Though not without its flaws, the upcoming iRex e-book reader promises to be a viable alternative to Amazon's Kindle 2, based on my preliminary use of the device at a press event today.

As expected from previous announcements, the iRex DR800SG will cost $399, be able to download books wirelessly from the Barnes and Noble eBookstore, and have an 8.1-inch touchscreen. Today's news included confirmation that the 3G data network to which the iRex will connect to buy content is that of Verizon.

The iRex will fall midway in screen size and price between the two Amazon e-book readers that dominate the market. The Kindle 2, $299, has a 6-inch screen and the whopping (even oversized) Kindle DX costs $489 and has a 10.2-inch screen. The iRex's screen, like that of all other e-book readers now on the market is black-and-white only.

When I tried the iRex out at today's press event in New York, the clarity and contrast of text on its screen appeared comparable in quality to Sony's newest generation of e-book readers–specifically, to that of the Sony Pocket, which I placed next to it, displaying text of comparable size.

Text clarity seemed to me to fall a little short of the standard of the Kindles. However, the iRex appeared to match the Kindles for reproducing photos and graphics; like the Amazon devices, it boasts 16 levels of gray scale. And page turns were significantly faster than on the Sony, and appeared to be in the same league as the Kindles–and possibly even faster, as iRex claims.

The screen responds to touch only from a stylus; a pen-like one is provided. You can, however, also navigate using a "flip bar" that runs along the left-hand side of the iRex. I found page turns using the bar–the only practical way to initiate them–to be crisp and effortless.

Navigation to content and other functions was clunkier, I found. Whether using the stylus or bar, you seemingly need to proceed through several small, cascading menu screens to change text size, for example. And to access the main menu with the stylus requires excellent aim; you have to hit a fairly small circular target on the lower left of the screen.

As with the Kindle, and presumably with the upcoming Sony Daily Edition, an e-reader due out in December that will connect to the AT&T network, there are no monthly data charges for the iRex's connection to the Verizon network. You can use that connection to wirelessly buy content from Barnes and Noble and other vendors, including Newspaper Direct and, it's expected, the New York Times.

iRex also emphasized the openness of its format, which runs on the Linux operating system, and said it eventually anticipate development of a diverse array of apps, iPhone-style. Some of those, if they hog bandwidth more continuously than buying a book or newspaper, may come with additional data charges.

Also to come are some software enhancements to the iRex, to allow note-taking, annotation and highlighting, which the device will not be able to do out of the box. Those will be delivered wirelessly soon after the device goes on sale, iRex said. The company also promises a touch model sometime in 2010 and a color e-book reader in 2011.

Best Buy, for now the exclusive retailer for the iRex, is expected to begin selling the device in late October or early November, iRex said; no pre-ordering is expected. It will be sold both on Best Buy.com and in e-reader departments at Best Buy stores that will also sell Sony models.

We plan to buy the iRex no later than early November, and report more definitively on its performance soon after we acquire it. —Paul Reynolds

For many of us, watching The Wizard of Oz was a childhood rite of passage (and for me, the beginning of months of nightmares starring flying monkeys). As this year marks the 70th anniversary of the release of L. Frank Baum’s rainbow-jumping children’s tale, which debuted at the Grauman’s Chinese Theater in August 1939, there are several of promotional events that should be of interest to fans of this classic film.

For example, tonight the digitally re-mastered Wizard of Oz is being shown in about
400 theaters across the country, and on Sept. 26th the movie will be
shown in New York City at the Alice Tully Hall as part of the New York
Film Festival.

On Sept. 29th, Warner Bros. kicks things off with the release of new, special digitally re-mastered DVD and Blu-ray “collector’s editions” of the movie. Later that night, New York metro-area residents are invited to a Netflix-hosted live event in New York City’s Central Park to see a concert featuring Jennifer Hudson, that starts at 7:30, followed by a showing of the movie, which will be projected onto a giant inflatable screen.

On October 3, Netflix is offering free instant streaming of the movie for a 24-hour period starting at 9:00 a.m. EST. However, while anyone can watch the movie on their computers by visiting the Netflix website, Netflix subscribers on any unlimited plan (starting at $8.99 per month) can stream the movie in HD on any Netflix enabled device, including some LG TVs, select Blu-ray players from LG and Samsung, Microsoft Xbox 360 videogame consoles, and Roku and TiVo video players/recorder.

For home-video fans, Warner Bros. is releasing re-mastered versions of the movie on DVD and Blu-ray, plus digital downloads and on-demand offerings. There will be special limited and numbered "The Wizard of Oz 70th Anniversary Ultimate Collector’s Edition" box sets for both DVD ($70) and Blu-ray ($85) that contain 16 hours of bonus features (including some previously unreleased materials) and other goodies. The Blu-ray version was completely re-mastered from the original Technicolor film negatives at a very high resolution—six times that of a standard DVD—accompanied by a Dolby TrueHD soundtrack.

I, for one, will be checking out both the Netflix streaming and Blu-ray versions of the movie in my home theater's 110-inch screen, and reporting on the experiences. I'd love to hear what others think about the newer versions, especially since there have been several previous reissues. But I'm also considering seeing it at a movie theater. If, like me, you've only seen the film on TV, viewing it on a giant screen in a real theater could be an eye-opener. —James K. Willcox

We here on the Electronics Blog try to alert readers whenever we catch wind of a recall from the Consumer Product Safety Commission (CPSC), such as overheating laptop batteries and incendiary charging stations for Wii controllers.

Yesterday, the CPSC began reaching out directly to consumers with a multi-site, Web 2.0 blitz. For news on product recalls and other consumer safety issues, you can now tune in to the CPSC’s YouTube channel, view their new blog, check out their Flickr photo stream, and follow them on Twitter. They’ve also introduced a widget for updates on news and product recalls.

For more on the CPSC’s outreach initiative, check out “CPSC ventures into the blogosphere” on the Consumer Reports Safety Blog. —Nick K. Mandle

The Cliq is Motorola's first phone with the Android operating system, which thus far is only supported by two phones, the T-Mobile G1 and myTouch (both made by HTC). The Cliq will debut on T-Mobile some time in the fourth quarter of 2009 for an undisclosed price. We got a peek at it last week at a New York City press event, and we were generally impressed.

Measuring 2.28 x 4.49 x 0.61 in, the Cliq about the size of an iPhone, only thicker. That's probably because it has a slide out QWERTY keyboard, with well-spaced keys. But you can also summon a virtual keyboard on the Cliq's large, multi-touch display, which at 178 dots per inch (DPI), is technically sharper than the 160DPI iPhone display. (We'll see how they actually compare in full tests once we buy the Cliq.) It also sports a 5-megapixel camera with auto-focus, built-in Wi-Fi, and a full Web browser.

But the Cliq's most intriguing quality is Motoblur, a cool interface that sits on top of the Android desktop. Using widgets, Motoblur smartly relates applications under one view. For example, subscribers to Twitter, MySpace, Facebook, and other social-networking applications can see and interact with all of their alerts in the Happenings screen. A small icon to the right of the message lets you know from which network the alert came. You can also link all of your social networks so that you update them with one "blast" from the Cliq's home screen.

There's also an integrated contact view, which like that on the Palm Pre, collects phone numbers, e-mail addresses, and other contact data from a variety of sources and puts it under one name. Also like the Pre, you can see all of your e-mails and text messages on one screen, even if you have many different accounts. Just flick the message off the screen when you're done with it. Data from these sources, such as photos, status and contact details, are updated automatically. Ditto for the Cliq's calendar.

Motoblur's Newsfeed widget can link to many news feeds for constant news updates.

We didn't have time to see how well the Cliq handles photos, music, and other multimedia, but Motorola claims you will be able to easily sync playlists and music from both iTunes and Windows Media Player.

We look forward to further dissecting this intriguing specimen in our labs very soon. Stay tuned for the details. —Mike Gikas