Google has updated its Google Play Books app, adding support for both rental books and textbooks, which were added today to the Google Play Store.
Textbooks can be rented or purchased via the website, and then accessed in the iOS app itself. Once added to a personal book list on the website, the textbooks will show up in the app, though they will be displayed in the same section as regular books.
Google first announced its plan to include textbooks in its Google Play Store at its I/O conference earlier this year as part of its Google Play for Education initiative, designed to get Google products into schools. Apple too has been pushing to expand its educational programs and plans to offer a number of new school-friendly iPad options for both students and teachers with the release of iOS 7.
In addition to support for textbooks, the Google Play Books update also brings highlighting and note-taking for scanned pages, a sepia reading mode, and stability and performance improvements.
What's new
Highlighting and note-taking are now supported in scanned pages books.
Added support for rental books.
Added sepia reading mode.
Stability and performance improvements.
Google Play Books can be downloaded from the App Store for free. [Direct Link]
