The Kobo eReader, née Shortcovers, has positioned itself as the cheap alternative to the Kindle in the hardware category. Its $149 price tag is the lowest on the market, and its large store is highly competitive. It has partnered with Indigo in Canada, and Borders in the United States, and is a capable, if austere, piece of hardware.

But before there was a hardware Kobo, there was the iPhone app, the iPad app, the BlackBerry app, even the PC app. But for many months, there was no Android app. There was the older Shortcovers version, which lacked many of the refinements that came with the updated name.

Kobo has just released the beta to testers, and I was lucky enough to try it out. It is very much the same experience as you’d find on the other platforms: by logging into your account, your previous purchases are detected and downloaded automatically. There is no Whispersync-like feature that remembers where you were in your book across platforms, but the app itself is very no-nonsense.

Take a look at the video and let me know how it compares to your favorite eReader app.

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