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.

Ah yes, the Barnes and Noble Nook. I received mine on December 9, 2009. So I’ve been using my Nook for about 3 weeks now and I really have to say that I like it. It’s a great little device. It works well with the Barnes and Noble store and it offers support for many more file formats than Kindle. It contains the very same viziplex e-ink display as the Amazon Kindle, but also has a smaller, color LCD screen below the 6″ e-ink display.

The Nook has gotten tons of bad reviews and frankly, I’m not sure why.  It seems to be a great device, so far it’s worked well for me and it runs the Android operating system.  I’ve read 2 books so far on my Nook and have had zero problems downloading, formatting or reading either of the books I’ve purchased.  The wi-fi works fine and as soon as I entered my security key it connected without a problem.

The Nook doesn’t have a web browser available like the Kindle does, and the Kindle browser did come in handy one time when I needed to check my gmail account.  Though it worked, the experience was anything like browsing on a regular computer or even on a cell phone.  So, I can’t say that I miss having the browser available.  A software update that was pushed out for the Nook last week (version 1.1.1) did improve page turns by leaps and bounds and my Nook is running relatively fast and fuss free.  I own a Kindle 2 also and I have to say the experience I get from either device is fairly similar.  Though so far I find myself heading for the Nook when I want to read something.

The only real drawback I’ve found so far is that Barnes & Noble claims a 10-day battery life.  So far, this has been a tad disappointing as I’ve only managed to get maybe 48 hours.  And I don’t leave any of the network connections turned on when using my Nook.  The Kindle battery life seems to deliver much more as advertised as I’ve left the Kindle on standby for at least a week before with little to no battery drain.

I’ll keep you posted.

Hi again, my faithful Tekkie freak readers.  We now have a great new look for 2010.  While I absolutely loved my old Theme, it was a little bit busy and tough to read.  So I went with a new and simpler theme and I’m absolutely loving it.

My goals for 2010 are many, but I’m hoping to get our forums up and running.  I hope to provide everyone with tons of great information on latest gadgets.  I’ve been focusing mostly on electronic reading devices such as the Barnes and Noble Nook and Amazon’s Kindle.

Please head over to our Tekkie Freak forums where I hope to get some great discussions going.  Thanks for all your ongoing support in 2009, and here’s to a fabulous 2010.  I wish everyone a Happy and Healthy 2010.

Jill

Are you going home to Mommy this Thanksgiving or Christmas?  Well, if you are and you’re bringing your Kindle…people are going to want to look at it and play with it and touch it.   Trust me, I know.  Are all those bodice rippers just sitting there on your home screen for everyone to see?  Check out this video,  Molly Wood shows you how to hide those titles that you’d prefer your future in-laws didn’t see. Enjoy:

Plastic Logic recently announced it’s QUE Ereader. Details so far are pretty sketchy, but you can get you very own in January of 2010 at the product launch during CES. This reader is being billed as the first ereader for the professional. It has a touchscreen, does PDF, word, powerpoint and excel documents.

The device sports and 8.5″ x 11″ screen and 3g wireless provided by AT&T (ewe). Not that I’m opinionated or anything. It
will also be driven by the Barnes and Noble online store. I couldn’t find any information on pricing. I’m guessing it will be more than your average consumer will care to spend.