Later today,
Plastic Logic will be showing off its new e-newspaper reader (name, undecided) for the first time. The black and white,
E Ink device features a wireless link to download content, room enough to store "hundreds of pages of newspapers, books, and documents," and a display more than twice the size of the wee
Kindle while suffering just half the ugly. Better yet, the device is said to use "flexible, lightweight plastic" rather than glass resulting in a reader about one-third the thickness of the Kindle at about the same weight -- the reader itself (pictured left) looks rigid compared to that flexible display Plastic Logic has demonstrated in the past. Expected to go on sale during the first half of 2009 with more details, including which news organizations will feed information to the reader, promised for CES in January.
Update: Announced
official with 8.5 x 11-inch display with gesture-based user interface and additional support for MS Office formats as well as PDF. Second picture added after the break.
posted Sep 8th 2008 6:50AM
I knew this day would come. Yay! For E Ink.
"a wireless link to download content"
Automatic updating? It would be good to pick the thing up in the morning to have the current edition of the tabloids and such already there.
I'll be the 1st in line to try one out.
All I want to know is it coffee proof because I tend to spill a lot of stuff on my news paper.
Zzzzzzzzzzzzzz These things really need color screens. EVERY news paper today is printed in full colour. How do you view a graphic novel or design/art/photography book, where's the mag/book cover artwork?
In principle this is a good idea but this incarnation looks pretty lame as it stands.
I disagree. All the useful stuff in newspapers (the news) is in black and white. It's mainly ads that are in colour. Of course colour would be better, but I think the b&w ones could still be a major success if the infrastructure (i.e. download availability) and price (e.g. one-off charge of £10 for the reader plus 20p for each day of news) are done well.
Of course, I'm sure it's no coincidence that this launch occurs on the same day as the Esquire E-ink release.
yeah but what about color pr0n??? black and white just doesn't cut it when it comes to hot nude women...
I agree - color, color, color.
I recall back in the 80's having to make a case for some users to get the more expensive color monitors. Now, it's standard and for a good reason. These should have color as standard as well. Especially if I'm going to be reading Word Docs and PDFs. Manuals, newsletters, magazines, and newspapers are color.
Color is the new black!
The problem with colour right now is that e-ink technology can't really do it. E-ink's major draw is it's readability, especially in direct sunlight, or other bright lights. It works through thousands of tiny little balls, with one side black, one side white, and changes their orientation based on whether that ball is supposed to display white space or black space. It's what allows it to remain displaying an image, or a page of a newspaper, without using any battery, which is another major upside. Colour is simply not practical, and thedesolate1: if you are going to buy this e-ink reader strictly so you can look at naked ladies on it, maybe that's not such a good idea. I'm sure you would have to bypass the readers intended functionality to get said material on it anyways, and are you really that depserate?
It was supposed to be a joke. see: Ha Ha Ha -_-
Last I checked, only the Sunday edition of my newspaper has ever come in color. For the other six days of the week, it's been strictly black and white.
@ kidcanuck
Actually what you're describing is a different type of electronic paper technology. The eInk technology uses tiny fluid filled capsules. Within each of these capsules floats black and white particles of "ink", each with a different charge. An set of electrodes above and below each capsule draw the appropriate shade to the top, and the rest to the bottom. The advantage this technique has over the old "ball method" is that it can actually produce shades of gray by mixing the black and white in different quantities.
Oh, and technically color is possible too. All it requires is an additional color matrix layered on top of the existing B&W display. The drawback however is that this cuts the effective resolution in half (eg. 150dpi becomes 75dpi).
Hmm, well I guess I stand corrected. That is interesting, though. And I am sorry, the desolate1, I was trying to make a joke too, but I am not very funny.
These stupid apple ads are eating my cpu. :( I love apple, hate their ads.
If that little ad hurt your CPU, you must not have ugraded your Mac on the last go round.... :-) Let's see if tomorrow's announcements tell you it's time to take the plunge!
Its using 70% of one of my cores. Flash can be system intensive.
Since 99% of Flash is ads, why not use Flashblock + Firefox? It disables Flash by default, and allows you to watch just the ones you want, with one click.
Dimitri
Or download the AdBlock plugin for Safari. It does the same thing.
But yeah, get a Mac. A new one, that is! I love the ads by the way.
Those two photos show two very different devices. If there are no real specs at least some real photos would be nice. This looks more like a concept than a real product.
I was thinking the same thing about the pictures, why are there two different devices up there?
The thing that the guy is holding one isn't a device at all. If you look closely, you'll see that it's simply a screen attached to a circuit board. That's the image PL has had up for the purpose of demonstrating the technology.
The tablet is the actual product that incorporates on of these displays in it.
Yup, colour is a distraction. Every newspaper is printed in colour, comes with 100 unnecessary suppliments and has less proper news than ever before. For those of us actually interested in news, it's irrelevant. For those who need their news in the form of pretty pictures, you'll have to wait. Clearly, if it had colour, all the better, but this looks like a dream come true for many
Nice! Can't wait to see more about that.
Those pics *do* show different devices, though. Right?
... ignore the one on the right (larger picture)...
Read their website.....
www.plasticlogic.com
The big picture is just their development prototype. Also it looks like the smaller picture isn't a render....would like to see a hi-rez version.....hopefully more picture will come!
Is every one of these devices going to be riddled with DRM, or will these actually be capable of displaying non-encumbered ebooks?
I just need to login
yikes! poor amazon ¬_¬
why does the guy on the right, look like hes bending the photo on the left?
Better support PDF well, bitches.
Seriously though, if someone released something with actual quality PDF support (as I've heard mixed reviews from the other devices out there), they could at least get a crap-load of academics to buy it. I know I would have preferred to read tons of papers in PDF format on a nice clear e-Ink display like that instead of on screen on my laptop, and I sure as hell wasn't going to print out 150 pages per paper I had to write.
Can you imagine being able to review grant proposals with this thing?! Being able to pull one up whenever instead of hauling around a mound of paper would be great! Of course there's still the issue with taking notes.
Looks quite interesting. It will apparently be called the "dossier", guessing from the write-up of the future which adorns the picture they put out.
See the hi-res version on their site:
http://www.plasticlogic.com/assets/PlasticLogicPreviewsElectronicReadingDevice.jpg
It will come down to weight, battery life, contrast, and file types for me. Color would be nice and will certainly come int he end but I could live fine with grey scale, all other things considered.
The bump in size is certainly a big deal. I had little interest in scrolling around though material on a 7" screen or whatever.
I'm eager to see what these guys have to offer.... I certainly believe their future dreams (per the write-up in the pic) a LOT more than I believe Mccain's.
- mike
I'll take the flexible version in that photo, but a hard plastic slab? No thanks. I don't care how thin it is.
I'm somehow thinking of Star Trek... they're not called tricoders but something else when they have reports or something... I guess it'll head that way when we start doing e-Ink in color...
@ Christian, you're thinking of a "padd" http://memory-alpha.org/en/wiki/PADD
Screw the floppy display version and give me the hardback; why the hell would I want something with all the drawbacks of a floppy paper? Fighting to get a flat surface to read on, having to clap the page uncomfortably so I can see the whole page, the bendability making it useless for me to read books in bed.
Sure, if it were bendable enough to actually roll up real thin, then there would be something to the design, but it won't be, and a hard slab of e-ink is just so much more usable for pure usability and reading purposes.
And, oh man, there sure isn't a way to read all that without thinking of all the double entendres :(
Just because it's using a flexible screen, that doesn't mean that the device actually has to flex. These displays offer advantages even in a rigid form factor, such as far greater durability as well as less weight.
i can see my kids carrying this to school instead of a ton of books! kids could walk into 1st period class and get the lesson plans of the day from every teacher (like a RSS feed). all the videos/audio they'll be needing for each class.(if it plays videos)
it could be nice. going to the library/bookstore and downloading all your books for the semester!
This clearly wins out in the looks department but what is their response to Amazon's handle on content?
I would assume that they'll support PDF. Hopefully even the secure form.
It LOOKS like it could be a great product, of course we need to see the full spec and PRICE.
Looking at the photo it kind of suggests color (the magazine underneath)
If it could show color, and be able to handle some windows readers, then this could be great.
I want a device that can handle all the formats, including PDF/Lit, CBR (txt of course)
Being semi flexible could help in real life, with the screen being able to take hits better
These guys have been around forever. First they say they're building a display factory in Germany, and now they say they're coming out with a reading device sometime in the "first half" of next year, without any real specifics (like a price or even a product name). A great way to get some hype at Demo, but hardly a credible launch story or product strategy. At the rate these guys (and new technology like this) moves, bet you their reader isn't out til late 2009 or even 2010, if ever.
anyone read the mock-up article in the large picture? the company is optimistic.
I hope it's waterproof. I need good reading material in the bathroom. :)
Might want to check this:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CurPWbrtpI0
"We will be having a color version of the product out in 3 to 5 years time."
"Less then a pound (weight)."
product is working
Does anyone know a price please?
Marvelous! What a product I'm waiting for!
Does anyone know if you will be able to modify the document on the reader itself (i.e. write marginal notes using the touchscreen?), I don't see that anywhere in the product descriptions.
price?