Remember the Alex ebook reader? And remember how everyone thought it looked awfully similar to the nook? Apparently Spring Designs, the creators of the Alex, agree, and they’ve filed a lawsuit against Barnes and Noble over it.

Highlights of the press release:

-Barnes and Noble and Spring Designs were working together on an ebook reader.

-Spring Design shared information about the Alex with B&N (who were under NDA)

-The lawsuit is alleging B&N stole Spring Design’s intellectual property by studying the Alex’s features and using them for the design of the nook.

Now this does contradict a report from Businessweek that the nook (code named “Athena”) was being designed by Ammunition Partners, the company that designed the first Kindle.

My one cynical, totally unconfirmed theory: Barnes and Noble purposely pushed pre-order shipping back to mid-December to allow time for this to play out and avoid a potential sales injunction.

No other information is available beyond the press release, and there is no word on whether Spring Design will be attempting to prevent nook sales or pre-sales. As more information appears we will definitely be sharing it, so keep an eye on Gear Diary for more news and commentary!

Via egether

Over the past several years more and more of the PC gaming industry has moved to Digital Downloads, and while Steam definitely has the dominant position, Direct2Drive has seen tremendous success and growth. Now they have hit their 5-year anniversary and WE get the presents! Week 1 was highlighted here and featured Ubisoft and strategy games! Read on to find out more!

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[Ed. note: For this dually, Judie's comments will be in Black, Mitchell's comments will be in italicised Blue.]

One of the first things I started worrying about when I unboxed the HTC Advantage was how I would keep the humongous 5″ diagonal screen from getting scratched. While it was nice that HTC included a screen protector in the box, I think you could probably tell by the expression on my face in the unboxing video that I wasn’t too impressed with it, and sure enough – once installed, I saw that my unenthusiastic response was warranted. Don’t get me wrong, the stock protector was better than nothing, and it did keep my screen safe until something better arrived; but it was a complete throwback to the sticky, thin, gouge-able, one-shot-at-correct-installation screen protectors of yore.

At least you HAD a screen protector in the box! My Samsung BlackJack didn’t have any screen protection in the box whatsoever, and based on the review unit I received a few weeks ago before I got my own, the screen definitely scratches and looks BAD. For the first few weeks I used a cut-down EXIM Dopod 838 Pro screen protector which while it was perfectly clear, it had uneven edges, didn’t extend right to the top of the glossy display area, and was slightly crooked and peeling up on one side.

Thankfully, a better solution soon arrived in the form of the Proporta Advanced Screen Protector (ASP) for the HTC Athena (or Ameo, Advantage, U1000, yeah…it goes by all of those names and then some, I am sure).

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I’ve held off long enough; as you all know, for some time Athena has been calling. With word of a promised WM6 upgrade coming soon, I finally gave in.

Athena, Ameo, U1000, Advantage…whatever.

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This release just came in from HTC; the Advantage equals what we formerly called the Athena, but the Shift is an altogether different (and unexpected) beast. According to an HTC contact, “The Advantage will be available in the US in early summer and the Shift will be available in the US in late summer. ”

HTC Shift

Read on to see why, and then let me know which one you think is more interesting…

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For those of you following the saga of the HTC Advantage, formerly known as the Athena, OnTheGoSolution’s has posted the Dopod U1000 variant for pre-order at a whopping US$1499. While we wait for the device to arrive (or for those who can only dream about spending $1500 on a phone which is most of us) they have further tantilised us with some unboxing pictures and a video.

These pictures really make the Universal look kinda old !! Head over to the product page for some more pictures and the video of this amazing device!

The DoS Clan posted their first “Athena Heist” video last week, sparking speculation that this was the introduction of a new vial campaign. Well, of course it was, and now there is a second and third installment. 2 and 3 are on the full page.
So watch and enjoy…

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Palm is Life Administrator (and Gear Diary Team member) Larry just sent several links to the latest information on the HTC Athena, or Dopod U1000 as she will be known in Asia. Larry said, “Athena will launch February 2007, at NT$39900.

Taiwan.CNET is offering the following specs and pictures, but the price – being approximately $1200US…is just…ouch.

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I know this is what Judie and a lot of other people have been waiting for. Actual hands on pictures of the upcoming HTC Athena!

Mobile Life has some nice pictures of the device itself, the display, and the unusual keyboard come screen protector.

While the page is in Taiwanese, the pictures are pretty good, and Google does a reasonable job of translating (it is readable). This is one slick device, both in looks and specs!

[via Pocket PC Thoughts]

It would appear that the HTC Athena we have been talking about for the past couple of weeks is actually going to happen. The bad news is it may have a price tag of $1700.

Yeah.

I sure hope that is a typo, or just a bad guess.

Earlier today, Chris at Mobility Site posted about the 2007 HTC roadmap with device codenames to include “Love, Vox, Kaiser, Wings, Cavalier, Elf, and something else they couldn’t identify, but looks like a redone HTC Star Trek. (or maybe its called unknown…hehe)”

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Arne at :theunwired: broke a story yesterday that included upgraded specs on the upcoming HTC Athena. Today, he has released a ton of pictures that made my heart thump!

But first, some back-story…

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