This week Kobo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble, and a number of other companies updated their iOS apps to comply with Apple’s new rules for in-app payments. Basically if you’re not going to use Apple’s system for collecting payments, the company wants you to stop using the app to collect payments at all. Rather than give Apple a 30% cut of proceeds, these companies have taken the latter approach.

Now Kobo is planning on going a step further. The digital book provider is working on a new mobile app designed using web tools such as HTML5. When it’s ready, users will be able to use the Kobo app by visiting a web site in a web browser. If you’re using an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad you’ll be able to save the app to your home screen so that you can even synchronize your book collection with your mobile device. In other words, you’ll be able to read eBooks in the Kobo web app even if you don’t have an active internet connection — just as you would with a native app.

Of course, this approach could save Kobo a lot of money, but only if the company manages to convince people to install the web app. Part of the appeal of the App Store is that it’s designed to make app discovery easy. I guess we’ll find out soon whether Kobo has enough clout to convince people to install an app they didn’t discover in the App Store. At the very least, existing Kobo users trying to figure out how they’re supposed to purchase eBooks now that there’s no link to the web store in the mobile app will probably go to the web site to see what’s up.

As an added bonus, since the new app will be built with HTML5, it should work on any platform that supports the web standard. This means that the same app should work on iOS, Android, webOS, and other mobile operating systems.

Kobo, Amazon, Barnes & Noble and The Wall Street Journal have updated their iOS apps so that users can no longer make purchases directly on an iPhone, iPod touch, or iPad. You can still purchase digital books for the Kobo Reader, Amazon Kindle, or Barnes & Noble NOOK apps from the companies’ web sites or sign up for a digital subscription to the WSJ from the web and then access that content on your iOS device. But the process isn’t quite as convenient as it once was.

That’s kind of sad, because the moves are likely a response to Apple’s efforts to make things simpler for consumers. Apple rolled out its own in-app payment system recently which allows developers to charge for subscriptions or purchases of single items such as eBooks, songs, or movies. When a customer pays, their iTunes account is billed which means that the charge shows up on your phone bill, PayPal account, or whatever payment method you currently use to pay for apps or digital media from iTunes.

It’s probably true that the system would be better for consumers if everyone just used Apple’s system. So why are these companies shutting down in-app purchases instead? Because Apple wants to take a 30% cut of revenue from sales using its system, just as it does for apps purchased from the App Store.

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Kobo has been fleshing out its social platform for readers by adding new “Reading Life” features to its iOS and Android apps. Today the company rolled out an updated iPhone app which lets you see which books your friends have read and ask for recommendations. It also lets you compare stats with your friends to see how many books they’ve read or how quickly they’re reading.

Other changes in Kobo 4.5 include:

• Improved support for footnotes
• Switch library shelves by swiping one finger to the left
• Open or close the library edit menu by swiping two fingers left or right
• See which awards your friends have unlocked

Kobo 4.5 is available as a free download from the App Store.

Kobo provides eBook readers for iPhone, BlackBerry, webOS, and Android, allowing you to download paid or free eBooks and read them on a wide range of devices. The company has also been offering social features for the iPhone and iPad letting you unlock awards as you read and share your achievements with your friends. Now the company is bringing its “Reading Life” social features to Android phones and tablets with Kobo 3.0 for Android.

For instance, you unlock your first award just for installing the app and clicking the Reading Life Tab, but there are also awards for starting a new book, finishing a book, or taking notes in a book. More advanced awards including The Twain Award for reading everyday for two weeks or the Witching Hour award for reading after midnight.

The Android app doesn’t yet have all the Reading Life features available for iOS. You can’t yet synchronize your reading statistics with other Kobo devices, and you don’t get the pretty charts showing your reading stats and habits, but both of those features are in the works.

Kobo 3.0 for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Kobo has rolled out a new version of its iPhone app which offers new social reading tools. The Kobo eBook reader still lets you download, ourchase, and read books from the Kobo store. But now you can also see real-time updates when your friends share books, quotes, or other data.

You can also receive notifications when friends comment on your own message. Kobo 4.3 also lets you updated your Facebook status from the activity feed, so you can let your Facebook friends know when you start or finish a book or make another milestone.

The update also lets you open URLs linking to web sites from within a book you’re reading.

Kobo 4.3 is available as a free download from the App Store.

There’s a new eBook app for Windows Phone 7, but it appears that at the moment it’s only available for phones from Samsung. Mobility Digest has the details on the new Kobo Reader app which is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace — if you have a Samsung phone.

Like Kobo’s apps for iOS and Android, the Windows Phone app lets you purchase and download eBooks from the Kobo store and read them on your device. But the user interface has been tweaked for Windows Phone 7, providing multiple screens that you can swipe through to show your reading list, local library, and internet book store.

When reading a book you an place bookmarks, search for text, adjust the background color, or zoom.

As eBookNewer points out, there’s reason to believe this app may not be an official Kobo app — the way you login is quite different from other Kobo Reader apps. But it will let you access titles purchased from the Kobo eBook store, so it might be good enough to hold you over until an official Windows Phone 7 app is available.

Update: It’s official. The Kobo app for Windows Phone 7 uses the Kobo platform, but it wasn’t actually developed by Kobo.

In order to figure out how to actually find the app in the Marketplace, hit up Mobility Digest for instructions.

via WP Central

Kobo has rolled out a new version of its eBook app for iOS which brings the Reading Life social platform to the iPhone and iPod touch. Kobo introduced Reading Life for the iPad in December, allowing users to share book information and passages over Facebook, unlock “awards” of reading, and track your reading statistics including your reading speed and how much of your eBook library you’ve worked through. Now those features are available for all devices running iOS 3.1 and up.

Kobo 4.2 also now lets you synchronize your awards between the iPad, iPhone, and iPod touch if you have multiple devices. There’s also improved performance on the iPhone 3G, and bug fixes and stability improvements.

I have to say, I haven’t actually used the Kobo app for reading eBooks all that much, since I typically use Stanza and Bluefire… but the stats junkie in me kind of wants to start using Kobo more just so I can track my progress. I guess that’s kind of the point, although I’ve found that the GoodReads app for iOS also lets me keep track of books I’ve read and share progress with my friends whether I’m reading eBooks or old fashioned paper and ink books.

Kobo for iOS is available as a free download from the App Store.

Kobo has rolled out an updated version of its mobile eBook app for iPhone and iPod touch. While the update doesn’t bring all the social features that are in the latest iPad version of the Kobo Reader app, you can now login to your Facebook account to share passages via Facebook either by posting them to your wall or setting your Facebook status.

Kobo 4.1 for iOS also adds support for Instapaper on the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. This lets you sign into your Instapaper acount and synchronize and read content on your mobile device.

Instapaper is a service that lets you bookmark any web site using a desktop browser so that you can read it later on a computer, iOS device or Amazon Kindle or other supported eBook reader.

Kobo 4.1 is available as a free download from the Android Market.