History

One of the things that held me back from getting a tablet was the lack of a dedicated eBook store for Singapore. It also didn’t help that the variety of books in the iBook store is abysmal, to say the least.

I had my mind set on the iPad. Hey hey….I’m no fan boy. I could never understand why on Earth would anyone want to be known as the idiot who queued overnight for an Apple product. That’s just embarrassing.

However, as tablets go, really, the combination of usability, expandability, feel and experience, it can’t be beat. Set any tablet user that isn’t using an iPad up for interrogation and the only reason for not getting the iPad will almost always be “eerrr…coz I dunch like fruits”.

Too bad for them then.

Anyway.

So, I though, hey, isn’t there a Kindle app for the iPad? That’s it! I’m going to get mine now!

Imagine to my horror when I tried to download the app and got this message: “This App Is Not Available In Your Country”.

Bugger.

Of course, I use it for lots of other things, but reading was near the top of list, so while I thoroughly enjoyed the iPad, I was sorely dissappointed.

Until, an angel, in the form a a friend, told me about Kobo.

Kobo is a Canadian company that makes the minimalist Kobo eReader. That’s not what’s important to me. The important thing is here, finally, there is a way for me to legitimately buy eBooks while I’m in Singapore. Another great feature; Kobo has a library of more than 2,000,000 books. Fantastic isn’t it? And it’s not like it’s just stuffed with classics. You can be sure that any new print releases will be accompanied by an eBook version on Kobo as well.

It also helps that they have made apps for almost all available platforms on the market; iPhone/iPad, Palm, Blackberry and Android. So who said it’s hard to get eBooks in Singapore?

A Brief Review of Kobo for iPad

It looks and feels almost like the iBook app.

I particularly enjoyed the ‘Dictionary’ feature. So, if you’re not familiar with a word, simply highlight it,  select ‘dictionary’ and you’re presented with it’s meaning from the Merriam-Webster Collegiate Dictionary. The great thing is, this is an offline feature, so no internet connection is required, allowing you to use it anywhere. Having an internet connection allows you to view a ‘Wikipedia’ and ‘Google’ search just below the dictionary results, which is great for words and phrases not found in the dictionary…a very thoughtful touch.

Standard features, you can bookmark, highlight text, add annotations and write notes on your eBook. They do have a few readability settings that allow you to customise the appearence of the background and text due to personal preference or the situation, like night reading with a black background, or changing the text size. You can read in portrait or landscape, and the text is adjusted automatically.

There are some social features that are interesting, but too me aren’t neccesary. You can link up to facebook and share the latest books that you’re reading or even archievements, like ‘Playing Hooky’, where you’re caught reading in off peak hours between 2-4pm 5 times.

You can browse for books in the App but to make a purchase, you need to do it from the main site. It’s not a big issue for me. I just purchase the books I want via my computer or iPhone/iPad browser and the next time I open up the App, it starts downloading. Easy.

A small complaint is that it does crash occasionally. Apart from that though, it’s a great eBook app, available on all platforms.

Where To Get

If you agree with my analysis and would like to thank me for helping you save money, please support by using the banner below to visit kobo – xoxo.