Situation: bought a 32Gb Kobo Arc on ebay from a Canadian seller. (The USD and CAD are very close to 1:1 right now) because my local indie bookstore will not be biting on becoming an Arc outlet. I'm a Glo and Touch owner.
2 questions:
1) Is there a way to tell if an Arc's pedigree is that it was sourced for a big-box store or an indie bookstore? While I don't plan to use the Arc to make any book purchases - I have a Glo bought from and linked to my local indie for that - if it ever comes to that because (heaven forbid) my Glo breaks, I don't want to switch allegiances. (The seller seems to specialize in tech and software stuff, not so much bookstore stuff. I don't want to ask too many questions and scare him off.)
2) Privacy. I just read a lengthy detailed review of the Arc and I see that Kobo has carried over their monstrous "Discover" engine technology and basically applied it to anything you do on the tablet - not just the books you've been reading like on their e-ink hardware, but now the videos and music you play, the websites you visit, the apps you install, etc. Reading how it works in practice, I have finally and officially donned my tinfoil hat.
Can it be stopped? Should I invest in a network traffic monitor/firewall?
2 questions:
1) Is there a way to tell if an Arc's pedigree is that it was sourced for a big-box store or an indie bookstore? While I don't plan to use the Arc to make any book purchases - I have a Glo bought from and linked to my local indie for that - if it ever comes to that because (heaven forbid) my Glo breaks, I don't want to switch allegiances. (The seller seems to specialize in tech and software stuff, not so much bookstore stuff. I don't want to ask too many questions and scare him off.)
2) Privacy. I just read a lengthy detailed review of the Arc and I see that Kobo has carried over their monstrous "Discover" engine technology and basically applied it to anything you do on the tablet - not just the books you've been reading like on their e-ink hardware, but now the videos and music you play, the websites you visit, the apps you install, etc. Reading how it works in practice, I have finally and officially donned my tinfoil hat.
Can it be stopped? Should I invest in a network traffic monitor/firewall?