So I began the rather daunting task of looking for an ebook reader. Checking out the Kindle was the obvious thing to do as it is the most well-known. The price was a drawback. Having never used an ebook reader before this I was reluctant to spend too much as I wasn't really sure how much I would use it. Also the number of formats the Kindle supported were far fewer than the Kogan eBook reader which I was also looking at. As my local library allows me to download ebooks in the PDF or ePub formats the Kiindle would not be a good choice. I liked the idea of wireless technology and being able to download books on the go, but then I don't really have the need for that when I can download them to my laptop and transfer them. I also didn't wish to be tied to Amazon. Maybe the dictionary and note functions of the Kindle would be handy but I was really looking for something quite basic and affordable.
So I went ahead and ordered the Kogan eBook Reader. The price was well within my range for a first ebook reader. It has the E Ink screen, supports 16 different ebook formats (eg ePub, HTML, txt, PDF, rtf), comes preloaded with 1500 books and has an amazing battery life. Of the free books there are many I would not read but a few are by well-known authors such as Sir Arthur Conan Doyle, George Orwell, Mark Twain and Charles Dickens. You can sync the device with Adobe Digital Editions, making downloading a little more complicated but quite achieveable. There is also an SD slot so you can add up to 32GB of ebooks!
For the most part I was happy with the product. It comes with a free case and USB cable to transfer books from my computer to the device. It is fairly easy to use. Reading using the E-Ink technology was very good on the eyes. I could resize the text. After a resize it's necessary to reposition the page as you read but the reflow button corrects this so you don't need to adjust the page position while reading. The text can be read in the 'portrait' or 'landscape' position. It is great for going on holidays - it saved me carrying two or three books around! It is not as slim as a Kindle but is not too unwieldy. The page turns can be a little slow and finding the books you have loaded with Adobe Digital Editions can be a little confusing. The best way to find them is by going to File Explorer > Internal Memory. The Internal Memory takes about 15 seconds to load so don't give up and reset the device like I did at first!
I had a few problems with the bookmark feature though. It was unpredictable and sometimes the bookmark I put in didn't work. I also couldn't delete the bookmarks on the device itself and had to do it while it was plugged into the computer. I am a fairly patient person and put up with this bookmark trouble but a couple of weeks ago it really began to annoy me (I've had the device for 6 months) and I wrote a review on the Kogan website stating that I wouldn't recommend the product or ever buy one again. In the meantime I began looking around for another device. I was seriously thinking of chucking this one in the bin!
Well, it was a good thing I got a bit mad and wrote the review on the Kogan website because they emailed me, very soon afterwards, offering me a firmware update! I was surprised but also pleased. Here is a company who cares about its customers, I thought to myself. I followed the instructions in the email and now the bookmarks work well and can be deleted from the device itself. A couple of other additions via the firmware update are virtual page turn buttons on the right hand side of the product (the original buttons are on the left making it awkward to turn the page when using the device in the case) and a more user friendly resize arrangement.
It's not a Kindle, but for a basic, affordable ebook reader it gives me the freedom to read ebooks, in the formats I can obtain them, wherever and whenever I want. I'm happy :)
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