Nook Glowlight Plus And The Kobo App

I bugged the President of Kobo, Michael Tamblyn, on Twitter:

And, believe it not, he replied. Because he’s a great guy.

@mikecane Since you asked nicely ;-) Short answer: NGP runs an old ver. of android, so similarly old versions of the Kobo app work… (1/3)

— Michael Tamblyn (@mtamblyn) December 15, 2015

@mikecane Store and library work reasonably well, but eInk has trouble with the page curls, transitions etc. in reading experience… (2/3)

— Michael Tamblyn (@mtamblyn) December 15, 2015

@mikecane … so it's less than ideal. New versions of the app take advantage of android features that don't exist in NGP. (3/3)

— Michael Tamblyn (@mtamblyn) December 15, 2015

So there we go. Which is probably also the answer to why some Android apps work on the Nook Glowlight Plus and some don’t: the Android version. (And whatever, um, “modifications” the Nook coders did.)

When the Nook sinks — I doubt it’ll be here this time next year — I wonder if Kobo parent Rakuten will finally try to give Kobo a U.S. presence again? Hell, I wonder when Kobo parent Rakuten will get the call from Barnes & Noble to take their customers, as Kobo did with the Sony Reader?

In the meantime, now we know what the deal is with the Kobo app. Straight from Tamblyn himself! Thanks!

Tamblyn, by the way, gave this nifty speech I posted about yesterday, which should be read.

Previously here:

Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #12: ROOT!
Nook Glowlight Plus: ZeroLab Nooter
First Video: Nook Glowlight Plus With Alternate Launchers
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #11
Confirmed: Nook Glowlight Plus Updated For Adobe Digital Editions
Nook Glowlight Plus Gets A Video Review
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #10
Nook Glowlight Plus: Updated For Adobe Digital Editions?
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #9
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #8
Nook Glowlight Plus: Google Books PDF Simulation
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #7
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #6
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #5
Nook Glowlight Plus: Skipping Registration Needed
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #4
Nook Glowlight Plus Has The Browser Trick!
Nook Glowlight Plus: Hidden Browser Trick Works?
Nook Glowlight Plus Rooting Notes #3
Nook Glowlight Plus Notes #2
Nook Glowlight Plus Notes #1
Nano-Fondle: New Nook Glowlight Plus