Back in January iRiver announced the iRiver Story HD, a promising sounding device that had boasts about being the the world's highest resolution 6-inch eBook reader.

Well now the Story HD has another impressive notch to its belt - its the first ereader to officially support the Google eBooks platform that went live in December.

That means that iRiver's device has access to more than 3 million free books as well as "hundreds of thousands of Google eBooks for sale".

Google eBooks launched to much fanfare just before Christmas last year out of the Google Editions project and already has platforms on Android and iOS through dedicated apps (in the US only at present).

The iRiver Story HD packs a 768x1024 resolution and an i.MX508 eReader application processor from Freescale Semiconductor that is based on ARM Cortex technology for faster page turning.

"We built the Google eBooks platform to be open to all publishers, retailers and manufacturers. Manufacturers like iRiver can use Google Books APIs and services to connect their devices to the full Google eBooks catalogue for out-of-the-box access to a complete ebookstore," said Pratip Banerji, product manager, Google Books.

"You can also store your personal eBooks library in the cloud - picking up where you left off in any eBook you’re reading as you move from laptop to smartphone to ereader to tablet."

Available on 17 July, the iRiver Story HD will cost $139.99.