Mom vs. Kobo, Week 1: Love! Threats! Evangelism!

My non-techie mother is settling in very well with her new Kobo. A few issues have come up.

1) Brownie Points for the Darling Daughter

Mom is really enjoying the Kobo. She has no prior reader to compare it to, so it’s all new to her, and it’s all super-neat. I set her up with some Sony freebies and library downloads, and was able to persuade her to let me install Calibre for her. I downloaded the book covers and metadata too so she could flick through the books like a real library and read a little summary of what each book is about. She loves it. And she’s starting to figure out such tasks as charging it and changing the book you read on her own.

I had also provided her with a spare case I had, the pink sleeve case from m-Edge, and I assumed since it is slightly over-sized (it was designed for the Kindle) that she would replace it once the official cases from Kobo were available. They now are, but she’ll be keeping the m-Edge because *I* gave it to her. Awwwww.

2) Sharing is Caring—Not!

Turns out Mom is a possessive little bookworm. Her party line prior to the Kobo’s arrival was that she would share it with her husband so he could try it out. But she’s figured out now that the Kobo saves your place for you while you read, and she’s decided that she doesn’t want Darling Husband messing up her books. He’ll have to get is own Kobo! She’s talking about ‘surprising’ him for his birthday this December. She’s talking about it so much that it won’t be much of a surprise at this point!

She was dismayed to hear that most local Indigo stores are currently sold out of the Kobo. She seems to be think that my ‘inside line’ to the good folks at Kobo make me responsible for this, and she’s told me that I had better get this ‘worked out’ before she’s ready to buy the present.

She also asked about wall chargers. She’s taking a two-week trip to Vancouver later this month and is worried she may not have access to a computer to charge it. I explained that a wall charger was not available yet. She said I needed to make sure they get on that right away. She pointed out (correctly) that requiring computer access for something like this might mean people can’t take it on vacation with them when they might not have a computer handy. She speculated that offering a wall charger ‘shouldn’t be that hard’ and stated that its current non-existence is ‘a bit of a pisser.’ Commandments to the Kobo Powers-That-Be thus issued, she told me to ‘get the ball rolling’ on this, and said she’ll be checking the display at Indigo to see that it is done.

So, overall, I would say it’s been a success so far. She’s more the entry-level demographic than I am, so it’s been interesting for me to see her interact with the Kobo and hear her reactions to it.