Amazon will allow Kindle users to lend books to each other for 14-day periods, the company announced this afternoon.
The lending feature has been one of the primary selling points of Barnes & Nobles's Nook e-reader, which is slated for a refresh next week. As with Barnes & Nobles's lending feature, Kindle lenders will not be able to access the book on loan during the 14-day period, nor will they be able to loan the book to the same user more than once.
"Not all books will be lendable," Amazon added, noting that it was entirely up to the publisher or rights holder to determine whether to participate in the program.
Amazon also announced that Kindle editions of newspapers and magazines, which have thus far only been accessible on the Kindle e-reader, will soon ("in the coming weeks") be accessible via Kindle's free apps as well. Support for periodicals will be added to the iPad, iPhone and iPod touch apps first, followed by Android and other apps "down the road," the company revealed in a statement.