Comments on: Spring Design Dual-Screen Alex e-Book Reader Announced — Yes, It Does Exist

By: Tommy

Tommy — Mon, 23 Nov 2009 21:00:52 +0000

Nice review, like the design, but am wondering if two screens are user-friendly. The color screen is a nice feature, this make it a serious competeter for barnes and noble nook. By the way I have also found a review of the Barnes and noble nook i am pointing to. Does anyone know how much the alex reader costs?

By: dave

dave — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:36:39 +0000

i read that the battery life of alex last for days.
may i know if how many particular number of days it last.

By: dave

dave — Mon, 16 Nov 2009 02:15:49 +0000

what particular multimedia formats does alex support?

By: Horace Bryan

Horace Bryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:42:51 +0000

Unlike Gavin, you got vision.

By: Horace Bryan

Horace Bryan — Thu, 05 Nov 2009 16:35:08 +0000

Gavin, it is written, “where there is no vision, the people perish”

By: johnkzin

johnkzin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 22:20:27 +0000

Yeah, it reminds me of 3 different concept designs out there:

1) OLPC 2

2) Yanko Design’s Macbook-Touch

3) Microsoft Courier

By: Donald Townsend

Donald Townsend — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 15:24:16 +0000

I had a look at the Entourage eDGe which takes the concept of the Barnes & Noble reader and Alex a step further. It reminds me strongly of the 2nd generation OLPC with a twin display.

By: johnkzin

johnkzin — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 13:06:27 +0000

“There might even be a device soon which features two screens of identical size one e-ink the other backlit colour display”

Look up “Entourage eDGe”.

By: Donald Townsend

Donald Townsend — Wed, 21 Oct 2009 09:25:04 +0000

e-Ink has made its way into e-Book readers for two main reasons, a very low power consumption and display quality of text.
But e-Ink screens lack high refresh rates when “turning a page”. As a consequence they are also very bad at displaying moving pictures. Their resulution is low and they are restricted to 16 or less shades of grey. Display of photograpic images therefor is acceptable at best. Current technology doesn’t allow to add touch to e-Ink screens without reducing the quality (= readability) of the display (unless one uses Wacom technology which then needs a additional stylus).
What companies now begin to realize is that going digital doesn’t simply mean transferring an old format to a new medium par on par.
Consumers who are used to colourful displays and interactivity expect more, more than e-Ink technology can deliver.
Some e-Book readers based on e-Ink screens allow bookmarking and annotations. They display pictures in 16 shades of grey, fine. But that’s very limited.

The just announced Barnes & Noble reader and the Alex e-Book reader try to overcome those limitations by adding a secondary colour display and touch sensitivity. The trade-off will be a reduced battery life.

What we don’t know yet is how much battery life is reduced by the secondary display and wether the enhanced reading experience will be worth the trade-off.
Currently there are probably only few if any e-books that feature additional content such as pictures and videos which the Alex e-Book reader could display. Most likely they have to be a special format.
If the mulitmedia features of the Alex e-Book reader are used extensively by a book battery life will drop to hours instead of days. Why use e-Ink alltogether then, some might ask.

The iPhone shows that reading can be done in excellent quality on a colour display of a portable device. Someone will soon take the next step and try an e-Book reader with a backlit colour display. Excellent battery life is out of question for the moment) unless the magic battery is finally invented). Users who want to get an e-Book reader have to decide where there preferences are long battery life and simple reading or reduced battery life and enhanced reading.

There might even be a device soon which features two screens of identical size one e-Ink the other a backlit colour display and the user choses depending on book, prefences or availability of a wall socket.

By: johnkzin

johnkzin — Tue, 20 Oct 2009 15:00:39 +0000

If you like this one, you should look up the Entourage eDGe. It’s sort of like a cross between this and a Microsoft Courier. Two screens (like the Courier), one e-paper and one LCD (like this device), and running Android. Oh, and, 10″ LCD, 9.7″ e-paper.

That’s the one I’ve got my eyes on.