Borders Books announces e-reader with apps for iPhone, OS X and the iPad

I bought one a week ago here in Winnipeg. I'm pretty happy with it.

I was debating between waiting for an iPad or getting a Kobo.

Get an e-reader for reading? Or get an iPad because it can do that and more?

I went with the Kobo because I've already got an iPhone for connectivity and I just wanted something to read with.

A large factor for me was the low cost. I'm pretty rough on my gadgets. I've tried being careful, using protective cases and worrying about every scratch. That's too stressful of a way to live for me. Anyways, I'd rather accidentally sit on a $150 Kobo than a $500 iPad.

And yeah, if later on I do want an iPad I can still read books I've already bought in the Kobo app.

Although both iPad and e-reader still have one major problem. How can I display my e-books on a shelf so I can try to impress people with how "smart" I am?

L.M.

Actually, I use the Kobo App quite a lot. I buy a book, and can read it on my iPod touch, take it offline if I want. At the same time, I can get download a copy of the book to my desktop that is in ePub format (with Adobe ADEPT DRM), and it goes directly into my Sony Reader Library, no hassles. Now I can read the book most of the time on my Sony PRS 505 (and not turn my eyeballs into scorched Earth), and have it in my iPod for when I don't feel like lugging around the Sony Reader. Kobo keeps a record of what books I have bought, and let's me read them on the device of my choice: That's awesome (i.e. that's exactly the way it should be). No you cannot as of yet upload books to your online Kobo library that you have bought from other stores (that would really be the icing on the cake!), but as another forum poster mentioned, at least they do not tie their books down to a specific device. Why can't more online bookstores realize that that actually increases the size of their markets. I mean come on, its the same darn text, whether you read the latest Clive Clustler novel on an iPad, a Sony, or a Kindle. Its not like you have to redesign the book for each platform in the same extreme that you would have to actual pieces of software or games or something. Ebooks are just enhanced text files! Moving them from device to device really should not be that hard. Kobo's way of doing things proves this, and though their App is not perfect, falling a close third for me behind the Stanza and Kindle Apps, it could be a lot worse, and definitely get's the job done. I have also seen them make some helpful updates, and I am sure they would appreciate helpful feedback. Anyway, it is just great to have an option that doesn't force me to either invest another $300 in the next greatest text file displayer, or do anything (technically) illegal, like stripping DRM, though believe me until we have standards for the format and DRM of ebooks, that continues to seem an attractive option. However, believe me the last thing I would want to do is make publishers and authors scared that they will not be able to manage the distribution of their IPs, and consequently avoid publishing electronically entirely.

And so I just want to say thank you Kobo: thank you for giving us a glimpse of things as they should be. I sincerely hope you are the trend setter, as far as the online distribution of eBooks is concerned.

As far as the reader: maybe some people don't want to have to pony up for another minicomputer, when all they want is to bring the entire works of Shakespeare, Tolkein, and Patterson with them wherever they go, and still be able to travel light :-)

Borders in the UK went under just before Christmas so it wont be sold here but who cares iPad coming May 28th yipeee!

I played with a Kobo reader at an Indigo store in Toronto (Kobo is owned by Indigo) and wasn't particularly impressed. The screen works just like any other eInk display of course, but I found the 5-way navigation not very intuitive -- what you got with up/down, left/right and clicking didn't always make immediate sense. Of course, I kept expecting touchscreen to work too, so maybe I'm mentally biased.

Reader apps everywhere. That's a good approach.

When the Kobo reader fails, people will still be able to access their eBooks.