kobo

Kobo has started shipping its new color-screen Android-based e-reader, the Vox, which is similar to both the Nook Color and Kindle Fire.

While specs for the device were leaked on a Canadian site prior to the Vox's unveiling, Kobo made a big change before launch: it dropped the price from $249 to $199 to match the Kindle Fire's price.

In terms of specs, it seems more in line with last year's Nook Color than the Fire. Weighing in at 14.2 ounces, the Vox has 8GB of internal memory, plus a microSD card slot for adding cards … Read more

Speck's FitFolio is one of our favorite iPad 2 cases. Now the company is bringing the line to the e-reader arena, with FitFolio cases for the Kindle, Nook, Kobo Touch, and iRiver Story HD.

The FitFolio for Kindle 3 is already available for $29.99 (in multiple colors), but the cases for the other e-reader models aren't set to ship until next month, company reps told us at an event last night in New York, where we got a sneak peek at all the new cases.Two other Kindle 3 cases, the WanderFolio (see above picture) and BookShield … Read more

The last traces of the Borders book chain, after months of liquidating assets, are slowly disappearing.

The coffee is gone. So are the leather chairs. At the Time Warner Center in New York, books on aviary and furniture repair lay askew on half-empty shelves. In February, Borders announced it was filing for bankruptcy protection. The merchant simply couldn't find a place for itself in the era of digital books and e-readers.

One of the last chores before turning off the lights will be to sell off the company's intellectual property, which includes the Borders.com Web site, a block of IPV4 addresses, as well the contractual agreements it had with Kobo, the maker of the electronic reader by the same name.

Borders owned a minority stake in Kobo, the company that powered Borders' e-book store. Contrary to what some believed, Kobo was unaffected by Borders' financial woes and continues to operate as an independent company.

To sell its intellectual property, Borders has hired Streambank, a firm that has become one of the favorites for selling off intellectual property from distressed companies. Streambank is also handling the liquidation of Circuit City, another once-dominant national retailer that has closed its doors.

David Peress, one of Streambank's three principles, says that Circuit City's Web site has generated a lot of interest and that went dark long ago. In Borders' case, the Web site continues to operate, which should help boost the value, according to Peress. … Read more

On today's show, Brian Tong offends nearly the entire Internet, so consider that fair warning. HTC is willing to negotiate with Apple, Google is willing to make it easier to get your account back if you're suspended for not using your real name on Google+, and Netflix is willing to lose a bunch of money this quarter in hopes of surviving beyond it.

Yesterday, we reported that Apple had finally cracked down on iOS e-reading apps, enforcing its new in-app subscription rules that require app developers to strip out any links to external mechanisms for purchasing digital books or subscriptions. Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo all altered their apps to reflect the rules change, removing any links or mentions of their respective company Websites.

Now Kobo is first out of the gate to announce that it's prepping an HTML5 Web app that will be accessible through Safari on the iPad, iPhone, or iPod Touch, and will provide improved functionality even beyond … Read more

Too busy to keep up with the tech news? Here are some of the more interesting stories from CNET for Monday, July 25.

•  Here's the scoop today: Google's Street View collected the locations of millions of laptops, cell phones, and other Wi-Fi devices. CNET's Declan McCullagh reports: "The French data protection authority, known as the Commission Nationale de l'Informatique et des Libertés, recently contacted CNET and said its investigation confirmed that Street View cars collected these unique hardware IDs."

•  As RIM prepares to lay off 2,000 employees, CNET takes … Read more

Updated 3:50 p.m. PT to reflect Barnes & Noble updating its Nook iOS apps.

Apple has finally brought the hammer down on e-reader apps, enforcing its new in-app subscription rules that require app developers to strip out any links to external mechanisms for purchasing digital books or subscriptions.

Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and Canada-based Kobo have all updated their iOS e-reader apps, with Barnes & Noble temporarily removing its Nook for iPad app from the App Store and sending out a press release late in the afternoon saying it would soon update the app to offer the "… Read more

When Kobo first partnered with Borders on the e-book front, things were a bit confusing. You had a Borders e-bookstore and e-readers powered by Kobo, while Kobo had its own e-bookstore and e-readers. You also had separate e-reading apps from Borders and Kobo.

Now Canada-based Kobo is doing its best to migrate Borders' e-book customers over to the Kobo platform as Borders goes out of business and closes all its stores. And as evidenced by the recent e-mail above (sent out this morning), Borders is also encouraging its own customers to make the move.

What adds some intrigue to the … Read more

Amazon and Barnes & Noble are the clear leaders in e-books and e-book readers in the U.S., but the race is just getting under way internationally, where the digital book market is still very much in its nascent stage.

Canadian upstart Kobo, which is currently well behind the e-book leaders in the U.S., has always had a global strategy, and is now launching in Germany, with an e-book store that offers 80,000 German-language titles and a total of 2.4 million e-books. By contrast, Amazon currently offers around 25,000 German-language titles.

As part of the launch, Kobo has developed free German-language apps for iPhone, iPad, iPod Touch, and Android, with a PlayBook app coming soon. A German-language version of Kobo eReader Touch Edition will be available in stores in Germany in August. … Read more