TeleRead: Bring the E-Books Home

By Paul Biba

The Reading Edge Podcast, by Len Edgerly, does a video of the Ale ereader. In the video the Nook is running the new 1.3 operating software:

By Paul Biba

From a Spring Design press release:

Grammata,a Spanish company specializing in the design, content and sale of eReaders and Spring Design announced that Grammata will open an online ebookstore and sell the Alex eReader in Spain online and in retail stores starting July 2010 starting with 1000 titles. Grammata is currently consolidating digital books from various Spanish publishers and expects to offer 15,000 to 45,000 Spanish language eBooks for sale and selected copyright-free classics at no cost through its online store at www.grammata.es. …

Grammata will offer the Alex worldwide and hopes to address all Spanish speaking customers interested in getting Spanish titles with Alex as their Reader.

By Paul Biba

According Spring Design the Alex is supposed to ship on April 14th, but the site still has it listed for pre-order.

I didn’t know who the backers of Spring Design were, but according to a Business Week article they are pretty high class. The article says they include co-founder Jack Yuan, who had co-founded SanDisk and Albert Teng, who was a general manager at Intel. The article also lists Google and Adobe as partners, but gives no details.

By Chris Meadows

InformationWeek has a look at the current frontrunners in the e-book device market, listing statistics and giving a rundown of the pros and cons of each device.

Covered devices include the Amazon Kindle, Barnes & Noble Nook, Plastic Logic Que, Skiff Reader, Sony Reader, Spring Design Alex, and Apple iPad. The article goes into a fair amount of detail about each device’s strengths and weaknesses.

It’s a great resource for people just considering getting into e-book devices.

By Chris Meadows

K. Tempest Bradford at Tor.com has posted a brief rundown of 8 different e-book readers, ranging from his favorite (the Spring Design Alex) down to his least favorite (the iRex DR800SG). There’s not a lot to argue with, as it’s mostly his opinions, but it’s interesting to see what other people think.

Meanwhile, Engadget has an in-depth look at the Spring Design Alex. On the whole, they found it enjoyable to use (with just a few minor caveats), but note that commercial e-books and an app store will not be available until the summer, and the $399 price is rather high compared to the Kindle (which seems to have become the gold standard against which people, even me, judge other e-book prices).

I must admit, I am becoming intrigued now by how much people seem to like the Alex. Perhaps it is not so bad for being a chimera after all.

By Paul Biba

The machine gets 3.5 out of 5 stars and the reviewer seems to like it a lot. One thing that interested me is that he says that Spring Design is working ewith 40 developers to create or modify apps for the device and a store should be available in June. He also includes a link to a Laptop Blog post on How to find Android Apps for your tablet, ereader or other large screen device.

All in all the review finds the machine a good experience, but questions whether its high price is worth it. The Alex has a $150 premium over the Kindle and the Nook, but, as the reviewer says, that premium buys you a true multitasking device that does both the basics and the extras well.

By Paul Biba

According to CrunchGear, the Alex Reader is taking a different path than some of its competitors. Their goal is is to work with publishing houses and periodicals to create a branded webstore and an unique GIU for each device. That way a newspaper or publisher could offer “their own” device at a subsidized price. In addition they are looking at getting universities to develop university-branded Alexes.

With all the “me too” readers out there now it’s refreshing to see someone thinking in larger terms. It does mean, though, that I’ll hold off buying one until I see if a branded, subsidized version will come out. I wonder if Kobo is thinking about this?

By Chris Meadows

Since the JooJoo has been delayed, some people who pre-ordered have requested refunds of their purchase. Gizmodo reports that one such customer went back and forth with Fusion Garage over several days, and after PayPal was unable to process the refund, finally Fusion Garage asked for the customer’s bank account information to refund it directly. The customer was understandably suspicious. (Fusion Garage’s response is also included.)

Another delayed e-book device, the Spring Design Alex, began taking pre-orders yesterday for $399, according to CrunchGear. The Alex somewhat resembles the Nook in form factor, save that the LCD screen is a full 3.5” touchscreen display rather than the Nook’s small rectangle.

To the Alex’s credit, the Android-based device will allow a lot more interactivity over the web than most other e-book readers, including websurfing, watching videos, and online communication. It even has a micro SD card slot and USB 2.0, and supports Adobe ADEPT DRM.

But on the other hand, you’re only going to be reading from one display at once—so at any given time, either 1/3 or 2/3 of the device’s screen real estate is going to be useless to you. That extra screen real estate makes the Alex a bit unwieldy—like a Kindle DX with less readable screen area. And honestly, it seems a little expensive for what you get—just $100 more will get you an iPad.

(more…)

By Paul Biba

E-Reader-Info is reporting that Spring Design is delaying their Alex until mid-April. The site says that the price has increased to $399.

Laptop is reporting that you can pre-order the WiFi version today, but that the 3G version will not be available till the end of July, as the company is still working with carriers. According to Laptop the Alex will be localized with Chinese, Spanish, Russian, Korean and Hebrew languages. They also have a video (which can’t be embedded so take a look here).

UPDATE:  The Alex is now available for pre-order in the Spring Design shop for $399 in black or white.  Delivery will be “by April 14″.  You can find the shop here.

By Paul Biba

From our sister site, Gadgetell:

Here we have yet another ebook reader and yet another rumored launch date. This time the rumor is in regards to the Alex ebook reader from Spring Design and suggests that it will soon be available. Well maybe soon is an understatement here, according to the rumor it will be available as of March 16 which is just a few days away now. Of course, rumor aside the official Spring Design website is still referring to a “first week of March” time frame. And as we can tell from the calendar, that has already passed.

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.

By Paul Biba

According to Engadget, Spring Design’s ereader, Alex, has hit the FCC. Here is the FCC picture of the device and Engadget has more detailed pictures on its site. According to them the Alex’s user manual is also available for download.