It's great news for Kindle owners that they can finally get library books on their devices.

I always thought this was one of the biggest shortcomings of Amazon.com's device. It also highlighted the fact that Kindles are designed as much for buying books as for reading them.

But, while good for Kindle users, it may not be such a great deal for everyone else using public libraries.

I'll bet that last week's announcement that libraries across the country are working with Amazon to offer e-books for borrowing will come to be seen as a turning point, when libraries accelerated their shift toward digital content bound in content-protection software.

The convenience of digital books is compelling, especially to public libraries struggling to manage costs, grow their collections and stay relevant.

At the same time, there are trade-offs that may be overlooked or downplayed as libraries rush to embrace new formats and satisfy the demands of gadget-toting patrons.

For starters, this transformation may erode the democratic nature of libraries.

To meet growing demand from owners of Kindles and other reading gadgets, libraries are shifting more of their budgets from physical books anyone can read to digital copies that require a computer or e-book to consume.

The King County Library System is working on its 2012 budget and expects to dramatically increase its spending on digital copies after digital circulation increased by 150 percent over the past year, according to Director Bill Ptacek.

It now spends about $800,000 of its $14 million material budget on digital and audio books.

"It's a delicate balance," Ptacek said. "We want to have a big enough collection and offering that people who do have the devices will come to the library. On the other hand, we don't want to go so far overboard."

This balancing act is tricky in part because Amazon -- the leading e-book company -- doesn't disclose how many Kindles it has sold. Libraries are constantly asked for Kindle material, but nobody knows the size of this audience.

Ptacek estimates 10 to 20 percent of its 900,000 cardholders have e-reader devices.

Seattle's library system has seen digital circulation double every year since it began working in 2005 with OverDrive, a Cleveland company that runs the digital lending websites of most U.S. libraries.

Last week, OverDrive added Kindle to the list of devices supported by its service.

Libraries don't have to buy special Kindle editions of digital books. They just buy a digital copy from OverDrive, which serves the copy in whatever format the patron chooses at checkout.

Amazon's arrangement also adds a new layer of commercialism into the public service that libraries provide.

Unlike digital books offered in other formats through library websites, Kindle versions require you to complete the checkout process at Amazon's website. The process ends with a pitch from Amazon to buy more books, and the system feeds Amazon's database of customer interests.

It's still early days for digital books. The next step will be applications that let library patrons borrow digital books directly from their e-reader, Web tablet or smartphone. This will appear on a Sony reader coming in October, and could be on the new color tablets that Amazon's expected to unveil Wednesday.

"There is a road map where we're going to be able to do more of the experience within the app," said David Burleigh, OverDrive director marketing.

At the Seattle library, digital consumption reached a "critical mass" in 2010 with the proliferation of e-readers, smartphones and tablets, said Kirk Blankenship, electronic-resources librarian.

Blankenship expects circulation of downloadable books to triple this year from 100,000 to 300,000 checkouts. Overall circulation has been steady at about 11 million.

That doesn't necessarily mean there's been a major shift in reading habits. Budget cuts forced Seattle to dramatically cut library hours, reducing access to printed books and skewing circulation patterns.

Blankenship and Ptacek both see digital copies as additions to the printed collection, rather than as a replacement. But they are having to make decisions about where to spend their limited budgets.

What will the mix looks like two or three years from now? "We'll have a much more robust e-book environment and alongside that we'll have the print collection we'll be doing just as well," Blankenship said. "When you get a little beyond that ... that's much more of a gray area."

In the meantime, I'd argue that libraries should be pushing for ways to share the gains that e-book companies are seeing.

For instance, Amazon pays commissions to websites that refer shoppers to its online store. Why doesn't this "affiliate" program extend to the 11,000 public and school libraries now channeling book lovers to Amazon.com.

The elephant in the room, though, is the tax question.

Amazon is not only the leading e-book company, it's also become the nation's most notorious evader of local sales-tax collections.

While it's fighting to avoid local taxes across the country, tax-funded libraries are going to extraordinary lengths and paying a premium for content to satisfy Amazon customers.

These public institutions are making the Kindle more appealing, and helping to usher in a transformation in which Amazon may be the largest beneficiary.

Maybe it's time to pay the fees.

It's getting harder for Amazon.com to sidestep reports that it's going to release a color tablet device this fall.

Reports seem to surface every few weeks with new details about the devices, including stories about which manufacturers are producing the various components.

Today, the Wall Street Journal weighed in with a story saying that the color, Android-based tablet will go on sale in October with a "roughly" 9-in. diagonal screen.

It also reported that there will be two new Kindles, including a cheaper model and one with a touchscreen like that used on the new Kobo and Nook e-readers.

The Journal cited people familiar with the devices, including people who had seen the lower-priced Kindle. I wonder if the sources were book publishers or people developing news applications for the new hardware in advance of the launch.

Amazon didn't respond to a request for comment on the Journal story, but the company earlier announced a new ad-supported version of the Kindle with 3G wireless connectivity. AT&T is the device "sponsor." The "Kindle 3G with Special Offers" will cost $139. An ad-free version of the device will continue to sell for $189.

This follows the April launch of an ad-supported version of the WiFi-only Kindle that sells for $114, compared with the $139 ad-free version.

Amazon needs to do more to refresh the lineup. Barnes & Noble, which has color and touchscren versions of its Nook, overtook Amazon's Kindle for the first time in the first quarter, according to a recent report by research firm IDC.

IDC's release said Amazon's "lack of a color offering has clearly impacted the company's previous dominance in the eReader market." The firm expects e-reader sales to grow 24 percent this year to 16.2 million units.

Ownership of e-reading devices doubled over the past six months, from 6 percent to 12 percent of U.S. adults, according to a Pew Research Center survey released today.

Pew found that adults age 50 and older are buying e-readers faster than the population in general, and Hispanics are buying them faster than other ethnic groups.

Its survey concluded that 15 percent of Hispanic adults own e-readers, compared with 11 percent of whites and 8 percent of African Americans.

The survey also found that wealthy people are far more likely to own an e-reader. The devices are owned by 24 percent of households with income over $75,000, 13 percent of homes bringing in $30,000 to $74,999 and 4 percent of those earning less than $30,000.

College graduates are also more likely to own an e-reader, with 22 percent of them owning one in the U.S.

So far, there's just a little overlap in households with just 3 percent now owning both e-readers and tablet devices such as the iPad, but I'll bet that will change over the next year or two.

Here are some charts from Pew's report, based on a survey of 2,277 adults in April and May:

Component manufacturers may have spilled the beans on the tablet computers that Amazon.com is expected to release later this year, giving the company an iPad-like gadget to sell alongside its Kindle.

The devices will launch in August or September, in time for the Black Friday holiday sales kickoff after Thanksgiving, according to a report from Taiwan's DigiTimes.

Amazon's device will be assembled by Quanta Computer and have processors from Texas Instruments, touch panels from Wintek, LCD drivers from ILI Technology, according to the report.

It said 700,000 to 800,000 units are expected to ship per month and noted that the device will play movies streamed by Amazon.

I've asked for comment from the company next door but haven't heard back yet. Most likely it will decline to say anything at this point.

Speculation about Amazon producing an Android-based tablet has increased since the company began operating an Android app store in March.

In Monday's column, I wrote about how Amazon is likely to take a path similar to Barnes & Noble, which started out trying to add computer-like features to its first e-reader but has now decided on a two-tiered approach with its Nook, offering a low-end black and white model and a higher-end color version that's morphed into an Android tablet.

Newer, faster phones and tablets are appearing every month, even every week, it seems.

But if you spend too much time grazing through this multicore, high-def smorgasbord, everything blurs together on your plate. The phones look like tablets, the tablets look like each other, and they all have the same basic set of apps.

Maybe that's why I like the new Nook reader from Barnes & Noble, a squarish puck of an e-reader that went on sale earlier this month for $139.

For starters, it doesn't look like yet another touch-screen Web tablet.

It's a single-purpose reading device with a stripped down interface, which is kind of refreshing. It also helps stratify the jumble of tablets available nowadays.

The Nook is among a batch of high-quality, $100 to $130 reading devices with 6-inch screens and Wi-Fi connections. Others include Amazon.com's latest Kindle and the Kobo eReader Touch that's allied with Borders.

From $180 to $380 are readers with larger screens and 3G wireless service. Then from $499 to $900 are color Web tablets like the Apple iPad and Android-based devices. By fall there should be more glimpses of tabletlike Windows 8 PCs that will probably cost $700 to $1,500 when they go on sale.

As these categories and device capabilities become clearer, people won't wonder as much about whether they need a Kindle or an iPad. They may decide they need both -- an e-reader for books on the go, and a color tablet for magazines, the Web and other digital media.

That's what Barnes & Noble is counting on, at least. Its lineup now includes the $139 Nook and a $249 color version that runs Web apps.

"We think people are going to have a Nook Color and a Nook," said Michelle Warvel, creative director at Barnes & Noble.

That influenced the design of the new Nook, which has fewer features than the original, which tried to do everything at once. Released in 2009, it was a hybrid with an e-Ink display above a narrow color touch-screen.

Now, "our goal is to have a portfolio of products," Warvel explained. She said the simpler Nook was designed for the "pure reader."

Amazon probably is going in the same direction. It's expected to release color Web tablets based on Google's Android software later this year. They'll tap its Kindle bookstore and online music and video services, and complement its black and white Kindles, which will continue to have superior battery life and readability.

This must be what it felt like to be car shopping 100 years ago. At first there were all sorts of crazy horseless carriages, but soon it settled into sedans, coupes, trucks and motorcycles.

The new Nook is a cycle in this lineup. It's about the size of an outstretched hand, weighs 7.5 ounces and has a ridged, rubberized back.

You turn pages by tapping a side of the screen, by using a swipe gesture or by pressing hard buttons on either side of its rubbery frame.

The Nook is easy to hold and feels tough enough to toss into a bag or a backseat. I found that it didn't suffer after I carried it in a back pocket and sat upon it repeatedly.

The trade-off for this portability is that the screen is pretty small. It displays only a few paragraphs at a time, which is OK for books but awful if you're trying to get through a newspaper or magazine.

For reading books, it's on par with the latest Kindle, which has the same e-Ink "Pearl" display technology and screen size. Both claim battery life of up to two months on a single charge.

A key difference is the Nook's touch-screen. Amazon executives have said in the past that they haven't used touch-screens because they require extra layers of material, which obscures the text a bit. I bet, though, Amazon will eventually add it.

The Nook's text quality was fine, but sometimes letters seemed a bit raggedy, creating a pulp-fiction effect that I kind of liked.

Warvel said B&N extended the number of pages displayed before the screen refreshes itself, a process that creates a flashing effect.

Users of the first Nook were distracted by flashes between pages so the new model, with standard text, flashes every five or six pages.

Having a touch-screen means the Nook doesn't need a physical keypad like the Kindle -- it just displays one on the screen when needed -- and can have a smaller case.

But it takes a little getting used to the Nook's mix of controls. It's also not obvious that you can do things like tap the center of the screen to call up controls for font size.

It's also easy to hold or tap too long and zoom past multiple pages. A few times I also had trouble unlocking the device, which you do by sliding a finger across the bottom of the screen. During a week of testing the device froze once; I had to reboot by holding the power button on the back.

There's no browser, but the Nook has social-networking features so you can share quotes from books with friends on Twitter and Facebook. There's no camera, so it's probably safe for randy politicians. You can also "lend" certain books to friends with Nooks.

The device is compatible with digital books loaned by some libraries, including Seattle's. But it's a multistep process -- you connect the Nook to a PC and transfer books via a USB cable. I tried this with several books and never found them on the Nook.

Another concern with e-readers in general is how they lock you into a particular service. If you've bought digital books for the Kindle, you can't read them on the Nook and vice versa.

Frankly, I still prefer actual books. It's easier to flip back and forth through real pages, which are also more relaxing after working with a screen all day.

But the avid female readers in my house took to the Nook like none of the other tablets I've brought home. And pretty soon I was able to lose myself in a novel on the little gadget -- so I stopped wondering where the library books went.

Kobo today announced a new touchscreen version of its reader that will go on sale for $130 in June.

The device uses an E Ink display like Amazon's Kindle, which has yet to introduce a touchscreen version, and has Kobo's "Reading Life" software with social sharing features and a gamelike reward system.

It has a 6-inch diagonal screen, a software keyboard, a quilted back and a single "home" button a la the iPad. It connects to the Web and Kobo's bookstore via WiFi or a USB cable.

Kobo has been selling e-readers since May 2010 and initially allied itself with Borders. The company has extended its software platform, which is now bundled with tablets from Samsung and Research In Motion. It claims to have 3.6 million users in 100 countries.

Kobo is based in Toronto, Canada, but it established a Seattle presence in 2010 when it hired Todd Humphrey, a former Amazon.com director of business development, as its executive vice president of business development.

The company recently raised $50 million in funding and is now planning to open a full office in Seattle. Humphrey said it should be established by the end of the year.

"Whether it's five or 15 or 20 people, we'll see," he said.

Humphrey said the new Kobo eReader Touch Edition will be a serious competitor to e-reader made by his former co-workers at Amazon and the Barnes & Noble Nook.

"I think this device puts us ahead of them from a device standpoint," he said.

Humphrey said major retailers are very interested in selling the touch reader and it will help the company as it begins an expansion in Europe.

Another entry into the great holiday tablet battle came today from Barnes & Noble, which announced a color, touchscreen version of its Nook reading device.

The bookseller expects to begin selling the "NOOKcolor" on Nov. 19 for $249. It has a 7-inch diagonal touchscreen that displays 16 million colors. Inside, the device has a Wi-Fi radio and 8 gigabytes of memory. It's 8 by 5 inches overall, 0.48 inches thick and weighs 15.8 ounces.

Although it's built around the Nook electronic bookstore, which competes with Amazon.com's Kindle business, the color Nook is also aiming up-market, at the iPad and upcoming Android tablets.

The device is being pitched as a media consumption tablet, with the ability to browse the Web, play games, send e-mail, participate in social networks and store and play digital music. Or read.

Barnes & Noble noted that the NOOKcolor is based on Google's Android operating system -- Version 2.1. The store is inviting Android developers to build Nook applications, although they won't be able to directly transfer Android apps to the Nook because it has a custom interface and controls.

The new Nook also syncs with Google's Gmail, so you can use Gmail contacts with social features, including a feature that lets you lend e-books to friends with Nooks.

The Nook's upgrade may get Amazon to speed up work on a color Kindle, or perhaps even push Apple to lower iPad prices.

But it could use a better name. Some might wonder if the NOOKcolor is radioactive.

Are Web tablets and e-books becoming commoditized already?

Hewlett-Packard's throwing one into the box with a new $399 all-in-one inkjet printer it's calling the Photosmart eStation.
The printer includes a Web browsing tablet with WiFi and a 7-inch diagonal screen. It's pre-loaded with applications including Facebook, a music player, Barnes & Noble's eBookstore and Yahoo mail, search, weather and messenger.

When it's not being used around the house, the tablet sits in a dock on the printer and works as a control panel and digital photo frame.

The Android-powered tablet apparently doesn't let you load applications. It sounds like a new version of HP's Dreamscreen lightweight tablet/photo frame that appeared in 2008, more than the full-fledged slate computers that HP's expected to release later this year. But this one comes in a printer bundle for under $400, and it may be good enough for some people.

Here's a video from Laptop magazine, trying out the eStation:

Here's a cheap way to get your afternoon jolt: Download the Barnes & Noble e-reader app to your laptop or phone and get a free tall coffee at a B&N cafe.

The bookstore is also giving free java to people who own Nook readers and bring them into the store.

To get the coffee, you'll have to show the server an open eBook on a Nook or the BN eReader software, which can be running on an iPad, iPhone, BlackBerry, HTC HD2 or a Windows or Mac PC.

You can also download the app and a book sample in the stores, if you're thirsty enough.

I've asked BN how long this deal will last. It's tied to a Nook promotion that runs through June 27 ...

RANCHO PALOS VERDES, Calif. -- Kno, a Santa Clara, Calif. startup, unveiled a dual screen tablet for students at the All Things Digital conference.

The Kno tablet weighs 5.5 pounds, has dual 14-inch color touchscreens and pairs with an online platform that's supported by higher education publishers, the founders said in their demonstration.

The device looks like an Apple laptop without a keyboard, and it will function in laptop mode by using one of its screens as a touch keyboard. The two screens are connected by a fabric material similar to what's used for seatbelts, instead of a hinge.

It also has an iPad-like interface, displaying thumbnail-sized icons for applications and books on the device. It has Wi-Fi and Bluetooth radios but not 3G cell coverage, and the battery life is expected to be at least six hours.

Kno expects to begin selling its tablets this fall. It's not yet disclosing a price but it will be less than $1,000.

Apple's iPad is "cannibalizing" sales of e-readers like the Kindle and Nook and netbooks, DisplaySearch analyst John Jacobs said this morning at the SID conference in Seattle.

Jacobs predicted 10 million iPads and other slates will be sold in 2010.

The research firm expects "slates will take a healthy bite" out of the e-reader market.

But that's still just a fraction of the growing market for devices with displays in the range of 4" to 12.5" -- including slates, e-books, netbooks, mobile Internet devices, game players and portable DVD players. Jacobs said that market will see 40 million to 80 million units sold per quarter.

Jacobs followed Sony Electronics President Stan Glasgow, who talked up the potential of 3-D in TVs and other devices, including Sony cameras and computers.

Sony surveys found that 38 percent of consumers will buy a 3-D TV within a year and 67 percent say their next TV will be 3-D, Glasgow said.

Content will be key to uptake, he said, noting Sony efforts such as its work with sports broadcasters (he played a 3'D clip from the Masters during the speech) and upcoming Sony 3-D movies, including "Spiderman 3D," "Men in Black III" and "Green Hornet." Glasgow said the 3-D business aims won't distort the movie's artistic development, saying that Sony's mantra is that the "technology must serve the story."

But a 3-D preview of "Resident Evil Afterlife" -- a movie coming out in September -- had all sorts of 3-D tricks like martial arts throwing stars spinning toward the viewer.

Glasgow called on the display industry, gathered in Seattle, to follow three principles:

-- "Don't let inferior quality own the marketplace."
-- Work together and with broadcasters and cable and satellite companies to adopt a set of 3-D standards "that makes sense for consumers."
-- Companies in the business are going to have to put effort into educating consumers about the benefits of 3-D.

Meanwhile, Sony expects the 3-D TV market to grow to 100 million units globally over the next three years.

A convincing looking slide comparing the specs of Hewlett-Packard's upcoming "Slate" tablet with Apple's iPad appeared this afternoon on Engadget.

If accurate, HP is going to undercut Apple with a more powerful tablet device, but Apple already has the mindshare. I mentioned the Slate in Sunday's column on the iPad.

The slide says the Windows 7-based Slate will cost $549 for a 32-gig model and $599 for a 64-gig. Apple's iPads with the same capacity cost $599 or $699.

HP's device will have a 1.6 gigahertz Intel Atom processor, compared with the iPad's 1 GHz processor, and it will support 1080p and have a USB 2.0 port and SD card slot. It's a bit smaller than an iPad but weighs the same, at 9.2 by 5.7 inches, 0.57-inches thick and 1.5 pounds.

But the iPad has double the battery life -- 10 hours vs. the Slate's 5 hours -- and the Slate strangely only has 802.11b and g Wi-Fi and not the faster "n" flavor that the iPad includes. The Slate also supports a mobile broadband card, presumably 4G.

HP highlighted the ports -- which the iPad lacks -- in a teaser video it released this morning:

Google and book publisher and authors have improved their class-action settlement but not enough to avoid antitrust troubles, the U.S. Department of Justice said in a filing and news release this afternoon.

The key quote in the filing:

"Although the United States believes the parties have approached this effort in good faith and the amended settlement agreement is more circumscribed in its sweep than the original proposed settlement, the amended settlement agreement suffers from the same core problem as the original agreement: it is an attempt to use the class action mechanism to implement forward-looking business arrangements that go far beyond the dispute before the court in this litigation."

The Justice Department liked changes that removed Google's "most favored nation" status but said the settlement as revised would still give the search company an unfair advantage.

It said in the release that "the amended settlement agreement still confers significant and possibly anticompetitive advantages on Google as a single entity, thereby enabling the company to be the only competitor in the digital marketplace with the rights to distribute and otherwise exploit a vast array of works in multiple formats."

Today's filing sets the stage for a Feb. 18 hearing before a federal judge considering whether to approve the agreement, which was originally reached in 2005 after a fight over Google's efforts to digitize the world's books.

Other critics of the agreement have lined up in recent months, giving the judge plenty to consider.

Jumping ahead of the pack of e-readers expected to debut this week at CES, LG, Sprint and Skiff today previewed the Skiff Reader they'll be showing in Las Vegas this week.

The one-pound reader, designed for newspapers and magazines, measures 11.5 inches diagonally and a quarter inch thick, with a resolution of 1200 x 1600 pixels and a touchscreen. Skiff claims that it runs a full week without recharging.

The Hearst Corp. started the project, initially called "FirstPaper," and spun Skiff out as a separate company earlier this month.

Pricing is not yet available, but Sprint plans to sell the devices through its stores later this year. Sprint's also providing 3G wireless connectivity to the devices, which also have Wi-Fi radios.

It's based on a display that LG has shown in recent years at CES, using a thin, flexible sheet of stainless steel foil.

Skiff, a venture based in New York and Palo Alto, Calif., hopes to get its technology and services for distributing content onto other companies' consumer electronic devices.

From today's release:

The Skiff Reader will feature the Skiff service and digital store, allowing consumers to wirelessly purchase and access a wide variety of newspapers, magazines, books, blogs and other content from multiple publishers. Newspaper and magazine content delivered by Skiff will feature visually appealing layouts, high-resolution graphics, rich typography and dynamic updates, supporting key design qualities that help publications differentiate themselves and attract subscribers and advertisers.

Full technical specs: