Koreader Update

Good evening folks! I think I've come to the decision that I'm committing to Koreader. Quick recap to over simplify things but provide context:

• Koreader is an alternate "firmware"/User Interface for eReaders.
• Most people know it from jailbreaking their Kindles.
• I use a Kobo, competitor to Kindle, tomato tomato.
  • Huh, I guess that expression doesn't work well in text.
• It replaces the "home screen" as well as the actual eReader program.
• Calibre is like iTunes but for eBooks.

It's been great! It has so many more features than the stock Kobo interface. I have more highlight colors, and your boy loves to make annotations. I can read in landscape now! This is especially great since the Kobo cover has a kickstand that works in landscape as well as portrait. Holding it in landscape is great as well! I'm left handed and it provides all four directions of rotation. I can hold it by the little bit of extra body that's normally on the bottom. That sentence sounded better in my head but felt dirty to type.

I can wirelessly sync my library with Calibre on my PC. I have better control over the power settings. I was able to install a replacement "home screen", which is a lot more customizable. Overall, the customization and quality of life improvements make it incredibly worth it. When I started messing with this a few days ago, I was at ~80% battery, I'm currently at 76%! I keep by backlight at 3% and read fairly regularly for five minute stints throughout the day. I would consider that a negligible change in battery life in my experience sans any actual metrics.

As for the negatives, there are a two, but they are rather large. First and foremost, I have a Bluetooth remote page turner. When I'm kicked back, sweat pants on, kickstand out, and just in the zone, it's nice to have a simple, two-button remote that turns the pages for me. This remote does not work with Koreader. It's heartbreaking, but a first-world problem. Not a deal breaker in and of itself. The issue here is that I decided to get the color version of the eReader, which uses different Bluetooth drivers, and aren't stable with Koreader. This is not a problem I can solve, so we live with it.

Problem number B, I buy books through Kobo's online store. Some of those books come with DRM embedded and are an enormous pain to deal with. DRM free books are easy, and plentiful. Download the ePub from their site, slam it in Calibre, beam it over the air to the eReader, job done. DRMed books get downloaded as an ACSM file, which is some Adobe nonsense. There's no official program for it for Linux and getting things to work through Calibre are sketchy all the way around. The alternative is to use a couple of programs through Wine/Bottles, and I simply can't be bothered. Plus, that locks the book to a specific account, with DRM still in place and I could not work around that in my few minutes messing with it. My work around for this is to reboot my Kobo back into the stock UI, download the book from Kobo directly to the device, plug it into my computer, sync with Calibre, then run a DeDRM plugin so that I can make a backup of my book on my computer. Unplug the Kobo, launch Koreader, connect over Wi-Fi to my PC, then beam the book back. This is cumbersome, and I now have two copies of the book on my eReader. I need to invest some time into pruning it and cleaning my storage. They're eBooks, so they take up kilobytes of space, but it's the principal. I'm not a slob.

With the Pros and Cons in mind, I'm sticking with Koreader. The benefits just simply outweigh the boons. So I have to turn pages manually, not the end of the world. As for the book buying and syncing rigamarole, it takes a little bit of time, but I'd rather have the backups of my books. I also very much so enjoy the benefits of having those backups in Calibre and being able to access them from any device on my local network. Jellyfin/Plex for books, the future is awesome! A frivolous solution would be to buy another Kobo, keep it stock, and just use it as a "mule" to transport books bought through Kobo. My frugal ass could never justify that.

As always, we're open for discussion. If y'all have any questions, I'm happy to answer to the best of my ability! I'd love to hear other people's experiences with Koreader, whether on Kindle, Kobo, or otherwise. Love y'all, have a good night!