Kobo Touch with Offers costs $99.99, adds ads

The Kobo Touch e-reader will soon be available for $40 less thanks to a new version with Offers. Just like on Amazon's Kindle, ads will populate the lock screen and a sliver at the bottom of the homescreen. When it ships, two to three weeks from now, users will have to choose carefully as, unlike the Kindle, there doesn't seem to be any way of paying to turn off ads. The move comes as yet another development in the race to challenge Amazon's price points; Barnes & Noble managed to hit the $99.99 mark on the Nook Simple Touch without any advertising just a few days ago, besting both Amazon and this new offer. Kobo still has a lot of work to do if it wants to compete with those two giants, but its recent acquisition by the Japanese e-commerce powerhouse Rakuten should help level the playing field.