Nary a month after an E Ink exec asserted that e-newspapers would be going commercial by 2009, in flies word that a forthcoming issue of Esquire will likely be the poster child for the change. According to David Granger, Esquire's editor in chief, rags have generally "looked the same for 150 years," but all that will change when 100,000 copies of the September issue arrive on newsstands with a flashing electronic cover. The E Ink technology used will be exclusively available to Esquire until 2009, and the blinking "The 21st Century Begins Now" text will sadly fade after the battery runs dry in 90 days. Still, there's at least some chance the issue will wind up in the Smithsonian, and an even bigger chance magazine racks everywhere will require Kanye-approved sunglasses to even look at in just a few years.

We first saw Fujitsu's FLEPia e-books with the company's color e-ink tech over a year ago, but rumor has it they're finally getting close to launch. That's the word according to Nikkei, which says that the A4-sized readers won't feature an integrated backlight, but still be able to run for up to 50 hours on a single charge. The WiFi-capable unit is said to cost ¥100,000 ($941), but other specs are still up in the air -- hopefully they'll be changing the name as well.

[Via CrunchGear; warning, read link requires subscription]

Yeah, quite a few rags out there have already diverted at least some of their efforts to the electronic press, but according to E Ink's Ryosuke Kuwata, the trend is set to explode in late 2009. Said VP, who is currently in charge of market development, admitted that some newspapers in Japan, America and Europe are all looking to make the move to e-paper in the not-too-distant future. He also stated that "verification tests" (trials, we presume) would be starting up "using several thousands of terminals by the end of 2008," and that the company would "gradually shift to a specific business in the second half of 2009." Reading the local headlines on e-paper, scooting to the market in a flying vessel and showing up to work by flipping on a hologram transmitter. Meatloaf always said two out of three wasn't bad.

We've seen an A4-sized sheet of e-paper or two in our day, but Epson's new prototype display features an absurdly high resolution for its size: 3104 x 4128, clocking it in at something like 385ppi. According to Fareastgizmos, E Ink's supplying the, um, electronic ink, while Seiko Epson built out the low-temperature polycrystal Si-TFT glass substrate medium. Yeah, we've got a long ways to go before we'll all be reading the e-paper morning news on the way to work, but it can't be that long, can it?

E-Ink has a new display made available last week, based on segmented display cell (SDC) technology. Apparently the new screens are 40% thinner and have increased flexibility over E Ink's previous displays, and can now be formed in "organic non-rectangular unique shapes, including holes, curves, and other non-standard designs". Delphi's already picking up use of the display for future keyfob products -- always good to know there are consumer applications right around the corner.

[Thanks, Pat]

Epson and E Ink, two mainstays in the electronic paper realm, have pooled their resources in order to develop an all new display controller IC set to enable "faster navigation, multitasking and real-time pen / keyboard input." The S1D13521 chip is slated to be used in E Ink's Vizplex-enabled electronic paper displays (EPDs), and it'll also be making an appearance in said company's forthcoming AM300 Broadsheet prototype kit (pictured). In layman's terms, this device should speed up the user interface considerably, as it will enable the display to "perform up to 16 tasks in parallel and support smooth and responsive pen input devices for annotations and sketches." As for availability, we're seeing that samples ($18 apiece) should make their way out next month, while production quantities won't be able to scamper free until August.

[Thanks, Jack]

If you hadn't heard, 9.7-inch e-ink displays are the new hotness, and now Netronix is getting in on the action with the EB-300. Netronix is part-owned by PVI, a major manufacturer of e-ink displays, and they seem to be putting them to good use here. The EB-300 has a 1200 x 825, 170 dpi, 4 grayscale screen, and measures a mere 14mm (0.55-inches) thick. There's 4GB of NAND storage on board, along with 64MB of SDRAM and some SD card expansion. There's also WiFi and Bluetooth connectivity for good measure. EB-300 runs Windows CE 5.0, while little brother EB-100 runs Linux and a 6-inch 800 x 600 screen -- and loses most of the other connectivity and storage perks as well. No word on price or availability for either of these.

[Via MobileRead]

It's likely that the Kindle's popularity is going to spawn a whole slew of e-books vying for the eyes of readers. A concept from a student named Nedzad Mujcinovic at Monash University could very well stoke the fires of competition if his Livre ever makes it to store shelves. The system uses an e-ink screen overlaid with a touch surface, thus forgoing the multitudinous buttons of the Kindle for an ultra-simple, gesture-based input scheme. Pages can be turned by sliding your finger from corner to corner, though double- and triple-finger gestures will advance the book by ten and 50 pages, respectively. Most notable for real book fans is the inclusion of a leather stitched cover, meant to evoke the look and feel of the device's analog counterpart. Amazon's designers would be wise to, uh... take a page from Nedzad's book for the Kindle 2.

[Thanks, Nick B.]

It seemed obvious back in mid-December of last year that Polymer Vision wasn't going to nail its timetable for production versions of the 3G-equipped, e-ink wonder known as the Readius. Now word is that the company will have a commercial version of the phone / e-book reader available sometime in mid-2008 in Italy via Telecom Italia -- provided that everything goes according to its diabolical plans. If you'll recall, the device features a foldable, grayscale, 5-inch QVGA display, and boasts a slew of features, including HSDPA, a 400MHz ARM CPU, and a battery life up to "six times longer" than current mobile phones. We'll admit we're intrigued, but don't make us wait too long over here, okay?

We know you want to be the envy of all your friends and colleagues by sporting one of the trio of Phosphor e-ink watches we're giving away, so if you haven't entered already, consider this a friendly reminder that the clock is ticking on all three contests. Entering is as easy as leaving a comment, so just make sure to read the rules and then throw your hat into the ring. Reminder: You can only enter once per giveaway (up to three times total).

Read - Phosphor E Ink watch giveaway (part 1), closes tonight
Read - Phosphor E Ink watch giveaway (part 2), closes Thursday night
Read - Phosphor E Ink watch giveaway (part 3), closes Friday night

Yeah, we've got three Phosphor watches to giveaway this week, and today we're putting the last one up for grabs. No longer do you need to be an executive at E Ink Corp to get an electrophoretic display in your classy analog timepiece -- you just need to enter our contests (or pony up $250 of your own cash to guarantee it). Sexy hands-on shots below (which, ironically, do not really depict the watch on or even near our unworthy hands).

Oh, and don't forget the rules. (Yeah, there are always rules.)

• Leave a comment below. How about you tell us what your current timepiece is? There's no wrong answer.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) But you CAN try your luck at the other two watches, just know that you can't win twice.
  
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One winner per giveaway (as if that wasn't obvious). Each will receive a Phosphor watch ($250 US).
  
• Entries can be submitted until Friday, December 28th, 11:59PM EDT. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Just in case you missed Monday's or yesterday's contest, here you go.

Yeah, we've got three Phosphor watches to giveaway this week -- one per day until tomorrow (that'd be Friday, which breaks down to two leather bands, one poly). No longer do you need to be an executive at E Ink Corp to get an electrophoretic display in your classy analog timepiece -- you just need to enter our contests (or pony up $250 of your own cash to guarantee it). Sexy hands-on shots below (which, ironically, do not really depict the watch on or even near our unworthy hands).

Oh, and don't forget the rules. (Yeah, there are always rules.)

• Leave a comment below. How about you tell us what your current timepiece is? There's no wrong answer.
  
• You may only enter this specific giveaway once. If you enter this giveaway more than once you'll be automatically disqualified, etc. (Yes, we have robots that thoroughly check to ensure fairness.) But you CAN try your luck at the other two watches, just know that you can't win twice.
  
• If you enter more than once, only activate one comment. This is pretty self explanatory. Just be careful and you'll be fine.
  
• Contest is open to anyone in the 50 States, 18 or older! Sorry, we don't make this rule (we hate excluding anyone), so be mad at our lawyers and contest laws if you have to be mad.
  
• Winners will be chosen randomly. One winner per giveaway (as if that wasn't obvious). Each will receive a Phosphor watch ($250 US).
  
• Entries can be submitted until Thursday, December 27th, 11:59PM EDT. Good luck!
• Full rules can be found here.

Just in case you missed yesterday's contest, here you go.

We've only seen a couple prototype color e-ink displays here and there, but this latest version from FujiXerox seems like its the furthest along in terms of refresh rate and usability. The A6 sized panel is made of three polymer-dispersed liquid-crystal layers, but it's still flexible, at just .4mm thick. No hard specs, really, but Tech-On says refresh time is less than one second -- just quick enough to make this viable for the next-gen Kindle, eh?

[Via Tech-On!]

Those fortunate enough to traverse the halls of Embedded Technology 2007 could've seen Seiko Epson's latest wonder up close and in person, but for the rest of us, we'll have to settle for the above picture and a drool-worthy description. The prototype e-paper terminal measures in at just 3-millimeters thick and weighs only 57-grams, and it's even equipped with a USB port. Furthermore, it features a 6.7-inch display with a luscious 1,600 x 1,200 resolution, but the unit on display could only handle grayscale imagery. Also of note, the entire unit was powered by a single button cell battery, which enabled the screen to be redrawn upwards of 1,400 times (at 0.7-seconds per redraw) before running out of juice. Details surrounding its eventual commercialization were pretty much par for the course, meaning your guess is as good as ours at this point. Two more snapshots after the jump.

[Via Technabob]