Kobo Reader WiFi Pre-Order Comes with 2 free books until midnight tonight for $139

[eric11210]

I don't know if anyone would be very excited by this deal, but the new Kobo Reader with WiFi has a deal where you get two free Random House books (in addition to the usual 100 free PD books) included.

The deal ends this evening (October 17 @ 11:59PM EST). Just got the e-mail now so it seems kind of odd they would give such short notice, but I thought someone might be interested. It's going for $139 with free shipping, same price as the cheaper Kindle, so if you don't want to be locked into just one store, it might be something to think about:

http://koboereader.com/usd/

The two books are:

Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay ($6.29 @ Amazon)

When My World Was Very Small by Ruth Rakoff ($14.27 @ Amazon)

Edit: Forgot to mention: North America only. These are the terms from Kobo's e-mail:

Currently available in North America. Direct shipment of eReaders from Kobobooks.com to the province of Quebec unavailable at this time.
Limited Time Offer of 2 FREE eBooks from Random House ends October 17, 2010 at 11:59pm EST. The 2 FREE eBooks have been preselected from Random House, can not be exchanged for other books or cash value. Books include: Fear the Worst by Linwood Barclay and a new release, When My World Was Very Small by Ruth Rakoff.

[taming]

Tomorrow is the official release date for the new Kobo so the pre-order special will end. I say official because the new WiFi Kobo is available today in some Chapters stores and the new readers have started shipping already.

[Moe The Cat]

I saw the new WiFi Kobo at Indigo Books at Bloor and Bay in Toronto on Saturday.

[notyou]

It occurs to me that the new Kobo might be a good deal for library readers, except that it's doubtful that Kobo would/could integrate any wireless option for checking out books, since that pretty much directly affects their bottom line.

[taming]

People have used the original Kobo very successfully for library borrowing and will be able to use the new one for it as well--but not over WiFi at this point.

The issue for using WiFi is that the books you are borrowing using the libraries Overdrive service have Adobe Digital Edition (ADE) DRM and have to be downloaded through the ADE program on your desktop. If Adobe issues a version of ADE that will work directly on devices, library borrowing then might be able to be done over WiFi.

[notyou]

Originally Posted by taming

People have used the original Kobo very successfully for library borrowing and will be able to use the new one for it as well--but not over WiFi at this point.

The issue for using WiFi is that the books you are borrowing using the libraries Overdrive service have Adobe Digital Edition (ADE) DRM and have to be downloaded through the ADE program on your desktop. If Adobe issues a version of ADE that will work directly on devices, library borrowing then might be able to be done over WiFi.

Right - I understand the issues. But then, what's the point of WiFi at all? And why didn't Kobo drop the price of their non-WiFi reader to $99, which is the pricepoint everybody is waiting for?

[mikaelalind]

Originally Posted by taming

People have used the original Kobo very successfully for library borrowing and will be able to use the new one for it as well--but not over WiFi at this point.

The issue for using WiFi is that the books you are borrowing using the libraries Overdrive service have Adobe Digital Edition (ADE) DRM and have to be downloaded through the ADE program on your desktop. If Adobe issues a version of ADE that will work directly on devices, library borrowing then might be able to be done over WiFi.

Hm. Intresting. Bookeen claims that you can borrow library books directly from Orizon. As long as the reader is authorized by ADE. Might be a future feature, though.

[taming]

I saw this on the Bookeen site, but nothing about using Orizon through WiFi without a desktop stop for ADE books:

Editions (ADE). Here is the procedure to follow to install this software:

1) You need first to obtain an Adobe ID on their website

2) Download and install ADE.

3) Open ADE: you will have to type your ID and authorize your computer to access ADE. This authorization is important to be able to use ADE.

4) The first time you connect your Cybook to your computer and the open ADE, the sofware recognised the device and it will ask you to activate it. Without the activation you will not be able to read the book on your Cybook. Please note that with ADE you can not activate more than 5 devices.

With ADE when you download an e-book you obtain a file that will then allow you to open the e-book when you click on it. Once the book is in the ADE library, if you want to transfer it to the Cybook you need to drag and drop it on the Cybook icon that has to appear on the left side of ADE. The book will automatically be transferred to the "Digital Editions" folder. You can not choose where you want to put the book from ADE. If you want the file to be in another folder you can change its location directly from the computer.