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Hearst's Seattle PI to Test Market E-Paper
NewsCloud writes "The Hearst Corporation plans to use the Seattle Post-Intelligencer to test market LG Philipps' recently announced flexible color E-Paper. 'The electronic P-I will carry real-time news, same as the Internet, not yesterday's news like traditional papers. Readers will turn the e-paper's pages by touching the flexible screen. And when those readers head off to work, they will roll up the electronic P-I and stuff it in their pocket, purse, or briefcase.' The announcement comes amidst the recent settlement of bitter co-operating disputes between Seattle's two newspapers and Bill Gates' recent comments on the shifting of the advertising market away from traditional media." Update: 05/18 21:51 GMT by Z : Michelle Nicolosi, Assistant Managing Editor for the PI, emailed this correction: "Someday, Seattle P-I readers may be able to carry around their news in a bendable, electronic paper device -- but not any time soon. Hearst Corp., which owns the Seattle P-I, has no plans to use the Seattle daily newspaper to test a newly announced E-paper gadget." The original site linked apparently got it wrong.
Four reasons:
High resolution => more info/sq. inch
High contrast => more legibility in ambient light without backlighting = longer battery life
Static image (power only needed to change image) => longer battery life
Light weight (no heavy glass screen or big batteries needed to create image)
Having seen high quality e-paper on a working device, I can say that it looks like the image has been printed on a laser printer. The long battery life means that it's useful when the information changes on the order of minutes, not seconds, and you can carry it around easily because of the light weight.
No, this is not a replacement for an active screen and GIF's and movies are not realistic uses for it.