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Uh ... really? ...

The Kindle 2 screen is the exact same size and resolution as the Sony Reader (PRS 500/505/700). Adding a few more shades of gray does not a good product rip-off make.

This is not an innovation, it's the continuing exhausting E-ink's initial c. 2000 inventory of 6 inch 170dpi 600x800 screens. http://www.eink.com/press/releases/pr26.html

See here, on this page: http://e-ink.com/products/matrix/High_Res.html Where it shows 8" and 9.7" displays? Yeah, those be known as "better". Guess what the diagonal is on a typical paperback? Oh wait wait! Pick me! I know.. EIGHT INCHES. NOT SIX.

Noobs. Ever heard of a touch screen? Oh yeah, like Sony has on the PRS 700 and it uses the same exact screen?! Gee, what else uses a touch screen instead of a hardware keyboard? Oh right, the iPhone.

EPOC: Instant-on for years after first boot, best served in an E Ink reincarnation of the Psion (to be developed)...

The Sony 505 and the Kindle seem to have very similar screens.

Perhaps this might explain that:

http://www.e-ink.com/products/customers_type.html

All e-Ink really makes is this imaging film, which is laminated to the front of displays made by others.

The cheap, flexible, paper-like display is pure hype at this point. If it happens, it probably won't be from e-Ink.

All e-Ink really makes is this imaging film, which is laminated to the front of displays made by others.

The cheap, flexible, paper-like display is pure hype at this point. If it happens, it probably won't be from e-Ink.

E-ink, an MIT Media Lab spinoff, has been working on this since ~1997. They have products to market, although you can't yet get your local paper on it... :-\

http://www.e-ink.com/products/matrix/imaging_film. html

E Ink have been around for a long time - since at least 1998. The underlying technology is older. They've promised this for most of that time. In the last couple of years they've gone from being prototypes to having some real stuff-you-can-touch-and-buy technology built upon their products (which is more than you can say about most of the competition). The Sony E Ink Libre.

So take it with a pinch of salt when there's an announcement at a trade show; there have been regular updates from Philips promising great things. I suspect a lot of it is for the benefit of the competition.

Just to be clear: I'm not dissing them: The flex display is excellent.

But the real story is that they have built a colour display. This is quite hard to do because the technology depends on small electrically charged particles, white and black. To make colours out of this you either need coloured particles and accurate addressing as well as knowing the colours of each capsule which holds the particles. Hard. Or you need multiple layers and coloured filters, and some careful spacing so that the fields from one layer don't interfere with the next. Or a filter with lots of colours and very, very accurate addressing. Or maybe calibratable addressing.

I certainly didn't ever think that they'd be able to pull colour out of the system. This is quite an achievement.

Eink can be found here. The press release about the colour display is here and the release about the paper, upon which the original post is based is here.

E Ink have been around for a long time - since at least 1998. The underlying technology is older. They've promised this for most of that time. In the last couple of years they've gone from being prototypes to having some real stuff-you-can-touch-and-buy technology built upon their products (which is more than you can say about most of the competition). The Sony E Ink Libre.

So take it with a pinch of salt when there's an announcement at a trade show; there have been regular updates from Philips promising great things. I suspect a lot of it is for the benefit of the competition.

Just to be clear: I'm not dissing them: The flex display is excellent.

But the real story is that they have built a colour display. This is quite hard to do because the technology depends on small electrically charged particles, white and black. To make colours out of this you either need coloured particles and accurate addressing as well as knowing the colours of each capsule which holds the particles. Hard. Or you need multiple layers and coloured filters, and some careful spacing so that the fields from one layer don't interfere with the next. Or a filter with lots of colours and very, very accurate addressing. Or maybe calibratable addressing.

I certainly didn't ever think that they'd be able to pull colour out of the system. This is quite an achievement.

Eink can be found here. The press release about the colour display is here and the release about the paper, upon which the original post is based is here.

E Ink have been around for a long time - since at least 1998. The underlying technology is older. They've promised this for most of that time. In the last couple of years they've gone from being prototypes to having some real stuff-you-can-touch-and-buy technology built upon their products (which is more than you can say about most of the competition). The Sony E Ink Libre.

So take it with a pinch of salt when there's an announcement at a trade show; there have been regular updates from Philips promising great things. I suspect a lot of it is for the benefit of the competition.

Just to be clear: I'm not dissing them: The flex display is excellent.

But the real story is that they have built a colour display. This is quite hard to do because the technology depends on small electrically charged particles, white and black. To make colours out of this you either need coloured particles and accurate addressing as well as knowing the colours of each capsule which holds the particles. Hard. Or you need multiple layers and coloured filters, and some careful spacing so that the fields from one layer don't interfere with the next. Or a filter with lots of colours and very, very accurate addressing. Or maybe calibratable addressing.

I certainly didn't ever think that they'd be able to pull colour out of the system. This is quite an achievement.

Eink can be found here. The press release about the colour display is here and the release about the paper, upon which the original post is based is here.

Here's a link to E Ink's technology.

The two-color versions as developed by Gyricon Media (A Xerox PARC spin-off) and E-Ink, and their partners, seem to intentionally be kept out of the hands of "hackers" who want to experiment with the materials, and I fear Fujitsu will do the same. If you wanted to play with this kind of display, currently, you'd have to buy a Gyricon sign or a Sony Librie and take it apart; I don't see reference or developer kits anywhere.

A guy at level of being Intel CEO does NOT allow such a leak.

Intel and Apple are on something but no, Apple won't leave powerPC platform or we leave Apple :)

If they are fishing for community response, let me say my part. Nobody on Earth can sell me a LCD tablet PC while http://www.e-ink.com/ is well and alive, selling stuff already in Japan.

A great solution to that is digital ink. E-Ink makes exactly this kind of technology that fits your needs.

Power is only used when parts of the on-screen image is changed. If you're just staring at the screen, lost in thought (for, let's say, a few hours), no battery power is used for the screen itself. Throw in a CPU that puts itself to sleep unless there is activity and you could easily come up with a PDA that is small, light, easily readable in any condition in which you could read a book, and has a *long* battery life.

Unfortunately, E-Ink still seems to be in the beginning stages of working with other manufacturers and OEM's, so you can't exactly buy a 4"x3" screen at your local Fry's to tinker with.

E-paper created by MIT a couple years ago is basically what you describe, but uses negatively charged black particles suspended in laminated plastic. Apparently they can transfer it to pretty much any surface including real paper.

They spun off a company called E-ink which sells their products to a couple retail chains for changable signs. There is a description of the technology here.

I'm pretty sure this was covered by slashdot (or maybe wired) a couple years back.