The default collection is 'Books' and simply shows all the books that are on your Arc 10HD, and you can organise these by title, author, or in order of when they were opened. These collections can be opened up to browse your own content. While it's nowhere near the level of skeumorphism that you used to find on the Apple bookshelf app, the stark nature of the columns with text rotated ninety degrees puts me in mind of a minimalist bookshelf. The home screen of the Arc 10HD is a three pane affair, with a desktop for shortcuts and widgets on the left hand screen, the central screen listing the new content on your device (with a few recommendations mixed into the timeline), and on the right hand screen you have your collections. Neither should it be a surprise that Kobo have put the software focus on reading. Once you start reading on the Kobo, you are not going to be interrupted by the hardware if you don't want to be. Bluetooth will be turned off, notifications can be hidden, sounds will not play, and you can decide if Wi-Fi should disconnect as well. Kobo's 'Reading Mode' will essentially hang a digital 'do not disturb' sign over the Android OS. Naturally the video player hides all the UI chrome and controls when playing back video, but it's in the book reading app where they have added an interesting feature. Keeping the consumption experience as clean as possible is one of the successful bits of design put in place by Kobo. The regular Android controls are shows on the capacitive screen as required, which means they can be tucked away out of sight when reading a book or watching a film. Apart from the Kobo logo and the front facing camera, Kobo have kept the front of the device smooth and unblemished. With sales of e-readers on the decline, Kobo’s move to try to bring the reading experience front and center on tablets is an interesting one, though it’s clear that for many fans of e-readers it’s the easy-on-the-eyes e-ink display which is the main attraction, possibly making the Aura device a more attractive proposition.Glass covers the front of the device, with the soft-touch coating on the back of the device reaching around to frame the screen. iOS and Android users with the Kobo Books app will also be able to access the store. The company also announced the September launch of a brand new digital magazine store with content from a range of high-profile publishers, Conde Nast, Hearst, and Bauer Publishing Group among them. However, with a potential 24,000 books on your device, you’ll likely spend more time trawling through them looking for one to read rather than actually doing any reading. This is a front-lit device, with a decent 212 dpi display, and sells with 4GB storage good for 3,000 books, though if that’s not enough for you (how can that not be enough?), you can whack it up to 32GB with a microSD card. Aura e-readerįinally we have the new Aura e-reader (right), a 6-inch device set to stores on September 16 for $150. The cheaper Kobo Arc 7 ($150) is being touted as the entry-level device, and comes with a more modest 1024 x 600 display, MTK 8125 1.2GHz quad-core processor and 1GB of RAM. Battery-wise you’re looking at eight hours. Arc 7HDĪs for the 7-inch Arc 7HD (above), under the hood you’ll find an NVIDIA Tegra 3 1.7GHz quad-core processor, 1GB of RAM, a 1.3-megapixel front-facing HD camera, and a 1920 x 1200 display. Used more as a tablet and you can expect around 9.5 hours. In reading mode only, the battery should last for as long as 10 days. The priciest slate among its new range is the Arc 10HD, which, as its name cleverly suggests, comes with a 10-inch high-definition display (2560 x 1600).Īn NVIDIA Tegra 4 1.8GHz quad-core processor, 2GB of RAM, 1.3-megapixel front-facing HD camera, and dual stereo speakers are also part of the package. Also, distractions in the form of endless notifications and messages will be automatically held back while the device is in Reading Mode, allowing the user to immerse themselves in their book without being disturbed. Here’s how to link upįor example, when you log in, you’ll be presented with a reading-focused screen (called the Reading Life interface) with all your material organized on virtual shelves. Kobo Forma e-book readers can now access Dropbox. There’s a huge sale on Kindle e-readers happening todayīarnes & Noble unveils budget e-book reader
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