UNIVERSE INC

Earlier last month Spring Design launched a cool new ebook reader gadget known as Alex. What’s special about this latest ebook reader is that it runs Google’s Android and has two displays. The top one as you can see is a conventional monochromic electronic paper display that’s six-inch in size while the bottom one is a colour touchscreen which allows you to use Android to browse the internet and blogs.

What’s unique about having dual display, is when you’re browsing the internet either via its built-in 3G modem or Wi-Fi, the Alex will let you visit a web site, select a story, and the device will reflow it to the EPD screen. This makes it feel like whatever it is you’re reading has been published as a newspaper article. Though one issue I think I would have with it is that it appears to be a very long device, this may make it less portable.

The colour screen can be switched off to save power. This makes browsing blogs and news sites much more feasible, since you don’t have to wait for the ebook to render individual pages before you get to your target content.

The capacitive LCD touchscreen running Android also supports UI customization, photo galleries, and full-color video playback. When you read an ebook, the interface lets you quickly skip around to any page, using an on-screen slide bar. An on-screen keyboard also makes text entry practical. With so many multimedia features, I would say the Alex is probably one of the best boredom fight gadgets to be launched in recent months.