I got my hands on a Kobo Arc today! A co-worker bought one and wanted my help setting it up. She's a complete e-book newbie, and was persuaded to buy the Arc because she travels a lot, and wanted a device she could take with her for books, movies, light Web browsing and entertainment. The Kobo Arc is—in my opinion—a great little device for those needs, and it has something some of its competitors don't: a wide retail presence at every chain bookstore in Canada, and a comparatively bargain price, listing for $70 cheaper than the lowest-priced Google Nexus, which Indigo...

Everybody’s coming out with tablet gift buyers’ guides this time of year (including us in not too long). I thought it might be a good idea to come out with more of a thinking guide, something to suggest ideas for you to consider while you read those guides—a “buyers’ guide guide” if you will. These are the primary considerations I think a tablet buyer should be keeping in mind. 1) Walled garden or the open road? Many of the most popular tablets this year are locked up in someone’s walled garden. The iPad and iPad Mini are no-brainers...

There's a new e-reader in the house! I had been eying the Kobo Glo with some envy ever since it came out. It seemed like Amazon's readers kept getting thicker and chunkier-looking, while Kobo's kept getting smaller and cuter and faster. The glow light was what really sold me, though. I read in bed a lot, and was growing weary of the tiny iPod Touch screen—I wanted to take a book with me again! And even with the light on, it was too dark to bring my reader into bed. We have one power outlet, and it's not on my...

I learned an important lesson today about attracting readers who are new to e-devices: marketing matters. Case in point: A co-worker who came in this morning, and proudly told me she'd bought one of those "e-book things" over the weekend. Which one? The Kobo Arc! I guess that I, with my gadget-loving background, had forgotten that this was supposed to be the Arc's intended purpose. It looked, to me, like a somewhat cheaper version of the Nexus tablet, which I saw as more of a computer than a reader. But consider this newbie consumer's point of view: It's sold in the...

I first reviewed the Kobo Touch in mid-2011, and recently got my hands on one again. My Beloved is upgrading to an Android tablet, and offered me his Kobo for selling, trading, using, or whatever purpose I wished. Since the Touch has been upgraded to a firmware version that is almost the same as that of the new Glo, I decided to run the upgrade and test-drive it in preparation for perhaps getting the Glo over the holidays. 1. What Has Improved Since My Last Kobo Experience? In my earlier review, I had a number of complaints about the Kobo. I was...

Back in early October, I wrote about the coin jar my Beloved and I keep, which we cash in at the end of the year to buy ourselves a holiday present. Well, now the end of the year is approaching, and I have the fun task of deciding where to spend my share. He estimates we'll have $300—$400 each to spend on the gadgets of our choosing. Here's what my thoughts are about where to spend mine. (And by the way, I welcome your comments on any of my choices—or suggestions for stuff I haven't considered. And I'd love to hear what...

Paid Content's Laura Hazard Owen is currently in Germany for the Frankfurt Book Fair. Earlier this morning she filed a brief post about the changes Barnes & Noble and Kobo are experiencing as they continue moving their retail operations abroad. Apparently Michael Tamblyn, Kobo’s EVP of content sales and merchandising, had some interesting (and especially wise) tips to share with his audience: Partnering with local bookstore chains has been central to Kobo’s international strategy, he said. “The infrastructure of selling e-books is a global endeavor," he added, "but bookselling is fundamentally a local experience.” Here's another interesting tidbit about Kobo's international strategy; the following words...

I was at Indigo the other day while they were setting up the new Kobo readers and I got to play with both the Glo and the Mini. My overall verdict: I was impressed! I don't agree with all of the choices Kobo has made with their software, but they are more 'personal preference' things by now, as opposed to glaring bugs which need fixing. The Retail Advantage One thing I do have to give Kobo props for right off the bat is their employee training—their extensive retail presence (especially here in Canada, where they are branded with our major bookstore chain)...

Kobo Mini and Glo Shortage Strikes Canada (Good E-Reader) Kindle Paperwhite Sold Out Until November (GigaOM) I Love My Kindle but it Drives Me Crazy (Tech Drive) Ebook Publishing Platforms Are a Joke (Future Book) Kindle Daily Deal: For the King's Favor by Elizabeth Chadwick (&) Ashfall by Mike Mullin...

New Study Suggests eInk is Not Better for Your Eyes than LCD (The Digital Reader) Penguin Brings eBooks Back to Libraries with Distributor 3M (Paid Content) Judge Posner on Copyright: Restrictive Fair Use a Risk to Creativity (Michael Geist) Hands On Review of the Kobo Glo eReader (Good E-Reader) Kindle Daily Deal: Breakdown by Katherine Amt Hanna (&) Sheep in a Jeep by Nancy E. Shaw * * * ...

Kobo Touch vs Kobo Glo (Good E-Reader) More Mobile Devices Equals More News Consumption, Says Study (Paid Content) Educational Fair Dealing Shows Why Access Copyright has Little Value (Michael Geist) Why Restrictions on Fair Use Are Sometimes Important (Scholarly Kitchen) Kindle Daily Deal: What Happened to Sophie Wilder by Christopher Beha & Fracture by Megan Miranda ...

From Good E-Reader: Official Kobo Developers have told [Good E-Reader] today that they are discouraging people from updating to the latest firmware for the Kobo Touch. The new 2.1.1 firmware was leaked online and a number of users have installed it. There are various bugs with cover art and fonts in ebooks. If you have already installed the update via the Kobo Desktop Software or pushed via Wi-Fi, the build you have is safe. If you have sideloaded it using the USB cable, you might want to downgrade to the previous version....