Handson with spring designs alex ereader and barnes nobles nook christopher null
When it comes to reading electronic books Amazons Kindle and the Apple iPad are no longer the only games in town. A bevy of new e-readers are hitting the market this year and two pint-sized book readers have recently hit the shelves. Here are some thoughts on both of them.Spring Design Alex E-ReaderA dark horse of an e-book reader the quirky Alex is electronic ink up top and Android PDA on the bottom. The 3.5-inch touchscreen on the bottom of the device is surprisingly responsive though it has accuracy issues and its best put to use downloading books from Google Books or Project Gutenberg. Find what you want using the browser on the lower screen then tap the sync button and whatever youre looking at shows up on the 6-inch reader screen above. It works reasonably well once you get the hang of it but it requires a bit of patience to get books centered just right so the text doesnt stray off one side of the screenCons: The device is terribly slow to startup and refresh rates are average at best. The Wi-Fi works well but theres no 3G for on-the-go downloads. A version with 3G support and a proper 3.5mm headphone jack instead of the useless 2.5mm jack included here is in the works. Adding new apps is a massive pain as Android Marketplace isnt installed by default.Overall: Its a great proof of concept that deserves some attention but its rough around the edges and needs some polish with its second version. Pricey too. 400 http: www.springdesign.com Barnes Noble NookTied to Barnes N…full story>
June 10th, 2010 at 7:42 am
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