Totally Awesome!

This week I got my first Android device, and it is truly awesome! With an absolute minimum of fuss, I downloaded and installed OverDrive Media Console, an MP3 audiobook, and an epub book. Adobe Digital Editions is not necessary, just an Adobe ID, which I already had, but which might be a small stumbling block for a few people. If OverDrive and Adobe could just connect those two data items (i.e. library card number and Adobe ID), that would eliminate most of the pain for new users, and borrowing ebooks would be just as slick as buying ebooks on a Kindle.

The device I bought is a 7" tablet from eLocity, a company that I had never heard of until last week. If this is typical of Android devices, and I don't know why it wouldn't be, it seems to me that this is the best of all possible worlds. With the Kindle app, I can buy from Amazon, and with the ODMC I can borrow books and audio. The "native" ereader is Aldiko, and it (or eLocity, I can't tell which) offers tons of free books. As far as I'm concerned, it's already paid for itself.

The next time anyone asks me which ereader to buy--if it's not already too late--I already had two calls from patrons who got Kindles for Christmas--I'm going to tell them to forget the readers and buy an Android tablet.