Amazon debuts Kindle e-book library borrowing service

By Andrew Couts April 20, 2011

Amazon announced today the Kindle Library Lending feature, which will enable Kindle owners to borrow Kindle e-books from 11,000 libraries across the country. The service will be available for “all generations of Kindle device and free Kindle reading apps,” the company said today in a press release.

The service lets users check out (i.e. download) and read Kindle books from participating libraries, free of charge. Users will also be able to take notes and add bookmarks to their borrowed e-books — a big no-no with paper library books. If a user decides to purchase the book after borrowing, the annotations added to the borrowed copy automatically transfer to the purchased version.

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“We’re excited that millions of Kindle customers will be able to borrow Kindle books from their local libraries,” said Jay Marine, Director, Amazon Kindle, in a statement.

While the idea of e-book borrowing may seem like a novel idea, similar services have been available on a wide variety of e-readers, from companies like Sony, as well as on the Barnes & Noble Nook reader, through a digital content provider OverDrive.

In fact, it is the OverDrive service that is powering Amazon’s e-borrowing feature. OverDrive will enable Amazon to deliver “a seamless library borrowing experience to Kindle customers,” Amazon says.

OverDrive also offers apps for the iPhone and iPad lines, as well as devices that run Google’s Android operating system, and BlackBerry devices, which allow users of those devices to borrow books from participating libraries.

Kindle users have been able to (unofficially) borrow e-books for some time, through the use of services like LendInk and BookLending.com. Unlike these services, however, Amazon’s borrowing feature appears to require actually visiting a library, rather than being allowed to perform the download from a home computer.

Amazon says the Kindle e-book borrowing service will launch later this year.

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Paper rules: Why borrowing an e-book from your library is so difficult

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Photo by Pecan Corner Blogspot blog

Two weeks ago, the annual Book Expo America (BEA) conference hit New York City. A gathering of publishers, booksellers, librarians, authors, reviewers, and book bloggers, BEA is the CES or E3 of the literary world. However, though e-books are a huge portion of the book world today, you wouldn't know it from walking the show floor. The literary world is slow to adopt and acknowledge that it is now a part of the tech industry, and no where is that more apparent than the sad state of e-book lending for libraries.

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Hands On: Sony goes back to basics, brings e-book ‘Reader’ app to iOS

Tablets and smartphones are capable of performing so many things, acting as tools for business or for play. They are the perfect option for anyone on the go with an entertainment itch. Often, that means games, movies, or music, but what about a good old fashioned book? Sometimes you just want to throw some wood in the fireplace, pull up a leather chair, and read from your iPhone or iPad. Sony may not be the first name that comes to mind when you're thinking about the printed word, but it would like to be a go-to in the eBook app market. As such, it's brought its Reader app to iOS.
If you're doing reading on your iOS device, you already are likely to have an e-book reader that fits your preferences. Sony's offering comes with a sleek interface that may have the appeal to those not totally in love with their current option. It also links up with users' Sony Reader Store account to bring previous purchases into the digital pages of the iOS app. Additionally, you can authorize the use of Adobe eBooks within the Sony Reader app from its info page. You'll also score a free piece of short fiction from author Kim Harrison. For fans of her work, it may be worth the free download to take a look at the tale, "Trouble on Reserve."
The Reader homescreen acts as your library, displaying the cover image of every book in your collection. It can also be displayed in list format, which will include the author's name, title, a smaller image of the cover, and the format the file is in. Regardless of the layout, it can be sorted in a variety of ways, from your most recent selection to title or author. The library can be broken down further into customizable collections. This is great for a series of books or a grouping of genre pieces that you'd like to keep together for easier navigation.

When reading a book in Reader, the text takes over the entire screen. The text is formatted for either landscape or portrait view and can easily be scrolled through with a drag of the page. Tapping the screen with a book open brings up a menu that allows you to scroll through the book with a status bar similar to one on a video player. You can also access the book's contents or search the entire text from this menu. Another way to find areas of interest within a given text is by creating bookmarks. This is done within the same menu, and you can add a note to a saved spot so you know what caught your eye at the time.
Pretty much every part of your viewing experience is customizable with the settings menu. You can increase or decrease text size, adjust the brightness, and change the page turn animation, among other options. There's also a night mode that inverts the color scheme, placing white letters on a black background as to make the screen less piercingly bright in low-light situations.
If you don't have an immovable loyalty to your current e-book reader, consider giving Sony's Reader app a try. It's entering (or re-entering, as there used to be a Reader app long ago) an app market dominated by giants, but Sony is no slouch. The interface is pretty intuitive and the customization features allow you to really make the reading experience your own. The biggest backlash may be the requirement to have a Sony Reader Store account and library, but if you're a current user of that service on a Sony e-book reader, or don't mind trying a new store for your eBook purchases, it's worth a go.
You can download the Reader - eBooks from Sony app from the iTunes App Store.

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Digital Trends Best of 2011 Awards: Tablets and E-Readers

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The iPad may have launched in 2010, but 2011 was a big year for tablets. Almost every major smartphone and PC manufacturer has joined the tablet party Apple started, beginning with the Motorola Xoom way back in February. To combat Apple on new territory, most companies turned to Google and its fledgling tablet OS, Android 3.0 (Honeycomb). Results were mixed, with some great and innovative devices coming out, padded by more iPad clones than you can shake a stick at. Until late 2011, no manufacturer seemed to be capable of beating Apple's $500 price by a significant enough margin to make much headway. If you're going to choose an iPad knockoff, it better be a lot cheaper. That's where Amazon came in. Despite most people suspecting the death of the e-reader in the face of the iPad, Kindle sales continued to surge, prompting Amazon to launch its own tablet, the Kindle Fire for a new low price of $200.
Some of this year's biggest losers were tablets as well. RIM's BlackBerry PlayBook tablet and HP's TouchPad tablet both attempted to enter the market but were greeted with little interest from buyers. HP didn't take the rejection well, momentarily announcing a complete shut down of WebOS and a potential sell-off of its entire PC division (its CEO was fired and this decision was reversed). Both companies didn't see any traction with their tablets until they were discounted to rock-bottom prices of $100-$200. But that's enough about them. Let's get on to this year's big winners.
Make sure to check the rest of our Best of 2011 Awards to see all of this year's winners.

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Apple iPad 2, $500 and up
The iPad 2 is the standard for all things tablet. Microsoft may have invented the tablet PC years ago, but Apple reinvented it as a relevant compliment to a PC and smartphone. The iPad 2 is still arguably the best tablet on the market, with a superthin aluminum frame, 9.7-inch screen with a paper-like aspect ratio of 4:3. And because Apple required all developers to make custom apps for the iPad, the market is full of apps that are custom built for Apple's tablet. Android users currently aren't so lucky. The iPad also still has that responsiveness and ease of use that Android Honeycomb doesn't quite have. We've seen and heard about many older Americans who generally avoid PCs being delighted with the iPad and using it for all sorts of things. If you want a solid buy that you know you'll enjoy, the iPad 2 is the best bet.
Read our full Apple iPad 2 Review.