I like reading books a lot, but due to a busy life schedule (and pure laziness as well) I don't seem to read as many books as I used to. No doubt I have an e-reader, an iriver Cover Story (Korean made) which was to make reading easy, but I hardly touch it and seem to only read comics/manga on it. Plus it's a little heavy to my liking and I don't like carrying heavy things for long (I'm sure no one does!).
So for a week I have been reading - only one book - on my Samsung Galaxy S2 using the Kobo app! Well, I heard from a friend that The Hunger Games is a good story, so I thought I might as well give it a try (it's a good book - but my review is in a later post).
Here I'm going to compare two Android apps - Kobo and Waterstones.
Using the Kobo app was very easy. You can download it directly from your phone Google Play (a.k.a. Android Market). Once you open the app, it goes directly to your bookshelf and displays all the books you have.
At the bottom of the screen you will see several buttons where you can discover some new or old books or search for a book.
This app is quite useful. It actually displays your statistics on the book you've been reading! It displays the amount of time you are reading, how many pages you flick and how long each session you read for. I am quite impressed!
Other features are the awards section. Each time you read, get a new book or do other things you will get awarded with a "badge". That's pretty cool for a reading app. ^^
After I finished The Hunger Games, I quickly browsed through the Waterstones App, which I found slightly harder to use, but it had some good points that the Kobo didn't have and vice versa.
As you tap into the app, it doesn't direct to your books but to a screen where you can find the book you want via their chart, new releases and genres.
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To get into your books, you tap on the books button on the top right hand side. The cart goes to your purchases.
When you go into a book and you want to change the font size etc you need to swipe the screen for the toolbar to show. In Kobo, you just press the bottom left hand corner menu button, which is next to the phone's home key.
With this app, it provides a great way of viewing the content and a synopsis of the book, which you can't get in Kobo.
One of Waterstones App's downfall is that you must tap the screen to turn the page, whereas with Kobo you have two options - tap the screen and / or use the volume up and down button to turn the page. I like that option, but too bad for the Waterstones App!
With both apps, they can auto-rotate. So if you want to read your book sideways (landscape view) you can do it!
I'm unsure if you can load Kobo books into the Waterstone's app and vice versa. Not tried it. But all my books get added onto my e-reader as well!
There is room for improvement for both apps. But I think I'm going to stick with Kobo for now.
Update 06/06/2012:
Looks like the Kobo app staff decided to improve the app!
They've added a bar at the top to show your bookshelf and a separate button to show you your previews. I'm impressed! ^_^
Update 01/07/2012
The app has changed again! Wow!
By the way, for those trying to import books from Waterstones to Kobo - it's not possible at the moment. In the Kobo app there is the option of importing books by going to your library, go to the menu (press the left button - if you have Samsung Galaxy S2 - Not sure for other mobile phones), then select "import content". There will be a selection of books for you to import, however it won't import Waterstones' books - maybe because they are protected...
I have tried downloading the PC app and to see if I can import from there - no luck!!
Sorry peeps!! -_-"
Update 23/12/2012
Just bought myself the Kobo Mini , and found that you can transfer your Waterstones ebooks using Adobe Digital Editions! And now I am going to be happily reading my books now!! :D ... Actually, the text is so small you can't read anything :(
Update 29/12/2012
Read more on my Kobo Mini... Plus I found a way of reading Waterstones' ebooks on my Mini and phone app... Yay!!
http://asimplegeekylife.blogspot.co.uk/2012/12/kobo-mini-ereader.html