By Andrew Liszewski
I hope you’re not tired of eBook readers just yet, because something tells me the forecast for the next few months calls for a downpour of new models. But at least companies like Spring Design are keeping it interesting with their new Alex reader. It’s one of the first to include a 6-inch monochrome electronic paper display as well as a 3.5-inch full color LCD display just below it, combining the best of both worlds.
The device is powered by Google’s Android and allows full web browsing over WiFi or 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM mobile networks. An SD card slot ensures storage capacity is essentially infinite and a headphone jack as well as built-in speakers allows multimedia content to be enjoyed on the lower screen. And to prolong battery life, web content can be captured and cached from the LCD display and viewed on the EPD display instead. Pricing and availability weren’t announced, though the press release claims that “Spring Design is currently in discussion and enlisting major content partners and plans to release the Alex device for selected strategic partners by the end of this year.”
[ PR – Spring Design Announces Dual Screen E-book Reader, Hyperlinking Text with Multimedia ]
This thing looks pretty cool!
It looks like a pain to program though. Two displays seems like applications will be clunky. What happens when you are browsing the web? All the text goes on the top and pictures on the bottom?
Definitely looks awkward and over-elongated to me, but I'm looking forward to seeing how well these dual-screened ereaders function.
This looks great. Now people can act like they are reading and browse the web at the same time. From the pictures it does look like it is going to be a bit clunky.
This just looks pretty awkward to me. im just fine using kindle for iphone 😀
i'd rather just have a book. i don't think they'll ever be obsolete
Not as good as a book, yet. Maybe someday in the future they will be good enough to replace the paper version.
I don't think it is quit there yet. Maybe be in a couple of years these will be worth while buying.
I want to say that this was a deffinately good effort to introduce color to the otherwise boring ebook readers, but it looks awkward and kinda unweildy. an over lap ove the monochrome and color lcd screens would have not only been more efficient, but would have also added to portablity. I'm looking forward to the clear lcd era thats coming soon.
I heard B&N officially announced their E-Reader earlier online today (I forget what its called). Honestly, I think the dual screens actually offer a lot of potential. Especially being an LCD color touchscreen side-by-side the black and white E-Ink displays. Gets me closer and closer to shelling out a few hundred bucks for one of these bad boys.
I want to say that this was a deffinately good effort to introduce color to the otherwise boring ebook readers, but it looks awkward and kinda unweildy. an over lap ove the monochrome and color lcd screens would have not only been more efficient, but would have also added to portablity. I'm looking forward to the clear lcd era thats coming soon.
I heard B&N officially announced their E-Reader earlier online today (I forget what its called). Honestly, I think the dual screens actually offer a lot of potential. Especially being an LCD color touchscreen side-by-side the black and white E-Ink displays. Gets me closer and closer to shelling out a few hundred bucks for one of these bad boys.