Finally a large Australian bookstore is getting behind the ebook format (and hopefully not just leaving it to die). An invite just landed in my inbox announcing the launch of Borders’ eBooks and eReader offering, which is “set to change the way we read in Australia forever”.
We already know that Borders was teaming up with Kobo, to move into the electronic book space, and that they were planning on bringing it to Australia. And while we have to wait for the launch on May 19 to get any proper details, we do know that Kobo has publicly announced their eReader device for $US150, a video of which you can see below.
It looks pretty good, but we’ll have to see just how well the pricing for both eBooks and the reader translates to for Australian customers.
Brad
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 3:00 PMLooks nice, but I just got an iPad today so less excited about an e-ink reader than I could be. Surely it’s all about the content here, not another device to buy. Kobo iPad/iPhone app? Mmmm…more interested.
David Culliford
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 3:07 PMfine, but for those of us with HTC WM6.5.x devices we already have it and just need to be able to access the local servers…
Conrad
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 3:10 PMIf only they could just license the Nook from B&N. Borders Nook… I wonder if there’s a good abbreviation of that they could use ;)
Red T-Rex
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 3:38 PMIt would be good if you could do a feature comparison to the Kindle and Nook after it’s release. My teenage daughter has been bugging me to order for her a Nook for a while now (she did the research and saved the money) but I was reluctant to import without having a play first and also worried about support issues. She is an avid reader and not interested in the other features the iPad offers which would be out of her price range anyway.
Are there any other ereader options in Aus?
Nick
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 3:48 PMhttp://www.kobobooks.com/retail_partners
It looks like they’re more interested in licensing it out to other retailers…
Am I correct in thinking that this thing supports Adobe’s ePub/PDF DRM? Could be handy since that’s what all the libraries are using.
TechTeam
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 5:12 PMDymocks stocks a selection of eReaders, view the current selection by clicking on the following link: http://www.dymocks.com.au/Emails/Website/ereaders/Dymocks_Selection_eReaders.pdf
The Joker
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 9:28 PMeInk + Uni text books = no go..!!
Louis
Thursday, May 6, 2010 at 11:52 PMWTF – What’s with the USB cables?! The KOBO ereader looks about a century behind the Kindle and iPad in terms of content delivery. My gut says that the market wont fall in love with this device. The real question is what content deals they have managed to strike and what content will be available to Aussies.
David Wyndham
Friday, May 7, 2010 at 8:41 AMI went and looked at one in Indigo here in Canada today. They explicitly designed it without 3G or Wifi to keep the cost down, and I must say it is quite a nice device. Feels well built, the screen isn’t quite as high contrast as the Kindle, but it’s still very good.
As for getting content onto the device, you can dump .pdf files onto it like a USB storage device, ePUB I think has to go through their software (Windows and OSX, sorry Linux users). The guy in the store didn’t know if the books through the Kobo store are DRM crippled, but I have sent Kobo an email because that is the only thing stopping me buying one at the moment.
Val
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 7:43 AMHelp! I’m in my 60s and fast becoming technology challenged. I want an ereader that enables me to just buy books from Australia wirelessly and read. Doesn’t have to do much else. I want to be able to buy any published book I want at a fair price. I don’t care about trying to pass on the book to someone else. I was going the Kindle way until I realised I could only buy from Amazon, therefore restricting choice and now I find I need a wide variety of formats (Epub, DRM etc). Help – what do I look at?
Val
Friday, May 28, 2010 at 7:44 AMForgot to ask – can I buy an ereader from overseas and have it work in Australia?