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E Ink Demos New Displays, Gadgets At IFA 2011

An anonymous reader writes "E Ink turned up at IFA 2011 with its Triton color e-paper, which has exactly the same properties as the monochrome version found in the Kindle (two-month battery life, no power use when viewing a page, as readable as a sheet of paper) while adding 4,096 colors. We also get to see the E Ink watch, signage, cellphone and USB stick displays, and the latest glass-less e-paper inside a credit card. E Ink hopes to use the new plastic substrate in future e-readers, meaning they will be thinner, lighter, and more shatterproof than those that ship today."

11 of 221 comments (clear)

  1. Just in time... by Sarten-X · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Not more than two days ago, my wife (a librarian) saw a color e-reader (using a backlit LCD), and mentioned that it'd be great for children's books. I said that e-ink was probably a better option, because the reader could use less power when a distracted kid leaves it turned on. Now, there's hope for the benefits of both!

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    1. Re:Just in time... by Rosco+P.+Coltrane · · Score: 3, Insightful

      The one distinctive feature of children's books is the thick cardboard cover and thick pages, because children aren't exactly known for their carefulness.

      I'm not sure how a E-ink device would fare after a few months of being aggressively fingered, scratched, thrown, banged, sat and vomited upon, especially considering that, unlike a real book that would be used occasionally and then shelved, an e-book would used all the time, precisely because it can display any book.

      --
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    2. Re:Just in time... by fmrbastien · · Score: 3, Funny

      The problem I have with paper is the distracting animation when I flip the page. Or when the wind flips the page... or when doing anything, really. Very annoying indeed.

      --
      lernu.net
  2. Re:Cooooool. by Dot.Com.CEO · · Score: 3, Informative

    I used to be like you. I have about 1500 books. Then I got a kindle and I'm converted. Just give it a go, it's actually damn good technology done right.

    --
    Mother is the best bet and don't let Satan draw you too fast.
  3. Re:Refresh rate? by wrook · · Score: 3, Informative

    According to this article: http://www.e-ink-info.com/fujitsu-shows-new-prototype-color-e-reader Fujitsu is building something based on this and it has a refresh rate of 0.7 seconds. So pretty slow. Other articles ( http://www.e-ink-info.com/auos-sipix-e-paper-now-fast-enough-video-6fps ) suggest that some monochrome panels are capable of 6 frames per second and speculate ( http://www.e-ink-info.com/e-ink-do-not-expect-new-monochrome-e-ink-display-2011 ) that 24 frames per second may be possible in a matter of years.

    So... it's still mostly useful for static displays, but in a couple of years we may be seeing it branching out into other applications.

  4. Letter sized... by Tropaios · · Score: 5, Informative

    The article states that they print ROLLS of this stuff over a meter wide and up to a kilometer long... Why can't I have a color e-ink reader with an 8 1/2" x 11" screen, a touch screen, and full PDF support?

    I don't care what it costs, shut up and take my money!

    1. Re:Letter sized... by daid303 · · Score: 5, Insightful

      I say "wallpaper". Really, how awesome would that be!

    2. Re:Letter sized... by itsdapead · · Score: 3, Interesting

      The article states that they print ROLLS of this stuff over a meter wide and up to a kilometer long... Why can't I have a color e-ink reader with an 8 1/2" x 11" screen, a touch screen, and full PDF support?

      I don't care what it costs, shut up and take my money!

      I get the impression that they're talking about large sheets of the "microcapsule" material used in the displays, rather than complete displays with the electronics required to "write" pixels to them. They're pretty clear that the electronics are the limiting factor.

      Meanwhile, the Kindle seems reasonably happy with displaying PDFs - its just that panning and zooming them is painful - partly because of the limited controls on a Kindle, but mainly because of the very slow screen refresh.

      --
      In a survey of 100 programmers, 111111 thought that duck-typing was a good idea.
  5. Re:Refresh rate? by wvmarle · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Movies don't have the interstitial effects. Or at least much less so. For a movie 24 fps means 24 frames displayed; the time to change a frame is much less than 1/24th of a second. For a screen like this 6fps means 6 frames displayed, but also implies that the time to change a frame is 1/6th or a second.

    This is also exactly why gamers waited so long to ditch those CRTs and started using flat screens. The refresh rate was too slow.

    Not that I think it's a problem for books (mostly static images), but you can't fully compare it to movies.

  6. Re:flick through by c0lo · · Score: 3, Insightful

    I'm reading a book on my Kindle that has notes at the end of each chapter. By the time I get to them I want to look back and reread the passage they refer to - easy in a real book, but very laborious in an e-book. ... Along with its indifference to book design of course...

    You reckon? I always hated the end-notes in a book, even a real one.

    I can understand that layout-ing a book for press-printing is much cheaper if relying on end-notes instead of footnotes, but with now the ubiquitous use of the computer in "desktop publishing" this should not be an excuse (at most, I can accept the idea of relying on endnotes if the notes themselves have a large extent).

    But end-notes in an ebook without back-referencing? Good God, the publisher of such books must be to lowest type $crooges, with the only motivation of staying in business being to punish everyone that need or love to read a(n e) book.
    My point: don't blame the eBook reader, but the publisher of such monstrous mutilation of the ebook.

    --
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  7. Re:I'm convinced! by mwvdlee · · Score: 3, Funny

    You forget the obvious alternative; a single long stretch of paper. It could be rolled up to make it portable. Now THAT would be progress!

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