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Kobo Relaunches their Reading App for Windows 8, Windows Phone App is in the Works

Justkobo itunes ios logo 5 months after Kobo pulled their Windows 8/RT app, it’s back. Kobo announced on Thursday the relaunch of their reading app for Windows 8 and Windows RT.

The new app boasts access to a catalog of 4 million titles, all of which can be read via a friendly user interface and synced across a reader’s Kobo account. The app also features a new ability to pin specific ebook titles as live tiles to the Start screen.

"We are excited to give our Readers access to their Kobo eBooks on the Microsoft Windows ecosystem. Just like Kobo, Microsoft understands the importance of providing users with greater mobility and new ways to enjoy their favourite content. The Kobo for Windows app is designed to make Kobo content come alive on Windows devices," said Sameer Hasan, Director of Reading and Mobile Platforms, Kobo.

Kobo had been one of the first to release a reading app for Windows 8 when that OS launched in 2012, and many pundits were surprised when they pulled their app back in November 2013. They never gave an explanation for its removal, but one user commented at the time that:

I’ve been struggling with the very poorly developed Windows 8 Kobo app for the last year. I finally got it working on a Microsoft Surface RT tablet. I upgraded to a Surface Pro 2 and went to download the app from the Windows Store – and couldn’t find it!

If that is the reason for the removal then it was a smart move. Kobo probably took the last 5 months to rebuild the app from the bottom up and fix all of the issues with the old app. Of course, this is just speculation; all we know is that the app has been restored.

In related news, Kobo is also reporting today that they will soon be launching a reading app for Windows Phone.The Windows Phone experience will operate with the same functions as the Windows App for notebooks, tablets and desktops, offering the best content and experience to its readers.

So have you tried the new Kobo Window s8 app? How well does it work?

Kobo – Windows Store

 

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Comments


john March 6, 2014 um 12:18 pm

Finally! Sony accounts merge into Kobo, Kobo apps up to Windows and Windows Phone. Now all I need is a B&N Windows Phone app. (oh, i supposed Kindle too; whatever.) Will probably have to wait for the Windows and Windows Phone stores to merge for that one. RT anyone?


paola March 11, 2014 um 10:04 am

Nate, I’ve been trying it out, and it is very frustrating. First off, it would hang when trying to login, so the way around it was to pretend to sign up. Next, books would not show, so it needed an uninstall and reinstall. It keeps iether hanging or crashing altogether, and it won’t sync. In short, pretty unusable in my experience – I am running windows 8.1 pro 64 bit.

Nate Hoffelder June 17, 2014 um 8:33 am

Sorry it doesn’t work for you, but thanks for the details.


Luther June 18, 2014 um 10:15 am

No ability to annotate that I can see. Disappointed.


Erik Heyl September 6, 2014 um 10:56 am

I’ve been trying to figure out how it lets you read the magazines you’ve purchased. On the android version of the app, I can get to my magazines, but there doesn’t seem to be a way to do so on the Windows 8 app of all things. Am I missing something?

Davinder Sangha August 13, 2015 um 5:28 am

I’ve just noticed that. Nook has stop supporting UK, so need to switch. Kobo has all the magazines, but only books apply to the Windows Apps.

Nate Hoffelder August 13, 2015 um 6:43 am

Are you sure that Nook has ended support for the UK? From what I can see, B&N has just dropped support for the Nook Windows 8 app. They haven’t said they were leaving the market entirely.


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