Kindle, Ebooks | featured news

If Google Trends are anything to go by, a fair number of you were fortunate enough to unwrap a Kindle 3 this Christmas (currently, “free kindle books” is trending at number 9).

Good news, Android owners! One of the iPhone and iPad's best mobile applications, the Amazon Kindle app, is coming soon to phones running the Google Android mobile operating system. Like all Kindle products, the Android app will include Amazon's Whispersync technology, which synchronizes reading progress, notes and bookmarks across devices including Kindle brand e-readers, desktop software and mobile applications.

Borders just announced that they're selling the Kobo eReader, an $149 ebook touted, by Wired, no less, as a Kindle killer. This device isn't formally Border's only ebook reader. Instead, they will sell multiple readers online and in stores and the real news is that they're creating an ebook store that will act as their default spot on the interwebs for ebooks and content.

Downloading content is becoming increasingly big business for the online retailer, which already has download offerings for its Kindle eBook, MP3 music and movies.

Apple's alleged Kindle-killing tablet appears to be on the runway for a spring 2010 takeoff. And in what may or may not be related news, two top-drawer US publishers are holding back ebooks of dozens of their upcoming major titles until the same time ...