Re: How Do I Make the Most Out of My Kobo eReader?

I too recieved a kobo over christmas and would like to share some things Ive personally done to mine. For reference I have a Libra 2, but im sure that these tips apply across many kobo versions.

By enabling developer mode, a multitude of new beta features such as solitare, sudoku, sketch pad, a word game, and a sliding block game are unlocked. To enable developer mode, tap on the magnifing glass icon in the top right of the kobo home screen and type "devmodeon" in the search bar. Why was this stuff locked away? I love sudoku and solitare!

KOReader is an alternative to kobos default ebook-reading software which I prefer very much to the default. Its alot more fleshed out and contains many features absent otherwise. To Install Koreader, refer to these links

Koreader One-click Install Package

Koreader Nightly Builds

Fourm page where I found exact step by step install instructions for the Libra 2 (around the middle of the page)

Wireless Book Downloading

Wirelessly transfering Ebooks to the kobo is certainly possible and I will share two of the easiest methods Ive found.

This is a really great utility for transfering ebooks to kobos and kindles. Its a quick and dirty solution which will get tedious to use if you have a lot of books to send over, but works well.

Send To Kobo/Kindle Utility Webpage

Method 2: A Calibre Local Content Server

Calibre is a ebook library software to help manage your collection of ebooks. Pretty self explainatory. One of the many neat features is starting a local content server.

Step 1: open up calibre on your book hosting computer of choice. Right click on the library, mouse over the 'connect/share' catagory and select "Start content Server". Then right click again, mouse over to the connect/share catagory again and you will find that there is a local IP+port listed next to the "stop content server" button.

Step 2: On your kobo, open up the experimental web browser and connect to the IP and port. If all went well, you should see your calibre library mirrored on the kobo. From there you can download whatever you have.

Another helpful feature of calibre is that it can automatically convert Epub to Kepub (kobos specific epub format) through a plugin. For graphic Novels, theres also a plugin to convert PDFs and ZIPs to CBZ.

Getting Gemini Content On Kobo

I have a bash script automatically run every day at a little over midnight. The script extracts content from aggregators like continum and antenna, then converts the post into a single epub for that day. From there, the epubs are exported to calibres automatic import folder and available to download through the kobos web browser. Its about as automatic a system I could work out.

Websites that work great with the experemental browser

Here are some website Ive found to work great with the experemental browser due to their simplicity

Duckduckgo's simplest plain-text version of their search engine

A gemini to https proxy pointing to a gemini search index

Marginalia's alternative search engine (set it to no-javascript when searching)

Marginalia's high-readablity wikipedia skimmer

Plain-text weather forcast

Conclusions

I hope this helps any fellow kobo users squeeze the most utility out of their device. There are many other Kobo apps and addons I havent played around with, check out the link below to read through them.

Reference Links

Ultimate List of Kobo Tweaks/Hacks/Mods

Kobo Ereader hacks wiki page

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