Spring Design today announced Alex, the first e-book based on
Google Android. Alex features full browser capabilities and patented dual
screen interaction technology, the Duet Navigator.
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 it can show e-Ink and LCD screens.
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.
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.
"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."
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