As many Kindle owners already know, keeping a large number of books on the device can get a bit unruly — so this would be a welcome update. It’s also good news for people on the fence about whether or not to get a Kindle or a Nook over the holidays. It appears that the Kindle is going to be the only game in town until after the new year. [Kindle Facebook via Gadgetell]

Granted, it’s a little worrisome that Barnes & Noble is taking pre-orders before letting reviewers have their say, so maybe this enforced waiting period is a good thing. At any rate, it’ll be January — well after we’ll have run B&N’s Android-powered ereader through its paces — before anyone else will be able to get one. [B&N via Bits]

Qualcomm says it’ll be up to the various manufacturers to create devices built on this reference design, but Wi-Fi and 3G connectivity would make multiplayer gaming pretty interesting. Just depends if ARM-based operating systems, like Android, get the right games.

The concept has a 5.7-inch display that uses Qualcomm’s “mirasol” screen technology that provides better battery life and smooth video playback. Problem is, for now, this reference is just a static-image prototype. Yet another ereader angle that we’ll be watching for you, though. [SlashGear]

The “mirasol” technology mimics iridescent butterfly wings by deploying charged, colour-inducing membranes over a layer of mirror. It’s a technology that, if integrated into Kindles today as-is, would increase battery life by an estimated 20 per cent.

Instead, Qualcomm uses that extra power efficiency to drive colour and higher refresh rates for smooth video. They contend that a Kindle with their more capable display could run about a day with its current battery.

The catch? The lead photo is a non-functional prototype (with a functional, frozen-image display). Qualcomm is offering the tech to third-party partners, and they expect you to see mirasol tech on the market by late 2010. [SlashGear]

[DigiTimes]

AU: According to Barnes & Noble’s website, Nook is not available outside of the US “at this time”. _-EH

This development could be problematic for people who are waiting to test out the device in person at their local Barnes & Noble. Word is that display units should start trickling in at the end of November, but it is unlikely that there will be any units to sell. So you might have to get it sight unseen if you want to ensure delivery before the holidays (although our hands-on was promising).

For those of you that got on the bandwagon early, not to worry. Your devices are still scheduled to ship on November 30th. [Brighthand]

Maximum PC got their hands on one and liked it very much, from the capacitive screen that can play video to the onscreen keyboard. The only thing they didn’t like is that it’s thicker than the Kindle. Who cares about a few millimetres when you get more usability in return? I don’t. [Maximum PC]

Based on the press release, the claim is that Barnes & Noble used information, including design details, gained from meetings with Spring Design which were intended to end in a joint product. Apparently the Spring Design camp was caught just a little bit off guard when the Nook announcements started coming out:

Spring Design Files Lawsuit against Barnes & Noble : Nook Violates Alex Intellectual Property

CUPERTINO, CA – November 2, 2009 – Spring Design today filed a lawsuit to protect its Alex™ e-book intellectual property. The lawsuit asserts Barnes & Noble misappropriated trade secrets and violated the parties’ non-disclosure agreement when it copied Alex’ features into its recently announced Nook e-book.

“Spring Design unfortunately had to take the appropriate action to protect its intellectual property rights,” said Spring Design Vice President of Sales and Marketing, Eric Kmiec. “We showed the Alex e-book design to Barnes & Noble in good faith with the intention of working together to provide a superior dual screen e-book to the market.”

Spring Design first developed and began filing patents on its Alex e-book, an innovative dual screen, Android-based e-book back in 2006. Since the beginning of 2009 Spring and Barnes & Noble worked within a non-disclosure agreement, including many meetings, emails and conference calls with executives ranging up to the president of Barnes and Noble.com, discussing confidential information regarding the features, functionality and capabilities of Alex. Throughout, Barnes & Noble’s marketing and technical executives extolled Alex’s “innovative” features, never mentioning their use of those features until the public disclosure of the Nook.

Alex, with its unique Duet Navigator™, provides the capability for interaction and navigation techniques of the two screens and furthermore utilizes the capabilities of Android to enhance the reader’s experience by supporting interactive access to the Internet for references and links. As the first in the market to offer an e-book with full Internet browsing while reading and with easy navigational control via its touch screen, Alex is well-positioned to offer the most dynamic and powerful reading device in the market.

Spring Design is focused at working strategically with book store partners to jointly develop the market and revolutionize e-book with interactive multi-media open Internet access. “It is our desire to resolve this matter so that we can move forward together to expand and grow this e-book market with enriched user experience, bringing readers to a new level of reading enjoyment,” said Eric Kmiec.

About Spring Design:
Spring Design, founded in 2006, delivers innovative e-reader solutions and products to the e-book market, offering overall “Link Notes”, a content authoring and multi-media publishing tool as add on editions to original text. Spring Design is located in Cupertino, California with engineering offices in Taiwan and China. Spring Design pioneered its patent-pending dual screen design with Duet Navigator™ capability in 2006, and has been working with major book stores, newspapers and publishers over the last two years, sharing the vision and the capabilities of the dual screen device. Spring Design’s innovative patented technologies incorporate the seamless interaction of dual display and multi-online access in a single device, benefiting and leveraging the technology and resources of the Web to enhance the reading experience with open Internet access.

The reader is definitely slender as it’s almost half as thin as a Kindle 2. It’s said that it can be “bent to some extent since the circuit board and the electronic paper are flexible”, but no one is saying how much “to some extent” is. No matter. While the lack of too many details about it or any plans for a commercial product put a damper onto Bridgestone’s device, the good news is that other companies might adapt the technology in their products. The countdown to being able to toss our readers into bags without worrying about destroyed displays is on. [Crunchgear]

Barnes & Noble’s going to display the Que and Nook together with displays pointing customers to the one that’s right for them — Que for dudes in pinstripe suits, Nook for people in jeans. Not only does it mean B&N is basically offering “pro” and “normal” options for an eReader, it shows how they think of the big picture, if it wasn’t already obvious: It’s not about the hardware, it’s about the content.

Barnes & Noble (and Amazon) have apps to read their books on the iPhone and on the PC, with BlackBerry and Android to come. The device you read on is irrelevant — it’s about keeping you in their ecosystem, buying eBooks from them. In fact, the more deftly they’re able keep you hooked in on any device, the better, since dedicated eReaders are dead tech walking. The race is on now to build the most captive audience while the market’s still fresh, like spring dew or baby veal before its braised and delicious. And when Apple jumps into the game, it’s going to get a lot more interesting, not simply because of the powers of the tablet, but because they have years of experience tying people to their store for content.

Hopefully, for the Que’s sake though, by the time it hits stores it’ll have a wider footprint than the Nook will when it launches. [Plastic Logic]