E Ink responsible for Esquire's flashing magazine cover
By Darren Murph 
posted July 21st 2008 9:45AM
posted July 21st 2008 9:45AM
posted July 21st 2008 9:45AM
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Esquire will fold within two years.
Why do you say that?
Esquire will fold within two years.
It will fold just fine right now. You just have to put some effort into it.
I was about to congratulate them for being pioneers, then I read the bit about exclusivity, which will actually hamstring the innovation, and forms part of the silly posturing side of this magazine I don't like. But most of it is really good, it is the most intelligent magazine for men around (but that is an easy category to win).
The exclusivity thing really isn't a big thing, as it is only until 2009 and only in print. How many other companies would have really signed up to use the technology in that short time in the print industry? Esquire also put up a lot of their own money to develop this technology in its first use, so it makes sense.
FIFO!
fail.
you failed yourself...now i feel better.
I "failed" myself because after I submitted my post "randy's" comment was on top. I refreshed about 6 times and mine was on top? (The epic fail belongs to engadget's comment system)
The amusing irony belongs to engadget's comments system.
No, the true fail is to the idea of spamming five posts with nothing but attempting to be the first to post absolutely nothing on one out of a million news articles.
Kanye-approved, what about Lil Wayne-approved?
Newspapers are going to be SO harry potter.
Plotter?
Plopper.
Spider-pig
Don't you mean Daily Prophet? What-ho.
What a waste. Most the covers will wind up in landfills, recycling centers, or used for canary cage paper.
No, most will get bought up by nerds so we can use them for our own nefarious purposes!
"...and the blinking "The 21st Century Begins Now" text will sadly fade after the battery runs dry in 90 days."
I thought E Ink only consumed energy when changing states. If the cover is blinking wouldn't the final state of the cover after the battery runs out either be with the text permanently on or permanently blank rather than fading?
yep thats odd. i even have a cellphone with e-ink LCD and it has the time in the LCD for about 6 months since i took the battery of it without turning it off...
are you guyz sure this is the famous E-ink?
No blinking. No fading. Sadly this "article" is gleamed from New York Times, Boing Boing, and FastCompany. And what little the Engadget author did pen, is inaccurate. I would think that if I were tasked with writing an article about eInk, I would read something about the product in question before publication.
eInk only draws power while the pixels are changing color. Blinking would be a ridiculous waste of that energy source that was so expensive to develop.
I'm so fricken excited by this, I don't even know what to say.
I really hate trying to read websites when there are flashing ads on them -- in fact, I usually leave. I won't like flashing newspaper ads or magazine covers any better. I like books and magazines to lay still and be quiet.
@Rick -- yes, it's going to be a waste. Has anyone thought about how to recycle this stuff yet?
dude, adblock.
...recycle why? after these are released, some guyz will do a DIY programmer for it and you can write whatever you want! very nice indeed
Great. More stuff blinking at me.
Oof. Is it just me, or does Granger look really, really old in that photo?
Pretty cool. I'm going to have to pick up a copy.
just imagine the hacking potential of picking up a few issues for under $10 and then starting to play. the folks over at hack a day will have a field day.
Yeah, there are just so many different uses for blinking text. The list is endless!
Dear Mr. Granger,
The 21st century began eight years ago.
Yrs,
Blog reader in NY
It will fade away right along with physical paper media....not now but in the next 20 years I believe. I think they are gonna have kiosks where we just download our magazines into our smart phones with bendable flexible displays.
As opposed to those unbendable flexible displays?
It sounds odd, but actually there are two "types" of flexible displays in development. Ones that can bend just a little bit...just enough to make them resistant to cracking... and then ones that can actually roll up. From what I understand, the advantage with the former is that they can be built on existing production lines.
There was me thinking that print media was safe for sufferers of epilepsy.
Does this take a standard magazine recharger? No more proprietary magazine rechargers please.
I see it now, instead of newspaper stands, there will be a stack of 64 MB SD cards you can buy, or download. just slip it into the slot and read. well at least it will save the trees.
Why bother with a card...you buy at the stand and wi-fi it to your bendy display, or your mag is auto downloaded via wi-fi if you are a subscriber. Say, I'll bet if you pay a premium, you can get your mag without any adverts.
Whats that glow over by the landfill ??
Ultimately developments like this lead on a path to less waste.
Anyone seen the date when it will actually hit the newsstands? Didn't find it anywhere :(
A magazine with some classy psuedo-porn, good advice for fashion and health, with the side effect of making me feel quite poor. At least, that's the UK edition. America or other international editions?
Damn. I'm gonna buy at least three, if I can somehow find them in this part of the EU. Then I'm gonna strip it down and uset he e-ink display for my own screens. I was doubting that I'd ever get my hands on an e-ink screen!
Cover page design by < blink > Lou Montulli < / blink >
This will make pranks a lot easier to do. Hijack 1,000 copies of Time with some porno picture on them and re-release them back onto news stands. Or even re-write the entire magazine to suit your agenda(s).
Either way this is a stupid idea, like Amazon's book reader thing.
Hmm... if you want to play around with an e-E-Ink screen, just order a development kit from the company.
http://www.eink.com/kits/index.html
OK, so you need $1,500, which is probably more than a copy of Esquire, but still, they've been available for ages.
Although only a small section of the cover is E-Ink, rather than the whole thing, but it's still an interesting step forward.
Farmer Joe @ Jul 21st 2008 10:47AM
Great. More stuff blinking at me.
-- Best comment (and name) ever! =))
Carl Reiner is a magazine publisher?