Kobo unveils Sideload Mode to their e-readers | Hacker News Reader

Kobo unveils Sideload Mode to their e-readers

goodereader.com

73 pointsAdmiralAsshat55 comments

To everyone confused by this announcement: previous to this feature, on the most recent Kobos you had to do some pretty advanced stuff (for average users) to avoid having to log-in with an account. This eliminates that. As well, it may have been obvious to you, long-term user of these kinds of devices, that you could add your own books without going through their store. But, to those familiar with Kindle, where the store experience is front and center, that might not have been obvious. Kobo coming right out and saying you can do this is a win for consumers.

Side note: The writing on Goodereader.com is terrible. I wish the link were to the-ebook-reader.com, which has a better summary:

https://blog.the-ebook-reader.com/2022/01/21/kobo-software-u...

Or even Mobileread forums:

https://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?p=4191419#p...

I got an Kobo Aura HD.

With each update the UI moved piece by piece from library mgmt focus, to shop focus. Personally I wasn't that much annoyed, because I mostly go by filesystem folders, but there are probably some that got shafted.

About the openness of Kobo: my device can dualboot to debian or android in contrast to the Kobo Linux. I was able to change the main storage easily, it was only a microsd card in a slot internally, which after a dd copy to a bigger card was accepted and even recognised as bigger in the UI free space screen. (I'm not talking about the external microsd reader that this device also has.) The battery is a typical lipo flat pack, which should be replacable from some arduino parts online shop.

Personally i dont kind the shop-focus too intrusive on my Aura HD. I do say, it's fairly impressive that an almost 9 year old device is still getting updates, features, & optimization. There were some really quiet years for updates but the Kobo team has been very active making updates, and many of them are real QoL wins.

Ill try the arduino shops for batteries. My battery died two months ago. I have a new motherboard/battery coming, but I'd love to figure out how to source variously sized lipos.

I havent yet done much futzing in Linux, but definitely interested. Also a shout out to the integrated Pocket reader, which has been a major major win for me, makes the device much more useful to me.

The Pocket reader seems unnecessarily hobbled to me. It appears that it won't sync anything you save to Pocket unless it is detected as an "Article" category.

News site, fine, my blog, fine but a doc-site type thing, nope.

I use my Kobo Forma mostly for technical books and technical manuals, for example the Kubernetes reference docs, but I couldn't save the doc-sites to Pocket and have the Kobo sync it, and had to use a computer to save and convert it.

If you want to go a step further, calibre-web[1] can act as a backend replacement for kobos servers (and proxy to kobo) so whenever I sync my kobo, it gets any new books from my calibre library over wifi.

[1] https://github.com/janeczku/calibre-web

Oh, wow. I had no idea this was the case with calibre-web. That is insanely useful, thank you.

Another tip: if folks want to use DRM'd books they've purchased indefinitely/however they want: NoDRM (a fork of the no-longer-maintained DeDRM) makes bringing in DRM'd books into Calibre completely painless.

Using this as an opportunity to amplify that eBook DRM removal tools are under attack.

https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=29870151

DeDRM is no longer maintained? Shit! Looks like I have some wikis to update.

Does calibre web track reading progress so I can sync it across devices?

In my experience, no, but it's possible I missed something.

Is calibre-web the same kind of idiosyncratic UX rollercoaster with hostile defaults[1] as calibre itself, or is it just compatible with the database?

Do the dev teams overlap?

I want some self-hosted "store" backend for my kobo but am still traumatized by the UI after trying the desktop version.

[1] https://www.reddit.com/r/linux/comments/98mob0/light_epub_re...

I must have missed something? Ever since I bought my Kobo H2O I could use Calibre to sync my books, or even use the USB mass storage solution.

You could but Kobo devices expected you to log in with a Kobo or other partner account (Rakuten, FNAC, etc.) on first setup. This allows you to bypass the need for any account and just sideload books on. You could previously hack around this but it sometimes caused issues.

I guess I do vaguely remember creating an account. Hmm... It must have been painless because I don't remember it. I know that it's not on any Wi-Fi network now so it has functioned for about a year with no network connectivity, at least.

Edit: I remember now. Looking down in the comments here dislodged the memory that I did the "add a row to an SQLite database" hack to prevent the need for account creation.

Same, I bought my Aura ONE because it worked with good old USB Mass Storage and could read ePubs without any intermediary steps, both right out of the box. It’s a nice little device.

How’s the touch screen accuracy on yours? Mine is frustratingly poor.

No issues, but my needs are not demanding at all. 98% of the touch interaction is just turning pages, it spends very little time without a book open.

This has also been my experience with the Aura rebrands.

Exact same here. But to get the ball rolling, I had to set up an account and connect exactly once. Throwaway mail-account and immidiately afterwards I disabled all wifi access. Not ideal, but has served me well enough for a couple of years, and it's a very nice reader.

I wouldn't use a Kindle if you threw it at me. Nobody's damned business what I read and when.

Same here. I bought a Kobo H2O last Feb. I've only ever loaded books from Calibre over USB mass storage.

I chose the Kobo for the device being easily root-able. My daughter reads on it but I reasoned that if she got tired of it I could do "cool Linux stuff" with it.

AFAICT you can't just rely on USB mass storage, it is expecting their app to be present. I think there's an edit you can make to their MySQL database and maybe a calibre plugin does that?

Unless this is something Kobo added in the last couple of years, my Kobo automatically prompts me for whether I want to enable mass storage when connected to a PC and that's that.

Why is transferring files to my device is called "side load" ? who's responsible for this propaganda ? is there a conspiracy ?

Because you are loading them from the side of the device (the USB port) instead of the front of the device, the screen.

The concept exists because file systems confuse smartphone users and companies very much want to keep it that way.

I also have a kobo mini and been doing this for years. when did that disappear?

Is there a single high-end e-reader which is not also tied to a store? I'm currently using a tolino (hardware-wise, mostly a rehoused Kobo) which is at least "multi-store" and has no account dependency at all, but it still has some ads/branding for whichever retail partner you bought it from. Much less invasive than the Kindle/Nook experience I had in the past but still - I'm willing to pay, where's the completely independent device that isn't a 7" screen running basic Android in a crappy case?

Probably not what you have in mind (yet) but on the other end of that spectrum you find the PineNote. I've seen people run a Linux DE on this.

https://www.pine64.org/pinenote/

Cool device that would be nice if the goal is hacking on something, but for a reading experience, PineNote is probably not what you're looking for (today at least).

I’ve had two Kindles (a Voyage and a first‐gen Oasis) and never tied either one to an Amazon account. I’ve always kept them in airplane mode and sideloaded books over USB.

It’s unfortunate that Kindle doesn’t support EPUB but it’s easy enough to convert with Calibre, and some free book providers (like Standard Ebooks) provide compatible .azw3 for download.

Even though I’m not keen on how locked down Kindles are and their software and rendering quality could be improved, the physical form factor and ability to sideload is enough benefit that my next ebook reader will be a Kindle too, unless something clearly better comes along.

I had a very first-gen Kindle and in many ways it was still ahead of everything on the market. Today I'd probably find the screen refresh too long, but the jogwheel was the best e-reader "pointer input" method by far.

A friend who got a recent Kindle was not able to use it at all without linking it to his Amazon account. He could sideload books only after that. I'm also not sure how firmware updates work without connectivity.

Kindle Keyboard from 2010 is my most used reader in 2022. Still several book’s use on the original battery, text to speech, music, 4 GB, better contrast than illuminated models, works nicely with Calibre, back/forward buttons on both sides. Repairable.

Peak Kindle.

My newer kindle has an on/off button on the bottom which is easy to hit by accident. It has a touch screen which is easy to hit by accident. The original sounds better.

Pocketbook devices run Linux. Linking to an account or connecting to a network is entirely optional. I haven't done much with mine other than install koreader and read epub files copied over usb, and it's been perfectly adequate. I bought mine through goodereader and although it worked out I regretted it. I'd have been better off ordering it on aliexpress myself and retained the tracking and dispute options, rather than paying goodereader a premium for the same experience.

I've seen these but haven't had a chance to use them - the edges looked pretty sharp and unergonomic which worries me since I tend to read for >1h at a time. The price was also not significantly better than a tolino for slightly lower specs across most axes, but maybe I wasn't looking in the right place. (And technically, it is tied to a store, but it does seem fully optional.)

I have little interest in installing custom software for an appliance, so it would need a very good hook if the default reader is so bad most people are replacing it.

ReMarkable allows root access to the system.

> that isn't a 7" screen running basic Android in a crappy case

Boox devices run Android, but in relatively recent versions and the system isn't that bad. And you can install any Android App (even the Play Store, but why bother when there are F-Droid and Aurora).

> Is there a single high-end e-reader which is not also tied to a store?

The Sony Digital Paper series isn't (wasn't?), I don't think Onyx Boox ones (which are definitely not discontinued) are, either.

reMarkable is on the expensive side cost wise, but otherwise a device that fits what you want. If you're on the technical side of things, it even provides a root shell over SSH if you want.

Maybe there's a more recent model, but the one I demoed, the screen is slightly too big - the 8-9" range is ideal, I could maybe do 9.5" if it kept the weight down elsewhere - and more importantly, low contrast, low DPI, and no light. I want a reader, not a replacement for a legal pad.

Do you have one? What is the day to day experience with it?

I’m afraid that I won’t be able to establish the habits necessary to make the purchase worthwhile, however.

I don’t mind the Kobo store. There’s a good range of content, reasonably priced, and above all, the DRM is trivial to remove.

Lol, I thought it meant you could access the Linux system without jailbreaking.

I had no idea they didn't even allow you to load on your own books previously.

I'm pretty happy with my strategy of rooting a device I own, installing something like Syncthing and KOReader and not having to care whatever bullshit the manufacturer is trying to pull. This also works well for Kindles, which allow loading on your own files by default, but, hilariously, don't support the standard format for e-books in their default reader.

You could always load your own books since the first Kobo (in fact the only ways to get books on there was USB and Bluetooth with a Blackberry). This literally just removes the first setup requirement to log in with an account.

You also don't need to root a Kobo to install KOReader or other tweaks. They are far more friendly in that regard than Amazon.

They did allow you to load your own books previously. This removes the requirement of signing in with a kobo account during device setup, which effectively removes the kobo store from the device.

> I had no idea they didn't even allow you to load on your own books previously.

That does seem strange, yeah. I had a kobo ereader around 5-6 years ago, and i distinctly remember uploading my books to it using Calibre (desktop ebook management software) without any jailbreaking, it just worked as you would expect it to.

I assume maybe they added a way to do it now without using Calibre, but that seems barely useful, as anyone managing local digital copies of books was using Calibre already anyway, and it worked with no jailbreaking.

Does this sync sideloaded books between different devices, now? Especially the e-reader and the iOS Kobo app? The lack of side-load-sync that was the primary reason I returned a Kobo e-reader a few months back and went back to Kindle (which does that pretty well via email, except that books only have those stupid “locations” instead of page numbers)

I have had a Kobo Touch for many years. I bought it precisely because it seemed the most open: I could load files via USB.

But the screen cracked and I had to replace it. I didn't like what I found inside. The screen is glued on, the battery is soldered. Is seems it wasn't made to be fixed.

I still have a Kobo Touch and my experience was very different. The screen cracked and I replaced it. It wasn't glued on. The battery is now pretty much dead, but it's connected with a standard connector and not soldered.

Here's what it looks like: https://elephly.net/posts/2013-07-25-kobo-touch.html

It is a bit different from mine (which I fixed in 2017). Unfortunately, I didn't think of taking pictures of its innards.

One thing I remember clearly which I can't distinguish in your photo is a microSDHC slot with a 2GB card in it. I thought about upgrading it, but it already has a slot for another card and you can store an absurd amount of books in 2GB anyway.

I settled on an ED060SCE(LF)C1 screen. I couldn't find the differences between T1 and C1. The image on the C1 is a bit worse than the original (which was only labeled as ED060SCE(LF)) but it is good enough.

What? I have never used a kobo account, WiFi, or the store. Always just plugged into computer via usb and transferred files. No fancy folders or restrictions or anything. The ebook becomes a drag and drop HD.

This is true with my Kobo Forma as well as the last one I owned years ago. Forget the name.

I own a Kobo H2O since 2017, I could never bypass the asking for an account on the first run. This includes the time I had to change the internal microSD for a new one flashed with an image from the mobileread forums.

Frankly, I don't really care that much, as I only run KOreader without ever loading Nickel (Kobo's firmware name).

Bypassing the account creation requires plugging the ereader into a computer at the account creation screen, opening a hidden SQLite database, and adding a fake row. This breaks OverDrive access and obviously access to the Kobo store.

https://remy.grunblatt.org/kobo-aura-h2o-electronic-reader-h...

TIL, thank you very much! If I ever have to replace my ereader I'll definitely ditch my account and bypass this.

I can't edit my previous comment, but as to keep in context, I always could "sideload" books and files to it, even before installing KOreader.

Same with my Kobo Aura.

Yes Kobo instead of being the “open” EPUB alternative to kindle tried to close the system forcing users to log in.

Last time I bought a kobo I was travelling and I needed to trick the system to let me in without registering and so on. Pretty much you buy a $150 device for read EPUB files and the first thing ask you is to connect to the network and register.

I will never buy another kobo again. Kindle is the worst. Hoping to find an alternative really open.

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