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Spring Design's Alex e-reader gets February 22 release date, $399 price
If you like us were concerned that the Spring Design Alex e-reader would get mired down in legal battles and never find its way into the caressing hands of book lovers everywhere, you're not alone. Thankfully that doesn't seem to be the case, with the company indicating the dual-screen uberbook will be shipping toward the end of next month; February 22 to be precise. That's the good news. The bad? A price of $399, putting it nearly $150 higher than its closest competition at this point, the Nook, and while our brief hands-on time with the device left us with a much better impression than Barnes & Noble's device did when we got to play with it, we're not sure just how many people are going to be willing to pay that much of a premium for it. What say you?
Spring Design Alex hands-on (Update: video!)
Spring Design was poised to take the official wraps off of its dual-screen, Android-based ereader this Thursday, but we were able to catch an up close and personal glance at the device today here at CES Unveiled. Highlighted over at the Marvell booth (understandable given the choice of processor), the reader was intensely thin and remarkably snappy. We had some gripes with the speed of the Nook, but every action we took on the Alex was relatively lag free. We even downloaded a book and watched it open up immediately, and the touchscreen response was also satisfactory. Spring Design also opted to expose the microSD card slot on the rear; you simple mash your card into the slot and listen for the click, and mash it once more to eject it. You better hope nothing pushes it by mistake, but hey, at least you're not stuck removing some rear cover just to swap cards. We've gotta say -- we're digging this thing based on our brief time with it, and we'd invite you to have a peek at the gallery below till our demo video is prepped. Update: Video is after the break! %Gallery-81573%
Spring Design denied injunction on sales of Barnes & Noble Nook
This shouldn't be seen as an indicator of future rulings, but Spring Design has been denied its injunction to halt Barnes & Noble from selling the Nook. According to court documents, there is "genuine dispute" over whether the Nook was derived by Spring Design's contributions or was independently developed prior -- in a nutshell, there's no way for the court, or anyone at this point, to know what's really going on here. The creator of Alex, who as we've previously chronicled had many behind-the-scenes meetings on developing the Android-assisted e-book reader before BN pulled out of the deal, can take solace in an expedited pre-trial process to accommodate for an earlier hearing date. So now the only thing stopping Barnes and Noble from selling Nook is... Barnes and Noble itself. Turns out that's a pretty formidable foe. [Thanks to everyone who sent this in]
Spring Design Alex comes out to play and show off Marvell's Armada chip
You'd think a pending lawsuit and a grainy official video would be enough exposure for one little dual-screen e-book reader, but Marvell's decided to bring out Spring Design's Alex as a way of showing off their new Armada chip, which claims a faster three frames per second refresh rate along with the usual assorted reductions in cost and power consumption. Maximum PC got the opportunity to see the Alex first-hand at the meeting, and note that while it's definitely thicker than the kindle (blame goes to the larger battery and second screen, naturally), it's a smart little device. Hit up the read link for more pics.
Spring Design vs. Barnes & Noble: all the nooks and crannies
So we followed up with Spring Design to figure out what exactly its relationship with Barnes & Noble had been during the development of the Nook and why the company was suing, and, well, it's looking like B&N played some dirty pool here. You're looking at the actual NDA signed by Barnes & Noble and Spring Design, wherein each party agreed to keep their secrets... secret. After signing the agreement, Spring Design showed the Alex dual-screen ebook reader and associated marketing materials to B&N execs all the way up B&N CFO Kevin Frain and B&N.com president William Lynch, who said he was "looking forward" to a partnership. Soon after that, Spring implies that all contact stopped until Barnes & Noble announced the Nook. Lawsuit time! Here's where it gets tricky, though -- the NDA contains pretty standard language specifically allowing both B&N and Spring Design to walk away from each other and develop competing products, so long as they don't use any of the confidential information they learned under NDA. Without knowing exactly what Spring Design showed to B&N and how much of that influenced or is included in the Nook (which Barnes & Noble currently won't let anyone touch), we can't say much about how this one's going to play out, but for right now we're looking at a huge corporation bringing out an Android-based ebook reader with dual electronic paper and touchscreen LCD displays just months after being shown the same concept by a three-year-old startup, and that's not exactly a warm and fuzzy bedtime story. We'll see what happens next -- Barnes & Noble, you have anything to say? %Gallery-77196% %Gallery-77201%
Spring Design sues Barnes & Noble over the Nook
We knew something was up with the Spring Design Alex dual-screen ebook reader the instant we saw its hastily-prepared web site published the night before Barnes & Noble's Nook launch, and it appears that our hunch was right: Spring Design just filed a trade secret lawsuit against B&N, alleging that their designers showed the Alex to the bookseller's execs before the Nook was developed. According to Spring Design, the two companies had been in contact with each other over ereader designs since the beginning of the year, with various executives exchanging calls, meetings and product details under NDA -- which would certainly explain why there are suddenly two Android-based ereaders on the market with dual electronic ink and capacitive LCD touchscreen displays. Definitely suspicious, but we'd also note that the Nook and Alex actually work quite differently: users browse the web on the Alex's touchscreen and then "print" the content they want to read to the electronic ink display, while the Nook doesn't have a browser and the touchscreen is only used for navigation, not content. We're digging for as much info as we can, and we'll hit you with more info as soon as we get it -- stay tuned.
Watch Spring Design Alex push the web to e-reader format (video)
This is frankly a pretty cool little feature of Spring Design's I-swear-I'm-not-Nook-but-oh-the-timing e-reader / Android hybrid, Alex. Browse to whatever web article / Google book / Wikipedia entry you want to enjoy, press the center button, and watch as Alex "prints" the page to the e-reader screen up top for a more comfortable reading experience. We'll admit we're a bit surprised to see a working model already -- hopefully this is a sign of good things to come sooner rather than later. Video after the break.
Spring Design Alex: dual-screen Android-based e-reader (Update: not for Barnes & Noble)
Whoa, what have we here? It's Alex, the dual-screen e-book reader from Spring Design looking very much like the Barnes and Noble device rumored for a Tuesday launch. It features a 6-inch E-ink EPD (electronic paper display) and 3.5-inch LCD running Google's Android OS for browsing the web or viewing video, audio, photos, and notes. It also packs a removeable SD card, speaker, headphone jack, and WiFi or 3G EVDO/CDMA and GSM radios. An interesting Duet Navigator feature even lets you toggle content captured on the LCD and present it back to the EPD to save on battery life. The device is planned for release sometime this year without any details on who might be involved in that exercise. 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. Show full PR text 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.
Choose my adventure with WoW.com profiles
We're all still slaving away on WoW.com, finding bugs and filing feedback. To help that process along, we're going to try a little experiment. I'm going to level a character from level 1 to level 80, and all of it will be documented on my WoW.com profile. The hook is that you guys are going to decide most aspects of this character, such as race, class, and talent spec.Such things will be determined largely via polls right here on the front page of WoW.com, where I'll be giving weekly updates on my progress along with what I've learned about the class and the world and any other observations I might have. If you want a little more detail on the process such as where I'm going, what I've done, and any other little notes I make via the Adventurer's Note feature, you can follow that on my profile. If you don't dig our profiles portion of the site, hey, no problem. You'll still get weekly updates right here on the blog until I'm level 80.There are two polls: Race and Class. I will play whichever choices are the most popular. If the chosen race can't actually be the chosen class, I'm going to go with whatever is the most popular class that I can actually play as that race. The polls are below, and there's a little more information behind the cut underneath them.Update: Polls will remain open so those who voted can still see the results, but as of May 22nd, Gnome Warlock won the polls and the adventures have begun.%Poll-30341% %Poll-30352%
Alex Mauer's Vegavox album: Now available on NES
Go ahead and toss all your CD's in the garbage, along with your SACD's, audio DVD's, cassettes, LP's, EP's, 45's, 8-tracks, DAT's, Minidiscs, wax cylinders, and player piano rolls. Crush the pile down a little and throw your fancy MP3 player on top. All of that stuff just became embarrassingly obsolete, and we don't want you to appear foolish. There's a new format in town: the NES cartridge. Alex Mauer is a prolific chiptune artist who has made music with the NES, C64, Sega Master System, and Ad Lib sound chips, among others, and for his latest work, Vegavox, he's really done something special. The only way to get the album of original NES-based music is on an NES cartridge. If you need us, we'll be installing an NES cartridge slot in our car. And, of course, by "installing" we mean "cramming."[Via NeoGAF]
Criterion's Alex Ward chats up Wii and DS
Alex Ward, director of design for Criterion Games (Burnout), recently talked about the DS and Wii during an interview with N'Gai Croal. Alex talks, rather favorably, in regards to the Wii and DS, but mainly focuses on Burnout stuff outside the realm of Nintendo. While we could definitely care less about that Sony and Microsoft stuff, Alex makes a few interesting comments regarding their approach to their first attempt at making a game for the Wii or DS, should the developers pursue such a project: What about Wii? You've got Nintendo fans--what can you offer them? At the moment, we're only working on Playstation 3 and 360. We're into the Wii. It's not like we're not. We used to get all the hate mail from people saying, "Why aren't you doing this?" I'd love to do something on that system. We'd like to think about exactly about what it would be. And we'd have to build something bespoke. I've met with the Nintendo guys. They've shown me their stuff. It's cool. I think we'd have to look at very bespoke experiences. So you don't want to just do a port. No way. We just don't do ports at Criterion. We never have. When we did Burnout 1 on Xbox, it was like, "What else can we do?" We were the first game on Xbox to do Live scoreboards. Burnout Revenge on 360, it was a three-month job, but we were big on Save and Share. We were big on Live Revenge. We knew that Live was going to be where it was at, so we put all our time into Live features. When we get a look at the hardware, we just think, "What's the best game we can do on that?" If we were to do a DS game--and we haven't done a DS game yet; the last Burnout for DS wasn't done by us--we've got some ideas we think that would be very bespoke. Using the stylus. Using the microphone. Using everything you can to make that system fun. And hypothetically, Burnout on Wii--maybe you wouldn't do any driving in it at all. Let's do something totally different with it. The Burnout team, we want to do it, but at the moment. we're just focused on doing the PS3 and Xbox 360 Burnout 5. Who knows what we'll do after that. We'll probably be dead.
Two new Sega Genesis Collection videos released
Seeing Alex Kidd was good and all, but now we're talking with new videos of Ecco the Dolphin and Columns that will be crammed into Sega Genesis Collection.I know there are a lot of young gamers around these days and some of you may not be old enough to have experienced the greatness of these two games. That's why I'm so excited Sega is releasing this collection of almost 30 Genesis games. It's kinda funny because Sega's old slogan - "Genesis does what Nintendon't" is so fitting. You see, Sega has put all their classic games onto one disc, while Nintendo forces gamers to buy all their NES games separately. For shame!
Alex Kidd shows off on Sega Genesis Collection
If you enjoyed Alex Kidd on the Sega Genesis, you're sure to be salivating by now after just watching the above video. Alex Kidd, which was Sega's first answer to Mario, is one of nearly 30 old-school Genesis games making their way onto the PSP in the form of Sega Genesis Collection. The game comes packed with extras like exclusive interviews, behind-the-scenes footage and wireless multiplayer modes. What more can a Sega Fanboy ask for? Yeah, I said it.