Details on Sungale’s Cyberus Smart Info tablet are scarce, but to look at the product listing on Amazon you’d ask yourself what the darned thing couldn’t do. Centered around a 7-inch 800 x 480 touchscreen, the Cyberus promises not only ebook access but – courtesy of WiFi – a web browser, YouTube viewer and internet radio streaming.
Whether or not Barnes and Noble liked it enough to copy it, Spring Design’s Alex prototype dual-display ebook reader is certainly nifty enough to capture our interest. MaximumPC had a chance to go hands-on with the Alex, which has a 6-inch e-ink screen up top and a 3.5-inch color capacitive touchscreen underneath for control and navigation, as part of a Marvell demonstration for the company’s new ARMADA 166E SoC.
We’re used to copyright and industrial espionage claims being more like cases of trademark squatting these days, so to find something ostensibly as straightforward as Barnes and Noble’s alleged “copying” of Spring Design’s Alex concept is almost refreshing. The startup claims B&N led them to believe that they were interested in producing the Alex dual-display Android ebook reader, before breaking off contact and then, shortly after, announcing the nook. Now Spring Design has shared their NDA agreements and details of the lawsuit with Engadget.
Back in the run-up to Barnes and Noble’s launch of their nook ebook reader, hitherto-unheard of Spring Design grabbed some headlines with their Alex dual-display ebook design. At the time there was some speculation that the two devices were one and the same, though that turned out not to be the case; according to Spring Design and a lawsuit against B&N, however, the two do in fact share some design DNA. Spring Design allege that B&N knowingly “misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties’ non-disclosure agreement” in designing the nook.
Further details of ASUS’ upcoming ebook reader have emerged, after executives from the company apparently confirmed that WiFi, 3G and WiMAX versions will be announced before the year is out. The ebook readers will apparently begin reaching carrier partners in the US and Europe come March 2010, with the executives claiming that prices will be “competitive” with what’s on offer from Amazon and Sony.
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eBook readers are quickly becoming the new gadget to have with lots of high profile offerings on the market like the new(ish) Kindle and the Barnes & Noble Nook coming soon. The common thing about many of these eBook readers is that the price is right at $250. If you are holding out for eReaders to come down another $100 before you buy, the time is here.
Put nook and QUE together and you’ve got the ideal setup for a filthy pun, but you’ve also got Barnes and Noble’s upcoming ebook device lineup. Plastic Logic and the publisher have announced that the QUE will go on sale both in B&N retail stores and online, when it hits the market in 2010, right next to the Barnes and Noble nook announced earlier this month.
MSI are threatening to join the ebook reader market themselves, with company chairman Joseph Hsu revealing that they’re currently working on an NVIDIA Tegra based device. The news comes after ASUS reiterated their ongoing ebook reader development, with the most recent news suggesting that the company has not one but two such devices in the works, offering two different screen sizes.
Has NYT executive editor Bill Keller accidentally let slip details of Apple’s upcoming tablet? That’s the big question after video footage of the paper’s Internal Neiman Jornalism Lab leaked out, in which Keller mentions delivering journalism to “the impending Apple slate”. Some sites are seeing this as confirmation not only that Apple are developing the tablet and working with news organisations, but of the name of the device itself.
Video after the cut
In case you missed it, Microsoft announced that Amazon have developed a version of their ebook app for the PC. Kindle for PC will be a free download and, like the iPhone, iPod touch and standalone Kindle ebook readers, allow users to purchase titles from Amazon’s online store.
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