Kobo research team is asking for feedback on Reddit

[TheSmitty]

Took survey via email I received from them. For the "magical make things better" I mentioned it would be great if they added something to sync between ebook and their audiobooks much like Kindle's WhisperSync. I cannot remember the last time I read a book solely as an ebook or audiobook. For me, this would be a killer feature to cause me to fully switch to kobo store for buying content.

[JSWolf]

The thing I find disturbing is that they mentioned Bionic Reading. I really hope Kobo never ever implements is. It's HORRIBLE! It would take up space in the firmware that could be used for something else.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by rashkae

I don't like it so I don't want to be available to anyone who does is the most JSWolf Comment ever.

I think Bionic Reading is made up with no scientific proof that it actually works.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Well, that's up to Kobo I guess. Just like they added the OpenDyslectic font. Luckily Kobo lets me still choose whether to use it or not. And as long as they do that, I do not mind a bit. And perhaps, somebody might actually like it and find it helpful, who knows.

There have been studies that show that most people with dyslexia read better with a sans-serif font then they do with OpenDyslexic.

[Aleron Ives]

I asked for the battery meter to get fixed so it doesn't report random values anymore. I'm not holding my breath.

[Josieb1]

I completed the survey. They didn’t ask me what my side loaded books were. They are fan fiction so Kobo can never compete with that!

[Colonel Cathcart]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

I think Bionic Reading is made up with no scientific proof that it actually works.

Pretty much what I think, I ticked other and wrote it's snake oil.

[DrChiper]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There have been studies that show that most people with dyslexia read better with a sans-serif font then they do with OpenDyslexic.

Interesting. Can you provide references for that, please?

[Quoth]

Certainly Open Dyslexic was an art project with no actual study of dyslexia. Very many (nearly all?) supposed aids for Dyslexia have no scientific basis. Someone here recently posted links to actual studies debunking Open Dyslexic font.

The sans vs sans-serif readability is contentious and results seem related to size and type of content readers are used to. Those adults reading mostly novels "prefer" serif (because almost universal) and those mostly reading web sites "prefer" sans, because that's what web pages mostly use, for historical reasons.

I'd guess no-one wants to read traditional German/Gothic "black letter". It's hard to understand why it was even adopted as it's later than almost all clearer font faces.

My tests with Dyslexic readers who had never used ebooks suggested what they liked was being able to adjust font size, line spacing and margins on eink. As do most older folk! None were impressed by Open Dyslectic font.

All children and teens keen on reading novels tested (not Dyslexic) found a 4.7″ eink non-touch ereader with Georgia better than an ebook on a 6″ phone or an iPad. Oddly most liked smaller text!

[Quoth]

Re: Bionic Reading

Originally Posted by Colonel Cathcart

Pretty much what I think, I ticked other and wrote it's snake oil.

Might be good for an autocue?

It's a ghastly fashion. It's slow to read and ugly, hence the autocue idea as you have to study each word and not make assumptions about what you think is there.

Like bad printed T-shirts or slashed jeans.

Edit (Bionical or Open Dyslexic):
Also when people in the West become proficient at reading, they read very like Chinese people read (which usually isn't even phonetic). You do not identify and spell out each letter, but recognise the word. Hence proof reading an alphabetic language is an acquired skill that takes practice.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

There have been studies that show that most people with dyslexia read better with a sans-serif font then they do with OpenDyslexic.

Originally Posted by DrChiper

Interesting. Can you provide references for that, please?

Here's a couple of links. There are many more if you want to exercise your Google fu. This discussion has been going on for years and basically all the studies show the same thing: OpenDyslexic and Dyslexie offer no benefit for readers with or without dyslexia. Atkinson Hyperlegible
is another font that may help with reading though without some of the claims by OpenDys/Dyslexie.

The effect of a specialized dyslexia font, OpenDyslexic, on reading rate and accuracy

Dyslexie font does not benefit reading in children with or without dyslexia

Good Fonts for Dyslexia

Dyslexia Style Guide 2023 – British Dyslexia Association

The comment in one study was:

A more recent study with dyslexic elementary students confirmed that use of the OpenDyslexic font had no impact on reading ability. There was no improvement in reading rate or accuracy for students using the font, and no students reported preferring the font for reading material.

[compurandom]

Originally Posted by PennyDred

My main 'magic wand' request was [...] and an official SD card slot

I have a kobo (H2O) with an sd card slot.

Having the extra space and being able to upgrade it was wonderful!
However, the card mechanism itself was awful! The card would constantly get bumped and accidentally ejected with the reader on. It would then delete the books from the database and lose my place and bookmarks and then reimport them after the card was fully ejected and reseated. I think I ended up hot glueing the card in to prevent this.

Kobo's implementation of the sd card was awful, and I'd rather not have one if that's how they are going to do it.

I also have an android tablet with a secondary SD card slot. The slot is all but inaccessible except by paperclip (or the tool that came with it). There's no way for the card to be accidentally ejected.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by Quoth

I doubt reMarkable are any threat to anyone. Dire spec, loads of hype. USB only via networking, only native PDF. About 6 G storage. No on device handwriting conversion. No metadata browsing, only a file system. It's obviously a much better screen than the DX/DXG, but to actually browse books or copy to/from it, it is worse. I gave it away. The reMarkable is a one trick pony and a niche in a niche. I expect them to go bust.

For the past two months, reMarkable has been running tightly focused, stylish ads on X constantly. It may not appeal to ebook gnostics, but some of the questions in the survey targeted reMarkable features.

When I attended writers conferences over the past few years, reMarkable had lots of buzz. If the one trick that pony offers targets a niche, that niche will be thrilled. Nobody buzzes about the Kobo Elipsa in those author circles. Kobo has its work cut out for it.

[Cootey]

Originally Posted by DrChiper

That, and the way people are using Kobo and electronic reading in general. Plus I learned something about already available tooling by others as Bionic Reading. Never would have known that.

Agreed. I had never heard of Bionic Reading before. Unlike other speed reading/assisted reading systems, Bionic Reading could be implemented on a Kobo with a simple tweak to the CSS without a hit on the CPU.

[Cootey]

Re: Cloud services

I’m the type of Kobo user who has WiFi on all the time, and I enjoy the convenience of cloud services. I consider it an offsite backup beyond the local backups I already have. I mostly backup my iOS devices locally, but at least once a month I make sure to update the device image on iCloud. I consider the risk worth the convenience.

If Kobo charged a modest price for side-loading support across devices that included collection syncing, I’d consider that a worthy service to subscribe to, especially if they allowed a backup of all my ebooks in the cloud as well. Chances are, however, that this type of service will be reserved for the latest top of the line Kobo the way OverDrive, then Dropbox were offered.