Speaking at MobileBeat in San Francisco today, HP's Phil McKinney chatted up
the company's flexible display tech, which uses rugged Mylar-infused sheets similar to those found in solar panels and can display video while still being bistable the same way
E Ink is -- in other words, it'll hold an image without power. Thankfully, this seems to be more than a pipe dream sitting in a lab somewhere, because McKinney went on to say that "these are the kinds of display technologies that will change what we think of in form factors, both in products from Palm with flexible displays, and with HP." In other words, it's entirely within the realm of reason to imagine a bendy
webOS device that gingerly sips battery juice -- or stops sipping it altogether -- while you're reading the morning news. We wouldn't expect it any time soon, of course, but it's encouraging to hear a conservative industry behemoth like HP start to talk like this. In the meantime, can we just get a new
Pre, guys?
posted July 12th 2010 1:59PM
@BerkleyBerkley2011 Dude, this is Engadget, not Gizmodo.
@jturnley
Yeah if I say anything bad about apple they delete my posts too.
Cool device.
This display will be perfect if I ever land on Mars and get knocked off course because of my faulty ship and need to calculate which direction HAB is in by reversing the terrain details! After I am done, it slides up nicely into a small, travel friendly cylinder. Oh, forgot to mention, it doubles as a portable X-Ray machine in case I punctured something during the rough landing.
MARS HERE I COME!
@Ninetysix
just imagine these on condoms.. You could watch porn while getting it on...
Priceless
@Ninetysix
It already exists, the Pre's display bends in from exposure to heat... :D
Some people call that melting, but HP likey!
@Ninetysix
Flexible displays??? Hmmm, this will be very interesting indeed.
@elijahblake
You're doing it wrong if you can see the display.
@elijahblake
This made my day...
no wait, ill take a month instead
+1 internetz
@AbSoluTc
Don't you mean
MARS, HERE I COME
??
Must be a typo
How can you use a curved display in mobile? It seems like it would be much more attractive in a desktop for...
Also, I really hope they don't continue branding their phones as Pre. They need a new name...
@The Advanced Kind
Post
Just wait until Steve Jobs catches wind of this development. Fruit roll-up.
@InspectorEngadget LOL
@Grubasaurus Rex Try the veal.
@InspectorEngadget
mmmmm iRoll-Ups
just think of the number of ways you could hold that product wrong.
"iRoll-Up, Hold Differently!; no, more Differently"
@JmHal
shhh!!! You just gave away a million dollar idea to the Jobs man!!! You should at least bargin your idea for a free bumper for your iPhone 4, maybe ask for an iPad (a stretch maybe?).....lol :P
@Gooch818 Meh. I'd rather have an Android device and as far as the iPad goes, its too big to not have a physical keyboard to be to my liking. Netbooks are cheaper. Oh yeah, and Jobs is a jerk.
@InspectorEngadget
A key difference is that Steve would have announced the iFlex. Demoed the iFlex, said that the iFlex will have 200 hours of battery life and then stated that they are taking pre-orders now.
Then, for the next four months, the only topic of discussion anywhere will be the iFlex.
That's what HP still doesn't get. Instead, they will introduce the IF-2000-PR in three years and everyone will say "Didn't HP have a device like this three years ago?"
Poor JooJoo...
@thisisit
holy shit your avatar is scary
@Psyclotr0n
It's the Traninator xD
@Psyclotr0n Can we downrank, just to make it go away? I think I shit my pants...
@thisisit
speaking of avatars, have engadget ever fixed their broken-ass avatar uploading yet?
@Psyclotr0n
Considering nearly everyone has the same avatar, I'd say no.
@Psyclotr0n
Just because i'm ugly doesnt mean you all have to downrank me.
Well, this is engadget.
HP sucks. Symbian rules.
Writing on or touching icons on a squidgy surface will be a pain. There will need to be a way to make the display rigid temporarily. Perhaps a roll that extends so you can literally adjust the size of your display/input surface and then lock it in place using some form of as yet uninvented telescoping arms or similar. Hmm...
Palm needs a new phone, my pre is feeling outdated.
In the spirit of naming phones like "Incredible." The new Palm phone should be called:
F - YEAH!
@glamajamma
I agree, Palm desperately needs a new phone. Every year on July 13th I get a new phone for my bday. I was hoping to upgrade my Pre to a new Palm phone this year, but that certainly isn't happening now. If the Incredible was on Sprint I probably would have jumped to it. Evo is just a bit too large for my tastes.
My god... when Palm and HP starts cranking out their products together... the Industry will truely be changed and benifit from it...
@mrkalel But yea lets get another webOS device ASAP!!!
@MrKal_El
@mrkalel
If wishes and buts were candy and nuts, we'd all have a Merry Christmas.
@mrkalel
Honestly, I highly doubt it. HP will probably fuck everything up, instead of benefiting Palm like we want.
Looks more like a "tear-able" device to me. Now your screen can survive a drop, but if you stand up and it catches on the chair - RIP.
I'm on a roll! How many more plays on words can I squeeze out of this?
I want a device/screen I can wear around my arm. This tech might help, since the screen needs to be flex-ible so it doesn't tear while I show off my biceps.
@jturnley
I did my best, but not as good as yours. Props.
Make this a "Jump-to-Conclusions" mat and you have yourself a customer!
@cdsfire +1 internets to you, sir!
@cdsfire
That's the worst idea I've heard heard in my life, Tom.
Yeah, yeah, that's nice and all, can you guys crank out a Pre successor though? Kthxbi.
@Booksmart Devil
this, please.
@Booksmart Devil how about a post?
I see this bringing in the rolled up screen revolution. Can work in cars as a sun blocker and display.
As a rolled up tv in the livingroom.
Many possibilities.
@Marwan boustany
I don't know about this one specifically, but most 'flexible displays' are not really going to be flexible in the way we might assume, because they aren't sturdy enough to be repeatedly rolled up several times a day. Initially at least, being flexible probably just means they can manufacture it in a shape that isn't flat, possibly wrapping around the device or something like that, and it may be more rugged (if you drop the device it might bounce rather than smash - that kind of thing).
Also there have been like a zillion flexible displays announced over the past five years and none of them ever resulted in any interesting products - or in any products at all, for that matter. :)
So while it would be cool, let's not get too excited about flexible displays just yet. Big thing here is the 'bistable, can show video' bit. For example, the bistable bit means that your phone can always show the current time and your wallpaper, permanently, so you don't have to touch it or anything when you want to check the time. And it won't use any battery power to do this (well, not much - it has to update the screen once per minute). Similarly if you want to reference a web page and you put the phone down, come back, it's still there. None of that annoying time-out business. I bet this screen looks crap otherwise, though... I'm guessing this is just a vapoury as the others.
Enough with all the 'hinting'... Make Something Already!
@DaHarder
^This
I have also read this can also be done in any kind of size: 3 inches, 4 inches, 10 inches, 24 inches, 50 inches, several feets, your bedroom wall, a whole building,etc. The fabrication process is just like printing. Or so i read.
@marcio
yes BUT will it Also Double as an Antenna??
that way You could Lose signal everytime You touched the Screen!!
@ThinkpaxX200s
This is HP; not Apple.
Yes finally time to get my Global
http://www.technovelgy.com/graphics/content08/readius-cell-phone-final-conflict.jpg
i like where this is goin!
giggity, giggity, gig-i-ty.