The Alex eReader has been rooted. This little handheld was the belle of the ball at CES 2010 when it came to eReaders. Now that is has been released into the wild it takes its place next to the heavy hitters that have already seen root access. If you’re unfamiliar, this device boasts a six-inch e-ink display and a 320×240 LCD touchscreen interface. Now that you can make it do your bidding, what are your plans for the $350 tablet? Let us know in the comments.
[Thanks Richard]
This looks like a good start for a Filetopia chat terminal !
http://bomarc.org
World domination
“what are your plans for the $350 tablet?”
Waiting until it’s cheaper than 350 :D
wait until somthing better comes along
350 for 320 by 240…
my phone has higher relution and can do far more
i want a kindle…
teach it to play doom?
zipit z2 has the same resolution for $50 with full linux distros…..
but if thats your cup of tea.
You should change it to read “has been released”
what about a $143 ipad instead ?
Well, yes, it has a tiny screen on the bottom. It’s 480×320 according to Spring Design and Wikipedia, but…
I’ve heard about this odd new technology called E-ink, though. Maybe this device has one of those, too?
Sarcasm aside, this is more expensive than the nook, but the bottom screen is larger, and the more hacked platforms, the better!
@djoog unfortunately most devices shown at linuxdevices are vaporware
I’m gonna make mine into a large Palm Pilot.
Then I’m going to buy a black turtleneck and sell it.
I’d still love an easier way to get root on my Kindle. I don’t particularly want to take it apart and connect wires to strange places inside.
M4CGYV3R,
You must be getting old. I remember when you could do things like that with a twig, a wad of chewing gum and a half-melted slushy and you didn’t even have to open the case.
@Sam
Yeah, but back then books were pretty much all analog. A bit harder for M4CGYV3R in this digital age. Then again, you would only have to hand him a stick of chewing gum, a paperclip, and an arduino and he should be good to hack ANYTHING. ;)
I was going to say that this is nifty, especially to be able to load ones own drm free eBooks. But then I looked at the features of the Alex and apparently one could already do that pre-root. Still awesome.
@djoog
do you have one of those $143 tablets?
Any good?
Cool hack, but doesn’t GNU forbid to restrict root access to the device owner?
Yes, Palm OS Garnet, by all means.
LOL
What I really want to know is… can it zoom in to pdf files shown on the e-ink display? I really need an ereader that can pan and zoom around pdf schematics.
Thanks!
“I’m gonna make mine into a large Palm Pilot.
Then I’m going to buy a black turtleneck and sell it.
Posted at 7:36 pm on Apr 27th, 2010 by blue carbuncle”
EPIC FUCKING WIN.
My current plan is to leave it at the store and get an Archos 5 when they go on sale.
Ebook readers are just overpriced PDAs without any of the usefulness, they’re about 3 steps backwards.