Your Kobo can run apps now.

Cobalt is an open-source application platform for Kobo e-readers: a launcher, a signed App Store, a Rust SDK, and a runtime that keeps every app in its own unprivileged process.

Install it once over USB. Every app after that installs, updates and removes on the reader itself, over Wi-Fi. A reboot returns to the stock Kobo reader.

The launcher on a Kobo Clara BW.

Not affiliated with Rakuten Kobo

Recorded on-device at 3× speed. Watch as video.

Running on a Kobo.

Every app is a static ARM binary running as its own unprivileged process on stock hardware. The App Store installs, updates and removes them over Wi-Fi, with signatures verified before anything launches.

arXiv papers and coding agents, on the panel.

These are photographs of the device, not simulator captures.…