheaper in Germany than they are here. Or because they come in a bigger package. Or even because they're not available here. But it's also fun to go shopping there, so we don't mind the extra time it takes...

Originally Posted by HarryT

The screen is yellow-tinted with the light on, but so is the light on my Kindle PW2. It's not something I find in the least objectionable.

I thought the screen was very white, actually... I think it depends on where you come from :P (as in: what are your other devices )

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

my husband has a kindle and we both have a tablet and he even still uses that HP PDA I once bought from you

I'd forgotten all about that! That was years ago - it's still going strong?

[mgmueller]

Originally Posted by Sweetpea

...Free time for me is not worth money. As long as I like what I'm doing, I don't care how long it takes (but I just don't understand people who will drive 10km, because the price for gasoline is 0,01ct cheaper at that other station...)...

I wrote somewhere, I can understand if someone is doing it for fun.
Some years ago, I spent days on my calibre library.
Once started, I optimized metadata, tried for consistency in titles and such and so on.
A hobby or even just spending spare time is rarely about productivity or profitability. Often enough quite the contrary, that's probably where the fun is coming from...

But I don't agree (I accept the point of view of course, I just can't share it) to the "saving money" argument.
In the past, when using calibre, I've had all my books on all my units - originally coming from at least 6 file formats (.lit, .epub, .mobi, .pdf, .prc., .pdb, ...) and numerous sources (all bought legally, I'm not into illegal downloads).
I especially loved this on iRex iLiad with its great folder structure.
But I found, that I never used the converted books. I've had at least 300 books of each file format natively, I rarely needed other ones. And even if so, I simply read them on the original unit.
When spending enough time, one certainly can optimize all books. But at some stage I simply stopped bothering about inconsistencies in author's name and such things. I went straight to reading and didn't care much about the library structure and the likes.
So, if I actually re-purchase maybe 20 books per year, that's not such a big savings potential.
Of course, if I would consider my entire library, it would be a different potential.
But I don't have problems, to switch reading devices.
Book #1 I might read on Paperwhite 2, book #2 on Aura HD and book #3 on GlowLight.
When doing so, my expenses aren't hundreds of books, but 2 additional readers...

[ottdmk]

Originally Posted by FinancialWar

How is reading PDF on the T68?

I really don't like the way Kobo Aura HD handles PDF, it has no physical button and no software button to turn pages in PDF while zoomed in.

To turn pages in zoomed PDF on the Aura HD, use one of the two following methods:

1) Tap the side of the screen along the right edge. The page will turn forward. If you tap along the left side of the screen, the page will turn back.

2) Drag the page until you see a black bar with an arrow. Tap the arrow. The page will turn.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by shalym

No reason to smack yourself in the head over it...
There are many people for whom time is MUCH more precious than money.

Yes, but IMHO, mgmueller is overdoing it. If his time it as important as he makes it out to be, even being on this forum will cost millions.

[Katsunami]

Originally Posted by HarryT

The screen is yellow-tinted with the light on, but so is the light on my Kindle PW2. It's not something I find in the least objectionable.

I'd even like it. I've compared my Kindle PW1 to a somewhat older paperback (around 5 years old) recently. Using a normal lightbulb, the paperback is yellow. A Kindle with the light off is yellow too, but much darker, and when the light is turned on, the Kindle becomes a sort of sickly green/grey until the light becomes the dominant color. Then it turns the device's screen to creamy white, and in the end, bright white.