“Is it a good surprise?”, I asked.

“Depends”, was the answer.

“Do I get more clues?”, I asked.

“It’s white, and textured and not a cat” was the reply.

Shortly after, I was picked up from work and I got to see my surprise – it was a brand new Kobo eReader from Borders book store! Here’s a brief initial review of the Kobo eReader, based upon my short use of it.

About the Kobo

The Kobo eReader is an ebook reading device based on E Ink technology. The thing to note is that this is an eReader – it’s not an iPad. It does one thing – display books – and it does it well.

Things I like

• The stylish and clean design
• The lovely quilted backing – it stops the eReader from slipping from your hands
• It’s lightweight at 221 grams and fits easily in my hands
• Cheap – at $199 at Borders book stores, it’s one of the most affordable eReaders around
• It comes preloaded with a hundred books and holds up to 1000 books (more if you use an SD card)
• You don’t need any additional devices or chargers to charger this – just plug it into a USB port with a standard mini USB cable
• It supports open formats – ePub! It also takes PDF and Adobe DRM.
• I can drag and drop books straight onto the Kobo once it’s plugged into my computer (so quick and easy)
• It retains the cover of the book when the device is off (just like a real book!)
• The D-pad is located on the right hand side, similar position to where you expect to turn a page

Things I don’t like

• It takes a while to power on
• It takes a while to load each book
• When the Kobo is plugged into my computer, I can’t use the eReader at all
• There are very slight delays when ‘turning’ pages (I don’t think this is the fault of the Kobo, as it’s likely due to electronic paper technology)
• I had some issues with the way I had to navigate the PDFs I transferred to the Kobo but I need to do more experimentation to determine if it’s the source PDF or whether it’s the Kobo’s interpretation of the PDF

Things to note

It doesn’t come with 3G or Wi-Fi but that hasn’t been a problem for me so far.

The battery life is supposed to last up to two weeks (I haven’t had it long enough to test this).

eBooks from Borders Australia look fairly affordable. Take one of my favourite books – Pride And Prejudice And Zombies – the ebook is currently available for $7.95 (Australian dollars).

The verdict

On the whole, it’s a good affordable device, with a few minor quibbles. It supports open standards and books purchased can be read on other devices that have the Kobo mobile app. Is it the Kindle Killer? Only time can tell, but it looks like a real contender. I’m liking it so far.

We tried a few things…and found a solution that works.

Here’s what you’ll need to get your Wiimote to work with Powerpoint in Windows Vista:

• A Wiimote
• GlovePIE version .22 or higher
• A Bluetooth enabled PC – the standard Microsoft Windows Bluetooth stack isn’t completely compatible with the Wiimote. I ended up downloading and using BlueSoleil.
• DirectX 8.0 or higher

Once you install GlovePIE, you’ll need to set up a GLovePIE script to enable the Wiimote to function in Powerpoint. Here’s the script I’m using at the moment (just save it as a .PIE file somewhere easily accessible). As you can see, it’s really basic. I haven’t had time to play around, but there’s a lot more cool stuff you can do!

Mouse.LeftButton = Wiimote.A
Mouse.RightButton = Wiimote.B
PageUp = Wiimote.Minus
PageDown = Wiimote.Plus
up = Wiimote.Up
down = Wiimote.Down
left = Wiimote.Left
right = Wiimote.Right

At present, the Wiimote mimics the page up and page down function and up/down/left/right arrow keys.

If you want more information, check out:

• GlovePIE wiki page
• GlovePIE scripting wiki page

I love the article for two reasons:

1. For showing that you can successfully challenge ‘traditional’ ways of doing something.
2. For bringing a smile to my face.