eBook reader gets dual screens and Android

 

Gallery

By Stuart Turton

Posted on 20 Oct 2009 at 08:41

A Californian company called Spring Design has announced a dual-screen eBook reader, running on Android.

The eBook reader, dubbed Alex, features a traditional 6in E Ink display for reading books and magazines, however, beneath that there's a 3.5in LCD display.

This display will be powered by Android and used for browsing the web, and viewing videos and photos. While this would undoubtedly prove useful for web browsing, Spring Design actually has grander designs for this screen.

The company's suggesting publishers could include additional content with novels that could be displayed on the display - say multimedia links to related content, including video and audio "potentially creating a whole new industry for secondary publications that supplement and enhance original text."

Spring Design is touting Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity, and though there's no word on storage yet, Alex will feature an SD card slot.

Another interesting feature of Alex is an ability to "capture and cache web content" and then display it on the E Ink screen. Give that E Ink screens only draw power when refreshing the page, this could help Alex conserve battery life when your're reading a long article on the internet.

The company claims it is in discussion with "major content partners" with the aim of releasing Alex next year.