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#1 |
Karmaniac
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Miami FL
Device: PRS-505, Jetbook, + Mini, +Color, Astak Ez Reader Pro, PPW1, Aura H2O
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Why doesn't KOBO Preload books on their readers?
Why doesn't Kobo preload free books on their readers?
I much would have preferred having a few hundred of free books on my device, than having to download them from their store... I mean, they're free, and probably some are worth reading. It just takes me a few thousand clicks to get my reader load up about 300 books ![]() |
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#2 |
Grand Sorcerer
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Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: Toronto
Device: Libra H2O, Libra Colour
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On the original Kobo they actually did; this was back when the kepub's were actually stored in the database.
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#3 |
Wizard
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Join Date: Aug 2014
Device: Kobo Forma, Kobo Sage, Kobo Libra 2
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Because not everyone wants the same books, and people would inevitably complain about the books selected to be preloaded. This way Kobo doesn't need to worry about which books are loaded on the device, nor making sure those books are in each preloaded firmware, or credited to each account upon creation so a factory reset doesn't get rid of them. And customers are able to pick and choose the free books they want.
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#4 |
350 Hoarder
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Karma: 8281267
Join Date: Dec 2010
Location: Midwest USA
Device: Sony PRS-350, Kobo Glo & Glo HD, PW2
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When I bought my Kobo Glo, I remember seeing about 10 free books in the directory, but they didn't display on the reader. Books like Great Expectations, Don Quixote in Spanish, are 2 that I remember off the top of my head, a few other language titles too. To even find out what they were I had to move them off the reader, add an extension to the file names, and then I could open most of them on my PC. But some were from Project Gutenberg and formatting wasn't the greatest. I just deleted them since none of them were anything I'd want on the reader (a good copy of Great Expectations, sure, not the poorly formatted copy they gave). I don't think I bothered to check on the Glo HD.
I'd be thankful they didn't load up the reader with other junk. |
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#5 |
Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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Join Date: Nov 2012
Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity
Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)
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Thank G-d no recent ereaders were designed with that kind of redundant idiocy.
![]() If you want to mass-load books onto your ereader, use calibre. |
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#6 |
Guru
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Join Date: Jan 2015
Location: Canada
Device: none
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So that I didn't have to eliminate dozens of books my hubby would never read from my Christmas present to him?
Calibre has been a great aid in adding the hundreds of books I think he might like in an organized fashion (automated collections are great!). |
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#7 |
No Comment
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Join Date: Jan 2012
Location: Australia
Device: Kobo: Not just an eReader, it's an adventure!
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#8 | |
Grand Sorcerer
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
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The "probably" is part of the problem. If Kobo did preload books, if we were lucky, there would be a big long thread here complaining about the crap they selected and suggesting what Kobo really should preload.
And if we were unlucky, there'd be hundreds of threads complaining. Quote:
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#9 |
Wizard
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Join Date: Jun 2011
Device: Kobo Touch, Sony T1, Kobo Mini
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My first Kobo Wifi came with free books . I did read some of them and they were easy to remove or reload with Calibre. The friend I sold it to liked the classic books.
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#10 |
Karmaniac
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Location: Miami FL
Device: PRS-505, Jetbook, + Mini, +Color, Astak Ez Reader Pro, PPW1, Aura H2O
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It just takes a SD card format (about 30 seconds) to erase all of them.
It took me a good 4 hours, to get about 500 books of my potential interest on them (mainly science, history, biography, religion, and some other non-fiction). |
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#11 | ||
Grand Sorcerer
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Join Date: Jul 2011
Location: Sydney, Australia
Device: Kobo:Touch,Glo, AuraH2O, GloHD,AuraONE, ClaraHD, Libra H2O; tolinoepos
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Quote:
But I suppose you mean format the user partition when the device is connected to a PC. Not as dangerous, but it would wipe the user info and you need to do the setup again. Quote:
But, my second reaction was to work out that that was 30 seconds per book. Everyone of them is a book you want to read. That doesn't sound like a waste of time. And thinking about your delete time, that's a mass "I don't want any" delete. If having preloaded books is actually a good idea, you would be looking through them and deleting them one at a time. That to me is a waste of time. |
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#12 | |
Karmaniac
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Miami FL
Device: PRS-505, Jetbook, + Mini, +Color, Astak Ez Reader Pro, PPW1, Aura H2O
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Quote:
I took the time to load books of topics of my interest, selected English, selected 'free' and started downloading all those that I thought I'd like. Screening each book's intro in the Kobo store takes a good 10 seconds. I don't fully read the intro, but just to get a general guess at what the book would be about. 30 seconds per book isn't that bad! |
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#13 |
Eternal light
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Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: South Wales
Device: Kobo Glo, Aura, Touch, H2O - now Aura One and Kindle Oasis 3
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The problem with preloaded books is one man's trash is another man's treasure. It seems the public don't want preloaded content when it only takes a small time to load your own.
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#14 | |
Ex-Helpdesk Junkie
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Location: The Beaten Path, USA, Roundworld, This Side of Infinity
Device: Kindle Touch fw5.3.7 (Wifi only)
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Quote:
So the vendors might as well save themselves the trouble, AND irritate the people who will be less irritated -- the people who will have to sideload a few more books than they are already. And chances are that even they would have to delete large portions of the uncurated mess anyway. This doesn't remind me of treasure so much as pack-rat hoarding. |
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#15 |
Karmaniac
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Join Date: Oct 2008
Location: Miami FL
Device: PRS-505, Jetbook, + Mini, +Color, Astak Ez Reader Pro, PPW1, Aura H2O
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I don't know,
It's still nice to have some good classics on the reader (like Robinson Crusue or something). Much better than nothing. You'd be able to start reading, and experimenting right off the bat (as soon as you open the box) |
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