Alex eReader Shown Off At CES

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eBook Readers have suddenly become very popular in the tech marketplace, with lots of new devices hitting the market – many of the similar to one another and otherwise unremarkable. Spring Design’s Alex eReader hopes to stand above the background noise with some discernible features.

The most noticeable feature of the Alex is the inclusion of the smaller color menu screen, extremely similar to the Barnes and Noble Nook, and so similar, in fact, that Spring Design has been claiming that Barnes and Noble ripped off their design when they introduced the Nook with that small color screen.

At CES we learned that the Alex will be running Android, and that Spring Design and Google will actually working together a lot more closely in the future – users will be able to directly view eBooks from Google Books. Currently, Google Books only offers public domain and lapsed copyright books.

In addition to its eBook reading abilities, the Alex will also be able to surf the web. Its black and white screen comes in at 6-inches, while the smaller color menu screen is 3.5-inches. The Alex will have no on-board storage, but instead a microSD slot. Pricing and release dates haven’t been declared yet.

Edit: Tech blog Engadget has reported that the Alex will be released on February 22nd and will cost $399.