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Amazon Buys Sunlight Readable Color Display Company Liquavista
Nate the greatest writes "It looks like those 4 month old rumors are true. Amazon has confirmed today that they have bought Liquavista, a Netherlands based screen tech company. There's no info yet on how much Amazon paid to Samsung, but previous rumors suggested that the asking price was under $100 million. Amazon also isn't talking about how they plan to use the electrowetting screen tech, but many are assuming that a Color Kindle is in the works."
Amazon also isn't talking about how they plan to use the electrowetting screen tech, but many are assuming that a Color Kindle is in the works."
Something I learned many, many years ago watching Apple's amazing marketing division at work. Leak. Leak early, leak often. Spread rumors. But deny everything. This accomplishes two things: First, it gives you very accurate marketing data on what your customers are expecting and want. Second, it creates an atmosphere of expectation and excitement. By carefully modulating these things, you can multiply the amount of advertising for your product many, many times over what conventional marketing can do.
Amazon is just taking a page from Apple's playbook.
#fuckbeta #iamslashdot #dicemustdie
Nice referrer link! I think they would want a display that doesn't drain a battery quite like the displays on most active screen tablets (you'd be lucky to get 8 hours out of a current Fire). This would be more for the low-power-draw devices like the Kindle Paperweight.
That's really not the same technology at all. That's an LCD screen. We're hoping for something that gets more than 8 hours of battery life, and something closer to the two months the Kindles can get.
Color kindle *that has the benefits of e-ink*. Reading the fire in the sun isn't a very pleasant experience, but with this display tech it would be.
Samsung just bought Liquavista in 2012.. interesting.. How will that work? I mean Samsung is more than likely going to use this technology.
Yes, this is a company with color e-ink technology.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
I may buy a tablet in the next year or two, but I'm not planning letting go of my B&W Kindle w/ e-ink -- unless it's to replace it with a color e-ink model.
Trying to read a book on a backlit LCD screen in a pain in the ass on a good day and simply not possible in direct sunlight.
I love that Amazon has made (quite good) Kindle apps for just every piece of hardware I own - and I use them - but mainly for trying out samples and calling up specific passages.
Once you get hooked on e-ink, it's hard to go back to anything else.
No, they're not. It's not eInk at all. It's a new method of building a color LCD panel that is reflective. Entirely different.
Color eInk already exists. Google the Etaco Jetbook Color. 4096 colors and slow refresh rate (like B/W eInk). Not the same thing other than they're both reflective, color displays.
It isn't e-ink, but it also isn't an LCD. RTFA.
It's very similar to e-ink, the way LCD is similar to the same technology that's been powering your clock for 30 years.
"Color e-ink" is a good shorthand way of thinking about it.
I'm out of my mind right now, but feel free to leave a message.....
That's the interesting thing about this technology. It can be reflective OR backlit. Combining it with the paperwhite lighting should work great.
Electrowetting has actually been around 10 years at least, and when I wrote an essay on the topic some 5 years ago I found a lot of studies on the subject albeit mostly by the same few authors:
http://scholar.google.com/scholar?q=electrowetting
At the time when I was studying the subject the spotlight was on LCD- and OLED-displays, as they were evolving rapidly. Electrowetting was not at the time utilized anywhere, except for conceptual designs and prototypes.
To be honest, I hadn't followed up on the topic at all and assumed electrowetting displays had died away. Hopefully Amazon can prove me wrong as the concept itself is quite innovative.
That depends if it's rgb or ycm, rgb has low max brightness/contrast (more grey than white) without active lighting ... but ycm might have trouble with viewing angles (it's hard to say no one has demonstrated one yet).
That said, they have a youtube clip showing a rgb display playing a pokemon cartoon and with the right lighting and content even rgb can look amazing ... but not good enough to displace black and white for text.
While I will be the first to admit that e-ink is truly wonderful for direct sunlight condition, I still have to say, "Wow, hyperbole much?"
A month ago I spent four days' vacation in the Dominican Republic, most of which was spent lounging around the pool with my wife. She's got a Kindle Fire and I have a Nook Color. Neither one of us had any problem at all reading books in sunlight bright enough to require sunglasses.
Here's a tip: Don't forget to turn up the screen brightness all the way before going outside. That's all that's really required.
I had 2 e-ink readers, and did like them quite a bit... but then I got a Nexus 7 and haven't touched them. The screen is perfectly usable outdoors. Not AWESOME... but usable. In partial shade, like sitting next to the window on a bus, it's fantastic.
YMMV.
I've been avoiding them since they demonstrated with 1984 that they could remove books already purchased. I wouldn't actually say I was boycotting them, I'm merely no longer buying anything from them. Or recommending them. I also, however, don't buy much for the Nook, because I don't trust it not to be DRM infested. But it's a decent reader for e-pub text documents, most of which I get from Project Gutenberg .
(OTOH, despite many worthy actions, I don't trust Barnes&Nobel because of some rather sleazy, possibly illegal but IANAL, deals they've pulled to drive smaller bookstores out of business.)
I think we've pushed this "anyone can grow up to be president" thing too far.