It looks like Kobo is quite serious about supporting its Arc e-reader as the 7-inch Android tablet has just gotten itself a nice upgrade. This upgrade steps users up to Android 4.1 Jelly Bean, and you know what that brings with it — Project Butter, Google Now, expanded notifications, face unlock, better voice input and more are just a few of the many improvements being made.

Not much else is new on Kobo’s side of things so it should be a very familiar experience for anyone who has been using the tablet since its launch. The device will serve the upgrade up the next time you connect to a WiFi network, so be sure to take a look whenever you get the chance if you’ve been waiting to get your hands on it. Read on for full press details.

Kobo Releases Android Jelly Bean Upgrade For Kobo Arc Tablet

Improved search, Google Now, Face Unlock, and more with latest Android Jelly Bean 4.1 firmware update

 

TORONTO, March 21, 2013 /CNW/ – Kobo, a global leader in eReading, today announced itsAndroid™ 4.1 Jelly Bean firmware update for Kobo’s award-winning 7″ Google-certified Kobo Arctablet. This update optimizes the user experience with faster performance, improved search capabilities, increased touch responsiveness, and additional intelligence features to help organize and streamline information with actionable notifications. The update is now available to Kobo Arc customers when they next connect to Wi Fi.

“Kobo Arc is the perfect tablet for people who love consuming books, movies, and surfing the web,” said Wayne White, EVP of Devices, Kobo. “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.”

Key Android 4.1 Jelly Bean features and benefits include:

Google Now™: Perfect for on-the-go Kobo Arc users looking for an easy way to organize their busy schedules, Google Now personalizes information based on a user’s location, time of day, history, and calendar events. Google Now shows restaurants in the area, how much traffic to expect before the morning commute, when the next train is coming, the score of a current game, a flight status, and more.

Richer notifications: Kobo Arc users will never miss a beat due to a richer notification experience. They can now receive action notifications directly within the notifications area as well as expand and collapse notifications to display more or less detail.

Improved search: Finding online content has never been easier with text or voice searches, which are now presented in a visually rich way. Google Search can be opened directly from the locked screen by swiping up and users have the option to simply say “Google” to activate Voice Search within the Google Search screen.

Optimized voice recognition and boosted predictive typing: To complement speech-enabled online searches, Jelly Bean introduces impressive text-to-speech capabilities and an embedded speech recognizer that enables Voice Typing without an Internet connection. For those who prefer typing, an all-new keyboard lets them glide over letters to type a word while it dynamically predicts text.

Face Unlock: Keeping the Kobo Arc secure has never been easier with the improved Face Unlock, which now calibrates in different conditions and can now optionally require a blink to verify a live person is unlocking the device. In addition, users can feel safer with improvements in malware blocking.

KOBO ARC: READS YOU LIKE A BOOK
Kobo Arc is a sleek 7″ Android multimedia tablet with full access to the Google Play™ store, with access to more than 700,000 apps and games. It provides users with a new way to discover content – eBooks, movies, TV shows, music, web pages, and more. Kobo’s exclusive interface, Tapestries, allows users to collect and curate content of interest in dynamic, visual Tapestries by “pinning” content to the home screen. The Kobo Arc’s Discover Ribbon recommends related content based on the items pinned to Tapestries. The more users collect in their Tapestries, the more the Kobo Arc learns what they love and provides them with more engaging content.

The device has a high-definition display that delivers crisp, sharp text, and with more than 16 million colours, brings photos, videos, and games to life. With front-facing speakers enhanced by SRS TruMedia™, a built-in microphone, and a front-facing camera, Kobo Arc provides 10 hours of continuous reading or video play and two weeks on standby. Kobo Arc is available with 16GB, 32GB and 64GB configurations at local retailers.

For information, please visit: http://www.kobo.com/koboarc

About Kobo Inc.
Kobo Inc. is one of the world’s fastest-growing eReading services offering more than 3.2 million eBooks, magazines and newspapers to millions of customers in 190 countries. Believing that consumers should have the freedom to read any book on any device, Kobo provides consumers with a choice when reading. From its Family of eReaders, which includes the Kobo Touch™, Kobo Mini, Kobo Glo and Kobo Arc, to its free, top-ranked eReading applications for Apple®, BlackBerry®, Android®, and Windows® products, Kobo ensures the next great read is just a page-turn away. Headquartered in Toronto and owned by Tokyo-based Rakuten, Kobo eReaders can be found in major retail chains around the world. For more information, visit www.kobo.com.