E Ink's AM300 developer's kit gets shown off on video

E Ink's AM300 developer's kit (made with the help of Epson) certainly seemed impressive enough when it was first announced, but there's nothing quite like a video to bring our newspapers of the future to life, and one courtesy of E Ink itself has now thankfully turned up on YouTube. While the display's 16 levels of gray and pen-based input capabilities aren't entirely unique to E Ink, its ability to display speedy animation does seem to be a step above most other similar displays and, naturally, it's being touted as ideal for advertisements. Head on past the break to check it out for yourself.

[Harkonian @ Oct 28th 2008 1:19PM]

If it means no spam in my newspapers, I'll stick with the slow-refresh eInk technology, thank you.

[Johan S @ Oct 28th 2008 1:42PM]

Yeah showing off spam as one of the uses of animations capability was not exactly the smartest idea.

They could have just as easily shown something useful animating like a mechanical or engineering diagram with gears or something like that.

[Kali4 @ Oct 28th 2008 1:49PM]

If it is subsidized by ad revenue to be cheaper, I will hack it later to block the ads...

[Felixxx @ Oct 28th 2008 4:36PM]

Hm, I think the content itself will end up hacked, so it can be censored/modified and the advertising may become a bit harder to notice

[Wwhat @ Oct 28th 2008 5:12PM]

Coincidentally I see a fresh news item about the author's guild making a deal with google to allow copyrighted works to be more available, when financed by... ads, or subscription.

http://www.theinquirer.net/gb/inquirer/news/2008/10/28/google-finally-wins-book-deal

In short the ad hyenas are hovering around reading material now, pecking away till the industry drops to its knees and they can devour and destroy it like they did with TV.
At least that's how I tend to view it.

[adam @ Oct 28th 2008 1:21PM]

does anyone else think the start of the movie likens to people at google showing off android.

"hi, my name is _______ and I'm a (title) here at (company), and today I'm going to show you a bit about (product)."

end comment.

[ccoolty @ Oct 28th 2008 1:46PM]

begin comment

[Johan S @ Oct 28th 2008 1:38PM]

It still needs color.

[RadicalxEdward @ Oct 28th 2008 1:40PM]

One of the nicest things about reading a book/newspaper is that there's not flashing crap in your face. It's really going to suck if newspapers that end up moving to e-ink do that.

I don't think i'd be even close to considering an e-ink e-reader until it's color and closer to the $100-200 price point.

[Johan S @ Oct 28th 2008 1:41PM]

Yeah showing off spam as one of the uses of animations capability was not exactly the smartest idea.

They could have just as easily shown something useful animating like a mechanical or engineering diagram with gears or something like that.

[Plothole @ Oct 28th 2008 10:42PM]

Ads may not sound appealing from your perspective, but then you have to remember that the general public isn't eInk's chief consumers. They're mainly selling them to device makers. And to them, and to their content providers, it might prove very appealing.

[hitter891 @ Oct 28th 2008 1:41PM]

Kinda makes Harry Potter look like Orwell's 1984... I like it.

[phanbouy @ Oct 28th 2008 1:44PM]

Lord Voldemort loves you.

[ryan @ Oct 28th 2008 1:45PM]

bah... mr blurrycam is on the case again...

[Kali4 @ Oct 28th 2008 1:53PM]

Yeah, I thought it was kinda funny that Mr. Blurrycam was recruited to help show off the "much sharper and clearer photos."


haHAhahaha!

[rock99rock @ Oct 28th 2008 1:49PM]

Thats friggin sweet. Now make it the size of a normal newspaper, give it a usb dongle for downloadable content, roll it up and throw it on my porch next week, delicately.

[Matthew @ Oct 28th 2008 1:50PM]

Wow...$3,000!!

[j4p4n @ Oct 28th 2008 2:29PM]

imho you guys are so old fashion.. what the heck, whats wrong with animations and flashing thingies on a book? i for one thing its coolness

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Oct 28th 2008 4:31PM]

It kinda reminds me of this: http://hackaday.com/2008/10/27/making-the-psp-not-so-portable/

[SOOPERGOOMAN @ Oct 28th 2008 4:34PM]

Original thread here: http://forums.qj.net/showthread.php?t=145511


wish we could delete our own posts.

[Wwhat @ Oct 28th 2008 5:07PM]

Some say that not being able to edit/delete posts teaches people to take better care and think about their posts, and that that's a good thing, and besides, we all understand a person can make mistakes (and some fake mistakes).

[Wwhat @ Oct 28th 2008 5:04PM]

If it has moving ads on it it better also have adblock on it, else I for one cannot and will not use it, I can't read stuff while things dance on the page, nor do I wish to.
So I hope they added software plugin ability too.

[Rob @ Oct 28th 2008 5:35PM]

Maybe i'm not as big of a gadget geek as i thought i was because i was more focusing on the fact that joanna is actually not that bad looking at all for a software engineer.

[Eric @ Oct 28th 2008 6:30PM]

Rob, no it's not that you're not as big of a gadget geek, is that you noticed the important things on the video. I noticed her too. All these other tools are bitching about advertisements. Like paper media doesn't have them. Rob, a thumbs up to you.

[brokenkeybaord @ Oct 28th 2008 5:59PM]

"bring our newspapers of the future to life"

this thing lets you read newspapers from the future? sweet.

[Troels C @ Oct 28th 2008 8:13PM]

Well I for one am impressed :)

[jrflesch @ Oct 28th 2008 10:47PM]

This kit pretty neat and fun to mess with. My company has actually has one. Unfortunately, they cost a first born child.
They are relatively easy to develop with although last i knew their documentation was incomplete. They come with a SD card which it reads display information from. You could love or hate this feature i guess.

[xconan @ Oct 29th 2008 2:46AM]

It would have been great if the new edition of the sony e-book reader or kindle had these features. No more lugging the laptop around from class to class to take notes and no more annoying screen blanking or slow refreshes are great features that these 2nd revision e-book readers should of had. It looks like I'll be waiting for the e-book that'll incorporate those features a little bit longer though.