My Initial Disappointments with the Kobo Reader

[Croptop]

So I bought my wife a Kobo Reader for her birthday. Nice reader and the price was right.

We unboxed it this morning and I plugged it into her iBook to install the software that would be required to buy and install books from Kobo. Alas, the Kobo software will only run on Intel based Macs. So it looks like we can't buy any books (at least not from Kobo).

So then I install Adobe Digital Editions so that she can at least get books from our local library and read them. ADE installs just fine on her old iBook. We sign out a book from the library, download it and open it in ADE. So far, so good.

Then we plug in the Kobo Reader. But it doesn't appear in ADE so thus, we can't copy the library book from ADE to the reader (I tried dragging the epub file directly, but of course, the DRM prevents that from working. The book can't be opened on the Reader). So that's strike two.

Yes; yes, I know that I could strip the DRM. But my wife is not willing to jump through all of those hoops just to read a book. Nor should she have to.

We can't buy books; we can't borrow books from the library. It's getting harder to justify keeping this reader. I'm particularly irked that nowhere (at least that I can find) did Kobo state in their system requirements that their software was Intel-only. As much as I like it, we may very well have to return it and get her a Sony PRS-300 (which works quite well with all of my PowerPC-based Macs).

[SameOldStory]

Last wendsday I was at Walmart. They had the Sony reader on sale for $150.0

Just checked Walmart still has it for $148.

You might want to get it now and return the Kobo reader.

[juiceless]

Why not call their technical support and see if they have a solution?

[Duiker]

Originally Posted by Croptop

So I bought my wife a Kobo Reader for her birthday. Nice reader and the price was right.

We unboxed it this morning and I plugged it into her iBook to install the software that would be required to buy and install books from Kobo. Alas, the Kobo software will only run on Intel based Macs. So it looks like we can't buy any books (at least not from Kobo).

So then I install Adobe Digital Editions so that she can at least get books from our local library and read them. ADE installs just fine on her old iBook. We sign out a book from the library, download it and open it in ADE. So far, so good.

Then we plug in the Kobo Reader. But it doesn't appear in ADE so thus, we can't copy the library book from ADE to the reader (I tried dragging the epub file directly, but of course, the DRM prevents that from working. The book can't be opened on the Reader). So that's strike two.

Yes; yes, I know that I could strip the DRM. But my wife is not willing to jump through all of those hoops just to read a book. Nor should she have to.

We can't buy books; we can't borrow books from the library. It's getting harder to justify keeping this reader. I'm particularly irked that nowhere (at least that I can find) did Kobo state in their system requirements that their software was Intel-only. As much as I like it, we may very well have to return it and get her a Sony PRS-300 (which works quite well with all of my PowerPC-based Macs).

I have the same frustration with the software not working on the non-Intel Macs. Luckily my wife has a PC laptop and we both have Blackberries to access the kobo store. Not sure why your reader is not appearing in ADE though. Mine shows up just fine on my old iMac. I considered the Sony but I really wanted a 6" screen so I will stick with the Kobo and do the reformatting necessary to read my books.

[Croptop]

Originally Posted by Duiker

Not sure why your reader is not appearing in ADE though. Mine shows up just fine on my old iMac. I considered the Sony but I really wanted a 6" screen so I will stick with the Kobo and do the reformatting necessary to read my books.

Hmm... I'm quite intrigued to hear that the Kobo Reader shows up in your copy of ADE. I did a fresh install of ADE on the iBook so it should be the latest and greatest version. But I can't get the Kobo Reader to appear in ADE on either her iBook nor on my Powerbook. You've given me hope, though so I'll keep digging.

[Croptop]

Success! So in order to get the Kobo Reader to show up in ADE, I discovered that you *must* have the reader connected to the computer *before* you start up ADE. Once I did that, I was able to transfer and open a library book with no problem. So one of my disappointments has been overcome.

Yay!

[Duiker]

Originally Posted by Croptop

Success! So in order to get the Kobo Reader to show up in ADE, I discovered that you *must* have the reader connected to the computer *before* you start up ADE. Once I did that, I was able to transfer and open a library book with no problem. So one of my disappointments has been overcome.

Yay!

Glad to hear it.

[Duiker]

Originally Posted by Croptop

Success! So in order to get the Kobo Reader to show up in ADE, I discovered that you *must* have the reader connected to the computer *before* you start up ADE. Once I did that, I was able to transfer and open a library book with no problem. So one of my disappointments has been overcome.

Yay!

Here's a solution to your font issues.
Connect your reader to your computer. On your computer open up your reader and go to "Digital Editions". Find the book you are having font issues with and rename it's file type to "zip". Now double click the file. You should get a list of a bunch of different files. Look for the one named "stylesheet.css". Delete this file. Now step out/go back to your book list and rename again from ".zip" back to ".epub" or whatever it originally was. Voila. Brilliant and thanks to somecanuck for figuring it out!