Well Everyone, it was bound to happen. Borders didn’t want to be left out in the cold.  The Alex ereader looks LOTS like the Barnes and Noble Nook except for the 3.5 inch display on the bottom of the device is obviously taller.  The Alex is going to allow for full web browsing, video playback and music.

It looks like the Alex ereader will be available on February 22, 2010 and will cost $359.   The Alex looks promising, though they’re going to have to offer some incentives to get that price to match the other ereaders available at $259.

The Alex, with it’s larger 3.5″ LCD display will offer full web browsing capabilities and it runs Android, yay.

Check out the AWESOME Alex website here:

http://www.springdesign.com

It looks like 2010 is most certainly the year of the ereader.

You will be required to register to use the forums, but hopefully you’ll find tons of great discussions and interesting information.  So far, the forums are centered around electronic book readers, but I’m always open to suggestions.  I absolutely love Android devices so will probably be adding some new categories for Android devices.

The link to the forums is up in the left hand corner or click below:

http://www.tekkiefreak.com/forum

Jill

Here’s the article compliments of the Huffington post.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2009/12/16/borders-plans-to-sell-ebo_n_394072.html

Update:

Clearly, Barnes & Noble was scared by my post. I hit my “publish” button, went back to my B&N tab and magically, the status on my order had changed to “shipped.” I’m sure it wasn’t just a coincidence either, after all if I were them I’d be a little worried about the entire Tekkie Freak reader base of 5 seeing that. A quick check on my tracking info and my Nook is somewhere on the UPS truck. Now the only thing to wonder is whether or not the UPS driver will make it through the winter storm. I guess I can’t blame Barnes and Noble for the weather. I could try, but even I’m not THAT delusional.

Vent warning:

So, I pre-ordered my Nook on October 19.  I was apparently one of the first to put my order in.  The device was supposed to ship on November 30.  So I receive an email, something to the effect “You’re so Lucky.”  I’m thinking if I’m so lucky then why hasn’t my Nook shipped?  In that email they stated that they were upgrading me to next-day shipping and gave me a $10 gift certificate.   So, my Nook is supposed to be here on December 9.  At my door.  It’s 4:30 PM on December 8, I’ve gotten absolutely no word that it’s been shipped.  No idea where it is and not a single, “We’re Sorry.”  As far as I’m concerned the “You’re Lucky” thing has kind of backfired and made me more annoyed.  Maybe Barnes and Noble should explain to it’s customers what’s going on.  A quick check on my B&N status page shows that it has not yet shipped and still states that the expected ship date is November 30, clearly that’s come and gone.

Frankly, Barnes and Noble, maybe you should tell your customers that you’re sorry and if there’s some horrible production problem and you don’t have the product available and can’t ship, then maybe you should just explain what’s going on.  The way this is being handled is really poor PR, but I’m guessing that in the end at least giving people some morsel of the truth is going to leave you with fewer angry customers in the long run.

Incidentally, Ellen gave away a Nook to everyone in her studio audience. I do hope you gave them some kind of gift certificate, because Barnes and Noble if you gave my Nook that I paid money for to one of the Ellen audience members and I’m sitting here wondering where mine is after you promised me it would ship on November 30, I will NOT be a happy camper.

Here’s the video on Ellen and I can’t quite make out what she’s saying, but I do think she says something about giving the audience some kind of card so they can order:

Anyway, to you my fearless Tekkie Freak readers I will keep you posted and updated on where and when my Nook arrives and hopefully I’ll have some lovely pictures to show you.

Looks like the update should happen over the air, or else it can be downloaded and you can update your Kindle via USB.  Enjoy…and a Very Happy Thanksgiving to all my Tekkie Freak readers.

Here’s the Link:

http://www.amazon.com/gp/help/customer/display.html?nodeId=200324680