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Kobo Books Adds New Gestures In Latest Update, Has A Cleaner Design

Posted by Andrew Stevens on June 13th, 2013
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

Kobo released a new update to its app, Kobo Books, adding new reading gestures that allow users to pinch the screen to re-size text and swipe with two fingers to adjust the brightness. Users can also more quickly flip through pages and chapters with its Quick Flip feature. There is also a new cleaner design of the navigation menu. It's a big, bright, and clean update! (or small, dark, and...clean)

NOOK, Kindle and Google Books Back on the App Store

Posted by Rob LeFebvre on July 26th, 2011

Worried about losing those eBooks from the iPad, due to Apple's insistence on a 30% cut from all items sold as in-app purchases? Well, fear no longer, as all four big eBook apps have it covered, according to John Biggs at TechCrunch. NOOK, Kindle, Kobo and Google Reader have all been updated this past weekend to remove in-app sales buttons. This allows the booksellers to avoid paying Apple the 30% commission, and may or may not confuse readers who use the apps to buy eBooks.

NOOK: "You can read any NOOK Book you have purchased on this updated NOOK for iPhone app, however the Shop link has been removed so to buy NOOK Books from your iPhone, open your Safari browser and go to nookbooks.com. "

Kindle: "This update removes the Kindle Store button from the app."

Kobo: "We have removed the Kobo Store from within the application. You can continue to shop at our website."

Google Reader: No app store description, but the sales links are gone from the app.

In a nutshell, all this means is that folks who relied on buying books via the in-app purchase option in these eBook apps will now need to either use their dedicated device to purchase books, or head to their favorite web site to buy. Not too horrible, right? Time will tell, of course.

We did, however, note that NOOK for iPad is not yet updated in the app store, leaving only NOOK Kids in the Apple tablet space, until a promised update occurs soon, according to a Barnes and Noble press release sent out yesterday. The update will also include "access" to over 175 periodicals, bringing the app into parity with the dedicated NOOK Color reading device. Kobo, Kindle, and Google Books continue to be found in the iPad section of the App Store.




Kobo Gains Instapaper Support

Posted by Chris Hall on December 28th, 2010
+ Universal App - Designed for iPhone and iPad

It's hard to keep up with the multitude of e-readers on the market these days. With the public eye squarely on Amazon and Apple's own book system, the smaller players are doing their best to keep up with the Jones'. Obviously these companies are going to have a hard time beating out the downloadable content of Amazon, but Kobo aims at getting people to use their app to help them read the web.

With an e-reader of their own on sale for $149, Kobo isn't exactly the smallest of the Amazon challengers. Their app seems to be doing fairly well, and has some cool features that are unique to the platform, such as its innovative social reading platform. Called "Reading Life," iPad users can now view statistics about their user preferences and even earn achievements for their reading prowess.

The newest feature in their standard app is its integration with Instapaper, which allows users to read long form web text, save text for later viewing, and allows users to sync their Instapaper text instantly to their other iOS devices.

“People are constantly discovering a wide variety of great information on the web, but they don’t always have the time to read everything that they come across,” said Mike Serbinis, Kobo CEO. “With Kobo’s integration with Instapaper, readers can clip, save, and read this content anytime, anyplace they choose using the Kobo eReading application for iPad, iPhone or iPod Touch.”

Kobo currently has over 2.2 million e-books in its library, from free classics to New York Times bestsellers, and has a subscription plan that offers acces to many of the most popular newspapers and magazines. Their system is all cloud based and uses open standards, so choosing Kobo allows users to build their libraries without getting stuck on a particular platform. The app is free too, so give it a try. You may just like it.

Kobo Launching New Magazine and Newspaper eReader Service

Posted by Brad Hilderbrand on November 1st, 2010

If you prefer the shiny screen of an iPhone or iPad to the rough texture of a newspaper or glossy pages of a magazine then you're in luck, as Kobo has announced it is expanding its eReader service to include dozens of US and Canadian periodicals. Those who download the free app are granted a two-week subscription to try out the service. If you like what you see, then you can choose to buy a monthly subscription for your chosen newspapers or magazines.

“Kobo continues to build on our commitment of making sure that consumers have the best reading experience on any device with the largest selection of content worldwide, ” said Michael Serbinis, CEO of Kobo. “We’ve had tremendous success with eBooks and we’re very excited to expand the Kobo offering to include newspapers and magazines with a two-week free trial, allowing consumers to try first without any obligation. We continue to bring on top publishers to ensure that Kobo’s newspaper and magazine offering meets our customers’ highest expectations.”

The company has a solid lineup of periodicals available, though the selection is far from exhaustive. Newspapers include the New York Post and New York Times, and the National Review and Harvard Business Review can be found in the magazine section. For the full list head on over to Kobo's website and see if anything tickles your fancy. Subscription rates vary, but usually range from around $2 a month for magazines to $15 a month for a daily paper.

While this is definitely a viable option for folks wanting to use their iOS device as an eReader, it's also important to shop around and compare prices. The New York Times and Post already offer iPad subscriptions directly, so it's really a matter of deciding which service is best for you. Still, now you have yet another choice and Kobo will group all your subscriptions into one convenient location, so it's definitely something to consider.