Google is introducing a new design for the smartphone version of the Android Market. The new interface looks a bit more like what we’ve come to expect from Google’s app store on the web and on Android tablets. It also brings features that had been tablet-only up until now, including support for purchasing eBooks and renting movies to stream or download to your device.

There’s a new home screen layout with featured content. Users can now view app lists as well, which means you can see the top free, top  paid, or top grossing apps or games.

App detail pages have also been redesigned so that screenshots now show up above the description. Developers that have added promotional videos will also see thumbnail icons for the videos on the description page.

Google is rolling out the new Market gradually to all devices running Android 2.2 and up. My Nexus One is still showing the old version, but you can check out the new Android Marke tin the demo video after the break.

The books and movies features are US-only for now.

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OverDrive provides the platform used by most public libraries to loan eBooks to patrons. The company’s platform works with a number of dedicated eBook Readers including the Sony Reader and Barnes & Noble NOOK line, and OverDrive also offers apps for Android, BalckBerry, iOS, and Windows Mobile. Now you can also add Windows Phone 7 to the list.

The folks at OverDrive launched a WP7 app this week, and it might be the most attractive app from the company yet. It offers all the usual features including the ability to manage your book loans and read digital books or listen to audiobooks on your mobile device. You can also change the screen color and adjust font sizes.

But the menus are a lot more attractive, especially the library and recent areas where you can see large thumbnail icons with cover images for each book.

OverDrive for Windows Phone 7 is available as a free download from the Windows Phone Marketplace. You can check out a demo video after the break.

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Apple has rolled out two major changes to its iBooks digital book platform this week. First the company added an iBooks section to iTunes, allowing you to purchase and download books from your computer the same way you would for apps, music, and movies. Second, the company has rolled out iBooks 1.3 for iPhone, iPod touch, and iPad. It’s available as a free download from the App Store.

The big changes in iBooks 1.3 include a read-aloud feature in selected children’s books and the ability to automatically play audio or video included with enhanced eBooks. I’m not sure that last one is a feature rather than a bug.

iBooks 1.3 also fixes a bug that caused some books to show the same page twice and Apple says the app is now more responsive when opening long books.

Kobo provides eBook readers for iPhone, BlackBerry, webOS, and Android, allowing you to download paid or free eBooks and read them on a wide range of devices. The company has also been offering social features for the iPhone and iPad letting you unlock awards as you read and share your achievements with your friends. Now the company is bringing its “Reading Life” social features to Android phones and tablets with Kobo 3.0 for Android.

For instance, you unlock your first award just for installing the app and clicking the Reading Life Tab, but there are also awards for starting a new book, finishing a book, or taking notes in a book. More advanced awards including The Twain Award for reading everyday for two weeks or the Witching Hour award for reading after midnight.

The Android app doesn’t yet have all the Reading Life features available for iOS. You can’t yet synchronize your reading statistics with other Kobo devices, and you don’t get the pretty charts showing your reading stats and habits, but both of those features are in the works.

Kobo 3.0 for Android is available as a free download from the Android Market.

Barnes & Noble has updated its NOOK app for Android phones and tablets, giving virtually any Android tablet much of the same functionality you’d expect if you purchased a NOOK Color device.

NOOK 2.6.1 for Android can run on any device with Android 2.1 and up, but you get a few special features if you install the app on an Android tablet with a high resolution display, including the ability to purchase magazine subscriptions or individual issues.

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Amazon has released a new version of its Kindle app for Android, bringing improved support for tablets running Google Android 3.0 Honeycomb. Appropriately, the new app is Kindle 3.0 for Android.

There are two key areas where the app has been redesigned. The first is the new grid view for your library which lets you see thumbnail icons of all your books instead of a the default list view which Amazon’s Kindle apps for smartphones uses. The new grid view option is also available on smartphones now, but it looks much better on a big-screen tablet such as the Motorola XOOM.

The other major change is the in-app Kindle Store, which has a much more app-store like feel.

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Amazon has announced plans to launch Kindle Library Lending later this year, allowing Kindle users to borrow digital books from more than 11,000 US libraries. The feature will be available both on physical Kindle eBook readers and on the company’s mobile apps for iOS, Android, BlackBerry, and other mobile and desktop computer platforms.

A number of other eBook readers have been offering access to digital library books for a while, but Amazon’s system has a few things that make it stand out:

• Users will be able to check out Kindle books on one device and continue reading where they left off on another.
• Your annotations, bookmarks, and other data will be saved so that if you check out a book a second time they’re all accessible. You can also access this data if you later purchase the same book from Amazon.

Amazon is working with OverDrive on the Kindle Library Lending feature. OverDrive powers the digital book and audiobook lending systems for most public libraries in the US. Most OverDrive titles are currently available as PDF or EPUB files. Amazon Kindle eBooks use a proprietary format, so it’s not entirely clear at the moment whether all books that are currently available for other platforms such as the Sony Reader, Barnes & Noble NOOK, or Bluefire app will be available for Kindle when the service launches later this year.

OverDrive is a company that powers library eBook and digital audio book loans for thousands of public libraries. OverDrive Media Console software is available for iPhone and Android devices, letting you check out media from your local library on your phone or tablet. But up until recently the company’s BlackBerry app only supported MP3 audio books. Now OverDrive has released a new version that adds support for eBooks as well.

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