Google Updates Android Market With Books And Movies

Google announced today that it has updated the Android Market with new features that let you purchase books and movies while on your handset. These features have been available to Android Market on the web and will now work on all phones that have Android 2.2 or higher.

If you live in the US, you will be able to rent thousands of movies starting at $1.99 from the new Android Market app directly on your phone. These movies can be streamed to your device so you don't have to worry about storage space, downloading, and syncing. Instead, you simply sign into Android Market with your Google account and start renting and watching instantly. Downloading the movie is also an option if you want to watch it later when you don't have an internet connection.

Books will also be linked to your Google account, so that you have instant access across all your devices without the need for transferring or downloading.

Additionally, the overall layout and navigation for Android Market has been improved to make finding apps, movies, and books much faster and easier. There are now more app rankings and top charts as well as an Editors' Choice section that will help you discover new apps.

The update will be rolling out over the next few weeks automatically to supported devices. You will not need to download anything, although you can download the Videos app for streaming movie rentals if you live in the US.

[via Google Blog]