I love the iPad despite its heft, and although I never warmed to the nook’s mini-LCD touch panel, I really like the look of the new full-color nook announced last month. That said, the venerable product testing nonprofit Consumer Reports says the Kindle is still the best all-around ebook device at the end of 2010. (It said the same thing in May.) The latest review details are behind a paywall, but a reader on the Amazon discussion forums says these are the final scores as printed in the December 2010 issue of the magazine. (Higher is better.) Kindle 3G/Wi-Fi 72 Kindle Wi-Fi 68 Kindle...

This seems like a worthwhile cause, so I post the press release in full: The Carl Brandon Society announces a prize drawing to support the The Octavia E. Butler Memorial Scholarship Fund. The Carl Brandon Society, an organization dedicated to racial and ethnic diversity in speculative fiction, will hold a prize drawing of five eReaders to benefit the Butler Scholarship, a fund that sends two emerging writers of color to the Clarion writers workshops annually. In keeping with the Society’s support of literature from and about people of color, the prizes include five eReaders: two Barnes & Noble Nooks, two Kobo Readers, and...

From a Computerworld Report by Daniel Grotta and Sally Wiener Grotta Before we begin, the introduction is worthy of a special mention since it offers a very useful overview of the e-book reader scene. From the Comparison Section of the Intro: Including privately branded devices and Asian knockoffs, there are probably more than a score of e-readers currently on the American market. For this roundup, we focused on currently shipping, readily available models, most by mainstream vendors. These include the Alex, jetBook Lite, iPad, Kindle, Kobo, Libre eBook Reader Pro, Nook and Pandigital Novel. Sony has recently introduced new versions...

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: ...

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...

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....

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....

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...

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...

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...

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...

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...