In an extremely random case of product leaking, Kobo’s Spanish Twitter account briefly tweeted, then deleted, an image of its upcoming Forma e-reader. The screenshot above shows a rendered image of the device, along with its release date of October 16th.
The new Kobo looks a lot like a Kindle Oasis
Kobo
Though it looks a lot like the one-handed design of the Kindle Oasis, there’s no word yet on its water resistance. Although the Kobo Aura One came out with a waterproof e-reader way before Amazon in 2016, the more recent Kobo Clara HD curiously isn’t waterproof.
no word yet on whether it’s waterproof
We also know from a recent FCC filing spotted by The Digital Reader, that the Forma will have Wi-Fi but not Bluetooth — one of the standout features of the Kindle Oasis, which allows for it to be paired with Bluetooth headphones to listen to audiobooks.
Kobo, which is owned by the Japanese company Rakuten, has been in a partnership with Walmart since January of this year. The retail giant is the exclusive mass retailer of Kobo e-readers, and recently launched Walmart eBooks to compete with Amazon. A little more heat in the competition can’t hurt, when the Kobo Forma is released this October.
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