Spring Design Alex: dual-screen Android-based e-reader (Update: not for Barnes & Noble)
By Thomas Ricker 
posted October 19th 2009 1:51PM
posted October 19th 2009 1:51PM
Update: We just heard from Spring Design's PR person, Pat Meier Johnson. We were told that the Alex device above is not the rumored dual-screen Barnes & Noble reader, "this is an entirely different device." Judging by the hastily prepared web site coincidentally appearing on the eve of the B&N device launch, and the domain's registrar, Albert Teng, who has numerous patent applications (not patents granted) covering "electronic devices having complementary dual-displays," we'd say this announcement is quite possibly a desperate attempt to lay claim to intellectual property rights instead of a real product with real manufacturers and real content partners. We'll see when, or if, it launches.
FREMONT, CA - OCTOBER 19, 2009-- Spring Design today announced Alex™, the first e-book based on Google Android featuring full browser capabilities and patented dual screen interaction technology, the Duet Navigator™. The Alex livens up text with multimedia links, adding a new dimension to the reading experience and potentially creating a whole new industry for secondary publications that supplement and enhance original text. Alex's dual-screen display design brings together the efficiency of reading on a monochrome EPD (electronic paper display) screen while dynamic hyperlinked multimedia information and third party input on its secondary color LCD screen, actually an integrated Android mobile device, opens a rich world of Internet content to support the text on the main screen.
Alex is the first Google Android-based e-book device to provide full Internet browsing over Wi-Fi or mobile networks such as 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM. With its dual-screen, multi-access capability, it provides the entire Web universe as a handy reference library, prompting users to delve into its vast information base to complement, clarify or enhance what they are reading. Alex is the first truly mobile wireless e-book device that gives users their own personalized library on the go, whenever and wherever they need it.
Spring Design pioneered its patented dual-screen device with 'touch and extend' capability in 2007, and has been working with major book stores, newspapers and publishers over the past two years to share its vision and the capabilities of the dual screen device. Alex brings together the efficiency of an EPD display with the responsiveness and richness of navigational convenience of the LCD screen. Its removable SD card gives users extensive storage, allowing them to expand their text with multimedia "add on" editions.
Ideal for professional, educational and entertainment markets, Alex dynamically transforms the reader's experience with images, videos and notes inserted as 'Web grabs' or with custom text created by the user or other secondary authors pertaining to the subject being displayed. Users can create their own images and notes and capture them to augment the original text or just dynamically grab relevant content with Link Notes™, Alex's innovative multimedia authoring tool to enhance multimedia publishing.
"This is the start of a whole new experience of reading content on e-books, potentially igniting a whole new industry in multimedia e-book publishing for secondary authors to create supplementary content that is hyper linked to the text. We are bringing life to books with audio, video, and annotations," said Dr. Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. "This gives readers the ability to fully leverage the resources on the Web, and the tools available in search engines to augment the reading experience."
Alex™ features a 6" E-Ink EPD display and 3.5" color LCD display, earphones and speakers. A removable SD card will free up library space on the device while letting users archive content for future reference. The enhanced Android OS is optimized to support integration between the color and monochrome displays while preserving battery life. Users can capture and cache web content from their online experience on the LCD screen, and toggle to view it on the EPD screen without taxing the battery life. Browser features such as bookmarking, history, and security settings are built in and the device, with full Android browsing capability, is mobile-enabled with smart phone capabilities.
Spring Design is currently in discussion with, and enlisting major content partners and plans to release the Alex device for selected strategic partners by the end of this year.
Alex is the first Google Android-based e-book device to provide full Internet browsing over Wi-Fi or mobile networks such as 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM. With its dual-screen, multi-access capability, it provides the entire Web universe as a handy reference library, prompting users to delve into its vast information base to complement, clarify or enhance what they are reading. Alex is the first truly mobile wireless e-book device that gives users their own personalized library on the go, whenever and wherever they need it.
Spring Design pioneered its patented dual-screen device with 'touch and extend' capability in 2007, and has been working with major book stores, newspapers and publishers over the past two years to share its vision and the capabilities of the dual screen device. Alex brings together the efficiency of an EPD display with the responsiveness and richness of navigational convenience of the LCD screen. Its removable SD card gives users extensive storage, allowing them to expand their text with multimedia "add on" editions.
Ideal for professional, educational and entertainment markets, Alex dynamically transforms the reader's experience with images, videos and notes inserted as 'Web grabs' or with custom text created by the user or other secondary authors pertaining to the subject being displayed. Users can create their own images and notes and capture them to augment the original text or just dynamically grab relevant content with Link Notes™, Alex's innovative multimedia authoring tool to enhance multimedia publishing.
"This is the start of a whole new experience of reading content on e-books, potentially igniting a whole new industry in multimedia e-book publishing for secondary authors to create supplementary content that is hyper linked to the text. We are bringing life to books with audio, video, and annotations," said Dr. Priscilla Lu, CEO of Spring Design. "This gives readers the ability to fully leverage the resources on the Web, and the tools available in search engines to augment the reading experience."
Alex™ features a 6" E-Ink EPD display and 3.5" color LCD display, earphones and speakers. A removable SD card will free up library space on the device while letting users archive content for future reference. The enhanced Android OS is optimized to support integration between the color and monochrome displays while preserving battery life. Users can capture and cache web content from their online experience on the LCD screen, and toggle to view it on the EPD screen without taxing the battery life. Browser features such as bookmarking, history, and security settings are built in and the device, with full Android browsing capability, is mobile-enabled with smart phone capabilities.
Spring Design is currently in discussion with, and enlisting major content partners and plans to release the Alex device for selected strategic partners by the end of this year.
A toggle button that switches an e-ink display into an LCD? I'd love to see your designs for that one. But you're right, engineers should spend more time using magic to create impossible devices.
EPD does not stand for "electronic paper display", it stands for "electro-phoretic display". "Electronic paper" could refer to any of a number of technologies, while electro-phoretic refers to the proprietary E-Ink technology of dual-colored particles flipped by an electrostatic field.
Actually electropheritic display can refer to any screen which uses particles suspended in a fluid. The concept was initially developed by Xerox's Palo Alto Research Center back in the 70s (their version used white particles in a black fluid IIRC). EInk itself is a proprietary implementation an EPD... the only one to have reached the consumer market at this point... while there are other companies developing their own versions.
Ahahhahh, keep telling yourself that...as I upgrade my G1 to yet a newer more robust Adroid rom...I love the smell of freedom!
I like it, just another step closer to an e-reader I would buy, I agree with Cheek, needs 2 week battery life though.
damn cache, ignore this post please...sorry
Calm down, their marketing/engineering/etc. people are on drugs.
James Barsby (and Douglas Bailey), you might be interested in the enTourage eDGe... it has two screens that open like a book. Check it out: www.entourageedge.com
(Note: the Alex belongs on engadget-mobile as well... it's supposed to have not just 3G data, but full phone capabilities, usable via wired headset)
I've been thinking lately that something like an Android or Maemo version of the Kindle DX might be an interesting mid-range device. Only:
0) TI OMAP 3640 CPU, 1GB RAM, 32GB internal flash (or, see #7)
1) drop the thumb keyboard (android and maemo both have on-screen keyboards)
2) add a touch screen; 8-10" size, rotation.
3) if you go with maemo, add a portrait mode on-screen keyboard
4) add KVM support (usb host and/or otg, and some form of display out)
5) I'm agnostic about color LCD vs e-ink ... color LCD would be better for general use, but e-ink increases the battery life
6) LOTS of battery life ... so it probably can't be exactly as thin as a Kindle, but try to keep it as thin as possible
7) at least one SDHC card slot ... two would be pretty nice. Maybe instead of dedicated internal flash, have an internal SDHC card slot (populated when you buy it, but user removable/upgradable), accessible via the battery compartment ... and then an external SDHC card for general data.
8) getting back to the Alex -- drop the "full phone" capability, just Wifi, Bluetooth, and optional 3G data
9) some form of kickstand, so you can use it at meetings with a portable USB keyboard, for taking notes and such.
Yup, I'd buy that.
For the Alex ... as long as I can use the main display to display a ConnectBot ssh session, and the LCD for displaying the keyboard, that might be acceptable. I'd also want it to have a browser that can do non-mobile versions of websites (the default Android browser only does the mobile versions of Googel Apps, for example). Except that the screen is too small to be my mid-range device ... and the device is to big to be my pocketable device. That means carrying a third device, which isn't in the cards.