Looking for a less evil Kindle alternative

[cobrabay]

I really like my Kindle, it is robust, simple, a good basic dedicated e-reader, but I'm getting fed up of feeling like I'm dealing with a sleazy black-marketeer rather than a responsible retailer every time I buy an ebook from Amazon. What with the proprietary formats, tax avoidance, charging 20%/paying 3% VAT scam, squeezing the publishers, remote wiping books from Kindles, closing peoples accounts without explanation or appeal, the zombie Amazon storefronts , and so on, I'm thinking I should look for a less evil alternative.

With that in mind, the new Kobo Glo is looking like a nice alternative. This review on Engadget compares the hardware favourably to the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight and in a number of respects as good as or better than the similar Kindle Paperwhite. It has the advantage of being a tenner cheaper than the Kindle Paperwhite, and I already have a Kobo account from way back. My current Kindle (the recent non-touch basic model) is selling for about £50-60 on eBay so it could only cost £40-50 for the replacement, and while I can continue to read my Kindle books on my PC, phone & tablet with the relevant Kindle software, they could just as easily fall through my copy of Calibre and a few Python scripts and emerge as DRM-stripped EPUBs from the other end to be installed on a new e-reader.

Comments

[watervole]

Is there any way you can check out the dictionary on the Kobo? When I was looking for an ebook a year or so ago, it was the poor dictionary on the Kobo that made me decide against it.

It failed on my first test word... 'pattered' as it happens (I was reading Alice in wonderland and picked that word to click on)

[cobrabay]

It may be possible to try the dictionary on a Kobo in WH Smith. I had a quick look at one today, they had a Kobo Glo in the WH Smith in Wokingham, but I didn't try the dictionary. It's not something I use on an e-reader. The backlight on the Kobo Glo is very good, very even and effective, but even with it switched off the contrast looks better than my Kindle. Text quality looks about the same. The controls seems pretty simple, even with a guide it was easy to navigate through the book, get the menu up and check the library, etc.