Browsing the Alex eReader DS-10 manual
By Paul Biba
Amazon Kindle Review has a long article about the new Alex ereader. They have gone into the user manual and list a lot of the features and operating parameters. Well worth a read for any of you who, like me, are interested in this device. Here are the first six features they mention. There are a lot more at the site.
# The features are very well thought out. The number of options is a bit overwhelming. There are literally dozens of different settings.
# There are Notification icons in the LCD status bar including – new email, battery indicators, uploading/downloading data, and more. Plus you can scroll through notifications and open them.
# ‘Touch and Project’ feature that lets you project the text content of a website from the LCD screen to the eInk screen.
# There’s an Alex Market to download applications. You can also download applications from your browser.
# Alex’s browser has 5 text sizes, javascript, and a pop-up blocker. You can also clear the browser cache, history, and stored cookies.
# Email App supports up to 5 POP3 or IMAP accounts. The Email App is very impressive.
March 9th, 2010 at 2:41 pm
As much as I am looking forward to buying the Alex if it is ever actually released, I am getting sick of articles giving the Alex more credit than it deserves. All of the “features” referred to (and about 90% of the user manual) are standard Android features–and not even all standard Android features, because certain capabilities (namely Google apps like the Android Market and 3G) appear to have been stripped out.
On the other hand, there are very, very few Alex-original features in the manual, or information about the eink display and book capabilities–there’s not a mention of bookmarks or annotations in that entire manual, which is really the information those of us thinking about purchasing the device need to know.
March 9th, 2010 at 5:59 pm
Paul, that link leads here.
April 21st, 2010 at 5:44 pm
Paul, the link should lead here:
http://ireaderreview.com/2010/03/08/browsing-the-alex-ereader-ds-10-manual/
April 23rd, 2010 at 5:30 am
To Everyone:
Spring has since launched the device, and it is pretty great. I have one and I love it(make sure you get black). It already annotates, with links to media, voice recordings, and highlighting. Pdfs look alright on the device, but the text is small. Epubs are way better and have the same DRM features from websites like e-books, and the device has adobe live-id. So, it has enough on it’s own to be a great, lightweight e-reader with annotation.
Beyond that, I heard an SDK is coming out later this year for the Alex. That alone makes it a lot more than just “another droid device”. I already want to develop my own programs on this platform, just because I don’t think you can get around the quality and performance of E-ink displays.
Has anyone on here seen how bad the ipad is? It’s freakin heavy too. The alex is like 1/3 the weight and you can actually read books on it. The ipad was unreasonably heavy, and I imagine if the Alex added a bit of weight and an amoled screen.
Bottom line, I love my alex and it really focuses on Epub format, and I have to tell you E-Pub is way better and you can buy books from more places… Something My Kindle didn’t do(R.I.P. it died a week ago).
One thing about the Alex is that I haven’t found a way to copy my stuff from amazon yet, but I heard there are sites out there taking the mobi files to epub. Anyone know any of those.