If you intend to read ebooks on your Android tablet, you’ll be glad to know that there are Android apps to serve that very purpose. Here are some of the top and the best ebook reading apps for your Android device.

Kindle

Perhaps the success of Amazon’s Kindle Fire is the sole reason why the Kindle for Android app is the popular choice of many ebook readers out there. Read literally thousands of free books on the go on your tablet or your smartphone without ever needing a Kindle. The Kindle app lets users experience the same features and functionality that catapulted Amazon’s success with the Kindle Fire.

It’s the perfect ebook reading app that caters to any reader’s taste buds, whether you’re browsing for the latest fashion trends on a magazine, or getting real-time updates through online newspapers, the Kindle for Android never fails to amaze you. Other features include a built-in dictionary, Google Search, and Wikipedia access–all of which will greatly complement your reading pleasure.

Get the Kindle app from the Android Market.

Google Books

Reading just got better with Google’s own reading app called Google Books. What is Google Books? From the name itself, it’s all about books and Google’s integration with its services. What makes it different from other ebook reading apps is the sheer number of downloadable books that span over 3 million titles for you to browse and download. Choose from a wide spectrum of choices from Google’s vast library of free and public domain materials that couldn’t be normally found anywhere.

Get the Google Books app from the Android Market.

NOOK for Android by B&N

With Amazon porting its famous Kindle Reader app for Android, Barnes and Noble is doing the same thing. There’s no need for you to own a NOOK tablet, as the application runs on any Android smartphone or tablet. With over 2 million books in Barnes and Noble’s arsenal, you’ll have your very own pocketable library at your fingerprints. Optimized for Android use, the app can easily mark your favorite magazine subscriptions like US Weekly, National Geographic, and The Oprah Magazine — free for a 14-day trial period. Previous users of the NOOK tablet will feel welcomed by the app as it sports the familiar user interface that they love and adore.

Get the NOOK for Android by B&N app from the Android Market.

Aldiko Book Reader

If you’re tired of the same old-fashioned ebook readers found on the Android Market, try Aldiko Book Reader. It is a great alternative to apps supplied by many large companies such as Amazon and Barnes and Noble. Buy ebooks at great deals from your favorite retailers in either Adobe PDF or EPUB formats. Users can also download directly the ebook of their choice into their Android device without using a computer to transfer files.

Get the Aldiko Book Reader app from the Android Market.

Kobo eBooks

Reading on your Android device will never be the same again with Kobo eBooks. Featuring a massive database of free ebooks to download, users are treated to many interesting titles. Start your day right with the Kobo eReader app that makes reading more entertaining and stimulating. Make reading a fun learning experience as the app has a special feature called Reading Life, which monitors and tracks your reading statistics. You can also share memorable quotes, notes, dialogues, and more with the integrated Faebook feature.

Get the Kobo eBooks app from the Android Market.

Check out these ebook readers for your Android device and carry on with your reading habit. With your books now as portable as your smartphone or tablet, there’s no more stopping you from reading your favorite books any time you want and wherever you are.  What’s your favorite ebook reader app?

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Have you always wanted that perfect combo of tablet and laptop? Well hang in there, because Asus may have finally cracked the code. With detachable keyboard and all, this might be the perfect fit for users on the go that still want that incredible power and access to a nifty keyboard for some content creation on the move.

There is not much detail surrounding this device yet, but that doesn’t mean we have not heard credible rumors. Here are some of the best rumors and the ones we are most confident about:

• Ice Cream Sandwich?
• Kal-El Quad-Core Processor
• Connecting Keyboard (Hence “Transformer”)
• $499 Price-Tag
• Estimated 2 Million+ of original Asus Transformer sold in 2011
• The release date will be in time for the holidays – so before the end of 2011
• 16/32GB Internal Storage
• 1GB memory
• 5MP+ Rear-Camera
• 720p+ Video Capture
• No word on keyboard dock compatibility from previous Transformer, but it’s likely.
• November 7 European debut is looking likely

The Asus Slider (left) next to its kin, the Transformer (right)

Wrap-Up

In general, due to the recent release of the Kindle Fire Tablet, the $499 price-tag comes off as a bit pricy. However, packing what is expected to be the first Kal-El Quad-Core Processor and the ability to attach a full keyboard, $499 is not looking too bad anymore. Furthermore, the Original Asus Eee Pad Transformer lasted a ridiculous 9.5 hours by itself and an even more un-fathomable 16 hours when docked to the keyboard. Additionally, you could see the Transformer 2 going above and beyond those numbers now that it will be packing the Kal-El Quad and possibly Ice-Cream Sandwich.

Tegra 3 will have the same performance of a midrange computer from last year - but with the battery savings of ARM!

Check out the amazing benchmarks of Tegra 3 – Project Kal-El, simply shocking performance increases – and battery savings too!

After reading all that this super-tab has to offer, the price tag does not look that bad. However, to get the full keyboard, Asus is making customers cough up another $100-$150. Now, that does not sound that bad for a tablet and laptop together along with a Quad-Core.

We had reported earlier that Transformer 2 could be debuted as early as the end of October, and with other quad core Tegra 3 tablets already coming into the public sphere from lower tier manufacturer ZTE, we think that this date could still potentially pan out. That being said, we think it’s likelier that Asus will begin shipping the Transformer 2 sometime closer to the middle of November, in time for the holidays. CEO of ASUS, Jerry Shen, said to Digitimes, that the Transformer 2 is due to be outed soon, and will land with Ice Cream Sandwich. Furthermore, he also went public with the pricing a few days ago, and the company is still enjoying considerable success with their original Transfomer.

What do you think?

Via Digitimes

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Six months after the release of Motorola Xoom, the first Honeycomb tablet, here are some recent app releases for social networking, productivity, and reading that are spicing up the platform.

Social Networking

While the Twitter for Android app works rather well on Honeycomb, third-party providers are definitely giving the official app a run for its money. Tweetcaster HD is optimized for tablets, allowing one message stream at a time, filters for posts with media, and Zip It, a cool feature that zips annoying tweeters without unfollowing.

There’s also Tweetcomb, which features a Tweetdeck-like interface for multiple streams.

A common sentiment for tablet users using the native Facebook for Android app is that the app keeps crashing, or worse, not even compatible with their Honeycomb device (take for example, Samsung Galaxy Tab 10.1). The developers behind Tweetcaster then released Friendcaster Tab for Facebook, which is still in its beta stages but is definitely showing a lot of potential to dethrone the official app.

Other social networking sites like LinkedIn and Foursquare also have their official Android apps, but the focus of developers is on top 2 sites, of course.

Productivity

As mentioned earlier, most manufacturers offer devices with built-in apps like e-mail, memo, tasks, among others. However, there are a number of interesting apps in the Market that would do those and more.

Bring your corporate Exchange server or even your Outlook on your tablet with Touchdown HD, with support for e-mail, calendar, tasks, and contacts. This is a 30-day trial app, with the paid one sold at $19.99.

For free but still reliable productivity app, there’s Evernote, which arrive just a month ago bat the Android Market. Save your ideas, record audio and video, and take pictures, then access them in any of your devices, as Evernote cleverly syncs all of them.

A good alternative to Evernote would be Catch Notes, which beats the former with a reminder/alarm feature.

Reading

Kindle has established itself as the authority in e-books, and with its Honeycomb-optimized app, no doubt that it has sealed its reign in that department. The best part of it is its seamless integration with the Kindle Store, allowing access to millions of books, free or otherwise. This feature is not available in iPad, thanks to some App Store policies.

On the other hand, RSS feeds are in the realm of Google Reader. Since it updated its app to be optimized for tablets, it has featured a two-column interface similar to the Gmail app. It now allows for easier content access, without the need to flip to different pages to go back to the feed.

The Android Market practically covers apps for various basic uses, only that some are still not Honeycomb-friendly as of the moment. A sweet reminder though– iPad started with just a few apps too in the App Store.

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Like iPad, for half the price

If they are able to say this about their tablet (meaning the price will be $250 or less), then the word will quickly spread out that Amazon (a brand many people know and like) now has a tablet that is “like iPad, for half the price. Obviously, even at that price, the tablet needs to look high quality, and the screen should be gorgeous – it is after all a reading device, and I don’ t think Amazon will cut corners here. If B&N could pull it off, they sure can, too.

Reader first, tablet second

I don’t think Amazon needs to compete head-on with the iPad anyway. While the iPad is a tablet first, reader second (or 5th), the Amazon tablet can, and should be a reader first, tablet second. There are a lot of Kindle users or potential Kindle buyers, who want something “like Kindle, but with tablet features”.

While e-ink is pretty great at replicating the look of the real paper, it also comes with some huge disadvantages such as not being useful for much else than book reading, and people don’t really like single-purpose devices. I think they’d also like to see a much smoother page refresh as well, than a 0.3 second blackout everytime they turn a page.

A lot of people would be willing to live with the shortcomings of reading a book on an LCD device, if they can use the device for a lot more. So, to them, a “reader first, tablet second” device makes a lot of sense. If Amazon could make the screen really great, and give it a pretty high resolution for a 7″ display, such as 1280×800, like the current 10″ Android tablets, I think all of the sudden, people would realize reading a book on an LCD is a lot more enjoyable than they thought it would be.

Something special?

Somehow, I doubt that Amazon’s first (and maybe even the second one) this year would have Android 4.0 underneath, and they might not even use the regular Android Market. Normally, I’d say they should try to get the Android Market because otherwise it would be suicide, but Amazon might be able to get away with it.

First, the Android Market doesn’t have that many tablet apps anyway, so it’s the right window of opportunity for Amazon to launch their tablets now with only their own app market, especially if they manage to bring in more tablet apps than Google could.

Second, if their Amazon tablet really has something special, this would also help people forget about the Android Market. This something special could be a new type of display that we might not have seen in products until now, or not produced in volume. It could be a display that works almost as well as an LCD, but with the advantage of e-ink of being readable in direct sunlight. Initial rumors said that Amazon would use Qualcomm’s Mirasol display, but then we heard that Qualcomm couldn’t produce enough of them in time. But what if they tried an alternative? Samsung also bought a company that made something similar to the Mirasol display. And there’s also the PixelQi display that first appeared on the Notion Ink Adam tablet, and has since improved.

Amazon has 2 strategies here: either go with a pretty common and predictable tablet (that is high quality), and go as cheap as possible, or introduce a new kind of reader/tablet hybrid. They could go either way, but I also know that Amazon is a pretty innovative company in general. I think it’s a little unlikely that they will do what everyone else is doing. They will want to be significantly different, so people regard their tablet as special. But being much cheaper than an iPad and other “high-end” Android tablets right now, might help Amazon sell millions of them in a short amount of time, and in the same time also help the Android tablet market get off the ground.

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The main problem that Android tablets have nowadays is trying to match the iPad. Going head-to-head in terms of features, functionality, and design with Apple’s tablet juggernaut is a daunting proposition. Apple’s early push has made it the benchmark of all future tablets; with a capacitive touchscreen and SSD, the iPad is a difficult beast to beat in terms of specs.

Another big problem is the price point – you can get cheap Android tablets; but don’t even think they’ll be a match for the iPad. Of course, the higher-end Android tablets can exceed the Apple’s current favorite in terms of performance and specs; but they’re a tad too expensive for the average user. This has resulted in Windows and Android tablets trailing behind in the adoption race for being the premier tablet OS.

Well, a boost for Android OS adoption maybe coming from an unexpected direction. Amazon has recently announced that its cheapest version of their Kindle e-reader product has become a bestseller. The cheap price is because of the WiFi and 3G being stripped out and having the entire experience be subsidized by a minimum of ads.

You may not like advertisements popping up, but Amazon’s unobtrusive ad approach, either through a banner on the home screen or in the screen savers of the product, may herald a new way of lowering the price of tablets. As it is, the ads have managed to cute nearly 30 dollars off of the Kindle’s price tag.

This is encouraging news for manufacturers hoping to bring down prices and raise profit margins. This may also be a hint on what sort of attack plan Amazon may have when it enters the tablet market, a rumor that has recently been confirmed by Jeff Bezos himself. So, better expect some ads to come with that Android installation in the future.

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Amazon & Android

Amazon are stirring up quite a haze around their involvement with Android at the moment. Sure, the Amazon Kindle application for Android has been around for a while now, but we’ve recently learned Amazon might launch their own App Store for Android too. To become a developer for this Amazon App Store you have to pay a fee of $99 and Amazon will pay you a royalty equal to the greater of 70% of the purchase price or 20% of the List Price as of the purchase date. What is most interesting comes next…

It has subsequently been alleged that Amazon may release their very own tablet based device. This device will presumably run Android too because of the App Store that they have just announced. Sure, this isn’t a given, but it would be surprising if Amazon stuck to their own software like they did for the Kindle (which runs a Linux-2.6.10 based platform). The rumor is borne out of information from TechCrunch, so head on over there if you want to read it form the horses mouth.

[Via: TechCrunch]

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Dell Mini 5 loves Amazon

The Dell Mini 5 seems to be picking up pace at the moment, and the latest development with this piece of kit includes a host of services from Amazon preinstalled to the hardware. The most interesting of which is a Kindle application. We’re reading inbetween the lines somewhat here as all the picture displays is a bullet point staying “Kindle Book Reader Applications”. Nonetheless, to our ears this can mean only one thing. Of course we are expecting the device to already come with Amazon’s MP3 store preinstalled as this is already the case on a number of other Android powered phones.

To put things into context, there has been an iPhone and Blackberry Kindle application for some time now. It makes sense that Amazon will want to cash in on the fastest growing mobile OS providing the possibility to buy 300,000 popular books.

[Via Android Community]

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