Facts are facts: it's hard to rival the Kindle. Amazon's e-reader is a monolith, and even the Nook family from Barnes & Noble is having a tough time competing. But that doesn't mean that no competition exists. Kobo has just announced that their eReader Touch Edition is now available across the U.S. and Cada, and for a reasonable rate, too. It's $129.99 USD and $139.99 CDN, offering a new design, touch support and a choice of colors (black, lilac, blue and silver).

As with some other high-profile reader/tablet out there, there's just a single home button to mess with, and there's also Infrared touch technology, a flicker-free touch screen experience, a 6" E Ink display, one-month of battery life, 2GB of onboard storage, an SD card slot, and support for PDF viewing (as well as ePUB, MOBI, and normal ole documents).


Kobo themselves offer up 1 million free titles, and you can read / borrow eBooks from your local library. Still tough to compete with the cheaper ad-supported Kindle, but it's surely a start.