Although numerous firms make gadgets with E Ink digital paper screens, most customers go for both an Amazon Kindle or a Kobo when selecting an e-reader. But for many who don’t supply their studying supplies from a web based retailer, the Kobo is finally playing catch-up with the Kindle by removing the need for an online account to really use the gadget.

Both the Amazon Kindle and the Rakuten Kobo present entry to thousands and thousands of digital books by way of every firm’s respective on-line shops that may be bought and downloaded straight from the e-readers themselves, however each Kindles and Kobos additionally enable digital books and paperwork to be uploaded on to the gadget by connecting them to a pc. For the Kindle, this may be achieved with out the necessity for creating or logging into an Amazon account, however the Kobo has lengthy required customers to create or log right into a Kobo account earlier than the gadget can be utilized in any respect. The requirement isn’t a dealbreaker—the corporate’s e-readers clearly nonetheless promote effectively sufficient—however for these with critical considerations over their on-line privateness, or who don’t have instant entry to wifi, the Kobo is actually unusable.

That’s about to vary, relying on when a Kobo gadget receives the newest 4.31.19086 firmware replace that’s slowly rolling out. The launch notes for the replace point out a handful of bug fixes in addition to expanded Chinese language assist, however an added function that isn’t talked about within the notes, according to users on the MobileRead forums, is a brand new “Sideloaded Mode” that enables the Kobo to be lastly used with out signing in first.

Without a Kobo account, customers of a Kobo e-reader can’t buy ebooks by way of the gadget and lose among the different options related to having a web based presence by way of the corporate, like monitoring studying progress or accumulating reward factors. But in any other case in Sideloaded Mode, a Kobo can nonetheless connect with a wifi community for downloading dictionary knowledge, utilizing the gadget’s rudimentary internet browser, downloading future firmware updates, and even signing into separate studying providers like Pocket.

There’s at present no indication whether or not or not Sideloaded Mode is a everlasting choice or a short lived answer till a consumer good points wifi entry later, at which level the Kobo e-reader might ultimately demand a consumer signal into an account for continued entry to their content material—however hopefully that’s not the case. Current customers who ultimately get the 4.31.19086 firmware replace on their gadget can apparently switch to Sideloaded Mode by signing out of their Kobo account after which making certain the gadget can now not connect with a wi-fi community earlier than beginning the setup course of as soon as once more.