Canadian retailer Future Shop gave us an accidental sneak peek on the tablet last week, but now Kobo is making Vox official, complete with a 7-inch 1024 x 600 resolution AFFS+ display with multi-touch, a 7-hour battery and eight gigs of internal memory with support for as much as 32GB of SD storage. The $200 tablet is running Android 2.3 Gingerbread, and is powered by an 800 MHz processor and 512MB of RAM. There’s also a built-in speaker and three.5mm headphone jack, 802.11 b/g/n WiFi and a lot of pre-loaded apps (naturally you will have access to Android Market in addition). Vox is listed as in-stock on Kobo’s online store, though you will have to wait until October 28th for yours to ship. It’ll even be available at Best Buy and Fry’s Electronics stores within the U.S., and Best Buy, Future Shop and Indigo in Canada. Jump past the break for the PR from Kobo.
[Thanks, Mankie]
ANNOUNCES THE RECENT KOBO VOX WITH VIVID COLOR DISPLAY THE WORLD’S FIRST SOCIAL EREADER
INTRODUCING THE HOT KOBO VOX EREADER: INSPIRED BY VOX POPULI; VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
START CONVERSATIONS AND HAVE INTERACTION WITH FRIENDS AND OTHER READERS WORLD WIDE, DISCOVER NEW BOOKS THROUGH FACEBOOK
ENJOY READING OUTDOORS WITH THE FOREMOST ADVANCED 7 INCH AFFS+ MULTIMEDIA TOUCHSCREEN WITH ANTI-GLARE
READ IN VIVID COLOR WITH RICH CONTENT FOR EVERY AGE INCLUDING COMICS, COOKBOOKS, TRAVEL GUIDES AND CHILDREN’S BOOKS WITH READ-ALOUD TECHNOLOGY
EXPERIENCE MORE – BROWSE THE WEB, ACCESS EMAIL, FACEBOOK, TWITTER, HEARKEN TO MUSIC, WATCH MOVIES, PLAY GAMES, READ NEWSPAPERS & MAGAZINES – PLUS ACCESS AN APP STORE WITH OVER 15,000 FREE APPS, ALL ON ANDROID
AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER TODAY IN CANADA AND THE UNITED STATES FOR THE LOW COST OF $199.99
TORONTO, October 19, 2011 — Kobo, a world leader in eReading with over 5 million users worldwide, today announced the brand new Kobo Vox eReader, the world’s first social eReader. The Kobo Vox, inspired by “Vox Populi” meaning the voice of the folk, enables readers to begin conversations with other readers and discover new books and authors through their social network. With a vivid color display, Kobo takes the reading experience to an entire new level and provides much more content – rich color books, newspapers, magazines, games, music, video, games and social feeds – all on an open Android platform.
“Kobo Vox is the reader to your connected life, and opens the door to the following generation of eReading – social eReading – where books can come alive in color and conversation. Readers can get more out in their experience by connecting with Kobo’s global community of booklovers.” said Michael Serbinis, CEO, Kobo. “Plus, with Kobo Vox you’ve the liberty to hook up with friends, hearken to music, watch movies, play games and discover new apps with almost unlimited choices.”
A GLOBAL CLASS READING EXPERIENCE
In line with Kobo’s #1-rated Android eReading experience, Kobo Vox was built by readers for readers. People can access their entire library at the go, in a very easy to carry, lightweight design with a cushty quilted back. The Kobo Vox is available in a variety of 4 contemporary, fun, new colors – Hot Pink, Lime Green, Ice Blue and Jet Black, giving a decision of options to mirror personal style, and delivers a very good user experience that enables users to simply navigate their library, scroll through books, and switch pages with a faucet or swipe, plus personalize their reading experience with highlights, annotations, adjustable fonts and more. The Kobo Vox has onboard storage for as much as 8000 eBooks, with expandable storage to carry as much as 40,000 books, and access to unlimited storage inside the Kobo cloud. With Kobo, you are able to read continuously across devices with free top rated Kobo apps available for many popular smartphones, tablets and computers. Developed on Android 2.3, readers have the liberty to customise their experience to best suit their personal needs and preferences.
CAPTURING THE VOICE OF THE PEOPLE
Building at the industry leading social platform, Reading Life, users can now opt to connect to friends or create book clubs and discuss their favorite reads on Facebook, track their reading statistics, and unlock fun and exciting awards only for reading. The hot innovation of Kobo Pulse™ takes social reading to a brand new level – readers can feel the heart beat of a book, start conversations, share comments and thoughts and leave reviews by ‘Liking’, ‘Disliking’ and/or commenting, real-time, with others who’re reading an identical book. Kobo Pulse provides the final source for book recommendations, because the suggestions come from friends and ‘like’ minded readers whose opinions and interests are similar and trusted.
Now, “The tip” is rarely the tip. Kobo is the primary eReading platform to be integrated with Facebook Ticker and Timeline to enable further reading discovery and entertainment.
THE FOREMOST ADVANCED MULTIMEDIA TOUCHSCREEN
Featuring a super multimedia touchscreen, readers can experience text with high contrast resolution and immerse themselves in books, magazines, games and videos in vivid color. Kobo uses the foremost advanced 7 inch AFFS+ display, with anti-glare – the identical technology utilized in airplane cockpits (there aren’t any clouds at 30,000 feet) – for excellent reading indoors or outdoors and featuring a further-wide angle for incredible viewing and perfect for shared reading and viewing.
NOW READ IN VIVID COLOR
Kobo’s global ebookstore – 2.5 million books and over 1 million free – just got better with new color and enhanced multimedia content. Find a new world of reading with rich color content for every age, including cookbooks, engaging travel guides, comic books, and graphic novels. Parents and youngsters can read inclusive of Read Along children’s books, a good way to spend quality time and a fun option to help children discover ways to read. The Vox eReader includes three free color books, so people can start building their color library straight away ; there’s a choice of dessert recipes for the chef-in-training in Sweet Dreams, Lonely Planet’s Europe Essentials for the avid traveler and Franklin and the Thunderstorm for young readers.
EXPERIENCE MORE – THE EREADER IN YOUR CONNECTED LIFE
As well as reading – Kobo Vox users can easily browse the net, check email, hearken to music, watch movies, play games and store personal photos. Make a choice from a range of pre-loaded top ranked entertainment apps:
Magazines from Zinio® – plus 12 FREE popular magazines for Kobo Vox owners
Newspapers from PressReader™ – over 1,900 full newspapers from world wide – and a present of seven newspapers of your choice!
Unlimited music from RDIO®
Get social with Twitter® & Facebook®
Book lover must-have: Merriam Webster’s Dictionary
Games like Cut the Rope®
Apps – over 15,000 FREE apps
Kobo and Facebook widgets that sit right at the home screen
Access to more music and video services within the app store
FREEDOM OF CHOICE
At Kobo, we believe you will have the facility to read on any device. Readers can download free Kobo eReading apps to read around the top-rated devices including desktops, laptops, tablets, AndroidÔ phones, iPhonesÒ, iPadsÒ, Blackberry® Smartphones and PlayBooks. Readers may also download their ebooks and browse on quite a lot of dedicated eReaders.
According to our open philosophy, Kobo Vox offers full access to Android 2.3, and includes an open app store with over 15,000 FREE apps for Android. With ultra-fast web browsing, the most recent news, weather, and Hollywood gossip at your fingertips. Plus, a whole-featured email client supports POP, IMAP and Microsoft® ActiveSync so that you can get all of your personal email like Yahoo and Gmail and work email too!
AMAZING LOW COST OF $199.99, AVAILABLE FOR PRE-ORDER STARTING TODAY
The Kobo Vox will begin rolling out internationally today, starting with the usa and Canada.
In Canada, Kobo Vox is on the market for pre-order online at leading Kobo retail partners:
Indigo Books & Music (www.indigo.ca), Future Shop (www.futureshop.ca), Best Buy (www.bestbuy.ca), and Kobo.com for a MSRP of $199.99
Within the U.S., the Kobo Vox is accessible for pre-order at Best Buy (www.bestbuy.com), Fry’s Electronics (www.frys.com), and at Kobo.com for a MSRP of $199.99.
For more info on Kobo and the recent Kobo Vox eReader visit www.Kobo.com
Sprint launches New Ventures arm, adapts ID and Zone apps for foreign markets
Proton and Yes team as much as offer Malaysia’s first 4G-connected car, promise more to return
