The Bluefire Reader eBook app for iOS was one of the first mobile apps to support public library books using Adobe DRM. The app supports ePub and PDF formats and also features an integrated book store for purchasing digital books. Now the developers have started to show off an Android version of the app.

Like the iPhone and iPad version, Bluefire for Android will support library books as well as purchased titles.

The app features all the usual bells and whistles including the ability to resize fonts, adjust screen brightness, create bookmarks, and view information about books in your library.

The folks at eBook News in Germany got a chance to check out a pre-release copy running on the Samsung Galaxy Tab. The version they tested is a rebranded version of Bluefire called Libri. You can check out a hands-on video after the break.

via eBookNewser

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There’s a new eBook app for Windows Phone 7, but it appears that at the moment it’s only available for phones from Samsung. Mobility Digest has the details on the new Kobo Reader app which is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace — if you have a Samsung phone.

Like Kobo’s apps for iOS and Android, the Windows Phone app lets you purchase and download eBooks from the Kobo store and read them on your device. But the user interface has been tweaked for Windows Phone 7, providing multiple screens that you can swipe through to show your reading list, local library, and internet book store.

When reading a book you an place bookmarks, search for text, adjust the background color, or zoom.

As eBookNewer points out, there’s reason to believe this app may not be an official Kobo app — the way you login is quite different from other Kobo Reader apps. But it will let you access titles purchased from the Kobo eBook store, so it might be good enough to hold you over until an official Windows Phone 7 app is available.

Update: It’s official. The Kobo app for Windows Phone 7 uses the Kobo platform, but it wasn’t actually developed by Kobo.

In order to figure out how to actually find the app in the Marketplace, hit up Mobility Digest for instructions.

via WP Central

There are at least half a dozen great eBook apps for iOS which let you purchase, download, and read eBooks on your mobile device. And they all have one thing in common: you can’t actually use the apps to purchase books. Instead you’re dumped out to a mobile web site using the Safari web browser. That’s because Apple doesn’t allow anyone to distribute software in the App Store which lets you make in-app purchases without using iTunes.

So it really shouldn’t be all that surprising that Apple rejected Sony’s Reader app for iOS which included its own integrated book store. This isn’t just a case of Apple favoring its own iBooks service over Sony’s competing service. It’s Apple favoring its own payment service over everyone else’s.

That said, when the New York Times reported that Apple rejected the Sony Reader app (which is already available for Google Android devices), tech blogs including Engadget, TUAW, Business Insider, GottaBeMobile, and the Digital Reader were up in arms.

This really sounds like business as usual from Apple… which isn’t to say that it’s a good thing, but eBook app makers and other developers have been circumventing Apple’s rules with web-based bookstores for ages, so it sounds like Sony may have an easy solution.

On the other hand, The New York Times suggests that Apple also told Sony that developers can no longer “let customers have access to purchases they have made outside the App Store.” If that’s true, then it would mean that the web-based bookstore wouldn’t work — and it could be a sign that Apple might go after Amazon, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, and other companies which offer readers ways to purchase and download eBooks without using the iTunes service.

Update: It looks like there’s good news and bad news. The good news is that Apple hasn’t changed its official policy. The bad news is that the company is starting to enforce a rule that’s been there all along. Apps that allow users to purchase content through a third party web store must also let users purchase the content within the app — using Apple’s payment services. In other words, Apple wants to be able to get a cut of digital media sales. That’s not going to make Amazon and other third party eBook sellers happy… I wonder if they can submit apps that say “please don’t click here to purchase books, click here instead…”

Sony has launched a mobile eBook Reader app for Google Android. It’s now available for download from the Android Market. The app supports Android 2.2 and up. An iOS version is expected soon.

Scan to download

Reader for Android can handle books in EPUB and PDF formats, as well as titles download from Sony’s Reader Store. The app is also one of the few mobile eBook readers that supports Adobe DRM. Unfortunately I haven’t found a way to import books from public libraries or other stores that use Adobe DRM. Inserting them into the Sony folder on the SD card doesn’t seem to work, nor does opening the .acsm file on the Android device.

The good news is the Sony Reader app is reasonably pleasant to use. You can easily adjust the font size and screen brightness from any book, jump to a page, search for text, or add bookmarks.

The home screen is divided into a few different sections including recent books at the top, a scrollable list of all your books in the middle, and favorites, bookmarks, and highlights below. There’s also a link the Sony Reader Store, which opens in your default web browser.

Probably the best reason to download the Sony Reader app is if you already use the Sony Reader Daily Edition (PRS-950SC), because you can synchronize your bookmarks, highlights, and reading position between the Android app and the Daily Edition so you can pick up reading on one device where you left off on the other.

If you’re not a Sony Reader user, there’s another good reason to give the app a try: It comes with 6 free eBooks including 3 classics and 3 newer titles.

The bad news is that the Sony Reader Store doesn’t seem to have much in the way of free titles. When I looked for public domain titles by Mark Twain and Jane Austen which would be free from many other stores, the cheapest versions I could find in the Reader Store ran $0.95. The app is also a bit of a storage hog, eating up more than 8MB of storage, and that’s after moving the app to the SD card. That might not sound like a lot, but given how little storage space is available on many older (and some newer) Android phones, every megabyte counts.

via The Digital Reader

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MegaReader is an eBook app for iOS that lets you read DRM-free ePUB books from Feedbooks, Project Guternberg and other free book stores. There’s nothing too special about that. Stanza and a dozen other apps will let you do the same thing. But there’s one new feature that sets MegaReader apart: a Heads Up Display option that lets you use a live feed from your iPhone camera as the background for any book.

In other words, you can read a book while seeing what’s behind the book. In real life, this is absolutely useless and probably very distracting. But in theory, you could use this to read while eating, walking, or doing far more dangerous things. Check out the demo video after the break to see a few examples.

MegaReader is available from the App Store for $1.99.

via Engadget

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Amazon already offers Kindle apps for Windows and Android, allowing you to purchase and read eBooks on a PC or phone. But the company has announced plans for new Windows and Android apps specifically targeted at tablets.

Android tablets will likely have larger, higher resolution displays than a typical Android smartphone, which means a redesign is in order. Windows tablets, on the other hand may have lower resolution displays than many desktop and laptop computers. But more importantly, the way you interact with touchscreen tablets is very different from the way you interact with a keyboard-and-mouse computer, so a user interface overhaul could come in handy.

Like other Kindle apps and devices, users will be able to download content they’ve already purchased from the Kindle store and synchronize data between devices. So if you start reading a book on your tablet you can put it down and grab your phone or a Kindle DX, or an iPhone or another device to pick up where you left off.

Amazon already offers an iPad-specific Kindle app which offers two-column viewing and other features not available in the iPhone and iPod touch apps.

The new tablet-friendly apps are due out later this year.

Kobo has rolled out an updated version of its mobile eBook app for iPhone and iPod touch. While the update doesn’t bring all the social features that are in the latest iPad version of the Kobo Reader app, you can now login to your Facebook account to share passages via Facebook either by posting them to your wall or setting your Facebook status.

Kobo 4.1 for iOS also adds support for Instapaper on the iPad, iPod touch and iPhone. This lets you sign into your Instapaper acount and synchronize and read content on your mobile device.

Instapaper is a service that lets you bookmark any web site using a desktop browser so that you can read it later on a computer, iOS device or Amazon Kindle or other supported eBook reader.

Kobo 4.1 is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Google has launched a new online bookstore called Google eBooks, along with a series of applications allowing you to read digital books on Android, the iPhone, iPod touch or iPad, or any computer with a web browser. Books from Google eBooks will also be available for download as ePUB files with Adobe DRM, which means you can read them on the Barnes & Noble NOOK, Sony Reader series, and a number of other devices.

Google has been working in the digital book space fro the last few years, scanning a huge selection of books and storing the data online. Google Books has allowed users to read free and public domain books for a while, as well as search for text within copyrighted books, which has led to a few lawsuits.

What’s new in today’s announcement is that you’ll be able to purchase eBooks from major publishers through Google eBooks and read them on a variety of devices using either the web reader or native apps.

The iOS app doesn’t appear to be available from the App Store just yet, but I downloaded the Android app and took it for a spin this morning. The first time you run the app you’re greeted by a screen asking you for your Google account, followed by a message asking if you’d like to synchronize your last page read, bookmarks, and other data online. This way you can stop reading a book on one device and pick up where you left off on another. You can also access any book you’ve purchased on one device on another, or find them on the web.

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