Two Months With My Kobo-Still Missing Promised "Smartphone" BT

[Wet Coast]

I preordered my Kobo after e-mailing Kobo to confirm the BT feature was indeed, available on smartphones (I have an iPhone). The BT feature was the deal clincher for my purchase of a Kobo rather than a Sony. Two months later, the BT feature is available only on select Blackberry models. I am willing to purchase another touchscreen phone from Rogers to utilise the Kobo BT feature, but every time I check with Kobo, I'm told the BT feature for other smartphones "is coming" - very vague. Well, so is the 22nd Century!

For those of you researching which e-reader to buy, be warned: Kobo promises but they don't deliver. If I had to do it again, I'd purchase the new wifi Kindle for $139. The idea of the Kobo is great, no bells and whistles, used to cost less but unfortunately - they haven't delivered what was promised and their website is misleading. They state you can sync via BT using "select smartphones":

Bluetooth® Connection
Sync your eReader wirelessly with select smartphones and update your reading list on the go.

That really should be: "....with select Blackberry models #xxx, #xxx...."

Disappointed.

[clintbradford]

What silliness. If you had researched the Kobo, you would have discovered its limited Bluetooth implementation. And why the affection for Bluetooth anyway? It never was meant for FAST anything - especially not file transfers. Gawd, man, just get a longer USB cable if you have the need to be 20 feet away ... Sorry, I have little empathy for you on this point (can you tell???). Kobo may have its shortcomings, but company support is NOT one of them.

[sabredog]

I just recommended another work colleague the Kobo simply because;

1. Australian distributor, support and Warranty.
2. Simple easy to use device for reading. no bells and whistles that become a distraction.
3. No store lock-in

The Kobo does not pretend to be anything else.

[Solicitous]

Originally Posted by sabredog

I just recommended another work colleague the Kobo simply because;

1. Australian distributor, support and Warranty.
2. Simple easy to use device for reading. no bells and whistles that become a distraction.
3. No store lock-in

The Kobo does not pretend to be anything else.

Now I'm not sure about Borders, but A&R have a rewards program (1 point for every dollar, 100 points = $5 reward card). So in theory if you go into a A&R and join up and buy a Kobo, you'll get $10 rewards card (to be spent instore) so essentially a Kobo can cost you $190.

[3d0g]

Even sillier is the fact the OP doesn't even know his own phone. The iPhone will never support kobo sync as it physically doesn't have the firmware to do it. iPhone's BT stack is limited to audio only. No data capabilities.

[Wet Coast]

Perhaps my post was not clear, "I preordered my Kobo after e-mailing Kobo to confirm the BT feature was indeed, available on smartphones (I have an iPhone)." I carefully researched my purchase, even contacting Kobo to confirm that BT transfers were possible. Our household owns a Kindle, so e-reading is not a first time thing for me. At no time did Kobo tell me that BT transfers were only possible using a limited number of Blackberry models. The BT feature is attractive because I do not own a laptop and cannot use "20 feet" of usb in an airport, or anywhere else outside of my home. When a product promises a feature and customer support confirms the inclusion of the feature to the cunsumer, then the consumer should receive the feature. My mistake was being one of the first to own a Kobo and not waiting for constructive reviews posted on e-reader forums such as Mobile Read.

[roguefan99]

Wet Coast, not outright defending Kobo here, but what they stated was correct, it was avaliable on Smartphones. Its just that the smartphone is a blackberry (i.e. a smart phone not a toy like the iphone ). BT Transfers are possible, you just have to have a Blackberry model no #### Also before you start bitching about Kobo not bringing this to the app, you might want to look into Apple's closed market, and their rules and regulations for file transfers using Bluetooth (Apple never used to allow apps like that in the market place). Maybe they are having to save up their $$$ to bribe Steve Jobs.

Did you ever ask what phones were compatible? I have an E71 (a dumbphone but it has apps and bluetooth) and I NEVER expected Kobo to make it compabile with the ereader transfer system.

Personally with the way Bluetooth works, I would never want to do a transfer with it (BTW I have tried file transfers with it, not pleasent), and from what I've experiences Apple's bluetooth is flakier than my nokia's so I dunno if I would be trusting it.

[Wet Coast]

Yes, I have asked Kobo a few times about other smartphones. I'm willing to buy the next Kobo/BT compatible touch phone offered through Rogers but no answer from Kobo if, what, when on the next compatible smartphone.

I live in Canada and we were the "test subjects" - my initial query to Kobo was beginning of April. I should have been advised, "Initially, only Blackberry models #### will be BT compatible. We hope to make the feature available on other phones within xxxx timeline."

You are absolutely right about Apple's severe restrictions so Kobo probably won't be able to offer the BT sync feature on an iphone. I won't be purchasing another iPhone (though mine is jailbroken and does have limited BT file transfer capability). Blackberry BT/Kobo users report excellent results, so the feature is a positive one.

The best reviews on a product come from end users and the more contributions from those end users, the better.

[HamsterRage]

The Blackberry only thing was never a mystery to me when I bought my Kobo on the first day they came out, and before I joined mobileread. So that information was clearly available on the Kobo website right from the get-go (since there's nowhere else I could have found out at the time).

So you must have missed that. I thought at first you might have been from another country, and the Kobo content could have been different but then you said you're from Canada, so you'd have been looking at the same pages I was - unless they've changed the content.

I notice that you've never actually said that Kobo specifically told you that the iPhone would be supported. You're actually willing to buy another phone (but not a BB apparently) just to have BT on your Kobo? It would probably be cheaper for you to just buy a Kindle. Probably less frustrating for you too.

[Duiker]

I need to jump in on this one. One of the reasons I liked the Kobo was the idea of being able to bluetooth my books from my BLACKBERRY. Guess what? Kobo does not support my VERSION of the blackberry curve. So not only do they not get too specific with which smatphones they support but they also don't tell you that its only specific versions of certain smartphones. I loved my kobo for the first 2 months but there has been a real lack up living up to its promises. I was told back in June that my BB would be supported very soon. If I had to do it now I'd be sorely tempted by the new wi-fi kindle.