Archive for the ‘kobo ereader’ tag
WHSmith to sell Kobo eReaders in UK no comments
Kobo announced today that WHSmith will begin selling the Kobo ereaders at its over 750 retail locations across the UK beginning Oct 17. This follows news from Kobo a few days ago that the Kobo ereaders would be sold in France by Fnac, France’s largest book retailer.
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Kobo Wireless eReader heads to Caribbean no comments
Kobo announced today that its Wireless eReader will be available in the Caribbean thanks to a new partnership with Nigel R Khan Bookseller, which has nine stores in Trinidad and Tobago.
Trinidad and Tobago is the southernmost island in the Caribbean and its population of 1.3 million boasts a literacy rate of 92.8 percent.
The Kindle 3 ereader is also available
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Kobo unveils new ereader (Updated) no comments
Kobo has unveiled a new ereader at Book Expo America. 
The latest Kobo eReader will feature a touchscreen, Pearl e-ink display and a faster processor from Freescale. Engadget has video and pictures.
Engadget also mentions that the touchscreen is IR-based. This probably means that it is the same technology from Neonode that the current generation of Sony ereaders use, which is quit good.
The price of the new ereader is said to be $129, and it is expected to start shipping next month. Looks like Kobo is trying to steal a little of Barnes & Noble’s thunder by announcing the new ereader a day before B&N has said they will announce theirs.
Update: The Kobo eReader Touch Edition is now available for pre-order at Bordersand Indigo/Chapters. It is priced at $129.99 ($139 from Indigo) and comes with the quilted back available in four colors: Lilac, Silver, Blue and Black.
The specs of the new Kobo Touch ereader:
- Freescale iMX508 processor
- Storage: 1GB internal; Micro SD card slot (up to 32GB)
- Supports ePub and PDF
- 6-inch Pearl e-ink display; IR based touchscreen
- Wi-Fi
- Micro USB port
- Dimensions: 165 x 114 mm x 10 mm (6.5 x 4.5 x .4 inches)
- Weight: 221g (8 ounces)
- Battery Life: Up to 2 weeks or 10,000 page turns
- Warranty is one year Factory Defect Warranty
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Kobo ereader at Best Buy no comments
The Kobo Wireless ereader is now available at Best Buy in the US. The ereader is priced at $99.99 through May 14, after which time it will be priced at $129.99. Bordersalso has been selling the Kobo ereader for $99 for awhile.
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Kobo Offering $20 Discount Coupon for Wi-Fi eReader no comments
Kobo is offering a coupon good for a $20 discount
on the purchase of the Wi-Fi Kobo eReader, which would bring its price down to $119. The promo code is good until Dec. 31, 2010 and is only good for purchases made from the US. To receive the discount, use the code Kobo20 during checkout.
The coupon can also be used on one of the bundles that Kobo is offering. Each bundle includes a Kobo eReader pre-loaded with a set of ebooks:
- Nora Roberts: Vision in White, Bed of Roses, Savor the Moment; $139 after discount.
- Vampire Diaries: The Awakening, The Struggle, The Fury; $129 after discount.
- Millennium Trilogy: The Girl with the Dragon Tattoo, The Girl Who Played with Fire, The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest; $149 after discount.
- Hunger Games: The Hunger Games, Catching Fire, Mockingjay; $149 after discount.
- Alex Cross Series: I, Alex Cross, Alex Cross’s Trial, Cross Country; $139 after discount.
Additionally, Kobo is offering new customers a 35 percent discount off of their first ebook purchase.
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Kobo eReader for sale in Hong Kong no comments
Kobo has partnered with Swindon Book Co., Ltd to bring the Kobo eReader to Hong Kong. Swindon Book Co. is HK’s leading English bookstore. The Kobo eReader Wi-Fi will be sold for $1,550 HKD ($200 USD) at both Swindon’s retail locations and at Swindonbooks.com.
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Kobo Unleashes eReader with Wi-Fi no comments
Kobo has introduced a new version of its ereader with upgraded hardware. Besides adding Wi-Fi, Kobo says that the new ereader is faster, has a more contrasty screen and longer battery life.
Some of the features of the new Kobo eReader:
- 6-inch Pearl e-ink screen. Update: Looks like I was being overoptimistic; this is apparently the older e-ink screen – the grayscales have just been upgraded to 16.
- Wi-Fi 802.11 b/g
- Supported formats: ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM
- Can borrow ebooks from the library
- Built-in dictionary
- Three colors: Porcelain/Pearlized Lilac, Onyx, Porcelain/Metallic Silver
- 5 font sizes & 2 styles
- 1GB internal memory; SD card slot
- Battery life: up to 10,000 page turns
- Size 184mm x 120mm (7.24 x 4.72 inches); weight 221g ( 7.8 ounces)
- Comes preloaded with 100 public domain ebooks & poker game
The new Kobo eReader puts Kobo back in the race. After Amazon and B&N lowered the prices of their ereaders the older Kobo model seemed rather lacking in comparison.
Kobo, like other ereader makers that support ePub with Adobe Digital Editions (ADE) DRM, always stress the fact that their ereaders are “open” and do not lock you into purchasing content from only one provider. While it is true that you may be able to buy content from different ebookstores — which is nice, keep in mind that for most contemporary ebooks you will still be locked into the pool of available titles with DRM by ADE, which is smaller than the number of titles available at the Kindle Store. To a large extent this claim to openness is just hype in my opinion. You still have to choose which DRM system you will lock yourself into.
The new Kobo Wi-Fi eReader does look like a big improvement and if you were planning on purchasing Kobo’s reader I would definitely recommend the new model over the old, even if the older model can be had for a few bucks less.
The new Kobo eReader Wi-Fi is available at Kobo.comfor $139.99 USD. It will be available in Borders Stores by the end of October, and can be pre-ordered from the Borders website.
For a limited time, Kobo is offering two free ebooks from Random House of Canada with the purchase of the new ereader from either Kobo or Indigo Books & Music in Canada. The two ebooks are Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay and When My World Was Very Small by Ruth Rakoff. I’m not sure if this offer is extended to customers ordering the eReader for shipment outside of Canada.
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eReader & Tablet News – 9/15/2010 no comments
Kobo Wi-Fi ereader incoming? The confidentiality agreement with the FCC for a new Netronix ereader has just expired, making a number of case photos viewable, including one for Kobo. The shell looks the same as the current Kobo ereader.
Wi-Fi will be a good step for Kobo, especially if the new ereader has some other new features as well, but how will Kobo price it? Their current ereader is $129, while the Kindle Wi-Fi is only $10 more.
(via The Digital Reader)
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If you have been feeling left out because your local Best Buy doesn’t carry the iPad, there is good news for you. Best Buy has announced that beginning September 26 the iPad will be available in all 1,093 US stores.
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Blio has announced that its ereading application will be available for download on September 28 at Blioreader.com. Initially only Windows-based devices will be supported, but versions for iOS and Android should be following soon.
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E Ink Holdings, which makes the e-ink displays in our ereaders, is expected to see a 70 percent sequential jump in revenue for Q4 this year. September revenues could jump by over 50 percent sequentially. This is according to a Chinese business newspaper as reported by Digitimes.
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Another new mobile media company has been launched to make interactive book apps for children. Former head of children’s books at Simon & Schuster Rick Richter has formed Ruckus Media Group. The company will focus on children’s story apps for various devices and expects to have more than 26 titles available by the end of the year.
From the press release:
Ruckus Mobile Media is developing original apps with bestselling and award-winning authors and illustrators including Jon Scieszka, Rosemary Wells, Sandra Boynton, Andrew Clements, Patricia MacLachlan, Alan Katz, David Carter, Kevin Lewis, Mike Austin, and Caitlin Friedman, among several others, to create interactive works not possible within the pages of a printed book.
The Ruckus launch list of apps will include the award-winning Rabbit Ears Library of classic children’s tales told by top Hollywood celebrities (including Meryl Streep, Glenn Close, Robin Williams, Denzel Washington and many others), now digitally re-mastered and optimized for mobile applications and with several added interactive features.
The company’s first apps for iPhone and iTouch (sic) will be available for $3.99 each from the Apple App Store beginning September 28 and include the Play-Read-and-Record-Along animated stories Tom Thumb and the Knights of the Round Table, told by John Cleese with music by Elvis Costello, and The Velveteen Rabbit, told by Meryl Streep with music by George Winston, among others. All Ruckus apps will be iPhone and iPad compatible and will enjoy frequent upgrades. Droid apps are planned for release later in the fall.
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The first interactive pbook? Author Lynn Manning Ross’ new book, How to Develop a SmartPlan for Your Business will include 2D barcodes that readers can scan with their smartphones to access further information and view videos, webinars, listen to related podcasts, etc. The book is at Amazon (link above), so you can see samples.
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The iPad hasn’t killed dedicated ereaders after all. According to research firm In-Stat ereader shipments will grow from 12 million this year to 35 million in 2014, while tablet shipments are expected to reach 58 million by 2014.
"Tablet PC shipments are taking off, fueled in particular by the Apple iPad introduction. Yet, there will still be a revenue opportunity for e-reader suppliers and OEMs since tablet PCs and e-readers target different consumers," says Stephanie Ethier, Senior Analyst, In-Stat. "Standalone e-readers will address the needs of avid readers, to whom the reading experience is central. Tablets are better suited for consumers who prefer a stronger multimedia experience, and only light reading."
In-Stat also expects to see a $99 ereader by the end of the year. Well, the jetBook Mini is already there.
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Kobo eReader Price Reduced for the Weekend no comments
The Kobo eReader is on sale for $128 this weekend only at the Indigo website. The other sources for the Kobo eReader are still selling it at the regular price, for the moment anyway.
Even at a price that is $10 cheaper than the Kindle 3 Wi-Fi ebook reader, the Kobo eReader does not compare well. The Kindle 3 has many more features and a larger ebook store backing it up.
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Kobo eReader Firmware Update no comments
Kobo has announced a firmware update that should be available over the next week or two depending on your location and where you purchased your Kobo eReader.
Some of the new firmware features:
- The ability to resize fonts for any ePub file, no matter where it comes from.
- Improved battery management
- The ability to hide/show the preloaded free classics
- Charging lights that make sense (red/violet when charging, blue when finished)
- Sleep Mode: eReader will go to sleep if inactive for more than five minutes
For more details and instructions to obtain the update sooner see the Kobo Blog.
