The Art of Huang Fu

When press is actually what you do with buttons …

So, Borders has recently released the Kobo eReader, a light-weight, battery-powered device that lets you store digital books and read them on its 6 inch display. Its 1GB in-built storage can hold about 1000 books, plus you can add memory via its SD card slot. You can communicate and synch with other devices, including your computer, via its Bluetooth and USB connections. I guess it’s Borders’ answer to Amazon’s Kindle… Well, at this stage it’s really the Kobo vs Kindle vs iPad vs iPapyrus vs Nook vs Boox vs PocketBook vs Cybook vs .. well, I could go on really, but you get the idea.

What you really need is a good guide that summarises a whole load of these into an easy-to-follow table that doesn’t overload you with brain-fogging words instead, so you can match what you really need with what features each of them has. Check out Wikipedia’s Comparison of e-book readers.

From what I’ve heard, one of the Kobo’s most attractive factors is its low cost (US$150, AU$199), given the features that it has. As of this writing, I’ve noticed both Borders International and Borders Australia are reporting “out of stock” – sold out of eReaders – so they must be doing something right.

For more, visit the Kobo page on Borders’ International website or the one on the Australian Borders website.

Wait, didn’t I hear about a talking one that gives you invaluable tips on travelling across the galaxy? Maybe I should hang out for one of those? And maybe a babelfish to stick in my ear …