Wednesday 11 August 2010

Kobo vs iPad for Reading PDF Files

This is a quick video showing the difference between reading a PDF on the Kobo vs the iPad. Ultimately, while it's great the Kobo can read PDFs and increase the font size, it's inability to scroll through documents using anything but the forward and back keys, make doing anything than a straight read impossible (with books you can at least jump between chapter but that isn't an option with PDFs).

Contrast this with the iPad, which allows for easy scrolling, bookmarking, etc. it's a much more pleasant reading experience when it comes to PDFs.

3 comments:

Alex J. Cavanaugh said...

As the proud owner of an iPad, I'd say there's no comparison. But I might be biased...

Franky Dickson said...

Forgetting about the fact that you receive your paycheck from the same place as KOBO, how about the comparison of ease on the eyes! Try reading a PDF on the iPad in the sun. Or at the beach - the iPad will heat up and you won't be able to turn it on.

Or, try reading that PDF for more than ~10 hours before the iPad battery runs out.

Jessica Strider said...

Kobo and Indigo are two separate companies. My discount doesn't apply to anything related to the Kobo (ebooks or machines). I just checked and Indigo apparently owns 'most' of the kobo company. Still from the store level, we just sell the devices.

I haven't read the iPad much in sunlight, though what little I have done hasn't caused problems (you can adjust the screen so it's easier to use). I prefer to sit in the shade anyway as I burn too easily.

Ultimately the kobo and ipad are different machines with different strengths and weaknesses. I'm impressed the kobo reads pdf files at all and allows non propriatory books onto their machines (unlike the Kindle).

And I'd be hard pressed to read any book 10 hours straight, even on paper.

I did read a novella in pdf on the kobo. The reading experience was good if slow, due to scrolling twice to get to the next page. Ultimately though, I found the ipad easier to use for reading pdfs.