They have a horrible bit of forcing the user to connect an account online during first power-up. This can be avoided with a bit of SQL. This site talks about "activating" without the desktop app (and other bits of tinkering):http://uscoffings.net/clc/tech/embedded/kobo-touch/
>Connect the Kobo via USB, and mount its onboard storage on your desktop machine.
> Ensure you have an SQLite3 database browser installed, or some way to execute SQL. For example, sudo apt-get install sqlitebrowser
> Open /mnt/onboard/.kobo/KoboReader.sqlite.
> Execute this SQL: insert into USER values("foo", "foo", "foo", "foo", "foo");
> Save, unmount, and disconnect.
Here's a bit about enabling Telnet (and cross compiling for Arm7): https://github.com/drj11/kobonotes
Here's someone who turned their Kobo into a GPS for their glider. http://hackaday.com/2014/05/28/e-reader-becomes-sailplane-an...
The appeal, at least to me, is that they can display information with little energy cost. For example you could have it monitor the system's health and have it update every half an hour, showing graphs and such, and it would be able to do that for a very long time with a smallish battery.