Even as Barnes & Noble flounders with its Nook tablet business, Kobo is pushing forward with tablets of its own, geared—like the Nook—toward digital-book aficionados.
The new tablets are the Kobo Arc 7, Kobo Arc 7HD, and Kobo Arc 10HD. The Kobo Arc 7HD has a high-def screen with 323 pixels per inch, comparable to that of the new Google Nexus 7, and comes with either 16GB ($200) or 32GB ($250) of memory. The larger 10-inch model ($400) has a 300ppi display and 16GB of memory. The Kobo Arc 7 ($150) comes with 8GB and a microSD slot for upgrading memory. All three run Android 4.2.2 and have 16GB of memory.
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The tablets have a number of features geared toward e-reading. For example, when you open a magazine, it goes into reader mode, where you can read a complete story without having to swipe to turn any pages. If a story jumps pages ahead, you’re automatically taken there, and returned to where you were before once you finish. Kobo's new partnership with Pocket lets you move an article into a special folder for later reading.
Kobo also announced a new e-book reader, something of a surprise since the general consensus is that dedicated e-readers are a dying category. The Kobo Aura is a 6-inch e-ink reader with an edge-to-edge touch-screen display, front-lighting technology, and 4GB of memory. Shipping this month, it will retail for $150 and is currently available for preorder.
—Donna Tapellini
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