This is all going to start off negative. I actually like the device, but the initial frustrations just about had me sending it back. The frustrations were mostly my own fault combined with Adobe seemingly hating Linux users.
After a 4 day wait to ship, multiple days of planned shipping and a two day severe weather delay, my Kobo Aura One Limited Edition arrived last Friday. Like any kid with a new toy, I opened things up right away that evening.
Code:
https://us.kobobooks.com/products/kobo-aura-one-limited-edition
And before someone 'fixes' that for me - I'm putting URLs in code on these boards until someone turns off the automated media tagging 'feature'.
First disappointment - no USB charger is included. OK, I get it, we all already have dozens. At least they included a cable... The included microUSB cable is quite possibly the cheapest, thinnest gauge shortest junk USB cable that wasn't labeled "Data Only" that I have ever seen. Yes, I have other better microUSB cables. However, this is a $280 premium device. They cut a $2 corner on the boxed cable and negatively impacted their customer's experience.
As soon as I plugged it in, it asked for a WiFi connection. Perfectly normal and expected. No problem.
Next it wanted me to log in via Kobo or Google+ or FaceBook. I bought the thing from us.kobobooks.com which I thought was Kobo and tried that. Nope. Tried creating a Kobo account - again failed, but this time it told me why. Apparently I already had a Rakuten account and they do not allow creation of a Kobo account with the same email address as an existing Rakuten account. So, the account I had created on us.kobobooks.com to purchase a Kobo turns out to be a Rakuten account. OK - work through that - resetting password, etc... That was a good 15 minutes to get through.
Instructions say to leave it on the charger for 5 hours - so I let it sit on the charger for a while and work through the rest of the stuff I bought to go with it. I had purchased the $50 Sleep Cover when I bought the device and another similar item for $13.50 from Amazon a day later. The one from Amazon arrived 4 days before the Kobo did.
Code:
https://us.kobobooks.com/collections/auraone-related/products/kobo-aura-one-sleepcover
Code:
https://www.amazon.com/Cover-case-Kobo-Aura-stand/dp/B078J5XR6X
Comparing the two, the one from Amazon seems nicer. The back of it folds multiple ways to act as a kickstand in portrait & landscape viewing modes and seems more stable in both. The Kobo one has a foamy area for the power button to push-through to the real power button where the Amazon one has a window to stick a finger through to the real power button. In all, I thought they were very similar with a slight edge to the Amazon one - so I put it on the Kobo. At this point I had a bit of buyer's remorse for having spent $50 on the Kobo sleep cover that I wasn't going to use. Why would a cover cost $50? That was a clue that I missed.
Having read up on things while waiting for this to come in, I knew that I wanted to use it with Overdrive. To use it I would need a local library card - Check. Drilling in a bit more, in order to make proper use of Overdrive, I needed to create an Adobe Digital Editions userID. Yet another online userID - OK, done. I thought I was ready - but no. I needed to register the device with Adobe Digital Editions - which is software to track ePUB DRM. And now we have the big catch/stop/pain. The device cannot self-register to Adobe Digital Editions. It MUST be connected via USB to a Windows PC or Mac that is already running and registered to Adobe DE. I looked things up and on the WINE list it has Adobe DE 4.5 as 'Gold', so I tried to install it - which then requires MS .NET 11 - which fails to install. I tried Winetricks, I tried Wine dev edition, I tried multiple 32bit and 64bit contexts. 3 hours later I was able to get Adobe DE 1.7 installed and running and registered - score! Then I connected the Kobo and - nothing. Adobe DE 1.7 doesn't have any way to talk to an e-reader. Without Adobe DE working I would not only not be able to use Overdrive to check out books from the library, but any book that I would purchase from Kobo or Google books or other would be forever restricted to the device it was purchased from. I.e. the ePub format requires linking the purchase to the Adobe key server in order for me to be able to see my purchases on my devices. At this point my recent 'Clean' Debian install on my workstation is now 'Cluttered' and the WINE install on it is fairly well hashed. Now 4.5 hours later I was ready to give up on getting the Kobo to work under Linux. It was after midnight and I admitted defeat for the night.
At least the device allows me to power it on at this point. Data entry into this thing was VERY slow and VERY inaccurate. I figured it had to have something to do with the e-ink screen and low powered SoC - maybe that required some poor responding digitizer to make it all work together. That was a clue that I missed.
The next day the Kobo was good and securely charged and I took a new approach to the Adobe DE issue. I own -one- Windows computer - a Gole1 running Windows 10. I keep it in a drawer and hardly ever use it. Plugged it in and booted it up. Windows 10 has always been an exercise in frustration to me. The level of effort that Microsoft expended to shelter me from being able to do anything useful with their OS is astounding. I re-found the 'Edge' browser and went to the Adobe site and downloaded Adobe DE 4.5 - then Edge vanished. I fumbled around the Windows 10 interface - Edge would not launch from the main multi-window abomination interface - the whole system seemed flaky. Having used Windows before I knew the first solution - click power - restart. Then I knew why Windows was behaving badly - it was in the midst of updating itself (without asking me). 30 minutes later it was willing to restart - then on startup spent another 20 minutes finishing the install.
However, after the Windows update had finished, I was able to install the Adobe DE 4.5 software and register the Gole1. Score 1 - or so I thought. My next step was to plug the Kobo Aura One Limited Edition into the USB port on the Gole1. I have plugged in a lot of USB cables in my life, so I think I have that part down well. But, I plugged in the USB cable into the Aura One - and the Aura One immediately went to sleep. I disconnected it, disabled sleep mode from the Aura One and tried again - same thing. I tried other USB ports on the Gole1 - same thing. I tried other USB cables - same thing. I rebooted the Gole1. I factory reset the Aura One and tried again - same thing. At this point I've been fiddling with cables and computers for another two hours with nothing but frustration to show for it.
A moment of realization... The unit was going to sleep just like it does if the 'sleep cover' is closed. The cheap cover that I was using from Amazon had an actual magnetic clasp what if I tried without the cheap cover on it... The unit instantly became far more responsive. It no longer went to sleep when the USB was plugged in. I was able to connect it to the Gole1 and register the Aura One to Adobe DE and complete my install of Overdrive and - borrow a book -.
I live 2.5 miles from my local public library. It is a 7 minute drive with bad traffic or 20 minute bike ride if there were a way to do it without getting run down by the traffic. I spent roughly 8 hours checking out my first e-book on the Kobo. I have the real Kobo Sleep Cover on it and it works great and does not interfere with the other functions of the unit. Quality of the Kobo Aura One Limited Edition itself and the Kobo sleep cover are both very high.
Granted, it isn't Rakuten's fault that I tried to use a knock-off cover (~2.5 hours) or a Linux fan (~5 hours). So, a 'normal user' who didn't do these things would have been up and running inside of about 30 minutes. I'm about 90% through that first book now. I can state that the reading experience is top notch and comfortable. The 'night mode' where you can shift the color spectrum from white/blue to rust/orange is no joke. So far I prefer to put the screen a bit orange - like old newspaper - and lock it there with brightness locked around 10%. Yes, it can do these things automatically - I prefer manual controls.
The underlying sadness though is Adobe's Digital Editions has versions for Windows 10, Mac, Android and iOS, but not Linux. In fact, it feels like they have deliberately made it very difficult for Linux users to install or use by tying the PC version to Microsoft's .NET framework. If anything screams, "Write this so that it compiles and works on any OS!", this is it. DRM is only effective if it doesn't get in the way. I have no issues paying for books, but Adobe DE feels like punishment for 'doing it right' or punishment for using Linux - I'm not sure which their objective was.
So, great device so far - once I got rid of the big magnet I had mounted to the side of it and stooped to using Windows. Being able to browse books, find one that I want to read - check it's status at the local public library and check it out directly on the device without having to side-load is just what I was after.
