Kobo has announced that its Kobo Arc tablet will be getting an Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS firmware upgrade, bringing its current Android 4.0 Ice Cream Sandwich OS more up to date.
Available to Kobo Arc owners when they next connect to a Wi-Fi signal, the Android 4.1 Jelly Bean update will bring new user experience features to the 7-inch eReader including improved search capabilities, faster performance and customisable notifications.
“Kobo Arc is the perfect tablet for people that love consuming books, movies, and surfing the web,” said EVP of Devices at Kobo, Wayne White. “With the latest Jelly Bean update, Kobo Arc becomes the perfect eReading companion that offers more with intelligent search recommendations, voice-to-text, and a highly responsive touch screen.”
Kobo Arc owners will also receive the Google Now software, which provides an easy way to organise busy schedules, providing personal information depending on the user’s location and current activities including traffic updates and when the next train home is due in.
Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS features improved security upgrades too, including Face Unlock, which can be set to require a blink to allow access to the device, and improved malware scanning.
Kobo Arc Features
The Kobo Arc is a tablet and eReader with a 7-inch IPS 1,280 x 800p screen and is powered by a 1.5GHZ dual-core OMAP 4470 CPU with 1GB of RAM.
The new Android 4.1 Jelly Bean OS is overlaid with Kobo’s Tapestries UI, which allows user to collect content of interest to them by pinning it to the Kobo Arc home screen, enabling the Discover Ribbon to learn more about its user and suggest increasingly appropriate content.
The Kobo Arc’s speakers are fitted with SRS TruMedia audio technology and are paired with a microphone and front-facing camera for video calling capabilities. Offering 10 hours of continuous use on one battery charge, the Kobo Arc will last for two weeks on standby. The Amazon Kindle and Google Nexus 7 rival can be bought in 16GB, 32GB or 64GB internal storage options.
What do you think of the Kobo Arc? Is Android 4.2 Jelly Bean a vast improvement over Android 4.1 in your opinion? Let us know via the TrustedReviews Facebook and Twitter feeds or the comments section below.
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Editorial independence
Editorial independence means being able to give an unbiased verdict about a product or company, with the avoidance of conflicts of interest. To ensure this is possible, every member of the editorial staff follows a clear code of conduct.
Professional conduct
We also expect our journalists to follow clear ethical standards in their work. Our staff members must strive for honesty and accuracy in everything they do. We follow the IPSO Editors’ code of practice to underpin these standards.
