Amazon is aware of its tough competitors such as the Nook, the iPad, Google’s eBooks and eBookstore, thus making continuous efforts to keep a fresh look for its customers. Amazon announced today its latest updates for the Kindle which include public notes, real page numbers, a new newspaper and magazine layout and the possibility to review a book and share the experience with the social network right before finishing up a book. The public notes features enable readers to make visible their notes to other users. The notes might range from opinions on certain paragraphs, characters, and so on, making the whole experience more interactive.

The real page numbers were adopted at the request of customers so as to reference and cite passages easier. At the moment not all books have real page numbers, but Amazon is working on that. The last update introduced newspaper and magazine subscriptions for the Kindle device, but today’s update optimizes the readers’ experience.  The new layout for newspapers and magazines is formatted to allow users to scan news faster and decide on which title is more interesting.

There is a tight competition on the eReader market, and Apple’s latest decision to regulate publication distribution on its devices is expected to have a serious impact on publishers, particularly in the European market.  Sony felt the burn of Apple’s rejection too, as its e-book app for the iPhone was kicked off, although the Android version reached the Market safely.  Apple justified this measure by saying that the app could not access content purchased on other Sony Reader devices, although competitors like Barnes & Noble and Amazon follow the same path Sony aimed at. It is expected that the whole Apple fuss is about to turn into a legal battle, drawing more attention and need for maturation in this ereader market.