MobileTechReview Forum, News and Reviews: Kobo debuts social reading application for BlackBerry smartphones

Kobo, makers of the Kobo E-Ink ebook reader and sellers of ebooks at kobobooks.com announced the first social reading application for BlackBerry. while I'm not convinced that reading is done better in virtual groups vs. quality alone time with a book, social-network enabled ereader apps are on the rise. Kobo's app leverages BBM (BlackBerry Messaging) to get that social thing going.

Using the Kobo application, readers will be able to:

- Chat with friends while they are shopping for eBooks. When browsing for eBooks, Kobo members will be able to see which friends have read a book and instantly ask whether the book is worth reading.

- Read together, share passages and discuss in real-time. Kobo will introduce the concept of a real-time book club, where members can discuss books as they read.

- Choose who can see their library, which books they read with others, and who they read with.

You can check out a video of Kobo with BBM here: http://blog.kobobooks.com/2010/09/27/BBM/

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Lisa Gade
Editor in Chief, MobileTechReview

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