If you are looking for a budget ebook reader, Borders is the place to get one. They now have the original Kobo eReader on sale for just $59!

The original Kobo eReader has a 6″ E Ink screen, supports Adobe PDF and EPUB, has 1GB of internal storage, an SD card slot, Bluetooth, 2 week battery life, and it comes pre-loaded with 100 free classic ebooks.

Filed under: Kobo, Sales and Discounts | Tags: kobo ereader | 4 Comments »

The Kobo Wireless eReader is the 2nd generation device from Kobo and has just started hitting shelves in the US and Canada in time for the holiday season, and is expected to make it to Australia by Christmas too.

I was finally able to stop reading for long enough to finish up the Kobo WiFi Review. It includes a 10 minute video review, as usual, as well as a few photos, along with all the details about the new Kobo Wireless eReader.

Kobo is currently offering a month-long free trial for their digital version of the New York Times. So I decided to do a comparisons of it with the Kindle and Sony PRS-950′s NYT subscriptions and will post those comparisons later this week, along with direct comparisons of the Kobo WiFi up against the Kindle WiFi and Nook WiFi to see how it stacks up against them. Check back in a few days for those.

Filed under: Kobo, Reviews | Tags: kobo ereader, kobo wifi | 8 Comments »

After being up for pre-order for about 3 weeks, the new Kobo WiFi eReader is now shipping to the United States and Canada.

The Kobo WiFi is Kobo’s second generation ereader. It looks a lot like the old model, but comes with WiFi for a direct connection to ebook shopping from the Kobo ebook store.

Aside from wireless, the Kobo WiFi has a new processor for faster page-turning, a newer screen that supports twice as many levels of gray, software upgrades, and improved battery life of about 10,000 page-flips per charge with the wireless turned off.

Selling for $139, the Kobo WiFi comes in three color varieties: onyx, white with a lilac back, and white with a silver back.

Features List

• 6-inch E Ink Vizplex screen
• WiFi connects to Kobo ebook store
• 1GB of internal memory, SD card slot for cards up to 32GB
• Supported formats: ePub and PDF (Adobe DRM)
• 5 font sizes
• 2 font types: serif and sans serif
• Built-in dictionary
• Dimensions: 184 x 120 x 10mm
• Weight: 221 grams
• Comes with 100 free classic ebooks

The Kobo WiFi sells from the Kobo eReader website and Borders in the US, as well as Walmart and Indigo Books in Canada.

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Kobo announced this morning on their blog that they are now taking pre-orders for a new updated Kobo eReader with WiFi.

The new Kobo eReader looks identical to the last, with the exception that there are now three color varieties, onyx, and white with a silver or lilac back.

Aside from the WiFi, the new Kobo eReader comes with some hardware upgrades to make performance faster, battery life longer, and adds a new Vizplex screen with support for 16 shades of gray instead of the previous model’s 8.

The device is selling for $139 from Borders and Kobo in the US and $149 from Chapters in Canada. The Borders website says it will be available on 11/1, while the Kobo press release just says that they will start shipping in October.

Given that the Kindle WiFi sells for $139 and the Nook WiFi sells for $149, it’s good to see Kobo remains competitive with their pricing structure, but the fact remains that it doesn’t come close to either of those ereaders in terms of feature set.

But it does have its own advantages. The Nook isn’t easily available outside the US and the Kindle doesn’t support Adobe EPUB and PDF like the Kobo, so that gives it its own unique market.

For those that pre-order now, the new ereader comes with 2 free ebooks. Here’s the quote from the press release:

To celebrate the launch of the new Kobo Wireless eReader, Kobo has partnered with Random House of Canada and is pleased to offer two FREE eBooks to customers who pre-order the new eReader exclusively through Kobobooks.com or at Indigo Books & Music in Canada. The titles include International bestselling author Linwood Barclay’s critically acclaimed novel FEAR THE WORST which delivers readers a fast-paced suspense story, while WHEN MY WORLD WAS VERY SMALL by Ruth Rakoff provides an intimate , one-of-a-kind memoir of family, food, cancer and recovery. Together these titles provide customers with an additional value of $34.00.

Filed under: Kobo, New eBook Readers, News | Tags: kobo ereader | 1 Comment »

In a much anticipated move, Borders has lowered the price of the Kobo Reader down to $129, cutting $20 off the price so that it is now $10 cheaper than the Kindle 3 WiFi.

Borders also cut the price of the Aluratek Libre by $20, making it just $99. These new prices will go into effect tomorrow, September 1st.

If you want to get one these devices from a retail store, make sure to call ahead first. It seems that some Borders stores are anti-ereader and refuse to make any effort toward selling ebook readers, at least where I live. I gave up trying to find a Kobo Reader to review. Funny story, the last time I went to Borders I honestly overhead one of the employees say something along the lines of, “Damn ereaders are going to put us out of business”. I guess that explained why they didn’t have any on display.

In addition to the Kobo and Libre, Borders sells Sony Readers too. And they just started offering the Velocity Micro Cruz Tablet and Cruz Reader for pre-order, as reported on last week.

In other Borders’ news, they just announced that they will start a new Rewards loyalty program starting September 1st. Here’s the key information from the press release:

Consumers can now choose from two forms of Rewards — a free, enhanced Rewards program, or the new “Borders Rewards Plus” program, which for $20 per year delivers savings on nearly all Borders merchandise, and free shipping on virtually all online orders. Borders is the only major bookseller to provide consumers with a choice of loyalty programs.

To celebrate, members can earn “Borders Bucks” twice as fast beginning tomorrow though Sept. 6. Typically, members earn $5 in Borders Bucks for every $150 they spend annually, but during this period, Borders will double the spend to bring the member closer to the $150 threshold faster. For example, if a member spends $50, Borders will double that amount bringing the total spend to $100. If a member spends $75, Borders will double that amount bringing the total spend to $150, resulting in the member receiving $5 in Bucks.

Filed under: Kobo, News, Sales and Discounts | Tags: borders, ereader, kobo ereader | 3 Comments »

Kobo announced on their blog this morning that the first phase of upgrades for Canadian Kobo Reader owners has gone well so far, and that the update will automatically be rolling out this week for everyone else in the US, Australia, and New Zealand.

If you own a Kobo eReader, at some point during the week you’ll be notified of a new version of the Kobo desktop application when you plug the reader into your computer. After installing the new desktop software, a wizard will pop up announcing the firmware v1.4 upgrade and will guide you through the process.

Some things to note about updating the Kobo’s firmware: you’ll need a paperclip to reset the Kobo Reader during the update; for Adobe Digital Editions users, you’ll have to re-authorize the Kobo Reader after the update is finished; and Windows users will be prompted to install new drivers that are required for the upgrade. More details can be found on Kobo’s blog.

Additionally, the Product Manager of Kobo posted an explanation of the new firmware features for the Kobo Reader over at Mobileread if you are interested in knowing why Kobo chose to add the new new sleep and power off functions that are rankling some Kobo eReader owners.

Here’s a snippet:

One of the things that’s very important to us is that your Kobo lasts as long as it possibly can. In discussions with our hardware team, we’ve discovered that anything longer than the options we’ve set would impact the lifetime of your battery. If we had longer settings, we would have to replace the battery well before the normal lifespan of your Kobo is up. That’s the last thing we want to do – we want you to enjoy using your Kobo as long as possible.

The one thing I will commit to doing is trying to speed up the ‘Boot from Off’ time. Our development team thinks are opportunities for big improvements there, and I think that’s the real concern here, and less about the sleep time.

Filed under: Kobo, News | Tags: firmware update, kobo ereader | 1 Comment »

The Kobo Reader, the once most cost-effective option for a 6-inch ebook reader (the Nook Wi-Fi now holds that title), just got its first firmware update to improve some of the initial problems with EPUB font sizing and power management.

Kobo will be releasing the update over the next 2 weeks to different countries where the Kobo eReader is sold, starting the week of July 5th in Canada. There are two different ways to do the update. One is to download a new version of the Kobo Desktop application and let the install wizard walk you through the steps.

Or, if you live in Canada and bought the Kobo Reader from an Indigo, Chapters, or Coles store, you can take it to the store you got it from starting July 5th and have the staff update the device using an SD card to do the update. This option requires that you re-sync your ebooks after the update process.

These in-store options for the update in other countries will be announced within the next week for Borders (US), Borders Australia, Angus & Robertson, and Whitcoulls.

If you are the impatient sort, you can sign up via the link on Kobo’s Blog to get early access to the update now.

Some Features of the Kobo Firmware Update

The update fixes problems the Kobo Reader had with re-sizing fonts in EPUB ebooks not from Kobo Books. Now the Kobo can re-size fonts for all EPUB ebooks no matter where they were downloaded from.

Kobo added some power-saving features to help increase battery life. The Kobo now enters sleep mode after 15 minutes of non-use and then turns off completely after 30 minutes. Early reports from Kobo Reader owners is that this is annoying because the device has to power up each time it turns off, which takes about 30-45 seconds.

The update now allows users the option to show or hide the preloaded free classics, and fixes a number of other miscellaneous bugs.

Visit the Kobo Blog for more information about the new update and how to install it.

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Not to be left out of the price-cutting ebook reader hype and media frenzy, Borders issued a press release today announcing that they will be bundling the new Kobo eReader with a $20 Borders gift card and double Borders Bucks.

The Kobo eReader sells exclusively from Borders.com in the United States for $149. It is currently up for pre-order for a July 2nd shipment, as the initial orders for the June 17th release have sold out.

This coincides with yesterday’s release of the new Borders iPad and iPhone apps, as well the PC and Mac apps, of which they (and everyone else) aren’t publicizing for some reason.

In addition to the Kobo device, Borders already sells the Sony Pocket and Sony Touch. It’ll be interesting to see how Borders will work that out since their new software and ebook store is powered by Kobo’s software, which isn’t directly compatible with Sony Readers, although the books are.

Borders will also start carrying the Aluratek Libre on July 20th, 2010. They currently have it up for pre-order for $119. This is totally weird because the Libre is in stock and selling from a number of online retailers and has been for several months.

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Kobo just released their new app for Android, adding to the other smartphone apps for Blackberry, iPhone, and Palm Pre.

If you have already have a Kobo account you can simply login with the new Android application and read or download any ebook that you have already purchased. If not, it’s easy to sign up and then start downloading ebooks right away, even freebies.

Reading on the Kobo Android app is similar to the other Kobo apps. With a book open, you tap on the right side of the screen to turn pages forward and the left to go back. Tapping in the center of the screen will bring up a menu with the chapter, title, page, and percentage read in the ebook. There’s also a slide bar for jumping to a page at the bottom of the screen.

There are 5 font sizes and three font types, serif, sans-serif, and monospace. And there’s a night reading mode with white text on a black background.

The Kobo Android app automatically syncs your ebooks and bookmarks across all platforms with Kobo software installed, so your ebook is always where you left off no matter the device you are reading on.

The Android app is free for download from the Android marketplace.

Here’s a look at the Kobo Android app in action.

In other Kobo News, Kobo CEO Mike Serbinis posted an article on Kobo’s blog that mentioned they are working on a software upgrade for the Kobo eReader that will be released on the week of June 28th.

The update will address some of the issues with the reader like EPUB font scaling, installation issues for the desktop program, and battery draining problems.

They are also adding a new sleep mode for the reader that puts it to sleep after 5 minutes of inactivity, along an option to hide the 100 free ebooks.

And lastly, Kobo has a program that you can sign up for to test beta versions of their apps and offer feedback. Here’s the form to sign up for the Kobo beta program.

Filed under: Android, Kobo | Tags: kobo books, kobo ereader | No Comments »

Australia

Kobo announced on their blog this week that Borders Australia will sell the Kobo eReader and launch an ebook store powered by Kobo that will include ebooks from Australian authors and publishers, among the 2 million titles Kobo boasts as their selection.

The blog speaks in the future tense but it appears that the Kobo eReader is currently for sale from Borders Australia for $199, and the ebook store is up and running , which also works with Kobo’s free software applications for smartphones, PC, Macs, and the Apple iPad.

Canada

Kobo also mentioned on their blog that the Kobo eReader now sells from Indigo, Chapters, select Coles stores, and now Walmart too. It sells for $149 in Canada.

The Kobo reader comes pre-installed with 100 free classic ebooks and the Walmart versions supposedly comes with 4 free Harlequin novels. There’s no mention on what titles.

US

Nothing new to report on the Kobo US release. It’s available for pre-order form Borders.com for $149, who will soon be launching there own ebook store powered by Kobo. The reader is expected to be released on June 17th in the US.

Walmart.com doesn’t currently have it listed, but I imagine they will sell from Walmart in the US if they do in Canada.

Here’s the Kobo eReader page if you want to read more about it specs and features and watch a video demo.

Filed under: Kobo | Tags: australia, borders, canada, kobo books, kobo ereader, walmart | 1 Comment »