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Kobo Adds Pulse to the Apple iPad

By 9 Comments

Kobo has just rolled out its new update to its popular iOS application for the Apple iPad! The big new feature dropping in version 5.0 is Kobo Pulse! This is one of the new social aspects found in the new Kobo Vox eReader that allows users to chat with each other and interact.

Kobo Pulse was first unveiled during the Facebook developer conference last month and has finally reached the prime time. Kobo Pulse is useable with any books you have downloaded or purchased from the Kobo bookstore. As a book grows in popularity the size of a little blue pulse at the bottom of your book grows. When you click on the pulse button, you are greeted by a number of interesting features. You can see how many people are reading the same book as you are and leave comments to discuss the book. This functions similarly to a modern mini chat-room.

Kobo has just upgraded its iOS iPad application to sync your annotations across many different platforms. All of your notes and highlights are now saved in the cloud.

Finally, there is a new bookmark cloud syncing feature. Let’s say you are reading a book on your Kobo Touch and leave a bookmark on page 34. When you open up the same book on your iPad, it automatically picks up where you left off.

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Michael Kozlowski

Michael Kozlowski is the Editor in Chief of Good e-Reader. He has been writing about audiobooks and e-readers for the past ten years. His articles have been picked up by major and local news sources and websites such as the CNET, Engadget, Huffington Post and Verge.

  • Noreply

    While I may find Pulse interesting when reading certain books, overall, I find its permanent presence on the page (and the ‘like’ and ‘page feed’ icons on the top right of each page) very annoying and distracting. One of the things I liked the most about Kobo on my iPad was its ‘clean’ look. If Kobo does not add an option to hide Pulse when desired, I will be very tempted to abandon Kobo.

  • I upgraded my Kobo app on my iPad just to find a few books I bought from Kobo missing from my library. But cool on the pulse!

  • obokee

    So, the question I asked on an earlier post that was not answered was will Pulse be coming to Kobo Touch in a firmware update? 

    The Kobo page allows one to sign up for notifications for the release date on Pulse to Apple products and Android and Desktop but not to the eReaders themselves.

  • Yes, the CEO of Kobo told us when we met with them that Pulse will soon be available on the Kobo Touch, Android App and all other platforms within a month or two. Their iPad app just got it the other day and the Vox was shipped with it.

  • obokee

    Thanks for the reply. Appreciated. Interestingly,  sent an email to Kobo’s Help desk to ask, “Will Pulse be coming to Kobo Touch in the form of a Firmware update.” After 11 days they replied, “In order to answer your question we will require a little more information.” Really? Seriously? How else can I rephrase the question? What other information could I possibly include? Hence, the reason I asked here. I love my Kobo Touch so much I have zero interest in the Vox, though I am happy it’s around for those who want a tablet you can read on that is tied to Kobobooks. But, my own limited encounter with Kobo Help sadly confirms what many, many people have said online from blogs, to the FB Kobo page, namely, Kobo Help is anywhere from inconsistent to seeming as though they really do not know what they are doing. Customer service needs a Firmware upgrade.

  • LOL, that is fairly classic! Good job! Yeah Kobo Customer Service is out sourced to India or another country where they don’t know anything. We live and breathe e-readers here and can normally provide better answers in minutes.

  • Owen

    You may be interested to know that just today I heard back (finally) from Kobo Help Desk with their reply where I asked the same question that obokee asked. 

    Direct quote: “Hi, It would be a pleasure to assist you with this, on the Kobo Touch the pulse page is not available, it is only available on the Kobo Vox. Feel free to contact you us if you have further Kobo related questions.Thank you fro your interest in KoboSincerely,The Kobo Team.”

    So, I wonder which it is? Is the Kobo Help Desk correct or is the CEO of Kobo correct? With Kobo, who knows?

  • Charles

    Hi noreply – there actually is such an option: just look under the social settings section of the main settings page
    (accessible via the gear icon in the top toolbar on the iPad (when not
    in a book) or on the jump/home screen on the iPhone). Unfortunately there is a bug where you have to be signed into Facebook to see this option, but that’s being fixed.

    Cheers,
    Charles.

  • Jeff

    Hi Charles

    Perfect! They sure make it hard to find.
    It definitely shouldn’t be required to login to Facebook to turn off social settings (anyone else see the irony here?)…looking forward to the bug fix.

    Thanks Charles!

    Jeff (aka ‘noreply’ 🙂