This is frankly a pretty cool little feature of Spring Design’s I-swear-I’m-not-Nook-but-oh-the-timing e-reader / Android hybrid, Alex. Browse to whatever web article / Google book / Wikipedia entry you want to enjoy, press the center button, and watch as Alex “prints” the page to the e-reader screen up top for a more comfortable reading experience. We’ll admit we’re a bit surprised to see a working model already — hopefully this is a sign of good things to come sooner rather than later. Video after the break.
The Droid’s shaping up to be a beast of an Android phone — well played, Verizon — but Motorola’s banking much of its future on its MOTOBLUR platform, which the Droid curiously lacks (though Android 2.0 adds at least some of BLUR’s functionality back in). Don’t worry, though — Verizon hasn’t forgotten about BLUR altogether, and the rumored Calgary is looking to arrive as the carrier’s next Android phone from Moto featuring BLUR in all its social network-aggregating glory. It’s clearly positioned as a lower-end device than the Droid, stepping down to a 3 megapixel cam but still managing nifty features like an optical pad, 3.5mm jack, and naturally, a full QWERTY keyboard. Considering Rubin’s ties to Danger, you could think of this as the ill-fated Sidekick Slide all grow’d up. Word has it this might hit before the end of the year, so we’ll see just how much breathing room Verizon and Moto feel like giving the Droid before coming back for Round 2, eh?
Too busy to bother with buying an Android-powered Archos 5? Then you’re probably way too busy to bother with this here hack. But just in case you’ve got a morning you can wipe clean and a few afternoons where you can scoot out early, it’s apparently possible to load up an Android 1.6 port onto one’s Samsung Q1 UMPC. Kevin at jkOnTheRun did just that over a relaxing weekend, and while he’s still struggling to get the touchscreen to act right, most everything else seems to be humming along sans issue. Eager to see if it’s something you’d be into? Hop on past the break and mash play — it’s twelve minutes in heaven, ladies.
The CLIQ might be getting the lion’s share of the Android spotlight on T-Mobile at the moment, but it’s not the only Google-equipped gear in the carrier’s pipeline — the other big news there would be the Behold II from Samsung, a logical successor to the myTouch 3G with an AMOLED display and 5 megapixel cam. Seems like there’s a little bit of a wait left, because TmoNews has scored some launch documentation suggesting that they’re planning on a November 18 to get it pushed out to the public (and let’s be honest, we’d all rather have that positively sick nasty myTouch Fender Limited Edition anyhow). Moving our attention downmarket, there’s apparently a self-branded (read: a manufacturer you’ve never heard of) full touch device called the “Tap” that’ll be hitting on the 11th of next month, likely slotting in below the Highlight in the carrier’s range. No offense, there, Tap, but we’re going to have to take a Behold II over ya.
In one of the boldest attacks on Apple’s iPhone so far, Verizon unveiled a TV commercial and website over the weekend that touted Droid, a new smartphone from Motorola, as a device that does everything the iPhone doesn’t.
Verizon’s “iDon’t” TV commercial and website (warning: Flash-centric site) displays a series of statements aimed directly at the iPhone, such as ‘iDon’t have a real keyboard, iDon’t customize, iDon’t allow open development,” but without naming the iPhone directly. (You can watch the Droid ad on YouTube, or scroll down to see the video here.)
The ad took industry watchers and analysts by surprise.
“It is very unusual in advertising to spend most of your time talking about your rivals,” says Tero Kuittinen, a senior analyst at MKM Partners. “The downside is that people will do exactly what Verizon has advised them to, which is to make direct comparisons between the Droid and iPhone.”
But, he added, “that may not always work out in Droid’s favor.”
The Droid, formerly codenamed ‘Sholes’ and also referred to at times with the codename ‘Tao,’ is an upcoming Android-based smartphone from Motorola. Droid is expected to have a 3.7-inch screen, a 5-megapixel camera, GPS, Wi-Fi, and access to the Android app market. It will also be the first phone to use the Android 2.0 operating system, aka “Eclair.”
It’s Motorola’s second Android-based phone. Last month, the company launched Cliq, its first Android phone on T-Mobile’s network. Droid will be Verizon’s first Android device and is expected to be available at the end of next month.
Verizon’s ad campaign for the Droid is the first official mention of the phone on the company’s network. But the carrier’s move to criticize the iPhone so openly and so early has left industry watchers such as Chandan Sarkar, an analyst with Auriga, a New York-based research and trading firm, puzzled.
“Given the tone of the commercials, it might risk upsetting Apple,” Sarkar says.
Verizon could also risk disappointing consumers later with the Droid because of the high expectations that it has set.
Sarkar says that it is clear that Verizon is betting on the Android OS as a way to fight Apple’s rise in the smartphone market.
“The question for Verizon is not whether Droid will be worth it, but whether Android will be worth it,” Sarkar says. “Verizon doesn’t have to hit a home run in the first wave but they want to establish a strong beachhead against Apple.”
Droid won’t be a run-of-the-mill Android phone, the two analysts interviewed by Wired.com say. Verizon has worked closely with Google and Motorola to develop the device, Sarkar says. Verizon may also be working with Google to develop applications for its LTE network (also known as 4G), he says.
Verizon might risk damaging its relationship with Apple. Though AT&T has a five-year exclusive contract, starting June 2007, to offer the iPhone in the U.S., Verizon has been seen as trying to get the device on its network. Apple also is reportedly working on a tablet that it might launch in partnership with a telecom carrier. Verizon is one of the contenders for that device.
“Verizon wants to send a message that they are not desperate for the iPhone and they have alternatives to the iPhone,” Kuittinen says. “But this kind of in-your-face attack is more than what anyone, including Apple, may have expected.”
How soon we forget. On Friday everyone was talking about Motorola’s first Android handset, the CLIQ. Now, a few days later, everyone’s in a tizzy about the kind-of announced-but-not-yet-revealed Android handset for Verizon. Well, perhaps T-Mobile’s new press release will get the CLIQ back into the public consciousness–the phone that PCMag lavished praise upon and awarded its Editor’s Choice.
T-Mobile today announced that the CLIQ is currently available for pre-sale: Order one via the carrier’s site or by calling up T-Mobile. The handset is priced at $199 with a two-year contract. Those who preorder will also get a free car charger and will be entered to win a trip for five to one of five unlisted locations.
Spring Design has unveiled Alex, which the company claims is the first e-book reader powered by Google Android. It’s also the first reader with two screens: a 6-inch panel based on e-ink (specifically, monochrome EPD, or electronic paper display) for regular reading, and a separate 3.5-inch color touch LCD for browsing the Internet and supporting content for the main screen.
In fact, that second screen is an entirely self-contained Google Android device. Alex includes a Wi-Fi radio, as well as internal 3G support on both EV-DO and GSM networks–assuming Spring Design can find carrier support for the thing.
Alex also includes earphones, stereo speakers, an SD card slot, browser bookmarks and history, and the ability to transfer content from the touch LCD to the e-ink display for easier reading. Spring Design said it’s currently in talks with said carriers, and is targeting a release before the end of this year.
It’s short and sweet but we thought you’d like to hear the good news doled out by ASUS chairman Jonney Shih and CEO Jerry Shen at a local press meeting in Taiwan today. Shih says that the company’s first Android phone will be “unveiled this year,” not next as originally rumored. For a second, it makes you wonder what’s going to happen to the OS underpinning the ASUS-Garmin nuvifone G60 — then you remember that you weren’t going to buy that phone anyway.
It used to be that “convergence” meant putting two different (but hopefully complementary) devices into the same case. Scratch that. This still happens today, as proved by the Alex, a long box with an e-book reader in one end and an Android-powered cellular device in the other. The dual-screen device, from a company called Spring Design, is like a Pop-Tart with jelly in one end and baloney in the other.
The Alex (we have no idea about that name) aims to strike a balance between the full-color, fully responsive LCD screen at the bottom, used for web surfing, and the e-ink panel above, used for reading books. The idea is that once you have found what you like, you can send it upstairs and kill the battery-guzzling color part, reading the content on the eye and battery friendly e-ink screen. It also goes the other way, with links in the e-ink display opening pictures and video in the color one. This is called “dynamic hyperlinked multimedia information” and was sent through time to the Spring research labs from 1995.
Aside from the ugly design (and that damned name) it’s a fine idea, let down by one thing. Most of us have a cellphone already, or at least some kind of portable device that can both browse the web and save longer articles to the Instapaper service, which lets you hit a bookmark to convert articles into text and read them later, on a web browser, the iphone, or even have them emailed to your Kindle.
The other problem with two screens (despite the inevitable hit to battery life) is that the Alex is big, as in long and tall. We’d much rather have a bigger, single e-paper screen. As it is you get 6-inch e-ink display and a 3-inch color display. To rephrase, you get a Kindle and an iPhone screen in one, only without all the extra functions.
Spring says it “has been working with major book stores, newspapers and publishers over the past two years.” Remember the hot rumor that a Barnes and Noble device would be showing up soon and feature two screens, one color and one of electronic ink? This could well be it. One thing that is certain is that this won’t be the last goofy e-book design. We have a long way to go before natural selection gives us a design as perfect as the paper book itself. Price and launch date to be announced.
Well now this is a pleasingly rapid transition from announcement to review samples to market availability. Motorola’s Android-loving CLIQ (already on sale under the moniker DEXT in the UK), its QWERTY keyboard and all the apps you could desire are now ready to be had, should you already have an account with T-Mobile, the device’s exclusive US carrier. It was expected that only pre-orders would be taken today, but it appears for all the world that T-Mobile is ready to start shipping the CLIQ to its loyal customers ahead of the November 2nd full release date. Prices start from the previously reported $199.99 on a two-year agreement — a move that will give you plenty of time to wonder if you shouldn’t have waited for more details about the Droid mashup from Verizon, Motorola, and Google.
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