And I don't know anything about calibre but I'll look into it for the books I just transferred on my computer now- I didn't see your post before I posted last. I wish there was a Calibre for idiots book out there.
Glad you were able to find your books. If you want to read them on your computer, you'll need to install an e-reader program first, one that supports epub files. Almost all do, the only exception I know is the Amazon Kindle for PC program. Calibre has a built in program you can use as well. Here is a quick how-to for Calibre.
Install the program, run it. It should be blank. In your file explorer window, find your epub or other ebook files and drag them to the Calibre window. The program will create a copy of these books and organize them. They will get saved to your computer's "Documents" folder under "Calibre Library" and be organized by the author. If you don't have them on your computer, just connect your ereader to the computer after Calibre is running. Calibre will scan your device automatically and show you the books it found. You then select the ones you want and add them to your library, this copies them to the computer so you can read it from there or transfer them to another device.
PS. As for the firmware, I don't know they are compatible between the black and white ones. That could be why it didn't work when you tried before.
The black and white Literati are hardware compatible. The difference is just the case design.
Calibre or Adobe Digital Editions will read the epub books if they were correctly transferred. There are other programs that work as well, but none of them are provided automatically with most PCs. You have to download and install a program to do the job. Windows or MacOS will not read an epub file on their own.
SD cards must be inserted in the Literati slot with label facing down, away from you as you look at the front of the Literati. They will not work if you put them in with the label facing toward you or up as the device lies on a table. Insert with the notched corner at the lower RIGHT and the gold contacts facing you. You need to push it in until it snaps in place, which is quite deep in the slot for the Literati. If you have no fingernail, you may need a non-conductive tool such as a plastic screwdriver to press and release it when you want to remove it.
Hope this helps.
Quote Altivo
The black and white Literati are hardware compatible. The difference is just the case design.
Calibre or Adobe Digital Editions will read the epub books if they were correctly transferred. There are other programs that work as well, but none of them are provided automatically with most PCs. You have to download and install a program to do the job. Windows or MacOS will not read an epub file on their own.
SD cards must be inserted in the Literati slot with label facing down, away from you as you look at the front of the Literati. They will not work if you put them in with the label facing toward you or up as the device lies on a table. Insert with the notched corner at the lower RIGHT and the gold contacts facing you. You need to push it in until it snaps in place, which is quite deep in the slot for the Literati. If you have no fingernail, you may need a non-conductive tool such as a plastic screwdriver to press and release it when you want to remove it.
Hope this helps.
Oh yes that helps a lot - thank you so much!
Quote klu529
Glad you were able to find your books. If you want to read them on your computer, you'll need to install an e-reader program first, one that supports epub files. Almost all do, the only exception I know is the Amazon Kindle for PC program. Calibre has a built in program you can use as well. Here is a quick how-to for Calibre.
Install the program, run it. It should be blank. In your file explorer window, find your epub or other ebook files and drag them to the Calibre window. The program will create a copy of these books and organize them. They will get saved to your computer's "Documents" folder under "Calibre Library" and be organized by the author. If you don't have them on your computer, just connect your ereader to the computer after Calibre is running. Calibre will scan your device automatically and show you the books it found. You then select the ones you want and add them to your library, this copies them to the computer so you can read it from there or transfer them to another device.
PS. As for the firmware, I don't know they are compatible between the black and white ones. That could be why it didn't work when you tried before.
Oh that sounds doable- thank you very much! I don't know why I didn't look into all this before - was scared of technology I guess.
If Altivo is correct and the devices are the same, I have the firmware if you still want to try updating it. Let me know and I'll provide a link.
Very basic question with literati ereader. After I load the sd card it shows up in the memory details but I do not know how to access the books on the card? Should I use a shift key?
When I connect to a laptop with windows xp it says not recognized.
The problem with OS is still there but I do not worry if I can use the reader without wifi connection. Please help.
Arun Sekar
Hello, 2019 calling! Yes, I recently saw a Literati in a Thrift Town here in Dallas. The device had been in the electronics glass case for about a year. Today the pink $12.99 tag was good for the 50% off pink tag day, so got the thing for $7 and some change after tax.
Some quick observations I thought I would share here in this thread.
Got the Literati, the device had no books on it. I believe the internal storage was corrupted. I formatted the internal space. Luckily the 1.6 version of the Literati seem to be rom based so that didn't get wiped out and left me with 100 mb of space.
I did a factory reset (something I picked up on reading this thread) and the built in 25 books came back.
I tried to put the 1.9 and 2.0 update files on a SD card. That didn't work. What DID work was connecting my Mac to the USB connection. After the factory reset the virtual drives called itself "literati". I was able to go to the finder (as in the instructions below) and go to the .kobo folder. I then put the koboroot.tgz file in that folder directly. When I brought the literati back up it spent the advertised ten minutes to update and now my device has version 2.0 on it.
The SD card slot is VERY particular on the SD card I've worked with and I've played with the following:
* 256 mb Sandisk - Did not work. Fat16 and 32 format.
* 2 gb Patriot - Did work for both Fat16 and Fat 32, not ExFat.
* 8 Gb Unirex SDHC - Did not work for Fat32 or ExFat
* 8 Gb Gigastone MicroSD - Did not work.
When I did find the one 2 Gb SD card that worked, the device became flakey, always rebooting and re-reading the SD card. I ejected the SD card after a while. What I did instead is with the device in factory setting you get 262 mb of internal storage. After updating I was left with 230 mb of storage space. So I have 5 comic (CBR/CBZ) files of Fireball XL5 and a Bible (5.5 mb). I have 38 mb left over. This has turned out to be the most reliable choice.
Thoughts on reading:
pdf - This is amazing. I am reading in night mode which turned the background from white to black with the text in white. Add to that you can read in portrait or landscape mode. At 200% I can read the text without reading glasses just fine.
cbr/cbz - Pretty cool, doesn't zoom or hardly anything, without readers or a magnifying glass this is difficult.
Built in books - only portrait mode, you get night mode.
Summary:
Got the device because I like a device with buttons. The Literati is a cool device that was in that time frame before touch screens, when devices experimented with buttons, and when the screen tech was not as thin as it is now. I think for the time it was released the keyboard is ... alright. The buttons are spaced apart to not be uncomfortable or awkward, the keys don't stick when you type on them (See the Intellivision ECS keyboard as the worst example of this) and the screen is nice.
A more regular use of the landscape mode of the long screen on documents other than pdf would have been better. But in my case I have pdfs to read, and at least that has that ability.
Five to six hours of battery life? I know smart phones that are almost that bad, so really no shock there.
Took me three days to get the information below to hook up the Literati and find out how to upgrade it. Overall a cute enough device. If I had to whine a little I wish the device had the ability to enter notes. With the keyboard the device would be a great note taker.
In the end I have a device for $6 that has 25 books, some great classic titles BTW. I would have liked a bible and while considered classic literature Sharper Image probably didn't want to be associated with a religious preference. Fair. The device reads pdfs after the upgrade so really not bad. SD port is flakey, but the internal memory allows for nearly 230 mb pdf. I generally read a book at a time anyway so not bad. A text search function on the books is something that would have been great but haven't found yet. And ultimately I feel I have a device with books I need to read. 25 classic books. On the classic books you get book marks. What is fun is the pdf where it shows the percentage read of the file.
The device looks like what I pictured back the in 80's the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would have been. Need to get HHGTTG on my Literati sometime.
Not an initially easy device to work with, but workable once you get it working. For $6 I feel if I lost it I would be briefly sad, but not the end of the world. :P
-------------------------------------------------------------------
What follows is how I finally upgraded my Literari, reposed here with link to give original credit, and re-posted here in case that website goes down or this is deleted.
http://www.fixya.com/support/t10336161-problemSolution: Use the Literati USB connection and the following steps
1. Plug the eReader into a charger
2. Download v2.0 of the Literati or Lookbook firmware from -
http://download.kobobooks.com/firmwares/merchsource/2-0/KoboRoot.tgz , and save the file somewhere you will remember
NOTE: Some browsers will download the file and rename it to KoboRoot.tar. The upgrade will not work with the .tar extension. If this happened with your download, please rename the downloaded file to KoboRoot.tgz
3. Keeping the charger connected, connect the Literati or Lookbook to your computer through the provided USB cable
4. The eReader will appear on your computer as a mass storage device
ON A MAC:
1. Open mass storage device in Finder
2 . Click GO from the top menu
3. Click Go to folder
4. Type in .kobo (include the period).
5. .kobo folder will open
6. Transfer the KoboRoot.tgz file you downloaded to the .kobo folder
7. Once the file has transferred, safely eject the eReader
8. Turn off the eReader
9. Turn on the eReader
10. The eReader will take up to 10 minutes to start up, please be patient and do not reset or power off the eReader in any way.
11. Once the eReader restarts, it will have the latest version (v2.0) installed. You can verify this by pressing the menu button, selecting Settings and looking at the Version number.
ON A PC:
1. Open mass storage device in Windows Explorer
2. Ensure hidden folders are visible (different for different Windows versions)
XP: Go to My Computer > Tools menu > Folder Options > View Tab > Advanced Settings > Hidden Files and Folders > Show hidden files and folders. Press OK all the way out.
Vista and Windows 7: Start > Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab > Click Show Hidden files and folders > OK
3. Open .kobo folder in the mass storage window
4. Transfer the KoboRoot.tgz file you downloaded to the .kobo folder
5. Once file has transferred, safely eject the eReader
6. Turn the eReader off
7. Turn the eReader on
8. The eReader will take up to 10 minutes to start up, please be patient and do not reset or power off the eReader in any way.
9. Once the eReader restarts, it will have the latest version (v2.0) installed. You can verify this by pressing the menu button, selecting Settings and looking at the Version number.
Quote DoctorClu
Hello, 2019 calling! Yes, I recently saw a Literati in a Thrift Town here in Dallas. The device had been in the electronics glass case for about a year. Today the pink $12.99 tag was good for the 50% off pink tag day, so got the thing for $7 and some change after tax.
Some quick observations I thought I would share here in this thread.
Got the Literati, the device had no books on it. I believe the internal storage was corrupted. I formatted the internal space. Luckily the 1.6 version of the Literati seem to be rom based so that didn't get wiped out and left me with 100 mb of space.
I did a factory reset (something I picked up on reading this thread) and the built in 25 books came back.
I tried to put the 1.9 and 2.0 update files on a SD card. That didn't work. What DID work was connecting my Mac to the USB connection. After the factory reset the virtual drives called itself "literati". I was able to go to the finder (as in the instructions below) and go to the .kobo folder. I then put the koboroot.tgz file in that folder directly. When I brought the literati back up it spent the advertised ten minutes to update and now my device has version 2.0 on it.
The SD card slot is VERY particular on the SD card I've worked with and I've played with the following:
* 256 mb Sandisk - Did not work. Fat16 and 32 format.
* 2 gb Patriot - Did work for both Fat16 and Fat 32, not ExFat.
* 8 Gb Unirex SDHC - Did not work for Fat32 or ExFat
* 8 Gb Gigastone MicroSD - Did not work.
When I did find the one 2 Gb SD card that worked, the device became flakey, always rebooting and re-reading the SD card. I ejected the SD card after a while. What I did instead is with the device in factory setting you get 262 mb of internal storage. After updating I was left with 230 mb of storage space. So I have 5 comic (CBR/CBZ) files of Fireball XL5 and a Bible (5.5 mb). I have 38 mb left over. This has turned out to be the most reliable choice.
Thoughts on reading:
pdf - This is amazing. I am reading in night mode which turned the background from white to black with the text in white. Add to that you can read in portrait or landscape mode. At 200% I can read the text without reading glasses just fine.
cbr/cbz - Pretty cool, doesn't zoom or hardly anything, without readers or a magnifying glass this is difficult.
Built in books - only portrait mode, you get night mode.
Summary:
Got the device because I like a device with buttons. The Literati is a cool device that was in that time frame before touch screens, when devices experimented with buttons, and when the screen tech was not as thin as it is now. I think for the time it was released the keyboard is ... alright. The buttons are spaced apart to not be uncomfortable or awkward, the keys don't stick when you type on them (See the Intellivision ECS keyboard as the worst example of this) and the screen is nice.
A more regular use of the landscape mode of the long screen on documents other than pdf would have been better. But in my case I have pdfs to read, and at least that has that ability.
Five to six hours of battery life? I know smart phones that are almost that bad, so really no shock there.
Took me three days to get the information below to hook up the Literati and find out how to upgrade it. Overall a cute enough device. If I had to whine a little I wish the device had the ability to enter notes. With the keyboard the device would be a great note taker.
In the end I have a device for $6 that has 25 books, some great classic titles BTW. I would have liked a bible and while considered classic literature Sharper Image probably didn't want to be associated with a religious preference. Fair. The device reads pdfs after the upgrade so really not bad. SD port is flakey, but the internal memory allows for nearly 230 mb pdf. I generally read a book at a time anyway so not bad. A text search function on the books is something that would have been great but haven't found yet. And ultimately I feel I have a device with books I need to read. 25 classic books. On the classic books you get book marks. What is fun is the pdf where it shows the percentage read of the file.
The device looks like what I pictured back the in 80's the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy would have been. Need to get HHGTTG on my Literati sometime.
Not an initially easy device to work with, but workable once you get it working. For $6 I feel if I lost it I would be briefly sad, but not the end of the world. :P
-------------------------------------------------------------------
What follows is how I finally upgraded my Literari, reposed here with link to give original credit, and re-posted here in case that website goes down or this is deleted.
http://www.fixya.com/support/t10336161-problemSolution: Use the Literati USB connection and the following steps
1. Plug the eReader into a charger
2. Download v2.0 of the Literati or Lookbook firmware from -
http://download.kobobooks.com/firmwares/merchsource/2-0/KoboRoot.tgz , and save the file somewhere you will remember
NOTE: Some browsers will download the file and rename it to KoboRoot.tar. The upgrade will not work with the .tar extension. If this happened with your download, please rename the downloaded file to KoboRoot.tgz
3. Keeping the charger connected, connect the Literati or Lookbook to your computer through the provided USB cable
4. The eReader will appear on your computer as a mass storage device
ON A MAC:
1. Open mass storage device in Finder
2 . Click GO from the top menu
3. Click Go to folder
4. Type in .kobo (include the period).
5. .kobo folder will open
6. Transfer the KoboRoot.tgz file you downloaded to the .kobo folder
7. Once the file has transferred, safely eject the eReader
8. Turn off the eReader
9. Turn on the eReader
10. The eReader will take up to 10 minutes to start up, please be patient and do not reset or power off the eReader in any way.
11. Once the eReader restarts, it will have the latest version (v2.0) installed. You can verify this by pressing the menu button, selecting Settings and looking at the Version number.
ON A PC:
1. Open mass storage device in Windows Explorer
2. Ensure hidden folders are visible (different for different Windows versions)
XP: Go to My Computer > Tools menu > Folder Options > View Tab > Advanced Settings > Hidden Files and Folders > Show hidden files and folders. Press OK all the way out.
Vista and Windows 7: Start > Control Panel > Folder Options > View Tab > Click Show Hidden files and folders > OK
3. Open .kobo folder in the mass storage window
4. Transfer the KoboRoot.tgz file you downloaded to the .kobo folder
5. Once file has transferred, safely eject the eReader
6. Turn the eReader off
7. Turn the eReader on
8. The eReader will take up to 10 minutes to start up, please be patient and do not reset or power off the eReader in any way.
9. Once the eReader restarts, it will have the latest version (v2.0) installed. You can verify this by pressing the menu button, selecting Settings and looking at the Version number.
WOW - I was so surprised to see an update here. I still have mine but haven't used or thought about it in a couple years except occasionally to think - I should really get rid of that thing. But this is really, really helpful and I'll be taking it out again and working on it to get it going again. Thanks so much for posting!
I just got one for $4.95 at a thrift store. Bought a USB charger cable and got it working with a Samsung phone charger. Already updated to latest software.
The battery seems to be defekt. Charge for hours, runs for minutes unplugged. To repair or not to repair, that is the question.
