Hasta La Gadget!

I’m sure everyone out there knows that the Friday after Thanksgiving is one of the biggest shopping days of the year. It’s called Black Friday for reason, hordes of shoppers intent on saving money at all costs will descend on stores all around the country. If you don’t want be part of the fight to get gifts in typical retail stores and have someone on your shopping list its interested in a new digital reader for Christmas, Kobo has a deal for you.

The little Kobo Mini digital reader is on sell for $30 off for Black Friday and Cyber Monday specials. The special discount on the little the reader will run from now until November 26 and people who purchase the device will get a free copy of the book Art Forger by B.A. Shapiro. The $30 discount brings the price of the Kobo Mini to $49.99.

The special price will be available in stores today and online Monday. The device is one of the smaller digital readers on the market with a five-inch touchscreen an integrated Wi-Fi. The special price for the device is available at Best Buy and other retail locations around the country. The five-inch screen uses E-ink technology making it easy to read in direct sunlight with no glare.

The little digital reader also has seven different font styles and 24 font sizes along with weight and sharpness settings for fonts to make it easier to read for all users. The reader is available in black or white and has three interchangeable SnapBack back color options are available including red, purple, and teal.

Kobo Mini digital reader available for $49.99 is written by Shane McGlaun & originally posted on SlashGear.
© 2005 – 2012, SlashGear. All right reserved.

Kobo’s Arc tablet is hitting stores for the first time in Canada and the UK today, leaving eager punters in the US of A wondering if they’ve been forgotten. In America‘s hat, the 7-inch competitor to the Kindle Fire HD and Nexus 7 is showing price tags of 200, 250 and 300 Canadian dollars for the 16GB, 32GB and 64GB versions, respectively. A WHSmith exclusive in the UK, £160 and £190 is what you’ll need for the lesser two options, and we can’t see a 64GB listing online just yet. French store Fnac will keep customers waiting til Monday, when they’ll be able to swap €200 for an Arc avec 16 gigs — its listings show no other sizes right now, barring a non-existent 8GB variant. Kobo hid a surprise for us in the announcement PR, too: it’s already working on a Jelly Bean 4.1 update for the ICS tablet. If you’re American and bummed you’re not reading this on your own shiny new Arc, it’s already passed inspection, so should be shipping before you know it.

Continue reading Kobo Arc available today in Canada and UK, coming to France on Monday

Filed under: Tablets

Kobo Arc available today in Canada and UK, coming to France on Monday originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 16 Nov 2012 10:22:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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There’s nothing like a good underdog story. Aside from last year’s failed Vox tablet, Kobo has made some quality devices, but has still failed to make a huge dent in the e-reader market — a space dominated by Amazon and Barnes & Noble. In the case of the Glo front-lit e-reader ($129), Kobo might just be hampered by unfortunate timing. Though the company managed to get a jump on things in the last round with the Kobo Touch, the Glo comes on the heels of similar devices, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight and the Amazon Kindle Paperwhite. But, could this reader have what it takes to convince Kindle and Nook owners to take a leap of faith? Find out after the break.

Continue reading Kobo Glo review: another illuminated e-reader lights up the market

Kobo Glo review: another illuminated e-reader lights up the market originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 15:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Looks like Kobo’s leveraging some of that Rakuten-infused love. The e-reader maker announced today that it’ll be bringing its new pair of devoted readers to Japan over the next couple of months, courtesy of its parent company. The e-literati in that country can pre-order the new Kobo Glo now for ¥7,980 ($100) through Rakuten for a projected ship date of November 15th. The 5-inch Kobo Mini, meanwhile, is due to arrive in December for ¥6,980 ($87) — the same price as the recently discounted Kobo Touch.

Continue reading Kobo’s Glo and Mini readers on their way to Japan as the Touch gets a discount

Kobo’s Glo and Mini readers on their way to Japan as the Touch gets a discount originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 02 Nov 2012 01:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kobo announced today via its company blog that the Kobo Glo and Kobo Mini e-readers are now on sale at Canadian retailers Indigo, Future Shop and Best Buy, and in the U.K. at WHSmith. The $80 Mini and $130 Glo were announced in September, just ahead of the unveiling of Amazon’s new Kindle lineup. Kobo also announced today that its Arc 7-inch Android tablet will be hitting store shelves in November.

The Kobo Mini is the company’s entry-level e-reader, with a 5-inch touch screen and 2GB of onboard storage, while the Glo is a larger 6-inch device that also offers expandable, microSD storage and what Kobo calls a ComfortLight touch display, essentially the same thing that Barnes & Noble’s Nook with GlowLight offers. It’s also similar to Amazon’s Paperwhite technology, with which the Kobo Glo will go head to head – though not in the Canadian and UK markets just yet.

Amazon’s latest e-reader isn’t yet available outside of the U.S., except in its basic form as the latest generation non-touch Kindle. That will give Kobo a running start in both of these markets, and one that could last into the new year, according to some reports. The Arc could also beat the latest Kindle Fire to Canadian customers, though UK shoppers already have access to the Fire and Fire HD.

Kobo, which was acquired by Japanese e-commerce mega-company Rakuten in 2011, is doing a good job of finding success in markets where Amazon has limited or no reach, and is seeking out additional partnerships like the one it has with WH Smith via new office openings this year in Dublin and Luxemberg, according to Publisher’s Weekly. The company also boasted a 50 percent market share of France’s e-book market, the company shared back in April. Addressing gaps in the global market is a great strategy for a relative upstart like Kobo when going against someone with the U.S. e-reader market dominance that Amazon enjoys.