E Ink's blueChute bluetooth enabled e-ink concept

Even with certain forms of e-ink displays starting to drip drip drip into real world settings -- see what we did there? -- it's still unlikely that you'll meet someone on the street with some e-ink tech on their person. Until e-ink gets cheap and ordinary people can gaze into their very own super high contrast electronic copy of the NY Times, we'll have to settle for sneak peeks at concept devices like this, E Ink's blueChute e-ink tablet. Even though the exact functionality of the device has yet to be decided -- currently it's functioning as a glorified demo platform -- the blueChute's Bluetooth support and microSD slot would suggest that it could be used to display maps streamed from a mobile phone, or have it display widget-like information from a nearby tethered computer. Unfortunately, as the device's overview states, all that "depends on software which probably won't ever get written," so for now it's just wishful thinking: just like almost everything else to do with e-ink at present.