Find eBook Readers Blog » Spring Design Alex ereader http://findebookreaders.com/blog Reading in the Digital Age Tue, 22 May 2012 21:59:04 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.1 Spring Design Alex eReader at CrunchGear http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-ereader-at-crunchgear/ http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-ereader-at-crunchgear/#comments Thu, 18 Mar 2010 05:37:49 +0000 Richard http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-ereader-at-crunchgear/ CrunchGear has a brief hands-on video of Spring Design’s Alex ereader.  There is a lot of glare from the lighting which makes it hard to see much detail, but John Biggs writes that Spring Design is working on partnerships with publishers that would allow newspapers and others to offer a branded version of the Alex at a subsidized price to subscribers of digital versions of their publications.

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]]> http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-ereader-at-crunchgear/feed/ 0 Spring Design Alex to Begin Selling Today http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-to-begin-selling-today/ http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-to-begin-selling-today/#comments Tue, 16 Mar 2010 15:47:38 +0000 Richard http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-to-begin-selling-today/ Spring Design is supposed to start selling its Alex ereader today, but so far the website is still displaying the same message:

Thanks for your patience. We’re almost ready with our Alex store.
Keep checking in and by the first week of March you’ll be able to order your Alex online.  –The Spring Design Team

 

The Alex was originally supposed to go on sale in the latter part of February, but was then postponed until the first week of March.  The originally announced price of $399 has been dropped to $359. 

Spring Design’s new ereader should also be a available in Borders stores in a few months.

Update: Spring Design has indeed begun taking preorders for the Alex ereader.  Preorders will be shipped by April 14,  and the price is still $399 – not the $359 reported above.

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]]> http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/03/spring-design-alex-to-begin-selling-today/feed/ 0 Spring Design Alex to Feature Borders eBook Store http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/01/spring-design-alex-to-feature-borders-ebook-store/ http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/01/spring-design-alex-to-feature-borders-ebook-store/#comments Fri, 08 Jan 2010 01:26:07 +0000 Richard http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/01/spring-design-alex-to-feature-borders-ebook-store/ Today  Spring Design and Borders announced an agreement to feature the soon-to-come Kobo powered ebook store at Borders.com on the Spring Design Alex ereader.

The Alex is supposed to be out in February at a price of $399 for a WiFi versionSpring-Design-Alex-CES2010 with a 3G enabled version to follow.

As you probably know,  Spring Design is involved in litigation with Barnes & Noble.   Spring alleges that B&N stole the Alex ereader’s design amongst other things.  After seeing the Alex at CES and getting to play with it a little,  I have to say that if the court decides that the allegations are true,  B&N didn’t do a very good job of copying.  If the nook ereader copies the Alex’s looks,  it sure doesn’t copy the functionality very well.

Where the nook is slow and clunky the Alex is quick and works as you expect it to.  The LCD and the e-ink screen play well together and you won’t have the problem of double-entering commands because the first command you tried to input on the touchscreen didn’t seem to go through, as sometimes happens with the nook’s LCD touchscreen.  When you download a book it will be ready to read quickly – no waiting for “formatting”.

The Alex’s LCD screen can also be used for web browsing.  You can send a page to the e-ink screen and read it there.

At 8.7 x 4.7 inches, the Alex is a bit taller than other ereaders with 6-inch screens due to the LCD screen,  and this may make it somewhat more awkward to carry around.  Also, at $140 more than the nook or the Kindle you will need to decide if the web browsing on the small color screen feature is worth the premium to you.

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]]> http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2010/01/spring-design-alex-to-feature-borders-ebook-store/feed/ 0 Faster and Cheaper eReaders on the Way http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2009/11/faster-and-cheaper-ereaders-on-the-way/ http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2009/11/faster-and-cheaper-ereaders-on-the-way/#comments Fri, 06 Nov 2009 05:34:17 +0000 Richard http://findebookreaders.com/blog/2009/11/faster-and-cheaper-ereaders-on-the-way/ Several days ago chip maker Marvell announced that in collaboration with E-Ink it has developed an integrated system-on-a-chip that is not only faster than present solutions, but should bring us lower ereader prices.   Marvell’s new Armada 166E chip is said to as much as triple the screen refresh rates of present ereaders and is also designed to enable ultra-fast PDF rendering.

Some of the already announced ereaders that are due out by the first quarter of 2010 and use the Armada 166E include Plastic Logic’s Que, the enTourage eDGe and Spring Design’s Alex.

Speaking of the Alex, Maximum PC has some new photos of this ereader andSpring Design's Alex ereader it definitely looks more impressive than it did in the first picture that was released by Spring Design.  Unlike Barnes and Noble’s nook, which also has a small LCD screen under the e-ink screen for navigation, the Alex’s larger LCD screen also is used for web browsing.  You can select a web page or sections of it and reflow it to the e-ink screen for reading.  The LCD is also used for navigation.

Photo: Maximum PC

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