In what will most likely amount to very little when competing with the dominance of the iPad and Kindle, Microsoft and Barnes & Noble today announced the formation of a new partnership. Said partnership will combine B&N’s Nook and College business into an as yet unmamed subsidiary with Microsoft investing $300 Million to help get it up and running.

“The formation of [this new subsidiary] and our relationship with Microsoft are important parts of our strategy to capitalize on the rapid growth of the NOOK business, and to solidify our position as a leader in the exploding market for digital content in the consumer and education segments,” said William Lynch, CEO of Barnes & Noble. “Microsoft’s investment in Newco, and our exciting collaboration to bring world-class digital reading technologies and content to the Windows platform and its hundreds of millions of users, will allow us to significantly expand the business.”

That sounds good. Snarky comment at the top of this post aside, as much as we like Apple and its products around here, a little competition is good for everyone — especially consumers. So, we wish Microsoft and B&N luck with their new Nook adventure.

For me details, check out Barnes & Noble’s full press release after the break.

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If you’ve wondered why eBook prices always seemed so high even though you were just buying a digital copy of a book, now we might have at least part of the answer. In a move that surprised almost nobody who follows this kind of thing, the U.S. Justice Department has today filed an antitrust lawsuit against publishers including Hachette Book Group, HarperCollins, Macmillan, Penguin and Apple alleging the companies conspired to fix electronic book prices.

According to the suit, the government wants publishers to let Amazon and other retailers decide what to charge customers, based on the wholesale price of the product. At the moment, publishers decide what price eBooks will be sold for.

This would, in theory, allow for more competition and see better pricing for consumers. Something, if true, most consumers would probably agree is a great idea.

What it will really mean is anyone’s guess at this point. You can bet Apple and other publishers will defend this suit with everything they have so don’t expect this to be resolved anytime soon.

With all the ways available to be entertained and pass the time, people still like to read. In fact Amazon is betting you’ll want at least one more way to read eBooks you’ve purchased from them and have today debuted a brand new way to do it: the web-based Kindle Cloud Reader.

This new service provides users with access to their entire Kindle library using Chrome or Safari on Mac, PC, Linux and the Chromebook. Kindle Cloud Reader is also optimized for the iPad and offers a caching feature for offline reading, which is nice.

To get started, go to http://read.amazon.com and, when prompted, install the required plug-in. That’s pretty much it. I gave the service a try late last night and liked it. It’s another great way to read your Kindle content if you don’t have your ipad or Kindle handy.

Although, I still prefer the Kindle for reading or, in a pinch, the iPad Kindle App. Still, it’s nice to see Amazon continuing to innovate in this area and also potentially find ways to get around Apple’s sometimes difficult iTunes Store rules. Can’t blame them for that.

For more details, click through for the full press release.

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Late yesterday, Amazon announced that Kindle customers will soon be able to borrow eBooks from more than 11,000 U.S. libraries. Amazon’s Kindle Library Lending project will enable users to check out eBooks from local libraries and then read them on their Kindle or on any device with Amazon’s free eReader software installed.

But wait, that’s not the only cool thing about this service. Unlike traditional libraries, which don’t allow borrowers to write in books, with this new service readers can make notes and highlight as much as they want. “We’re doing a little something extra here,” said Jay Marine, director of Amazon Kindle.

“Normally, making margin notes in library books is a big no-no. But we’re extending our Whispersync technology so that you can highlight and add margin notes to Kindle books you check out from your local library. Your notes will not show up when the next patron checks out the book. But if you check out the book again, or subsequently buy it, your notes will be there just as you left them, perfectly Whispersynced.”

Sounds pretty cool, right? I wonder if this will in any way help save libraries? Or, will this cause them to be obsolete faster? Either way, its a nice feature for Kindle owners. It would be nice if this could aslo help keep libraries around longer. We’ll see.

Also, what will this mean for the Amazon tablet rumored to be launching later this year? My guess is they will probably hit around the same time.

Amazon is working with OverDrive on its Kindle Library Lending program, which it says will launch later this year. Click through for the full press release from Amazon.

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Watch out iPad, the Amazon Kindle is gunning for you and is trying to take away your shiny luster. How? By being a big success that’s how.

To that point Amazon announced yesterday that its third-generation Kindle eBook reader is now the best-selling product of all time on the Amazon.com website. It replaces Harry Potter and the Deathly Hallows, the previous Amazon.com sales record-holder.

The online giant Amazon has not revealed official sales figures for any of its Kindle devices, though recent estimates suggest Amazon is going to sell 8 million Kindles in 2010. Which, in case you don’t know, is a lot of eBook readers.

The company currently offers two versions of its popular Kindle eReader — a Wi-Fi-only version for $139 and a 3G-equipped model for $189. Click through to check out the full press release from Amazon.

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It looks like Amazon isn’t going to simply wait around while Apple’s iPad and iPhone kill their eBook market. Instead, they are expanding beyond Apple and RIM and into the Android market by bringing their Kindle reader to the platform.

They already have an application for the iPhone, iPad and Blackberry and now they are planning to release one for Android powered smartphones. The Android app will look like its iPhone counterpart and include the the ability to read, preview, and purchase books from Amazon’s Kindle bookstore. You will also be able to navigate with a finger flick and sync reading progress across all supported platforms — which is a nice feature if, like me, you have several platforms.

The app is reportedly also compatible with popular Android handsets including the Moto DROID, Nexus One, HTC Droid Eris and HTC Incredible. Look for it in the Android Market soon. You can also sign up at Amazon to be notified when it becomes available.

Late yesterday and without so much as a well timed press release, mega-giant seller of all things on the Internet (aka Amazon.com) released the first Kindle application for the Mac. The free application works on Intel Macs running Mac OS X 10.5 and above, and is version number of 1.0.0 beta 1.

The app allows you to download Kindle books you already own and read them on your Mac. In addition, and this is a nice feature, your progress through a particular book is kept synchronized between the application, your iPhone and your Kindle. This is especially great for people like myself who often take their Kindle somewhere but not a Mac. Although, in truth, I usually take both.

The application is defiantly of the simple variety and doesn’t really offer much in the way of bells and whistles. Although, what do you really need? It allows you to read your books on your Mac, adjust the size of the fonts and it keeps track of where you stopped so you can pick the book up later on another device. Plus, did I mention it costs nothing?

This is a great step in the right direction for Amazon. It is a shame that non-Intel Mac users and those not running Leopard or better can’t enjoy the app. But given the way things are moving, maybe those people are going to go ahead and upgrade themselves with a shiny new iPad instead? Hey, with over 150K pre-orders so far, it’s a real possibility.

Speaking of the iPad. I ordered one and will have a full review once its in my hands. Until then, try out this new app from Amazon right here.