Frankenreaders

I likes me some e-readers. I think most of the readers here know that. Kindle wasn't bad. iRex is still too expensive. Sony is too expensive relative to Kindle. And now we have the nook and the Alex, which combine a large e-ink screen with a smaller color capacitive touch screen. The nooks just lists the books you can get on the machine (at least from what I've seen.) That's just a waste.

Alex, reviewed in depth here, builds on the concept. While it does not have the 3G anywhere connectivity of Nook and Kindle, Alex has a larger color touchscreen running Android. The plus - greater functionality and an on screen keyboard. The minus - once the color screen is large enough, it starts to dominate the experience. Are you reading documents or watching movies and checking the internet? Do one and you waste the other interface on the device. I predict the device evolves quickly or dies.

Enter PlasticLogic's "Q", which is the first "business reader" and will be sold next to the Nook at BN. I hope to see a device sub $600 with a zippy touchscreen that permits document markup. Yes, I plan to be a bit disappointed.