Spring Design Alex comes out to play and show off Marvell's Armada chip
By Ross Miller 
posted Nov 3rd 2009 9:47PM
posted Nov 3rd 2009 9:47PM
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I would definitely buy this over the Nook, so much more you can do with it.
I don't find such a small browser screen useful... It's an e-reader, not a computer. I'm sure it's fine if you want a e-reader/computer, but I like separate devices.
You can use the LCD to browse the net, find an article you want to read, then press that button in between the screen and it will "print" the web page to the e-ink display, allowing you to read casually.
And (unlike the Nook?) you can turn off the LCD when you aren't using it.
@Matthew -- the nook's LCD turns off when not in use. Not sure if you can switch it off yourself, but it doesn't stay on all the time.
cool
*sigh* I just read regular books... I feel so left out :(
Booo-oook?
What's that, some kind of high tech ebook? I mean, what's the point? Ebooks have always been good enough for your mother and me
All this new technology, it makes me despair...
CJ,
I think he was typing on iPhone and dictionary changed nook to book.
So, what he actually meant was "*sigh* I just read regular nooks... I feel so left out :("
You remember Anchovies but not books?
Yes, but you support Arsenal, so your life is complete!
I wants it, but I don't think I want to pay for it.
If they can match the $259 price of the nook, it would be awesome.
Three pages a second isn't bad.
And we can always use a bigger battery.
Unfortunately, the browser experience will probably be sub-par.
What I'd personally like to see is an ebook reader that can connect to a mobile phone via wifi or Bluetooth, so you can download and send documents that way
It is a 1ghz chip running android. It will be at least as good as hte Droid, and way way better when it comes to actually reading web pages on the eink display.
they should move colour screen to the other side and add a keyboard to it
... then maybe add Blu-ray, then perhaps a few USB ports and a hinged cover (that's actually a screen) to close and protect it, too.
that sounds awesome, someone should make one of those!
I dunno Volite... it would then be so large you would have to put it on top of your lap.... what should we call this thing anyway?
Add grenade launcher to protect your stuff that has sit on top of your lap from thieves. May be add a reactor to aid batteries.
Keyboard ruins the image in my head of drinking Earl Grey hot sitting at my desk wearing my star trek uniform reading over my pad...
Do not deny me my star trek fantasy with your silly keyboard.
ok :) then only screen - one side oled, other e-ink
I like the product name...
.. It's all about ME!
Now you shall have a good leeway when picking up chicks.
not really. You don't pick up chicks for 'having gadgets'.
Heh. Depends on the type of 'gadget' you're talking about.
Most technically impressive e-reader out there.
I'm most interested that Marvell says their new chip could reduce prices to $99, I hope to have an e-reader that fits me in a year or so.
What that really means is that this Alex might actually come in at under $299. 99$ for the ebook reader part and $199 for the android part.
OMGTHATSSUCHANOOKRIPOFFDOESNTANYONEHAVEANYORIGINALIDEASANYMORE
That hurts my eyes (really...)
Don't worry, it won't be there to hurt your eyes for much longer. :]
Apparently you have not read the news... Spring Design is claiming in a lawsuit that B&N stole the idea from the Nook from them. Please forgive me if you are being sarcastic and this was a reference to said lawsuit.
Um yeah, kinda figured the all caps and no spaces in between words would be a dead giveaway of sarcasm. I was going for the "omg everyone copies the iphone" angle.
Silly me.
next time don't forget the "/s" tag for the sarcasm impaired reader.
/s
Maybe it's just me but I like the design of the nook much better.
Agreed. When looking at the devices side by side - the Nook looks like a device from a designer and the Alex looks like a pre-production device designed by an engineer.
I guess that explains why I like the Alex better. I am an engineer.
Steve Jobs: "Spring Design is KILLING US!..... Johhny!! You better have that iSlate ready before the Spring 2010!"
The slate was all but finished weeks ago.
Steve Jobs has been pondering for months where the Apple symbol should go.
It looks very thin. Nice.
Yeah, real men use ThinkPads.
Sorry, no. They lost track of the point of the thing.
The display below is there instead of the keyboard on the Kindle and allows them to add touch without running into the problems Sony ran into, where the ePaper display wasn't readable enough with the touch layer over the top of it. So it needs to handle simple typing, note taking, scrolling through titles, etc. At the same time though it needs to not blow the battery life to hell or make the device a whole lot bigger than the eInk display you'll be using almost all the time. By making the display on the bottom bigger than necessary they made the whole thing bigger, heavier, and more expensive than it needs to be.
The Nook looks like they understood that. These guys clearly don't.
If they have a case against B&N I wish them luck in its pursuit. But this thing is going to vanish into thin air otherwise. The Marvell tech sounds interesting regardless though.
I want faster refresh rates on the e-ink screen. Why do we need another LCD screen. I thought were trying to get past LCD screens and move into the future.
If they make it white, they can sell it for twice the price.
I was like WHOA cuz I thought it was credit card thin or something, but it still does look nice, despite its thickness.
I was like WHOA cuz I thought it was credit card thin or something, but it still does look nice, despite its thickness.
Really having a hard time trying to justify an e-reader with e-ink. Oh boy, it looks like paper, big deal. When was the last time I chose a physical copy of the New York Times over the back-lit color displays of my computer or portable device (iPod Touch, cell phone) Is it worse than reading paper? Yeah sure, I suppose if your in a position of opportune light, it would be difficult to read an LCD screen on a high backlight, but if your on a bus or train, or in some other area with low of fluctuating light levels, neither is reading a newspaper.
And besides which, full displays have the advantage of displaying video. Its hilarious to me that all these magazine companies are talking about how these mythical devices will save the company once they start playing video. Almost every cellphone and MP3 player at this point has the capability to be the magic e-reader device that the industry "needs" and even so, they're basically admitting that they believe that their audience would rather watch videos of the content in the magazine rather than to actually read it themselves. Doesn't this defeat the purpose of producing the "magazine" in the first place? Perhaps it isn't the idea of print, or the apparent lack of technological innovation that's the problem. Rather its an issue of poor creativity and incompetence on the count of management