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Comment by kaypro | Hacker News Reader

Kobo Forma. I'm an avid eBook reader so the little things add up. Going from the Kindle to the Forma was a huge upgrade. Font rendering, warm light, larger form factor, and Pocket integration amongst a host of other little niceties make it pretty much a perfect experience for me.

https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-forma

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I love my kobo libra! I didnt buy a forma, which i regret, because that would have been even better. Was sceptical at first, because I thought kindle’s OS was better. Turns out: kobo’s OS is great!

Two other things i bought last year, use daily and really like:

- This santoku knife https://www.meesterslijpers.nl/takamura-vg-10-santoku

- Airpod pro’s

Can the kobo's be rooted easily/at all? If not, can you sideload apps or books?

You can put epubs and pdfs on it using usb, but i never tried that. I just buy a ebook on my ipad (in kobo’s store, or bol.com) and then its available after syncing.

What you’re looking for is Calibre ebook. And for the kobo there is a plug-in that makes any ebook a kobo ebook so you get niceties on all sideloaded ebooks that only books from the kobo store get.

Loading [DRM free] books via USB using Calibre is super easy. No rooting required. Epub format works best. PDF can be so-so depending on the document.

That said, "rooting" does seem pretty easy. I use kobopatch for the sole reason of adding a button directly to the Pocket page on the home screen to save myself a "click".

https://github.com/pgaskin/kobopatch-patches/releases

You can definitely sideload books, and I was able to do so without loginning into an account by adding a fake user to a sqlite file on the device. I didn't see any upside to any of the tweak/custom firmware stuff I saw over just not connecting the device to the internet for my use case, but I think root access might be possible?

+1, really good reader. I recommend installing KOReader, which is an alternative firmware with more customization options: https://koreader.rocks/

I like Plato, too. Plus it's written in Rust!

https://github.com/baskerville/plato

Yeah, I like Plato either! The UI is (IMO) way better/more pleasant than OKReader. I still tend to use OKReader more due to it having more customization flexibility but I'm tracking Plato development.

I tried the Forma but found the power button was a bit spongy which drove me crazy trying to turn it on and off. Went with the Libra instead and very happy with it.

Kobo's in general are quite good I think. The Pocket integration is also really handy for reading all those Hacker News articles away from the computer. :-)

Has anyone here tried both the Kobo Forma and the Kindle Oasis? The Forma is tempting, but apparently the lighting is more even on the Kindle, the fonts are better, and I think I’d even prefer the smaller size (more portable, fits in a jacket pocket.)

At the end of the day they're both good e-readers but for me the larger size Forma was actually the big reason I switched. Portability isn't a factor for me but if it was I'd go for their smaller Libra model. I find the Forma lighting considerably better and more even and the font rendering better as well. I'm also not a big fan of the Oasis cold metallic feel... much prefer the Formo plastic / rubbery feel. I think for most it's a preference thing.

if you have a kindle library is it possible to import to use with Kobo readers? Calibre maybe helps?

I've haven't tried it myself but I believe you can using Calibre or other DRM stripping tools.

There is a DeDRM plugin for Calibre but it doesn't work very well on Amazon's KFX format. People get around that by getting Amazon to deliver the book in an older format but then you lose the typography improvements that come with KFX.

It feels like this is the beginning of the end for ebook DRM stripping.

Just connect your Kindle with your PC via any ISB cable, and with little moving around you can locate the directory where your downloaded books dwell. Just copy it to your PC, and then tranfer to your Kobo reader.

The files will be in .mobi and .azw3 format.

I have bought hundreds of Kindle books. Is there a (legal) way to read them on Kobo?

You can download the books on your PC and DeDRM them using Calibre. Not sure if its legal, but as far as im concerned i paid for those books and i should be able to read them wherever i like.

I’d love to be proven wrong, but you need an older version of the kindle desktop app that isn’t reliably available. By available I mean from a reputable source…

Yes, but it is available if you go looking. “Reputable source” is a matter of perspective.

Actually, you haven't bought any books for your Kindle. You've leased them.

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