The Kobo Aura is the fifth generation of E-book readers designed and marketed by Kobo Inc. Revealed August 27, 2013 at Kobo's Beyond the Book Event in New York City, along with three new Kobo Arc devices. Available for pre-order on the same day, it costs $ 149.99 USD/CAD.
Video Kobo Aura
Hardware
Kobo Aura displays some improvements to its predecessor, Kobo Glo. The screen is now a flat plastic panel, displaying an infinitely borderless 'edge to edge' screen found in its predecessor. It uses Regal E Dean wave technology along with Pearl HD, eliminating the need for an unprecedented black refresh screen every few pages. The touch screen, now based on capacitive touch, is more responsive than the infrared touch that existed in the previous product and allows the use of multitouch. This can be used to control device-mounted headlamps, as well as pinch-to-zoom when reading PDF documents.
Kobo Aura also features a redesigned body. Shorter and more square than its competitors, Kindle Paperwhite and the Glowlight Nook, it's designed to be easier to grasp. The back has a design similar to the Kobo Aura HD, with a corner design that reminds the wrinkled book pages. Kobo Aura is delivered in 2 colors: black and pink.
Kobo also sells accessories to Kobo Aura called "Sleepcover", a case that will wake Kobo Aura from sleep when opened and put Aura to sleep when closed. This casing uses magnets, similar to Apple's Smart Cover.
Kobo claims the battery will last for more than 2 months with 30 minutes of reading a day, ComfortLight turned on or off, and Wi-Fi is turned off.
Maps Kobo Aura
Software
Kobo Aura runs on Kobo Firmware, based on the Linux kernel. The software is available in 8 languages ​​and 2 variants: English, French, Canadian French, Japanese, German, Dutch, Italian, Spanish, Portuguese, and Brazilian Portuguese.
The home screen displays tiles that are automatically updated based on user actions. Tiles can appear for books, newspapers, magazines, store categories, or games that users have recently read, browsed or played. The main screen is called "Reading Life".
The main app, digital reader, supports various ebook formats: ePub, PDF, Adobe DRM, RTF, HTML, TXT, Comic Book Files, JPEG, PNG, BMP, GIF, and TIFF Archive files. By flicking or tapping on the side of the screen, the user can advance to the next page or previous page. Highlighting, adding notes, and finding definitions in the built-in dictionary are also possible by tapping a long section in any part of the book. With the introduction of Kobo Aura, Kobo introduced a new software feature called "Beyond the Book". Similar to Amazon's X-Ray feature, Beyond the Book allows users to find more information about parts of the book, providing similar topics, books and authors. Kobo Aura also provides statistics about reading progress: average reading time per session, total reading time, turn pages, and book percentage completion.
Adding a font is possible on Kobo Aura: By creating a directory called "font" and putting OTF or TTF fonts into this directory, users can use any font on Kobo Aura. Adjusting fonts is possible with a feature called TypeGenius: the user can change the weight, sharpness, and font size of the pre-installed font on Kobo.
Books can be viewed in list view or grid view in the user library. They can be organized by title, author, file size, file type, and when it was last opened. Users can also organize their books into collections.
Users can also download books through the use of Kobo Bookstore. Adding books to wish lists, buying books, and browsing through the library can be done on Kobo itself thanks to Wi-Fi chips. Once purchased, the book is stored in the cloud and can be downloaded at any time if the user has removed the book from their device. This feature is also possible to read locations, bookmarks, highlights, and notes to sync across multiple devices.
eBooks compatible with Kobo Aura can be borrowed from many public libraries, including the Ottawa Public Library and the Toronto Public Library. These books with DRM require authentication from Adobe to be readable on the device. Books can be added to devices with Kobo Desktop apps or third-party apps like Caliber.
Kobo Aura also includes integration with the pocket-read-it-later service. After a user logs in with their Pocket account, articles saved to Pocket can be read in Kobo Aura.
Seven apps are included with Kobo Aura: web browser, sudoku, chess (removed from the latest updates), Unblock, Word Scramble, Solitaire, and sketch. The web browser makes it possible to download files that can be read on the device. Kobo does not provide technical support for this app.
Reception
Reception to Kobo Aura mixed into positive. Reviews generally praise the quality of the manufacture and the hardware itself; they also appreciate the alternatives of Kindle and Nook. It was awarded with PTPA Seal of Approval.
Complaints include price ($ 20- $ 30 more than competitors), smaller ecosystems, and lack of audio.
References
Source of the article : Wikipedia
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