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

photo credit: Joseph Robertson

If last week’s news is any indication, we’re all about to see an army of Droids to be released and hit the mobile scene — in a very big way. Even if you didn’t already pre-order through Best Buy, Big Red hopes you’ll be stopping by their stores this Friday to see what all the fuss is about.   Some good hardware from Motorola and a faster, much improved Android 2.0 should please quite a few Verizon customers by providing what could be argued as the carrier’s first eagerly anticipated smartphone.   But will it pose any real threat to the iPhone?

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If you’re old enough you remember the advertisement for the delicious Reese’s Peanut Butter Cup . The old commercial has one person eating peanut butter and another enjoying a chocolate bar. The two bump into each other and, as fate would have it, peanut butter and chocolate collided.

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It took stealth, cunning, and nerves of steel (along with a cell phone camera and a friendly clerk), but here is my report from tonight’s visit to Barnes and Noble to scope out their nook displays.

Even before you enter the store, you are greeted with HUGE mock nook in the window. I kind of want one that size! Continue Reading

A number of us jumped in and ordered a Nook as soon as the Pre-order site was up. It makes sense. Not only does the Nook look to solve some of the Kindle’s many usability issues thanks to its color touchscreen, but the Nook will let us access the eBook libraries we have amassed over the years. (Just how many eReader formatted books do you have again Judie??)

As it is, all of us will have to wait until the end of November before getting our hands on a Nook. If you just decided to jump in, however, the wait will be a bit longer.

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Welcome to another round of State of the eBook! There’s been an avalanche of eBook news and releases, so let’s dive right in!

Barnes and Noble releases the nook upon the world

B&N’s nook came out swinging, with a dual screen design and an android foundation. Check out Gear Diary’s coverage of the nook’s release here, and commentary on a B&N conference call that answered some questions and raised new ones here. In related B&N news, Plastic Logic has announced that their Que reader will be not only using the Barnes and Noble eBook store but will also be sold in Barnes and Noble locations.

Amazon isn’t taking this lying down

Not content with blowing away their earnings numbers AND announcing Kindle-related sales are their best selling products, Amazon also quickly dropped the price of their international Kindle to $259 to compete with the nook. And since AT&T’s network isn’t crowded enough, they also quietly dropped their Sprint Kindles, bringing all Kindle 2’s on the AT&T network going forwards. Finally, Kindle for Windows is coming shortly, with a mac version in a few months!

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Last week Plastic Logic announced their Que reader, and today the company shared some new information. Not only will the Que reader be powered by the Barnes and Noble eBook store… Continue Reading

Plastic Logic is set to unveil it’s Que eBook reader at the Consumer Electronics Show this January. What makes Que so special?

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I posted yesterday that Barnes and Noble announced their new eBook reader, the Nook. Today I had the opportunity to join a conference call with William Lynch, President of BarnesandNoble.com, to hear more about the Nook and Barnes and Noble’s plans for the digital media market. In addition to learning about the Nook, the question and answer portion highlighted the confusion around ebooks and where they fit into the future of bookselling. Continue Reading

(video courtesy of Slashgear)

As anticipated, Barnes and Noble has announced their eBook reader, the “Nook”. Not only does it have an e-ink screen AND a color LCD, it also has some features that will wear down the anti-eBook crowd and leave Amazon and Sony rushing to play catch-up.

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Welcome to another State of the eBook! This will be a short post this week, as it seems there will be some sort of exciting announcement this Tuesday.

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It’s a ritual around my house, and I imagine it’s done in households everywhere — the bed time story.  Whether one of my kids is laying down for a mid day nap or getting tucked in for the night, they always get a story before they close their eyes.

With three girls at home we’ve become fans of many of the Disney characters, so when Disney Digital books asked us to review their new online service I jumped at the chance.  Disney Digital Books provided me with a one month test subscription to try the service out at home with my family.  Here are my thoughts.

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photo credit: Ozyman

Technology can be a lot of fun. It can keep us connected with one another, it can transform our work habits, and it can help us become more organized and efficient.

It can do all these things, but of all the great uses of technology the one that stands as most important is this: that it can help us solve the problems life throws at us.

Dan is a good example of some of the ways technology can help overcome otherwise challenging issues. Back in January he wrote a post entitled A Crash Course in One-Handed Blogging. Dan had just undergone surgery to fuse one of his wrists after it had been destroyed by rheumatoid arthritis. With one arm tightly wrapped and constantly elevated, voice recognition software allowed him to keep blogging and writing for his rabbinic works (and for Gear Diary), even as he recovered from a surgery that was far more extensive than he expected.

Dan continues to do a great deal of his writing using various voice recognition solutions, and he will be introducing a new series about the subject here on Gear Diary later this week. But this story isn’t about VR, it is about another technology that has helped Dan deal with some of the after-effects of RA and his surgery; it’s about a technology that I have long advocated.

With his permission, here is the story…

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Welcome to another “State of the eBook”. We’ve got some quick news to review, and then a discussion of something that keeps publishers up at night; piracy in ebook-land. Is it an epidemic of music proportions or is it the straw-man argument that publishers use to justify high prices, digital rights management, and slow ebook adoption?

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The Disney Imagineers have been hard at work and last week released the first ever collection of Disney children’s books in digital format.

The collection is browser based and available for both PC and Mac and best of all there is nothing to download.

Disney has been writing stories for over 70 years and their digital collection promises to be entertaining.  It features over 500 stories with animated illustrations and authentic character voices.  Books include Winnie the Pooh, Mickey Mouse, Cars, Hannah Montana, Toy Story, the Disney Princesses and many more.

The stories are separated in three groups, (1) for beginner readers and a companion, (2) for independent readers, and (3) for readers ready for chapter books so it should be suitable for kids 3-12.

The service does require a $8.95 monthly fee, but there is a free trial available.

You can learn more about it and watch a live demo of the service, here.