The Nook is Barnes & Noble’s first eBook ready and it has already impressed us. But it looks like there’s something fishy about the whole thing. Spring Design alleges that the Nook design was stolen from the Alex. Spring Design has shown the Alex dual-screen eBook reader to Barnes & Noble before the Nook has been developed and it looks like the two companies have worked together for a while. We’re not jumping to any conclusions yet as it’s not our place to do that.

Spring Design has filed a trade secret lawsuit against Barnes & Noble and we’re curious to see what happens next. Eric Kmiec, Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing has this to say about the whole issue:

Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights. We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market.

What will you choose between the Alex and the Nook?

via businesswire

Tags: alex, barnes noble, eBook Reader, lawsuit, Mobile News, nook, Portable Devices, spring design

Spring Designs has introduced Alex, the first e-book based on the Google Android carrying full browsing capabilities as well as dual screen interaction technology, the Duet Navigator. The Alex combines the ability to read on a monochrome EPD screen while displaying the dynamic hyperlinked information on the secondary screen in full color. Alex is the first Google Android-based e-book device to provide full Internet browsing over Wi-Fi or mobile networks such as 3G, EVDO/CDMA and GSM.

There is no word yet on when the Alex would be made available since Spring Design is still in talks with major content providers. Hopefully something definite would come out at the end of the year.

(Source) Press

Tags: alex, capabilities, CDMA, content providers, dual screen, e-book, Google, Google, interaction technology, mobile networks, Portable Devices, spring design, spring designs