Spring Design, the company that claims Barnes & Noble stole its e-reader idea with the Nook, will launch its own e-reader next month.
The Alex has a 6-inch EPD display above a 3.5-inch color touch screen running the Android operating system. It's similar to the Nook in design, which is no surprise to the company; Spring Design has filed an intellectual property lawsuit against the retailer, claiming they were working together under a non-disclosure agreement -- presumably for the Alex to get support from Barnes & Noble's e-book store -- when suddenly the book retailer launched a device of its own, also with two displays.
But when I checked out the Alex at CES 2010, it impressed me with features that the Nook doesn't have. Foremost is the ability to access the full Web and view it on the EPD display. Using an action button located between the two screens, users can pass content from the bottom screen to the top, making Web sites like the New York Times seem like a print newspaper.
The Alex also supports video and simultaneous music and reading, and it plans to allow third-party apps, kind of like what Amazon is doing with the Kindle.
One point of concern: Spring Design is vague on its source for e-books over Wi-Fi. Obviously Barnes & Noble is out of the picture, and the e-reader's Web site only says "Google Books and Alex partner bookstores." So unless Spring Design announces some partnerships at launch, you'll be limited to the public domain when downloading directly from the device (Update: See below). I'm not sure if you'll be able to download ePub-format Barnes & Noble e-books on your computer and transfer them over the the Alex.
The Alex will sell for $359, which is $100 more than both the Nook and Amazon's Kindle, but if the end product is as good as it seems on paper, it may be worth the extra money for all the Web content you get in return.
[Update: As pointed out in the comments, Borders is partnering with Spring Design to sell e-books, and the online store will get top billing on the device. Details here, thanks for the reminder.]
