Over the New Year's holiday we went to visit my family in Spartanburg, SC. As we hit I-95 and started cruising, my son informs us he left a book he needed to read for his English class at his friend's house. My son recently got a BlackBerry for his birthday and I remembered seeing an app in BlackBerry App Store that could help his problem. Kobo is an e-book reader service much like Amazon's Kindle or Barnes and Noble's e-book service. Amazon has not seen fit to create a Kindle app for BlackBerry's and Barnes and Noble's app did not impress me. I downloaded Kobo on my BlackBerry but didn't really give it a try.

Kobo allows you to purchase new books at a reasonable price, much like Amazon's Kindle service. There are also many books which are free. I mentioned the app to my son and he downloaded the app. Since the book he was reading was considered no longer copyrighted, he was able to find the book he needed and downloaded it for free. He was able to read his book during the trip and complete his assignment in time for school to start back. At least on this trip Kobo saved the day and, hopefully, his grade.