You’re probably going to hear today that Kobo is pushing out an update today for the Kobo Touch e-reader and for the Kobo PC app. The updates add a number of tweaks features, and performance improvements, but they won’t begetting the fixled layout Epubs that Kobo launched with the Vox back in October.
The desktop app only got some performance improvements, as well as the new recommended titles section, but the Kobo Touch received a number of changes to the menus. It also will now show ads at the bottom on the home screen.
Do you recall how Kobo launched an ad subsidized Kobo touch some back? The idea was that you would get a discount in exchange for the ads. Today Kob has decided to foist ads upon all Kobo touch owners. They’re calling it a recommended reading section, but it’s a part of the home screen where they try to talk you into buying stuff. That makes it an ad, in my book.
But never mind the boring stuff. Did you know that Kobo released a fixed layout ebook spec when the Kobo Vox launched? I heard of it a while back, but it’s not getting nearly the press it should.
Like Amazon, Apple, and B&N, Kobo now has their own particular flavor of fixed layout ebooks. Right now it only works on the Vox, but next year the Kobo iPad app will also be able to read them.
I haven’t made one of these ebooks yet, but I do have the spec in front of me. and I ahve spoken to a couple people who have used it. I’m told that it’s similar to Apple’s layout, only less forgiving. The Kobo FLEPUBs support audio but not video, nor do they support SVG images. You can sync the audio to page turns and to specific tags embedded in the text. This format also supports a limited amount of Javascript.
Kobo’s selling around a thousand titles for this new format, with a mix of cookbooks, graphic novels, and children’s books. Prices range from a buck to $15.
With Kobo entering the filed, we now have 4 different fixed layout ebook formats, 3 of which are based on Epub. I have to say that it’s rather ironic to see Epub split up like this, considering that it was intended to be a unifying force on the ebook market. It was supposed to be a single format that could be read across all devices, and now it can’t.
But this new format also raises another question. Why not just use PDF? Those are fixed layout by definition, so I do not understand the need for the new format. Can someone explain why you’d make a fixed layout Epub instead of releasing a PDF?
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Does PDF allow for attaching audio, turning the ebook into the ‘interactive’ type? If not, that might be why…….
That an more. PDF is a complete programming environment that can take over your entire computer, if allowed.
And its a common target ofmalware developers.
That’s one reason for the regular updates to Adobe reader.
Even more Adobe royalties, perhaps?
BTW, fixed layout epubs aren’t the only “epubs” Kobo sells that can’t be used outside their domain. Over at Teleread they have a flap over some “tweaked” Kobo epubs.
http://www.teleread.com/paul-biba/his-ebook-has-been-kobo-ised/
Personally, I expect Kobo to start transitioning to kepub any day now.
I know! Because PDF’s aren’t accepted ebooks and EPUB are. So, we’ll make a PDF, call it an EPUB and hope the public is so stupid they’ll fall for it…
Ugh! Thanks for the warning. I will not be updating to the newest Kobo touch software until I hear (probably from you) that the new advertisements are made optional. Dammit, I didn’t spent $130 on an e-reader device to be advertised at…!
Thank you for the information. Kobo just ensured that my next e-reader wont be a Kobo….
Kobo clearly doesn’t understand how much advertisements annoy some people (Myself being at the top of the list). I can’t describe in words how much I hate advertisements suffice to say I would happily pay $30 more to never see them. I am now considering taking my Kobo and throwing it off a very tall building or dropping it from a bridge. I’d rather go back to reading actual book then look at their adverts or suggestion or anything else that isn;t part of the original book. I don’t even watch cable because I hate ads. I hope they change their mind because right now its just another example of poor foreign ownership. The company was better off being Canadian.