Hello Andrew, Lisette is correct, the current version of the Kobo eBook reader app is accessible if you use it on an iPhone or an iPod Touch. You need to purchase the eBooks from the Kobo web site, but with your account login, they'll appear in your library when you're using the Kobo app on your iPhone. You also have the option of downloading a copy of the book to your computer, but the format will be ePub with Adobe Digital Editions DRM. (This is the most common type of DRM you are likely to encounter, but it is different from the Fairplay 2 DRM used by Apple's iBooks). You can read your eBooks in the Kobo app fairly easily, but you don't get word or character navigation on the touch screen. One bonus is that you also don't get the reading pause at the end of a page that you find with iBooks, while it does a simulated page turn graphic. I have to say that the latest version of the Kobo app, which again had a major revision just before the holidays, looks as though it is not accessible when you first download it, and before you log into your account. In the top half of the screen, there appear to be just a series of unlabeled buttons, which are apparently random book suggestions. Once you log in, these become titles under "My Recent Reads" from your Library.
You will need to do a one-time setup to configure your library and reading preferences. This involves going into the toolbar settings for reading a book, and setting the page transition style to "Scrolling", which makes it easy to navigate to the next (or previous) chapter, and which also lets you navigate even if you land on a page graphic, such as a cover image, map, or illustration. You'll also want to set your library display to list view, instead of shelf view, for easier access to browsing and searching for titles. Since the instructions for doing this can vary slightly with different versions of the app, this is usually where a new user will stumble, since anyone who has already used the app and set up their library this way won't need to bother with this (or even remember how to do this.) However, I can assure you that this is doable, since I tried a clean install for the latest version of the Kobo app on an iPhone 5. If you want to read eBooks with ADE DRM on your Mac, you'll need to download the Adobe Digital Editions software from: http://www.adobe.com/products/digital-editions.html You'll also need to follow their instructions for getting an Adobe ID. Again, the current screen reading experience is still limited, since you can't navigate by paragraph, line, word, or character in the Mac version, though I'm told that the latest Windows version of the app does allow you to do some of this. One work-around is that you can use the VO-Shift-C shortcut to copy the last read page to a TextEdit window, where you do have these navigations options. The reading experience is not bad for literature, but I wouldn't want to try reading, say, a computer programming manual this way. You can also read eBooks with Adobe Digital Editions DRM in the OverDrive Media Console app on your iPhone, but the eBook reading experience is better in the Kobo app. I've only used OverDrive Media Console to directly borrow and download audiobooks and eBooks from my public library (with a library card ID account number to use as a login). The audiobook borrowing experience is better than the eBook reading experience with OverDrive Media Console. This is just a statement that there is an option to read such eBooks with DRM on your iPhone. I've generally found the most detailed recent discussions of these topics on the mac-access list. If you want to set up reading with the Kobo app, Anne Robertson wrote out some instructions in a comment post at the AppleVis site: http://www.applevis.com/apps/ios/books/kobo-books If you want to read how to change your Kobo library organization to list view, you can read that in one of my mac-access list post in the Mail Archives: • Re: Latest Kobo App on iPhone [Was Re: Help with Adob Digital Editions] http://www.mail-archive.com/mac-access%40mac-access.net/msg15572.html HTH. Cheers, Esther On Mar 2, 2013, at 12:07, Lisette Wesseling wrote: > Hi Andrew > I read Kobo books on my iPhone with the Kobo app which is free from the > App store. Now that the ibooks store is finally available in New Zealand, I > read kobo books less and less because they are not as accessible as iBooks. > That said, if you choose the epub version of the book at purchase, the book > will download into the app very nicely. You can read the book either by > flicking to the right to read each line, or doing a two finger swipe down to > read the whole chapter. You can't get word or character navigation, but I > have found reading Kobo books with a braille display works really nicely, and > almost prefer that to listening with speech because you can navigate more > easily. > The app itself is definitely usable but takes a bit of figuring out. > It's not my first choice of ebooks anymore, but if nothing else is available > I'll take anything and work with it. > I've not tried reading them on my Mac so can't help you there. > Let me know if I can help further with the iPhone app. > > Lisette > > On 3/03/2013, at 10:51 AM, Andrew Lamanche <[email protected]> wrote: > >> Dear listers, >> >> I regularly come across electronics books which I would really like to read. >> They are either in .pdf or epub format but are drm protected. Some of the >> publishers that have them for sale state that I required adobe digital >> edition to read them, others require "My Books" application to read them. >> Kobo requires something different. I'm truly confused. I have seen a number >> of conversations regarding kobo and epub protected books here on the list. >> Could someone kindly share whether they find Kobo epub books accessible? How >> about adobe digital edition for reading epub and pdf protected books? Can I >> access adobe edition and read easily with VoiceOver? Amazon sometimes offers >> versions of printed books in electronic format for a different system. What >> are your experiences of those? >> >> Thank you for any tips yo you can share. >> >> Best wishes >> >> Andrew -- You received this message because you are subscribed to the Google Groups "MacVisionaries" group. To unsubscribe from this group and stop receiving emails from it, send an email to [email protected]. 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