Two tweaks to make your Kobo simpler to learn and navigate

Rakuten’s Kobo gadgets are severe guide lovers’ e-reader of alternative due to how easy they make the expertise of studying whenever you examine them to the locked-down model you get on Amazon’s Kindles. That is to not say that Kindles aren’t premium, they only really need you to solely purchase Kindle eBooks, and solely learn them on Amazon’s gadgets and apps.

That does not imply Kobo e-readers do not want some consideration. There are many methods you may tweak your Kobo to make it work higher for you. For all of the issues Kobos’ flexibility permits for, there are nonetheless a couple of high quality of life options which might be solely attainable with deeper software program modification. On this case, if you’d like your e-reader’s clock to be viewable whilst you’re studying with out tapping right into a menu, you want a software program mod. The identical goes for principally any form of customization of your Kobo’s menus themselves. Fortunately, making these modifications is not all that onerous with the fitting mods. Here is how I tweaked my Kobo Elipse 2E to repair these points.

Learn how to set up a clock in your Kobo e-reader

You will want a USB-C cable and a mod known as NickelClock

With the default Kobo firmware, if you wish to test the time whilst you’re studying, it’s important to faucet on the high of the display screen to tug up the clock. This does not take that a lot effort, however in the event you’re concerned with, say, monitoring how a lot you are studying earlier than mattress, and you may make it simpler to do, why would not you?

There are a couple of alternative ways so as to add a clock to your Kobo, however the easiest I’ve discovered is a mod known as NickelClock. Honest warning earlier than diving in: In case your e-reader is beneath guarantee, modifying its firmware will nearly actually void that guarantee. You additionally tackle a specific amount of danger anytime you are digging into the center of your system. Neither of the mods on this article ought to do irreparable harm, however it’s a risk. With that in thoughts, here is how you put in NickelClock:

1. Obtain NickelClock from GitHub. Unzip the folder in case your working system hasn’t finished it already.
2. Join your Kobo to your pc with a USB-C cable.
3. Faucet Join in your Kobo display screen to let your pc entry your e-reader.
4. Double-click in your now mounted KOBOeReader drive to open its contents.
5. Drag the KoboRoot.tgz file out of your NickelClock obtain to the .kobo folder in your e-reader.
6. Proper-click and eject KOBOeReader.
7. Your Kobo ought to restart and set up the clock mod.

With the mod put in, by default, your Kobo will now show the time on the high proper aspect of your display screen whilst you’re studying. If you wish to alter how the clock seems (just like the margins across the display screen, for instance), you may make these changes in a Settings file you will add to the mod’s folders in your Kobo. It is attainable your e-reader created the file already whenever you put in the mod, but when it does not, you may create one in “.provides” within the “nickelclock” folder. You will need your file to be known as “settings.ini,” and in the event you create the file in one thing like TextEdit or Notepad, you will wish to change its extension from .txt or .rtf to .ini so your Kobo is aware of what to do with it.

The NickelClock GitHub has an instance of how this file must be formatted, however here is a replica beneath:

[General]

Margin=Auto

[Battery]

BatteryType=Degree

Enabled=false

Placement=Header

Place=Proper

LevelTemplate=%1%

[Clock]

Enabled=true

Placement=Header

Place=Proper

All of those settings are case-sensitive, so in the event you’re altering Enabled from false to true beneath the [Battery] part, ensure you’re constant in order that all the pieces works.

It takes extra work to arrange, but it surely allows you to do much more in your system

The menu design of Kobo e-readers is designed in a logical means, placing the stuff you’ll want most frequently, like studying settings or your notebooks, only some faucets a means. However there are loads of different issues your Kobo can try this take a great quantity of labor to truly entry. You should not must dig by way of a number of pages of menus to learn articles you’ve got saved in Instapaper or use the easy Kobo net browser. With the NickelMenu mode, you may create a customized shortcut menu that allows you to entry all of these and extra.

NickelMenu requires much more setup and file customization to work, however putting in it’s simply so simple as NickelClock. Here is learn how to do it:

1. Obtain NickelMenu from the NickelMenu website or GitHub.
2. Join your Kobo to your pc with a USB-C cable.
3. Faucet Join in your Kobo display screen to let your pc entry your e-reader.
4. Double-click in your mounted KOBOeReader drive to open it.
5. Drag the KoboRoot.tgz file you bought whenever you downloaded NickelMenu to the .kobo folder in your e-reader.
6. Proper-click and eject KOBOeReader.
7. Your Kobo will now restart and set up NickelMenu.

If NickelMenu is put in accurately, you must see a brand new NickelMenu possibility within the backside menu bar. It will not do something but, which is the place the customization is available in. Like NickelClock, you will have to create a brand new file to inform your Kobo what shortcuts to show on this menu. The NickelMenu web site has a bit explaining learn how to format this configuration file ought to work, however you possibly can additionally use another person’s configuration file as a beginning place and alter it to fit your functions. To check that NickelMenu works, I downloaded a config file from Reddit and plan to customise it later based mostly on what I believe I would like.

As soon as you’ve got made your config file, you’ll want to join your Kobo to your pc after which drag the file to the “config” folder contained in the “nm” folder contained in the “.provides” folder in your e-reader. After you disconnect your Kobo, the brand new NickelMenu ought to now present you the shortcuts you picked.

It is not onerous to personalize your Kobo e-reader

Software program mods can add new options

These small tweaks may not appear to be a lot, however they’ll go an extended option to making your Kobo e-reader really feel private to you. They require extra work than a few of the different tweaks Pocket-lint has shared, however hopefully this text exhibits they don’t seem to be inconceivable to tug off.

Model

Kobo

Display

10.3-inch E Ink Carta 1200

Decision

1404 x 1872 pixel decision

Storage

32GB

For those who’re a fan of annotating as you learn, or at all times have to have a journal close by, the Kobo Elipsa 2E e-reader is for you. The e-reader features a stylus that means that you can annotate, take notes, and search key phrases as you learn. Usually, the e-reader prices nearly $400, however you should buy it for considerably much less this Prime Day.

When you have a Kindle, and also you’re concerned with modifying its software program, Pocket-lint has a great article to begin with. Then once more, you don’t need to change much to vary the way you see and use your e-reader.