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New news from Spring Design as they add Google Books to the Alex’s repertoire. Cool-er, on the other hand, are adding new Cool-er product lines.

All this in the same 24 hour time period as Engadget’s screen-shot showing that Amazon is already advertising international Kindle DX with global wireless on Amazon.com.

Alex Reader gets Google Books, looks great

Alex Reader strengthened its position as one of the dark horses of the Year of the eReader by adding on Google Books.

TechCrunch has the scoop. It’s quite interesting that several ways of getting Google Books on to the Alex Reader are mentioned -

1. Using the Alex’s Browser (on the color touch-screen which is the second screen). 
2. Downloading via the Browser.
3. Using search apps – a hint that Android will be used better on Alex than it is on the Nook. 
4. Using USB transfers.

TechCrunch confuse the eInk screen with the color screen and claim that the 6″ eInk screen is color. 

Just goes to show how confused people are about eReaders.

Alex Reader debuts at CES 2010 and look for it to get a ton of buzz once people realize that it’s basically Nook 1.5.

3 New Cool-er Readers about to arrive

British upstart Interead continues to stir up publicity. This time it’s with news of 3 new models of their Cool-er Reader -

1. Cool-er Compact – It’s a 6.7″ by 4.6″ by .41″ reader that is ‘amazingly portable and affordable’ and very compact despite having a 6″ eInk screen. Introduced at CES 2010 and available in Spring 2010.
2. Cool-er Connect has a 7″ screen, weighs in at 5.8 ounces and includes WiFi and a touch screen. The Connect will be introduced at CES 2010 and be available in Spring. 
3. Cool-er 3G arrives in mid-2010 and it will let you access 1,400+ periodicals and 2 million plus books via 3G.

These new cool-er readers supplement the Cool-er Classic, which in turn will get new colors (for the body, not for the screen).

Interead’s CEO Neil Jones has a straightforward explanation for why 3 new Cool-er readers are being introduced -

… the ereader is now a lifestyle device—not just a niche gadget.

As such, it’s important that we offer a range of ereaders to accommodate a variety of preferences and reading habits, and this product range does just this.

Cool-er talk about some of their recent additions and improvements -

1. More colors including Midnight Blue and Orange Crush. 
2. The claim that books in every language are supported and that Cool-er is available in every country.
3. Menus in English, Spanish, Portuguese, German, French, Russian, Japanese, and Chinese.
4. Multiple Zoom levels.
5. Content (ebooks) can now be shared with 5 different readers.

The Cool-er Press Release talks about a ’Coolermatic’ application being added to all Cool-er readers -

Coolermatic gives users the freedom and flexibility to select any of more than 1,400 global newspapers and magazines and millions of Twitter feeds to read on their COOL-ER ereader.

 

Periodical content is available through Interead’s partnership with NewspapersDirect

Gizmodo cover Cool-er Reader news and think that Cool-er Readers will be popular with bargain hunters. Have to agree with them – Cool-er is pretty aggressive on pricing and it might work out for them.

Closing Thoughts – The CES eReader explosion is about to start

The next few days are going to be absolutely crazy as dozens of new eReaders are released at CES 2010.

While the rumored Apple iSlate announcement on January 27th is getting all the buzz, it’s quite likely that one or two of the eReaders shown at CES 2010 have a huge impact on eReaders and eBooks.

Filed under: eBook Reader Devices Tagged: | alex reader, cooler reader