We've seen so many e-book readers of late that it's difficult to get excited about another, but Kobo's angle here might just make the Kobo eReader worth a look. Kobo's game is ecosystem, and in fact it doesn't plan on making a big splash in the actual e-reader market, since it's primarily about building branded software and delivering branded e-book stores for others, including manufacturers (like
Plastic Logic), and booksellers (
like Borders). Still, the 6-inch E Ink reader is fine hardware in its own right, with quality plastics throughout, a nice patterned rubber back, and a big friendly d-pad for paging through books. The device is actually laid out to mitigate accidental button presses -- even the menu buttons labelled on the front are actually located on the side of the device. As far as software and capabilities, the device is utterly barebones, but at least it keeps its aesthetics throughout, and everything seems responsive and intuitive. There's no 3G onboard (you sync your e-pub titles with a desktop app over USB), no specific word on storage (our guess is in the 1GB to 4GB range), and there don't seem to be any other activities available to reading books. Hopefully you're into that sort of thing, and Kobo at least pre-loaded 100 public domain titles to get you started. The unit will be sold at Borders this summer for $149, preceded by Indigo Books & Music in Canada in May.
Meanwhile, Kobo isn't neglecting its devices strategy. It already has BlackBerry, iPhone, Android, Mac, and PC (and some others we're likely forgetting), but it's also showing an iPad app that looks all ready to go. There aren't many details about it, but like all things Kobo it looks pretty single purpose and slick -- check out the screenshots below.
Editor's note: due to the horrible lighting conditions at the CTIA event we were attending, we had to photograph the device under the warm lights of a meat-cutting station, hence the incongruous backdrop of these hands-on photos.
posted March 24th 2010 1:26PM
You guys need faster lenses. Or bump up your ISO. :)
@harhar I dunno, I like having meat with my articles.
Honestly, how often does meat work its way into Engadget's photos?
@PaladinX13
lol is it jus me or did the meat make this thing lool a bazillion times better.
Anyway i dont read much but at around 150$ im tempted, just need to see how it stacks up against sony's like-priced reader.
@harhar Or maybe buy a flash? I dunno, call me crazy....
@harhar
Flash would cast too harsh of a light, making photos crappy with glare? (Maybe use a diffuser or something...?)
No flash photography allowed there? (Bump up ISO? Generally max. 800-1600 for a half-decent DSLR, 400 or less for cheap P&S cams. You can usually get motionblur-free shots at 1/30 sec. or faster if you stand relatively still...)
Or is the lighting really that bad at CTIA?
Maybe I shouldn't be nitpicking on Engadget editors... >_>
@harhar The way I see it, I don't need the massive amount of features they cram into devices like the Kindle. When I go read a book, Id rather not be distracted by the fact I can go look at random things - When its time for reading, it is time for reading.
Well at least we have some alternatives, don't we? Reactions: http://bit.ly/kobo-reader-verdict
lol at the huge blue button. Cheap but Kindle is better
@kyphem
yeah, the colour of the button is a turn off. it could have been something dark to give it the professional look instead of the fisherprice look.
all the same, it DOES look like nice hardware.
and the backdrops for this photo shoot are disgusting. dead rotting animals to stuff in your stomach . . . ewwwww. be healthy, go vegetarian!
@bolezhinkov - Kindle may be better but cheap is always good. This looks like a solid box. The main drawback is no Wispernet-like service, but imagine this for $89 in a blister pack right by the Borders check-out line. Given typical price erosion, that's about where it will be by Christmas. Add WiFi for $10 more, and it will sell quite nicely.
I'll stick with my nook.
Nice - a good step further towards the magical 99€ mark...
All I want *is* a cheap, no-frills ebook reader, and this one seems almost perfect, especially if Kobo can offer a nice book store to go with it.
I guess I totally missed the part that made this worth a second look?
@scots79
You missed the price?
No one reads books anymore!
@who said what
You're right, they just read iPads.
When they go sub-$100 I'll consider one.
@Camtaco
Give it two years tops. Although I'd estimate it might even get there by this time next year.
Yup, you're likely forgetting. . . . .WebOS!
No 3G? Thank God! I'm not sure why manufacturers waste our money on those components anyway. As long as they pass on the savings, I'm more than happy to load books over wifi.
good ad for cooking recepies.
All of these e-readers seem like a waste of time. It looks to me like the only ones anyone will actually buy are the Kindle, Nook, or iPad.
I think all of these "also-ran" e-readers will never catch on.
@PastorTom
Which was Steve Jobs' whole point...when he said people don't read enough books to justify a piece of hardware that only does one thing..
I think I just found a Christmas present for my granddaughter!
Anyone else hungry now?
Per http://www.koboereader.com here are some more specs. It connect with USB and Bluetooth, and the formats that it will support are ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM. That's enough almost to make me sell me sell my Ectaco Jetbook because it can't do DRM. I'm waiting for a few review.
Wow nice, $50 to go till that magic price.
The way I see it, I don't need the massive amount of features they cram into devices like the Kindle. When I go read a book, Id rather not be distracted by the fact I can go look at random things - When its time for reading, it is time for reading.
I'm happy to load books from my laptop - I buy them in the format that I choose and will convert them as necessary. If no wifi and no 3G will keep prices down, this is a good choice. I just want to read books and PDF articles on an ereader.
If the page refresh rate is good, and the price drops 50 bucks, I'll take 4.
AC
The CyBook Opus is within this price range. It only has a 5" screen but is much more pocketable. It also lets you load in whatever fonts you want, is open to accepting a ton of ebook formats (including DRMed versions). I have been carrying one around for weeks and have been very pleased with it. Sure it doesn't have 3D or annotations or bookmarks, but it does have a MicroSD card, crazy amounts of font sizes, accelerometer rotation and is incredibly portable and light weight (the reader actually weighs less than the case it comes with)
I'm all over this. $150 is a decent price point and I've been loving the Kobobook.com (formerly Shortcovers.com) service since I discovered their application on my palm pre. Bought plenty of books through the service and love that I can read book on my palm pre, online via their website, or download an epub file to read on my laptop/computer to read there with Adobe Digital Editions. Definitely a service worth checking out http://kobobooks.com/. Also, their eReader specs can be found here: http://koboereader.com/tech-specs.html
One of the neat things I read on their site was that you could transfer book purchase via Bluetooth as well. Apparently it also supports PDF reading as well.
This thing looks great if all you want is a decent eReader connected to an eBook service that offer tons of flexibility in terms of where you can read the content you purchase. I'm all over this once it's released.
Looking good, just $50 shy of the magic number. At $99 these things will start selling like DVD players.
If eReader are to become widely used, companies like Barns and Noble need to start giving some of them away for free... with a service contract, much like the cellphone industry. Most people already understand these types of contracts and will feel like they are embarking on a reading plan and not purchasing a device that will become obsolete in a couple of years. This way readers could bundle content and keep it simple. For example you could sign up for a 24 month plan where you pay $20 a month for the right to download one book a month and two magazines or one book and a subscription to a newspaper. This type of Sales model is proven to work well with cell phones I think it would work even better with eReaders.
Check out http://www.Libertynewspost.com
You lost me at plastic and rubber. Where's the love in those materials?
$149 ain't gonna sell me when SONY just dropped their Pocket Reader to $169.
All I want is an Ereader that lets me read books/documents in EPub, PDF or TXT format. I don't need a lot of features.
I don't purchase many books so it is important that I be able to check out ebooks from the public library.
If I can review large pdf or txt files that are work related that would be an added bonus.
Make it inexpensive and I'm there. Is this the device?
@BobbyJams Mostly minus the txt files I think and checking out books from the library.
Why are all these new e-book readers sticking to the 6" screen? Most of the print books on my shelf are around 8" -- to me that would be the ideal size. Not too small, not too large to carry around.
I sometimes wonder if the engineers who design these things have ever actually held a book (or even a competing e-reader). Buttons on the side? That's just plain awkward and would require lots of shifting of hands that are busy holding the book. You shouldn't have to move your hand at all to flip pages. That's the beauty of the e-reader. Hold device, click for next page.
Kindle 2 buttons are perfect, because you can keep your finger over them without pressing down. When it's time to press, simply press. No need to move hand(s). Personally, I'd like the Kindle buttons positioned a little higher on the device, but that's a preference. Side buttons, on the other hand (no pun intended) seem ergonomically misplaced.
Unfortunately, with so many readers, companies seem to be doing things different just to stand out instead of focusing on how a user will actually use the device.
I've been using their online eBook store for quite a whle here in Canada (Indigo links to it from their site). Works quite well with my Sony eReader.
Nice to see they are focusing on a budget model.
Is that ham in the background?
This is the right price point for an e-reader of this sort. What I think people don't understand is that the $259 price tag of the Kindle not only pays for the device and a lifetime of 3G, but all of your books including personal notes, highlights, and bookmarks backed up on Amazon's server.
It is pretty nice knowing in the midst of a digital revolution that my entire profile as a reader is backed up in real time. It helps with getting over not having physical content anymore.
Kindle is by far the best digital reading experience.
@Maroonfree - I think the Kindle wireless service is really paid for mostly out of book sales rather than any initial mark up on the purchase price, but it's all bean counting in the end.
The one thing that annoys me about Kobobooks online experience is that for customers in the US, they tack on an extra fee for "international transactions" since they are based in Canada. Not an exorbitant amount, but still annoying. On the plus side, the files can be loaded up to the nook and other e-readers, so it gives you a bit more choice of devices. I own a nook, and having bought books both from bn and from kobo, the ability to keep the files for different devices still makes kobo more appealing to me.
I wonder how much it'll cost up here.
"up here" being Canada.
@allengeorge $149 CAD!
http://www.koboereader.com/comparisons.html
Looks like the price they're advertising is what *we're* going to pay.
@carsonb
Wow - that's a first - I'm so used to things being priced in USD. Thanks for the info! I might just pick one of these up.
Personally, I'd love an e-book reader with a store that offers a subscription along the lines of the Zune model. An entire library of books for my device, that are readable for as long as I want, would be awesome. Give me the ability to side load in a bunch of my own book, in different formats and get a free book per month and you'd have nothing but win.
@da Black Anarch
You should really try your local library :)
I'm interested already! The ipad is just a giant ipod touch, and the kindle is too expensive and locked into Amazon's stupid DRM'd book scheme.
I'd love a cheap e-ink device for book reading, gameFAQs, etc.
I didn't see any mention of any sort of light though. It could use an LED book light of some sort built-in. Somehow they always miss that.