My eReaders

I wanted to write about the books I read for some time. I thought writing about them will help me to think more about what I've read and remember the parts that I liked the most about them. Every time I tried to start the blog I end up wasting my time browsing Facebook and as we all know nothing gets done at that point. But what made me finally start the blog was the accident that happened to my electronic Kobo book reader and the experience I had with the customer service. So I decided to start this blog with a brief story about my book readers. So here we go ...

It all started in 2009 when I heard about eReaders that use eInk technology. I decided to get one that supports ePub format and in 2010 as soon as Kobo released their first eReader I bought my Kobo eReader from Chapters. I was very excited about the whole experience. Having all my books when going on a travel and borrowing books from library with no need to go to a library were the best parts of the experience. There were two downsides with my new reader. I wasn't happy about the page turn and start-up speed and the contrast of the screen was not great. Even with these two issues I loved my Kobo eReader.

My first Kobo

In summer of 2011 while travelling in US and checking out one of Borders bookstores I bought a Kobo Touch. This was the new eReader from Kobo and the reviews on it were excellent. Borders was going out of business and they had a good deal on the readers. My new reader was much faster, the contrast was excellent and the battery life was really good, I loved my new reader.

My Kobo Touch

Now fast forward to the winter of 2011 and my vacation in Mexico. I had three books loaded in my reader and ready to enjoy reading them under the sunshine. Half way thru my vacation and it happened. I was very careful not getting my reader wet but one bad decision led to another and I was looking at my reader inside the pool. I picked it up super fast and started the CPR. Cleaned it with my towel, Powered it off, and Removed the battery. I also used a blow drier with cool air to dry it. Once I was sure there is no moisture left inside the reader I turned it on and it was working. I was so happy and finished the book I was reading as fast as I could. After a day or two I started noticing that the touch screen not responding and I have to restart the reader to make it work. Few days after I got back from my vacation the touch screen stopped working and even the restart did not help.

I took my reader to Chapters to see if they can help me but they told me to contact Kobo directly. I sent the customer service an email and the responded back asking for more information about the proof of purchase. After few emails back and forth they escalated to their tier 2 support and there is when things got real bad. I waited for couple of weeks and since it was end of December I thought people in tier 2 are on holiday or something. I got an email eventually that they are going to close the incident. Looked like that they have sent me an email that I had never gotten. Fortunately the lost email was part of the email that I got. They mentioned that if the damage is covered by warranty they will give me a new one otherwise it will require a repair and the cost of repair in US dollar. I send another email asking for Canadian price and the fact that I have caused the damage and not looking for the warranty. All I wanted to know was whether they can fix the reader and how much it will cost me before sending it to them. I never got an answer and few weeks later got an email that they are going to close the incident. I was very disappointed with this experience and decided to forget about my Kobo Touch and Kobo company and get another reader.

I briefly considered Kindle but not supporting the ePub was the deal breaker. My choice for the new reader was the Sony PRS-T1. It is lighter than Kobo Touch and slightly bigger. It has a built-in support to browse the ebooks from different libraries. The PDF support is much better and the built in browser is reasonable. I had issues with multiple page turns when I just want to turn one page but this seems to be fixed after I got the latest firmware update. Only thing that I am not happy is the shiny body of the reader. It is not a major issue but at times it gets annoying. Overall I am very happy with my new reader and I will make sure to take a zip lock with me on my next vacation.

My Sony PRS-T1 reader