Update June 29th at 2:35pm ET: It seems Pocket’s Kobo integration will live on. Mozilla confirmed to MobileSyrup that Kobo will update the Pocket login on their e-readers to support Firefox accounts, though it’s not clear when exactly the change will come into effect:
“Kobo is aiming to update the Pocket login on their eReaders to support Firefox accounts. The exact timing is to be determined, however Pocket’s existing Kobo users will not be affected, nor lose access to their accounts.
“Note that new Pocket accounts created after August 15th may not have access to the existing Pocket login option, depending on when Kobo support becomes available.”
Mozilla also updated its support documents and Pocket’s support documents with the new information. Previously, the documents said that Kobo devices don’t support the “specific modern web technologies that Firefox accounts require.” The original story follows below.
Though I’m not much of an e-reader user, I’ve always been partial to Kobo’s devices because of the handy Pocket integration. Unfortunately, Mozilla is going to kill Pocket for Kobos in August when it forces Pocket users to switch to Firefox accounts.
Pocket, if you’re not familiar, is a handy little read-it-later service that lets you save things on the internet that you want to read so you can, well, read them later. That makes it an ideal companion to an e-reader since I could save what I wanted to read, like lengthy reviews or in-depth investigative pieces, and then enjoy them later on a screen designed for reading.
Mozilla scooped up Pocket in 2017, and other than integrating the service into the Firefox web browser, it hasn’t really done much of note with it — at least, until now. The company recently announced that it would require all Pocket users to transition to a Firefox account to keep using the service. Mozilla says the move is to help improve security by allowing it to offer features like two-factor authentication (2FA), though it’s not clear why Mozilla couldn’t just offer 2FA to existing Pocket accounts.
Anyway, a new support document first spotted by Goodereader notes that Kobo devices “do not support the specific modern web technologies that Firefox accounts require.” Because of this, after the transition to Firefox accounts on August 15th, 2023, “Pocket users will no longer be able to log in, sync, and read articles on Kobo e-Readers.”
Mozilla goes on to say that it “deeply regret[s]” that it won’t continue supporting the feature.
While it’s not clear how popular the Pocket integration was on Kobo devices, it will be a very significant loss for those who did enjoy it. The Verge detailed several alternative options for getting articles onto e-readers, Kobo or otherwise, but with the major caveat that none of the alternatives are as good as Kobo’s Pocket integration.
Header image credit: Mozilla
Source: Mozilla Via: Goodereader, The Verge
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