E-Ink, the pioneering electronic paper developer that’s been announcing handheld devices “in a year or so” since 2001, has quietly found a manufacturer for its screens, and is not only offering developer kits, they’ve got an actual mass-market product set to launch in China q4. The folks at Hong Kong-based Jinke, makers of the $299/E250 E-Ink devices, are so excited, they’re talking a V2 model running Linux with an SDK that allows for user-created apps before next summer. Read more.
The Sony LIBRIe handheld has been available for 18 month using an e-Ink display: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sony_Librie_EBR-1000EP
The Sony LIBRIe handheld has been available for 18 month using an e-Ink display:
Why don’t you actually read the article, and see what they have to say about the LIBRIe device before posting.
Thank you.
The excerpt you posted on your site is, on its own, misleading. It’s as easy as that.
Honestly, you should stop copying The Inquirer. They’re not exactly known for quality journalism.
idiot, that is an E-Book device, not an E-Paper device.
E-Paper displays a persistent image with out the need of electrical power after the image has been generated.
E-Ink is a first, and an important step for handheld devices like PDAs. Right now I am sure that the refresh sucks and is better for reading texts than it is for interactive use, but as the refresh gets up there, one day we might see e-paper based TVs and foldable newspapers that have Wi-Max connectivity so you get the paper delivered in a format that is familiar and much lighter than a laptop.
Actually it’s an E-Book device that uses E-Ink (or E-paper). So everybody’s correct.
I’m not sure that e-ink will ever be the answer for PDA’s etc. Better battery technology is all that’s needed there. I personally think that E-Ink will find many interesting applications outside the consumer electronic/computer market.
it will greatly help a pda to stay in action as one of the biggest power drains on current pdas are keeping that screen displaying and back lit. this removes both needs.
sure the refresh rate sucks. but if your using the pda as a glorified note book and calendar then this may increase the battery time from days to maybe weeks.
allso, this is most likely lcd like in ability so you only have to update the areas that realy change. like say the times and appointments listed on the front.
so no longer will we have cell phones and pdas that have to shut down their screens when standing by.
Thanks we already knew about this.
Depends on the requirements, I think higher resolution eInk (ePaper) displays are the way to go for say, double-page A5 displays to simulate a small paperback book or manga tankouban, if they can get the resolution to 150 to 300 dpi that would be great! Naturally, you won’t be showing video on it, but as a general replacement for newspapers and magazines and other mass paper media I’m all for it.
Right now it looks like it’s black and white only. I would picture this kind of thing as being especially useful for replacing printed school text books; however, first the price would have to drop to about CAD $40 or less imo, and it would need to be able to display at least basic colours since school books often need that. Until that happens it will just be a novelty item for people with money to burn, especially at it’s curent price.
The next thing I would like to see happen with this stuff is being able to write on it with a stylus like device, or preferably some sort of affordable compact folding keyboard.
I think Colour is not really needed: what percentage of books that you read have color inside?
Unless you are under 10 years old I can safely guess it’s below 1%
Give me a sub-100Eur device that displays A5 B/N pages with an open format (optional) and that takes regular memory cards, and I’m sold.
In fact, the LibriE already looks very good. I’ve seen photos of manga pages, and the dithered greys were very very good and smooth. Unfortunately it’s a japan-only device, and it’s costly.
I’m hoping for the next generation, which will hopefully be mass-produced and drop in price.
Well, like Celerate says, color makes a big difference for textbooks.