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This e-paper backpack is the kind of crazy we deserve
Just to be clear, this is exactly what you think it is: a backpack with a hole cut in it, and an e-paper display wedged inside. And yes, that e-paper display has my face on it. Normally, this is the time when I'd start talking about hitting peak CES absurdity, but POP-I president Vikram Joshi has more in store than just these rough early models.
QuirkLogic's Quilla is a massive 42-inch E Ink whiteboard
Canada's QuirkLogic wants to see an end to people taking pictures of their whiteboard notes with a smartphone. That's why it's launching the Quilla, a 42-inch smart whiteboard that's built around the world's largest electronic-paper display. Paired with QuirkLogic's connected-writer system, anything you draw on the display with the stylus will be instantly stored for retrieval later.
Apple could bring E Ink keyboards to MacBooks in 2018
You may have to wait a while if you want a Mac with an E Ink keyboard. Wall Street Journal tipsters understand that Apple wants to make Sonder's e-paper keys a "standard feature" on MacBooks, but that it's aiming for a 2018 launch. Don't expect to see anything at that reported October 27th event, then. At least we're getting a hint of the functionality. As you'd expect, E Ink would let your Mac use "any" alphabet, along with special characters and media editing shortcuts. You could write emoji more like you do on a smartphone (where you replace the keyboard with an emoji picker) instead of using a keyboard shortcut and wading through an on-screen dialog box.
Apple reportedly wants to use changeable E Ink keyboards
Apple's plans for advanced laptop controls may extend beyond that rumored OLED touch strip. Both 9to5Mac and TrustedReviews report that Apple has been in talks to use a laptop version of Sonder Design's dynamic keyboard technology, which uses E Ink to change key labels on the fly. Just how Tim Cook and company would implement the hardware isn't clear, but it might work the way these keyboards have operated since the days of Art Lebedev's Optimus Maximus. If so, you'd get handy labels on keys as you switch contexts, such as brushes in an image editor or different characters when you switch languages.
ICYMI: End forgetfulness with the e-version of a Post-It.
try{document.getElementById("aol-cms-player-1").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: A German researcher developed a digital Post-It note that never dies as long as the small solar panel gets sunlight. They can be stuck just about anywhere. Meanwhile, EPFL scientists are creating soft robots to act as artificial muscles. So far they see the most success with a belt to help support the weight of people who've had strokes. Finally, the stop motion video of a Death Star being created is a fun watch, as is the disturbing promo video for Google's newest app, SprayScapes. As always, please share any interesting tech or science videos you find by using the #ICYMI hashtag on Twitter for @mskerryd.
Sony returns to crowdfunding for its next e-paper watch
Miss out on Sony's original crowdfunded watch? You're about to get a second chance... at least, if you live in Japan. It's running a campaign to fund the FES Watch U, a more polished-looking version of its e-paper wristwear. You can still customize the always-on face and band (with or without a phone), but it's decidedly posher. Where the previous model looked more like an experiment, the Watch U has a steel body and (on the black premium model) scratch-resistant sapphire glass that make it more of a fashion item. As you might guess, the choice of energy-efficient e-paper gives it a healthy battery life of three weeks.
Rimowa's electronic luggage tag is the future of traveling
Nowadays if you're flying with carry-on luggage, you can easily skip the check-in lines by doing it all online ahead of time. Sadly, it requires a few more steps if you have to check your luggage -- you still need to go print out your tag at the airport, tie it onto your suitcase and then drop it off at the counter. The folks over at Rimowa and Lufthansa are hoping to simplify that process, because for Germans, every second counts. In Hong Kong, we checked out these fancy suitcases that are updated with an embedded E Ink display -- a HK$500/€60 premium across the existing range, except for the untouchable Classic Flight series -- and hear about where Rimowa's at with this feature's rollout.
Keep your sheet music organized with Gvido E Ink reader
Sheet music can be difficult to corral if you don't have some sort of system. Take it from a high school saxophone player with a chronic case of disorganization. That's where the gorgeous E Ink device known as the Gvido comes in.
E Ink announces a color breakthrough, but it's only for signs
There's a small glimmer of hope for the seemingly doomed dream of color electronic paper. E Ink, which helped pioneer ePaper by providing the technology for Amazon's Kindle, announced today that it's finally developed a display that can show up to 32,000 colors. Dubbed Advanced Color ePaper (ACeP), it's a huge leap above the company's aging Triton tech, which could only display around 4,000 colors. Basically, it'll be clear enough to be practically indistinguishable from color printed onto real paper. But don't get your hopes up for an e-reader with ACeP just yet -- for now, E Ink is positioning it for in-store signage as 20-inch panels.
The Calendar Watch previews your schedule at a glance
Last year, What Watch introduced its Stop the Time watch, which offered a minimalistic flourish of smart technology on top of a classic wrist-worn timepiece. The idea was to purposely limit the feature set, freeing users from data overload through a conceptual design. With the press of a single-use button, you could mark up to five "moments" each month, which lit up elements on the watch's e-ink display. This month, the company is back with another technologically restrained wearable, the Calendar Watch. It still avoids data overload by keeping things simple: You can look at the time and also see your schedule at a glance. The product just launched on Kickstarter, but we got a chance to speak with What Watch co-founder Igor Basargin and take a look at the first batch of prototypes. They won't help you track steps or control a playlist, but the pie-wedge schedule view seems a useful addition to a pretty decent-looking watch.
ICYMI: E-paper kicks, robot directions via thought and more
#fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-978000{display:none;} .cke_show_borders #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-978000, #postcontentcontainer #fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-978000{width:570px;display:block;}try{document.getElementById("fivemin-widget-blogsmith-image-978000").style.display="none";}catch(e){}Today on In Case You Missed It: Shiftwear wants to change your shoe game with color e-paper screens that can move and shift into beautiful pictures on the sneakers you're wearing. It's too early to tell whether they will fund; or look as good as they do in the online video. There's also a nail-art printer if you're in the mood to spend a lot of money on something temporary.
Amazon's Snowball is a smart box for shipping tons of cloud data
It seems paradoxical that you'd have to ship cloud data, but plenty of companies do -- it's sometimes faster for them to send a courier than to wait days for a massive upload to finish. And Amazon knows it. The internet giant just revealed the Snowball, an odd but unassuming storage device that shuttles up to 50TB of data to Amazon Web Services the old-fashioned way. The box is not only tough enough to survive the bumps and jostles of a courier, but has everything it needs for power and networking. There's even an E Ink control panel on the side that doubles as an automatic shipping label.
Super-thin E Ink watch is the latest crowdfunding casualty
You're about to get an all-too-blunt reminder of why crowdfunding sites shouldn't be treated like stores. Central Standard Timing has shelved its extra-thin, Kickstarter-backed CST-01 watch after running into numerous production problems. The project is nearly out of money, and the team has ditched its chosen manufacturer (Flextronics) after deciding that it wasn't a "good fit" for a small startup designing an exotic E Ink wearable. Also, the math behind the production costs simply didn't work out. CST-01's unique design was twice as expensive to build as first thought -- while you typically pledged $129 to get a watch during the crowdfunding campaign, the low part yields meant that the watch actually cost $260.
popSLATE gives your iPhone a second (not so useful) screen
Like most smartphone users, I unlock my screen incessantly so I usually run out of battery when I most need it. But popSLATE promises to be the rehab for my swipe-screen addiction. It's a smartphone case with an in-built E Ink screen that can personalize the back of an iPhone 6. I could use it to flaunt my favorite pictures or if I run out of battery, at say, an airport, I'd be able to flip my phone over to scan my boarding pass. It seemed like the perfect solution for my excessive phone usage. So I turned the back of my phone into a second, always-on screen for about a week.
Sainsbury's swaps pricing labels for e-ink displays in one London store
Considering their main role is supplying the everyday essentials, Britain's supermarkets are strangely into their tech. When they're not running streaming services (or offloading them), making tablets, dabbling in prototype wearable apps and trying to improve the customer experience, they're looking at ways to work more efficiently. Sainsbury's latest tech trial falls into that latter category, and sees pricing labels at the Shoreditch Old Street Local store in the trendy part of London swapped out for miniature, colour e-ink displays. This saves on paper, of course, but more importantly, some poor new starter no longer needs to spend Sunday afternoon trudging the aisles updating the two-for-one deals. Instead, prices are changed automatically and wirelessly.
Watch the magical future of E Ink color displays in action
We just got a chance to see exactly what E Ink's new Prism tech looks like in person. And? It's pretty neat! As you might be able to tell from the admittedly sped-up GIF above, it's a bit mesmerizing, but still manages to be subtle. The outfit's Joseph Fillion describes it as "more than static, but not quite digital." What he means by that is it isn't the type of thing you'd likely see used on billboards or other advertisements, but more along the lines of navigational opportunities and branding. For example, you could carry an RFID chip in your pocket at a hotel and it'd change the color of the walls letting you know you were actually headed in your room's direction, possibly with the place's logo appearing once you've reached your destination. Or imagine your living room's walls changing color in accordance to your thermostat's temperature reading. It seems futuristic as hell, but it's much more Her than Blade Runner.
Color-changing E Ink lets walls come alive
Do you think that the walls at your school or office just aren't sprightly enough? E Ink may have a way to liven things up. Its new Prism material lets buildings subtly change colors and patterns on the spot, without having to rely on banks of expensive digital displays that stick out like a sore thumb. It's more than just animated wallpaper, though. It can respond to input, such as a person walking by, and even works for furniture -- imagine a bench that changes its look every day. Prism sips only a tiny amount of power, too, so you don't need to keep things plugged in.
Lenovo's E Ink fitness band is amazingly affordable for its looks
Yes, 'tis yet another fitness band featuring a curved E Ink screen, but Lenovo's Vibe Band VB10 is a much better looker than Sony's offering from four months ago. First of all, the main body here is actually wrapped in metal -- either black, gold or white -- to give it a more premium feel, but together with the rubberized strap, the VB10 weighs just around 30 grams, so you may easily forget that you're wearing it. And since it's an E Ink screen, Lenovo claims that you can get up to seven days of battery on a single charge, while the device continuously monitors your steps, calories, travel distance and sleep quality. Oh, and you also get notifications from your phone -- via Bluetooth LE -- on that handy always-on screen. Want one? Too bad, as this $89 waterproof smartband won't be coming to the US when it launches this April. Still, you might get lucky with an e-tailer that ships globally.
YotaPhone 2 review: niche and expensive, but seriously cool
YotaPhone was inarguably one of the quirkiest smartphones released last year, with not one, but two displays. This curious marriage of LCD and E Ink was certainly a manufacturing achievement, but limited uses for the secondary screen meant it simply couldn't live up to its potential. Undeterred, Yota Devices announced earlier this year it was cooking up a sequel, and today it's ready to launch the new and improved YotaPhone 2. Its fresh design, high-end specs and bigger, higher-resolution displays are welcome upgrades, but most importantly, a thorough overhaul of the handset's software means you can now make full use of the low-power E Ink screen, which has also been granted touch functionality for this generation. I've spent a fair amount of time with the device, and have to say that it's the most interesting smartphone I've ever used. Like its predecessor, the YotaPhone 2 is still very much a niche proposition with narrow mainstream appeal. That being said, Yota Devices has more or less achieved what it set out to do last year: Make a handset with an E Ink display that has several, legitimate use cases. Whether these will actually tempt you into picking one up is another matter, but the second screen is no longer an oddity; it's an asset.
One of Sony's first 'new' ideas is a smartwatch that's all e-ink
Sony's first idea to be born out of its new built-in "venture style" plan to create new products and impress, well, you and me, is apparently a combination of its e-ink reader tech and a smartwatch device. According to people familiar with the matter, both the watch face and wristband will be crafted from a "patented material" that'll be able to offer up all kinds of displays and different designs -- something that is also the thinking between the image you see above. That's no Sony prototype, but FES' e-ink watch: a device that's seeking crowdfunding in, oh, Japan. Using e-ink could also differentiate the product, if it happens, from the Pebble, which uses a lower-resolution monochrome LCD instead.
