Hasta La Gadget!

Mom always said never to judge a book by its cover, and in this case, not to judge the e-book reader’s performance via its size. After all, haven’t you heard of the saying that it is not the size of the dog that matters, but the fight in the dog instead? The Kobo Mini might depict a rather tiny form factor, but make no mistake about it – it is a big deal! Retailing for $79.99 a pop, the Kobo Mini has been dubbed as the “world’s smallest and lightest full-featured eReader.”

There was no mention about it being the most powerful eReader in its class, but still, for something that measures a mere 5″, you can easily slip all 134 grams of this eReader into your pocket as though it was a phablet, and bring along thousands of your favorite tomes in electronic format around. Sporting an E Ink display that is surely easy on your eyes, the Kobo Mini will carry all the familiar features that Kobo customers have come to know and love, ranging from internal memory that can hold up to 1,000 eBooks thanks to 2GB of internal memory, an unmatched E Ink touch screen display, one month battery life, and customizable font options amongst others. You are able to choose from a trio of colorful SnapBacks (Teal, Ruby Red, and Purple colors) just to get started. [Press Release]

By Ubergizmo. Related articles: Kobo Arc Android-powered eReader, Samsung to discontinue Kobo e-books, favors own service instead,

The big September reveal-a-thon is set to continue tomorrow with some new product announcements courtesy of Amazon, but a rival player in the e-book space is trying to capture some thunder of its own prior to Amazon’s big show. Rakuten-owned Kobo has just officially unveiled a slew of new e-readers (plus an Android tablet, naturally) in an attempt to cement its place as a serious competitor despite its persisting status as an underdog.

First up is the $79 Kobo Mini, which sports a 5-inch E-Ink touch display along with 2GB of internal storage (sorry folks, no expandable memory here), WiFi, and Kobo’s now-standard social reading features. The next step up from there is the $129 Kobo Glo, a slightly bigger device that totes the same WiFi radio and internal storage (plus a microSD card slot), and pairs them with a 6-inch ComfortLight touch display running at 1024 x 768. Both devices seem decent enough for the price — its worth noting that the lineup bears more than a passing resemblance to Barnes & Noble’s Nook lineup though — and Kobo’s vivid color options for the two devices should help them literally stand out in a crowd.

Of course, Kobo just couldn’t help but throw its hat into the low-cost tablet space (again) with the Ice Cream Sandwich-powered Kobo Arc. You can’t blame them for taking a another swing at concept when you consider how underwhelming Kobo’s previous Vox tablet was, but this particular segment is seeing plenty of action from more established players. That said, Kobo’s Arc has a few tricks up its sleeve — in addition to just recommending books based on personal tastes for instance, the device’s Tapestries feature surfaces allows users to “pin” content like books from the Kobo library, Wiki pages, images, and YouTube videos. In addition to acting as a centralized hub for all that media, the Arc also uses all of that information to recommend new content based on user interests.

It certainly doesn’t hurt to have a half-decent spec sheet either, and the Arc doesn’t seem too shabby — it packs a 1.5GHz dual-core TI OMAP 4470 processor, 1GB of RAM, a 7-inch IPS display running at 1280 x 800, and 1.3-megapixel front-facing camera for all those late night video calls. The Arc will be available in both 8GB ($199) and 16GB ($249) variations, though its tough to say how much of a chance either model will have with a new Kindle Fire right around the corner, but hey — there’s no such thing as too much competition, right?

Correction: The headline originally stated that the Kobo Mini cost $99, but it actually costs $79 (as noted in the body of the post). This was because I am an utter dope–my apologies.

The e-book vs. real-book debate is very much a matter of opinion, so it’s only fitting that the two learn to get along. Kobo and the American Booksellers Association seem to think so too, which is why they are teaming up to bring the Kobo’s devices, accessories and virtual shelves to independent bookstores across America. Around 2,000 indie retailers are included in the plan, with the first 400 expected to get tooled and trained this fall. Although the stores will take a cut of Kobo’s sales, we can’t see any long-term benefits for them, but what do you make of the increasing physical presence of e-readers? Is it a move towards peaceful co-existence, or a case of “keep my enemy closer”?

Continue reading Kobo and American Booksellers Association bringing e-wares to indie bookstores

Kobo and American Booksellers Association bringing e-wares to indie bookstores originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 31 Aug 2012 01:55:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kobo’s Android app recently enjoyed a brief stint of global superiority, but that playing field has been leveled with the company’s latest update for iOS. Like the Android version, Kobo for iOS now includes support for Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish. Additionally, users will also find support for e-books encumbered with Adobe DRM. Lastly, Kobo for iOS now lets users choose which books to store locally on their device, and it also fixes a bug that’d prevented e-books from being opened — nice to get that one squared away.

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Kobo app for iOS goes international with support for Dutch, French, German, Italian and Spanish originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 16 Aug 2012 03:21:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Kobo’s clearly been focused on important stuff like being bought by Rakuten and launching in Japan as of late, but the e-reader manufacturer’s got a few bits to announce this week. At the top of the list is a software upgrade for its neglected Touch eReader, which brings a new wish list feature, so you can set aside titles for future purchase. A newly redesigned home screen promises to streamline things a bit and the Bookshelf feature has gotten a bit more customizable, letting you organize selections by genre, author and interest. The Kobo Desktop app, meanwhile, has gotten some tweaks to its profile quiz, to better help the company recommend books to suit your taste.

The company also announced that it’ll be bringing the Touch eReader to Italy, courtesy of the Mondadori Group. At launch, 30,000 titles will be available in Italian. Italian e-reading enthusiasts will be able to snap up the Nook / Kindle competitor for €99 in the fall.

Kobo updates Touch eReader software and Desktop app, heads to Italy this fall originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 11 Jul 2012 21:53:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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