Does the Alex have what it takes to best it’s more mature and cheaper cousins, the Kindle 2 and Nook? Are any of the prepared for the onslaught of the iPad in two weeks?
The answer: Sorta. Read Engadget’s review to see why.
The addition of full Android apps to the Alex makes for a really unique product offering, but you have to wonder what it does to the battery life of the device. Hopefully someone I know will preorder one so I can get hands on with it!
The final weekend of CES has come and gone, but the ereader news keeps coming. Here’s a look around the web at the final coverage of ebooks and ereaders.
iriver shows off their Kindle Story (Engadget)
Wired enjoys Spring Design’s Alex, but realizes it faces some challenges ahead (Wired)
Jinke goes with SiPix panels over E-ink for their ereaders (Engadget)
Qualcomm’s Mirasol screen impresses with full motion video (Engadget)
Wired also goes hands on with the Plastic Logic QUE proReader (Wired)
The RCA Lexi fails to impress, work (Engadget)
Engadget does a great overview of ereaders and ebooks at CES
The explosion of ereaders at this year’s CES has been pretty remarkable. Not just the amount of devices being announced, but also the sheer quantity of viable technologies for future devices. This is a market and industry still wide open; there is no one format that rules over the rest (but plenty of contenders, see Blio).
The other issue is that in a world where smartphones are getting easier and easier to use and more people have them, people expect their devices to do more. Is there a place for a device that just reads books? Or are these devices expected to make your books do more? This will be an interesting year indeed!
And we know for a fact the interest is there: the Kindle is selling fairly well and a little bird told four7s that at least one of the device manufacturers discussed above signed an international distribution deal during a meeting at CES. We’ll be keeping track as more of these devices make it out of the gate.
CES is like the nerd show that keeps on giving. My father spent lots of time with tons of devices today. His impressions will come later tonight. Here’s the straight up news of happened today at CES about ereaders and ebooks!
Plastic Logic QUE proReader in-depth video hands-on (Engadget)
Skiff and Marvell make it easy(er) for people to build their own e-ink devices (sorta) (Engadget)
Borders is the ebook store of choice for the Alex (mediabistro)
Mediabistro’s hands on with the Entourage eDGe (mediabistro)
COOL-ER reader was apparently developed in less than 8 months, is #1 in Europe (mediabistro)
Interview with CourseSmart’s Frank Lyman (mediabistro)
Pixel Qi promises screens in devices in 2010 (Engadget)
Speaking of Pixel Qi screens in devices, here’s the Notion Ink Adam (Engadget)
Bookeen debuts Orizon touchscreen ebook reader (Engadget)
Best selling author talks about ereaders and ebooks (mediabistro)
More time with Havnon’s WISEreader ereader lineup (Engadget)
Enough with the ereaders already, says Gawker (mediabistro)
There you have it! Our own hands on impressions coming later tonight.
What a day! Here’s a little recap of what went down in Vegas today. Tomorrow I’ll have someone on the ground (read: my dad is at the show) to give me hands on impressions, but for now (in chronological order), announcements and initial impressions from around the web!
Havnon demonstrated their ereader device, which is available in OEM form for third parties (Engadget)
Qualcomm’s Mirasol low-power color screen shown playing video (Engadget
The HP Slate goes wah wah waaaaaah (biggest let down of the show so far; it just runs Windows) (Engadget)
Lots of positive press for the Entourage eDGe! (PC Pro)
Release date and pricing info for the eDGe (Engadget)
Hands-on and video demo of a dual LCD screen tablet concept from MSI (Engadget)
Ray Kurtzweil’s Blio book distribution framework demonstrated (Engadget)
Another look at Blio from mediabistro
Samsung’s first ebook devices for the US market go hands-on (Engadget)
Spring Design gives Alex a fighting chance by dropping the price already (Engadget)
RCA takes hardware from Audiovox and software from Barnes & Noble for their ereader (Engadget)
Plastic Logic shows off the versatile QUE proReader aimed squarely at business users (Engadget)
Fujitsu proves that e-ink can be in color! (Engadget) The Japanese are way ahead when it comes to this, Bridgestone also has compelling color e-ink tech coming
The Skiff gets quite possibly the best review of any ereader hardware so far (Engadget)
The first device to sport a Pixel Qi screen, the Notion Ink Adam, finally shows up (Engadget)
Copia intros ereader devices and social media platforms (Engadget)
Which devices are you most looking forward to? Leave it in the comments!Can they out Nook the Nook? It certainly looks like.
Funny thing about that of course is that Spring claims that B&N stole their design after an early potential partnership meeting, yet now that Nook has all the attention everybody is only ever going to view it as the other way around.
More sad than funny, really. The Alex seems to come out swinging, addressing the major issue with the Nook (the speed). Here’s hoping its price is compelling enough to really compete!
