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How-to: install Pixel Qi's 3Qi display on your netbook (and why it's worth it)
It's hard to believe that it's been almost two and a half years since Pixel Qi spun off from OLPC and promised to bring its dual-mode, power efficient display to laptops, tablets, and e-readers. For those who haven't followed our small obsession with the 3Qi screen technology (shame on you!) it promises the best of both worlds: full-color graphics in a normal LCD mode, but also the ability to turn off the backlight to morph into a grayscale, e-paper like display. And while we've seen it demoed at tradeshows (and more tradeshows!), we haven't been able to get our own grubby hands on the much-lauded display. Until now, of course. No, the 3Qi display still isn't shipping in any commercially available products, but Pixel Qi is at long last offering a $275 10.1-inch screen replacement kit for netbooks through MakerShed. Needless to say, we jumped -- nay, leaped -- at the chance to finally get the display into our laboratories, roll up our sleeves and get to crankin'. That's right, we got out the screwdriver, wrangled up an old Lenovo IdeaPad S10-2 netbook and swapped in the 3Qi display for Lenovo's glossy panel. You're surely sitting on a metric ton of questions. Was it hard to swap out? Has the screen been everything we've ever fantasized about and more? Is it really 80 percent more power efficient than standard LCDs? We've got plenty of answers as well as a step-by-step how-to after the break.
HP developing materials for reflective color e-paper displays
Who knew HP was such a big player in the display business? Just days after announcing that a flexible display from Mars may very well hit the market out of Hewlett-Packard's own laboratories, a fresh report has surfaced over at Technology Review surrounding yet another display tech that the company is feverishly working on. It's bruited that the outfit is "developing new materials for brighter low-power displays" -- think E Ink, but with color... and a twist. Frustrated with what nature was offering (or not offering, as it were), scientists at HP decided to concoct new materials that "use ambient light to create a more vibrant color for video-capable, low-power screens." It's hard to say just yet whether or not this stuff will end up suitable for mass production; we've been hearing about color e-paper for years now, and even though Qualcomm's Mirasol display showed great promise at CES, we've yet to hear of any progress towards a market-ready product. Hit the source if you're thirsty for technobabble, but don't go looking down on that Kindle just yet.
Fujitsu's wireless guidance system promises to free patients from the waiting room
It may not do much to speed up wait times, but Fujitsu is at least doing its part to make the time outpatients spend at hospitals and clinics a bit easier. It's announced a new wireless outpatient guidance system, which packs an electronic paper display, and accommodates a card that a patient would receive when they arrive for their appointment. When placed in the card reader, the device would automatically register the patient at the hospital or clinic, guide them to their destination, and continually inform them of their wait time and place in line. It'd also, of course, work anywhere there's a wireless signal, so you'd be able to leave the waiting room without having to worry about missing your appointment. No word on any hospitals that have signed up to use it just yet, but the system will be commercially available in February of next year. Full press release after the break.
Nemoptic's Active Matrix Binem displays look perfect for your low-power Game Boy (video)
While the grocery stores in our hood are apparently a little too low-tech for the stuff, Nemoptic has made quite a name for itself in produce circles with its tiny, cheap e-paper price tags, able to reflect the continually rising costs of Cap'n Crunch. Now the company is branching out with rather more high-tech but still tiny displays called Binem Active Matrix E-paper, which show a variety of interesting tricks in a series of videos from June that Technology Review is just now bringing to light. The two-inch, 170dpi screens can manage a 30ms refresh rate -- just fast enough to handle video -- and can do partial refreshing, changing only portions of the display. Perhaps most interestingly the screens can be backlit, meaning they use a rather different construction than traditional E-Ink, but exactly how they work has yet to be disclosed. Check out the thrilling demonstration after the break and see if you can solve the mystery.
Liquavista displays go out in the sun, look better than all right (video)
We've seen Liquavista displays plenty of times at various trade shows, but so far they've always been locked up indoors. Now they've gone outside to enjoy the weather, and ARMdevices.net was there to capture the results. The low-power color and monochrome screens are shown looking at least as good in the wild as they do in captivity, and when placed next to a traditional LCD (in the laptop on the right) the difference is clear. Granted, the colors are a bit washed out, but the refresh rate is certainly far higher than anything we've seen from E Ink. While there's still no firm word on how much this technology will cost manufacturers, converting from standard LCD production to Liquavista production is said to be relatively painless. How painless? We'll rather disappointingly have to wait for at least another year before we find out, as these aren't slated to go into production until the second half of 2011.
E-Ink Shocker! Amazon CEO says color Kindle is 'still a long way out'
Well, if it isn't a surprise to end all surprises. Amazon's head honcho Jeff Bezos recently grabbed a mic at the outfit's annual shareholder meeting in Seattle, and when speaking about the "millions" of Kindle e-readers that he's sold, he pointed out the obvious when questioned about the possibility of a color version. In addressing concerns that LCD-based tablets may seem more attractive due to their ability to showcase color images and video, he noted that developing color electronic ink remains a challenge, and while he's seen things "in the laboratory," the prototypes are simply "not ready for prime-time production." He also stated that these lust-worthy, mythical displays were "a long way out," but that the Kindle would remain focused as a dedicated e-reader moving forward. Hear that, Mirasol? That's the ear-piecing sound of a market opportunity waiting to be exploited.
LG Display busts out 84-inch 3DTV with 3,840 x 2,160 res, we want the 2D version
Yesterday we brought you Samsung's 19 inches of transparent AMOLED goodness, today LG counters with an 84-inch 3DTV boasting UHD resolution and a claim to being the world's biggest of its kind. To be honest, at that size you really can't get away with old reliable 1080p, so it's comforting to see LG's keeping pixel pitch in mind when designing its headline grabbers. In other news coming out of the SID 2010 show, LG is demonstrating a "liquid lens" TV that'll give you glasses-free 3D, though the details of how that works are a bit scarce, while the company's also pushing its IPS wares in a big way, with a 47-inch HDTV, a 32-inch pro monitor, and a 9.7-inch (sounds familiar) smartbook on show. Also at 9.7 inches, we have color e-paper that's slated for mass production before the end of the year, while that flexible e-paper from January is also making an appearance. A pretty comprehensive bunch of goodies from LG, we'd say. Update: We just noticed a small but freaky 3.98-inch UHD LCD with a world's best 394ppi density. Amazing.
Fujitsu breathes new life into color e-paper: brighter, faster, lovelier
Fujitsu's been dabbling in the color e-paper market for years, showing off prototype readers during a time when the iPad was simply a twinkle in the eye of Steve-o. Now, the e-reader realm as a whole is having to reevaluate itself with the explosion of multifaceted tablets, but we're not giving up hope just yet -- Qualcomm's downright stunning color Mirasol display could turn the tables once more later this year, and Fujitsu's new and improved color e-paper might do the same later this month. Scheduled to debut at the Fujitsu Forum in Japan, this newly developed color electronic paper utilizes a redesigned panel structure and image re-write methods, and there's also an improved contrast ratio to boot. Unfortunately, there's no public commercialization plans just yet, but we're hoping it'll hit a few products sooner rather than later -- time's a wastin', Fujitsu!
Pixel Qi manufacturing delays fixed, ready for 'some of the largest computer companies in the world'
We've long had a thing for Pixel Qi and its energy sipping dual-mode LCDs with switchable backlight; displays that carve out a niche between traditional LCDs hungry for power and long living e-paper displays. Unfortunately, even though Pixel Qi began to ramp production lines late last year, we still haven't seen the displays shipping in any retail products. Turns out that while the screens have been made available in some "specialized products that aren't sold in stores yet," Pixel Qi's manufacturer of choice ran into some snags that slowed down deployments. That seems set to change according to a new blog post by CEO Mary Lou Jepsen. Manufacturing has now ramped to the schedule and scale required to meet "strong pull from the some of the largest computer companies in the world." Mary Lou also tells us that Pixel Qi's DIY display kit partner will be announced shortly and that it has "wider viewing angle technology" coming in the fall that should help rectify one of Pixel Qi's weaknesses. So yeah, good news all around, but we've heard these promises before and still don't have product in hand.
WD's My Passport Studio wears contents on its sleeve with always-on 'e-label'
Western Digital's My Passport Studio line has been spinning for years now, but today the outfit is pushing out a revamped version with a little something special. Boasting a FireWire 800 interface, a highly pocketable design and 256-bit hardware-based encryption, this here drive offers an "e-label smart display" on the front that actually remains on even when the drive is off and unplugged. Owners can tweak the text on the display as often as they like via WD's SmartWare software, and by utilizing e-paper technology, you'll always be able to see what's inside at a glance. Just so you're aware, the company's shipping this thing in 320GB, 500GB and 640GB flavors, but all three come pre-formatted for Mac use -- thankfully your Windows 7 rig won't have any issues wiping that slate clean and starting over once you hand over your $149.99 to $199.99.
Liquavista demos its color e-paper display with a new QWERTY-equipped dev kit (video)
You'll be forgiven for just glazing over during CES and ignoring all those ebook readers that were raining down, but Liquavista's attempt at marrying the endurance of e-paper with the desirability of color is well worth another look. The company has now furnished its LiquavistaColor dev kit with a QWERTY keyboard and also recruited Texas Instruments into the fold, whose OMAP system-on-a-chip is doing the grunt work under the hood. The video after the break indicates that touchscreen interaction is also planned, but the most impressive thing has to be the total lack of any redrawing pauses, which may be the considered the biggest drawback to the many E Ink devices out there. For the more conventional monochromatic crowd, we've also grabbed video of the LiquavistaBright, which replicates the rapid refresh skills, but omits the keyboard and OMAP in favor of a more compact form factor and Freescale iMX5x hardware. Slide past the break to see it all.
Neonode lives: zForce e-reader touchscreen gets pumped into Koobe Jin Young reader
We're not surprised anymore when another company jumps on the ever-fattening e-reader bandwagon, because really, pretty much everyone is making one now... including, apparently, companies we thought had basically ceased to exist. That's right folks, Neonode is seemingly back from the dead (though truth be told it looks like the company was never actually fully cold), pumping its touchscreen tech -- called zForce and made specifically for e-readers -- into Taiwanese company Koobe's just announced Jin Young reader. We don't have fully specs on this bad boy by any means, but we know that it's going to be a 6-inch e-paper styled affair with 2GB of memory (and up to 16GB by way of microSD). The reader claims to be the thinnest device boasting a touchscreen ever made, and should make its way to retail in April (in Taiwan) for somewhere between NT10,000 and NT13,000 (that's between $312 and $405), depending on the content agreement. Full press release is after the break.
Delta Electronics to ship 13.1-inch color e-readers by Q2 2010
It's a funny thing, really. We wait years upon years for color e-ink to become a reality, and today -- of all days -- we finally hear that a sizable one is coming to market in just a few months. Reportedly, Taiwan's own Delta Electronics is hoping to ship a 13.1-inch color e-reader (along with an 8.1-inch monochrome version) by the middle of this year, both of which will rely on e-paper technology from Bridgestone. If you'll recall, we got an early glimpse of this stuff right around this time last year, but it wasn't until today that we heard any followup whatsoever. There's no mention of expected pricing and the like, but we're told that the refresh rate is well faster than the black-and-white solutions out there today. Frankly, this thing better check email, play back video and wash our laundry as well -- the reign of the standalone e-reader is just about over.
LG Display's 19-inch E Ink display plays loose with the truth
Well doesn't that look impressive? A big 'ol 19-inch electronic ink display that appears to emulate your father's newspaper. No doubt, this massive Metal-Foil e-paper prototype from LG Display is impressive at this size (just 0.3-mm thin and 250×400mm -- about the same size as a 297×420-mm sheet of A3) and weight (130 grams). Hell, we were already impressed with the flexible 11.5-inch panel from LG Display found in the Skiff Reader. However, like the rigid Skiff Reader, a flexible panel doesn't mean that we'll be seeing a flexible e-reader. In fact, chances are we won't after the manufacturer gets through adding a touchscreen overlay, application processor, and radio chipset. Let's hope for a surprise though, whenever these panels do make it out for mass production... assuming anyone still cares about monochrome E Ink displays by then.
Pixel Qi screens to be used by a major manufacturer in 2010
We've been waiting and waiting to see Pixel Qi's 3Qi e-paper screen in a device, and we were hoping to see some sort of solid announcement at CES, but looks like we will still be waiting. Though the company has ramped up production on its E ink killer, which allows you to turn the backlight off on an LCD screen, they're still working with its half a dozen partners. We were told that within the year we will see a manufacturer that "everyone is familiar with" announcing a device that uses the technology. No word on if it will be a netbook, e-reader or tablet. Though we've seen prototype devices before and the Notion Ink Adam here at the show, we got another look at it today from PixelQi founder Mary Lou Jepsen herself. The high resolution display was hacked into a Lenovo IdeaPad S10, and with the backlight on the color LCD screen looked crisp. We did notice that while watching a video clip on the screen horizontal viewing angles were poor in some lighting, but text and the rest of the OS was clear as day. Similarly, when we turned the backlight off, which switches the display to just a monochrome mode, the viewing angles on a movie weren't great, but a PDF looked just as good as it does on an Amazon Kindle. Regardless, we continue to be impressed with the refresh rates of the display considering you can't do anything like it with E ink or any other reader on the market. Hit the break for a quick video.
Liquavista shows off low-power, color e-paper display
This one's still a ways away from landing in an actual e-reader (although that prototype above does made an admirable attempt at redefining the bezel), but Liquavista's latest stab at a color e-paper display is at least ready enough for a demo video, and it doesn't exactly disappoint. Unfortunately, Liquavista isn't offering much in the way of firm details, but the display is supposedly "ultra-low power," sunlight-readable and, as you can see for yourself after the break, it seems to be fairly speedy when it comes to browsing and scrolling. Nothing in the way of announcements of e-readers just yet, but Liquavista says it expects to see product implementation "throughout 2010 / 2011."
Prime View International set to expand E Ink production; LG licenses daylight-viewable LCD tech
The suddenly-booming e-book market means things are starting to heat up for Taiwan-based Prime View International -- the company has formally completed its acquisition of E Ink and plans to increase display production up to fourfold next year, and it's licensing daylight-viewable LCD tech to LG for somewhere in the neighborhood of $30m. Whether that means we'll be seeing new devices based on E Ink and next-gen LCD screens or just more sales of existing devices remains to be seen, but we're obviously hoping for new gear -- good thing CES is right around the corner.
Philips develops color e-paper, wants to skin your gadgets with it
Our first reaction to this was to think just how wildly unnecessary "e-skins" are, but then we saw that slide up there and started to see the (electronic) light. Philips appears to have struck upon its own version of Kent Displays' electronic skins, which requires no backlighting, operating by reflecting ambient light instead. Based on similar tech to e-books, this invention is initially targeted at generating colorful covers for things like mobile phones and mp3 players, but it's said to be "highly scalable" and e-wallpapers and light-dimming windows could be on the cards if things continue developing. And of course, no "water cooker" would be left behind. %Gallery-79970%
Hyper Gear ereader encrypts files, keeps documents safe from prying eyes
Haipagia's ¥39,800 ($437) Hyper Gear ereader may just be a rebadge on the surface, but the all-too-familiar exterior conceals a rather unique software package underneath. Boasting a 6-inch display with an 800 x 600 resolution, the reader includes an encryption function that can wrap your files in DRM and password protect whatever you like. If the device gets stolen, you can then rest easy knowing that files won't disclose themselves to evil eyes even if ripped from the unit's internal memory. Admittedly, something like this is well suited for enterprise and academic environments, but we're guessing the paranoid in attendance are also taking notice.
Marvell teams with E Ink for turnkey ereader processor
And so it begins. If you had any doubts whatsoever that the ereader battle was in full effect, let this introduction take all of that worry away. Marvell and E Ink have tag-teamed in order to announce a "highly integrated" ereader processor that'll be made available in "turnkey platforms" aimed at the booming ebook reader market. The ARMADA package includes a 166E application processor, WiFi, Bluetooth and 3G modem, and more broadly, the two have agreed to cross license epaper "timing controllers and system platforms," which may or may not be the cutest, sweetest thing we've ever heard. The goods are expected to be ready for readers in 2010, which means that buying a Kindle or Nook today is guaranteed to cause you all sorts of pain when the next best thing ships within twelve months.
