andrewducker: (my brain)
andrewducker ([personal profile] andrewducker) wrote2011-12-21 11:02 pm
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A slight frustration with technology - Christmas Present edition

Julie* got me a Kobo Touch for Christmas. It is made of awesome. I love that it's smaller than the old ereader I had**, and Julie's Kindle (and slightly smaller than the Kindle touch), and is now nearly all screen. I also love that the screen change is dramatically faster than on my old reader**, as well as lighter. And the screen-turn isn't a button, it's a swipe on the screen. Plus you have lots of control over font, font size, line-spacing, etc. It's pretty much as good as book-readers get until the Kyobo or its successors hit the UK.

There is, however, one problem. Julie took the only micro-USB cable in the flat with her when she went home for Christmas***. Which leaves me with a bunch of epubs on the PC, a device with WiFi sitting a foot away from it, and no method of getting files from A to B.

*sigh*

*and her family, lovely people that they are.
**A Sony PRS-505. Its battery died a few months ago. I've been looking forward to its replacement a _lot_
***No, I don't know where they've all gone either. There should be at least three in the flat somewhere.
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matgb: Artwork of 19th century upper class anarchist, text: MatGB (Default)

[personal profile] matgb 2011-12-23 04:37 am (UTC)(link)
Dude, I live in a small pennine town, you can buy micro-USB cables in the pound shop and in Tesco. You live in Edinburgh, that should be even easier.

Take it the Kobo doesn't support anything like DLNA or similar?
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-23 07:38 am (UTC)(link)
I posted this at 11pm, and was leaving at 8am the next morning. Shops available between those two times...minimal.

(In the end I found Julie's Kindle cable tucked in a drawer)

Kobo supports its own software. Or dragging files across to the device as if it was a drive. Or Calibre. But nothing that doesn't involve USB.

[identity profile] poisonduk.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Poundland in St James tomorrow?
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-21 11:23 pm (UTC)(link)
Yup, that or one of the cheapo phone shops on Leith Walk.

[identity profile] poisonduk.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 11:31 pm (UTC)(link)
In fact how can you charge your phone? Same lead.
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-21 11:33 pm (UTC)(link)
See comment under this - I have numerous chargers that will plug into a micro-USB (i.e. wall-plug->micro-USB) but none that go USB->micro-USB.

[identity profile] poisonduk.livejournal.com 2011-12-21 11:41 pm (UTC)(link)
Just that all of our phone/kindle chargers are just USB leads plugged into adapters at the socket end. I assumed everyone's were like that these days as all our devices have come like that. We just disconnect from the adaptor to use on our PCs. If I was at work tomorrow I'd offer to drop one off.
zz: (Default)

[personal profile] zz 2011-12-22 12:31 am (UTC)(link)
yeah, my phone one's like that too.

[identity profile] henriksdal.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 03:40 pm (UTC)(link)
Mine's like that too. I think it's in your lounge from last time I visited...
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-22 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
I have two like that as well. Which is why I _should_ be able to find a micro-USB charger. I just can't!
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-21 11:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I have multiple Mini-USB cables. And several chargers for micro-USB devices. But not the cable I want.

[identity profile] bracknellexile.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 12:12 am (UTC)(link)
I take it the Kobo doesn't have the email facility that the Kindle has whereby you can email a file to your Kindle email address and it appears on the device?
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-22 07:07 am (UTC)(link)
Naah - Kindle uses that to convert books to Kindle format, and the Kobo reads a whole bunch of formats natively. It would be dead handy right now though...

[identity profile] daveon.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 12:28 am (UTC)(link)
Isn't there an ancient Klingon Proverb, "You can never have too many micro-USBs..."

[identity profile] channelpenguin.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 07:19 am (UTC)(link)
oooh I KNOW that my Xmas pressie is a Kobo. :-) really looking fwd to it - also be able to load my own pdfs on (e.g. song lyrics/tabs etc). We will no doubt have some joint squee-ing/bitching sessions as we get to know them!

[identity profile] channelpenguin.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 07:21 am (UTC)(link)
oh and tap is also page turn - this is surprisingly important to me as I am, for some reason, a bad swiper (I suspect my skin conductivity or something is a bit non-typical as I have general touch-screen issues - Apple kit often refuses to acknowledge me)
andrewducker: (Default)

[personal profile] andrewducker 2011-12-22 07:27 am (UTC)(link)
Julie also has problems with capacitive screens not recognising her fingertips. Kobo uses an infra-red system instead which should work just fine for you.

(And yes, I tap most of the time)

[identity profile] channelpenguin.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 08:05 am (UTC)(link)
Interesting! I thought it was just me. My Sony phone just about copes, but I haven't a clue how it does it.

I also have an issue with automatic doors not opening for me (god knows why, too much black or moving too fast?) The combination of those two issues (and my ridiculously cold hands/feet) have lead to speculations that I am some kind of undead :-)

[identity profile] channelpenguin.livejournal.com 2011-12-22 08:06 am (UTC)(link)
oh and camera autofocussing often also has issues with me (ultra pale reflective skin I assume)

[identity profile] meaningrequired.livejournal.com 2011-12-23 05:13 pm (UTC)(link)
I've had the problem with automatic doors too!!

I was trying to get into the M&S outlet store, and gave up because the door wouldn't open for me!

It did contribute to my theory that I was already dead, and the PhD was part of hell/purgatory!

Also, Edinburgh had a lot of those pedestrian electro sensitive buttons things, you know the kind you push to make the lights stop the cars so you can get across the road? I struggled getting them to work, but they seem to have replaced a lot of them, or I'm just moving around in a different part of town. However I got really upset one day trying to get across a busy road and being completely and utterly unable to make the lights work.

I also seem to have a lot of people bump into me.

Do you think you take up enough space? Is there a way to take up more space non-physically?
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