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Sony's 13.3-inch e-ink paper prototype shown off at education expo in Japan (video)
Earlier this week, we learned of Sony's plans for a 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus support pitched at students, and now Diginfo has caught up with the prototype device at the Educational IT Solutions Expo in Japan. The A4-sized tablet is said to be the first piece of hardware with an E Ink Mobius display that's flexible and light due to its new plastic construction. Co-developed by Sony and E Ink, the display only contributes 60g to the overall weight, which is apparently 50 percent lighter than similar screens built with glass. Sony says the software isn't quite as slick as it'd like it to be just yet, but nevertheless, you can check out people scrawling, annotating and highlighting on the prototype in the video below.
Sony reveals prototype 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus, aims to put it in students' bags
Sony's no stranger to the odd e-ink device, but its latest prototype creation isn't targeted at the bookworm, it's intended to educate. The e-paper slate is quite a lot bigger than most tablets, let alone e-readers, sporting a 13.3-inch screen (1,200 x 1,600) to match the standard A4 size of normal, boring paper. That display is also an electromagnetic induction touchscreen for poking at menus and scrolling, but more importantly, it supports stylus input for scrawling notes and annotating PDFs (the only file format it currently supports). The prototype device is also only 6.8mm (0.27 inch) thick and weighs 358g (12.6 ounces) -- perfect for slipping into school bags. There's 4GB of on-board storage (with a microSD slot to increase that) and WiFi, which Sony plans to use for sharing notes with those who didn't make it to class on time. With WiFi off, the rechargeable battery inside is expected to last for three weeks of solid learning. These specs are for the prototype, of course, so after the late-2013 field trials at three Japanese universities, we might see some revisions before commercialization goes ahead sometime during the 2013 fiscal year.
E Ink reference phone and flexible display hands-ons (video)
Looking for your dream phone? Chances are, this isn't it -- but it could be the precursor to what could eventually be cradled in your pocket, especially if you are a fan of E Ink. The device seen above and in the first gallery below is one of just five prototypes of the E-ink reference phone in existence. The point? The company wants to have a tangible Android-powered (2.3.5 Gingerbread, to be exact) model to give to potential partners, so they can craft something similar down the road. We're told that it will most likely be used on the back of color phones, much like the YotaPhone, but partners are welcome to get crazy on the front screen as well. No official timeframe for availability or seeding has been set, but it is expected to roll out in limited capacity sometime this year. Official specs are few and far between, but what we do know is that this nameless phone is driven by a Cortex-A5 CPU of some kind. Given that this is an extremely early prototype, the E Ink device had a lot of bugs when we played with it: force closes, reboots and slow response are among the things we noticed. However, we imagine this will continue to improve with time, so by the time of seeding it may be a completely different story. The UI reminds us of a simplistic feature phone geared toward the basic user, with six icons on the front screen including an app menu. As we'd expect, the phone is great for reading books, and it comes with the option to install applications (though it's possible most games wouldn't look that great). You can also shake the device to clean the text in case it ends up getting "dirty," or misaligned. %Gallery-180039% %Gallery-180040%
E Ink demos CST-01, the 'world's thinnest watch' (hands-on video)
We just got a glimpse of the CST-01 E Ink watch, the result of a partnership between Central Standard Timing and E Ink itself. The product has been in the prototype phase for a year, but it just went live on Kickstarter, with a funding goal of $200,000 and pre-orders available for $129 each. The real standout feature here is the 0.8mm design, which is apparently thinner than a credit card. In any case, the stainless steel design is super svelte. The whole package consists of several flexible components that are laminated into a 0.5mm unit, which is then photochemically etched into a piece of flexible stainless steel. This is a digital watch, of course, but its form factor is more along the lines of a bangle than a Casio-style timepiece. An embedded Thinergy micro-energy cell charges the device in 10 minutes via an external dock. The external dock is also used for setting the time (military or 12-hour), as there are no controls on the watch itself. Battery life is rated for a month. When we tried it out here at CES, the watch felt extremely light, though the edges were a bit jagged. This, of course, is because it's not yet a final product -- you can expect a much smoother finish on the final product. You can check out the CST-01 prototype in our hands-on gallery below, along with the video embedded after the break.
YotaPhone Android prototype with dual LCD and E Ink displays hands-on (video)
Yesterday we brought you the announcement, and today we bring you the hands-on reality -- although bear in mind that this dual-screen YotaPhone is still very much a prototype. It certainly works -- pretty well, in fact -- but it's understandably rough around the edges and Yota Devices have plenty of work to do before the handset launches towards the end of next year. By way of a quick refresher: from the front this is a regular Android Jelly Bean phone with decent specs, including a 720 x 1,280 LCD display, dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor, 2GB of RAM and a 12-megapixel main camera. Turn it around, however, and you reveal its double identity: a 200 dpi E Ink display which can hold a range of information -- calendar appointments, ebooks, tweets and whatever else you'd like -- without draining the battery. The good new is that the YotaPhone actually makes an even better first impression than we'd hoped, while the bad news is merely what's to be expected given the early stage of development. Click past the break for our hands-on video and impressions and all will become clear.
Russian YotaPhone promises dual 4.3-inch LCD and E Ink displays in Q3 of next year
Cast your mind back to IFA and you might just recall the appearance of a dual-screen mash-up device with no proper branding or launch date. Well, it so happens we've been in touch with the mystery phone's maker, Yota Devices -- a spin-off from the more established Russian telecoms company of the same name -- and we're assured that this is much more than a whimsical concept. The Android-based handset has now reached fully working prototype stage and bears a Gorilla Glass 4.3-inch 720 x 1,280 LCD display on the front, a 200dpi E Ink rear display of the same size and toughness, and a dual-core 1.5GHz Snapdragon S4 processor with 2GB of RAM and at least 32GB of non-expandable storage. There's even LTE, a 12-megapixel rear camera and a 720p front-facer to round things off, all housed in a 140 gram body that is less than 10mm thick. If things go to plan, the YotaPhone should arrive on Russian networks in Q3 of next year for an untold sum of money, and Yota says it's "in talks" with certain US and European carriers too. Read on for more.
Popslate launches iPhone 5 case with four-inch E Ink screen (video)
This is pretty darn cool. It's called Popslate -- an iPhone 5 case with a four-inch E Ink screen on the back -- and it's launching right now on Indiegogo for $79 in two colors. Combined with a bespoke social imaging app, it lets you take and share pics, then "pop" them to the back of your phone. Better yet, the always-on, ultra low-power, black and white display becomes a canvas for notifications, sports scores, maps, lists and notes, all just a glance away. An open API allows third-party developers to design custom apps for Popslate -- including accelerometer support to interact with the backside screen by tapping on it. Imagine a micro e-reader app which uses the E Ink display instead of the main panel to conserve battery. The company is still in the early stages of development and sadly didn't have a prototype to show us, but it's already gathered a team of talented designers, engineers and developers. It's also secured a partnership with E Ink to use the latest in ruggedized e-paper technology and is hoping to raise enough funds to make Popslate a reality. Two colors are available at launch (black and white) with prices starting at $79 for the first 500 supporters, then $99 and up. Hit the break for the demo video and IndieGogo link.
PocketBook teases first front-lit, color e-reader for June 2013, gets ahead of itself
Shouting "first!" isn't reserved for overeager blog commenters. PocketBook is just as determined to get ahead of the e-reader field with the first unveiling of a front-lit, color E Ink device, well before it's ready for store shelves. While the device doesn't even have a name, we're already promised the combination of Kindle Paperwhite-like illumination with a Triton-based 8-inch, 800 x 600 touch display that can show 4,096 colors. There's even an early battery life estimate of a month of typical use, which should stack up decently against most of the e-reader's grayscale counterparts. Just don't be surprised if PocketBook loses its crown before it's even sitting on the throne. An initial launch in the Commonwealth of Independent States is pegged for June 2013 -- far enough into the future that competitors could announce and ship products before PocketBook lands its first sale.
E Ink feeling the pinch from more capable tablets
In late 2007 when Amazon's very first Kindle hit the market, it was the beginning of big things for Taiwan's E Ink Holdings Inc. The company is the one behind the black-and-white display found in Amazon's e-reader and many like it. At the time, the iPad was still over two years from being introduced, and for a while the Kindle -- and to a lesser extent, the Nook, released in 2009 -- were the masters of their domain. Fast-forward to 2012, and it's a much different story for both e-reader hardware, and E Ink. After Apple launched the iPad, things began to change. E-readers became one-trick ponies, whereas the tablets flooding the market could act not only as e-readers, but also portable movie screens, web browsers and gaming devices. E Ink Chief Marketing Office Sriram Peruvemba sums it up nicely, saying "The bottom fell out of the market." For its part, Amazon has remained somewhat loyal to its e-reader fans, continuing to release new versions of the monochrome Kindle even as its much more capable Kindle Fire tablet gets the lion's share of attention. But with tablet sales skyrocketing, E Ink itself is no longer betting on e-readers to keep it afloat. The company instead plans on pushing into other markets where it hopes to gain a foothold, although the odds are stacked against future success.
Amazon Kindle Paperwhite review
More Info Amazon announces $119 Kindle Paperwhite with illuminated, capacitive touch display Amazon Kindle Paperwhite hands-on Amazon breaks down its Kindle Paperwhite light technology (video) If you had told us at roughly this time last year that the e-reader race would be heating up going into the 2012 holiday season, we would have disagreed. If anything, 2011 seemed like the beginning of the end. Spurred on by the tablet explosion, companies like Amazon, Barnes & Noble and even Kobo were looking toward that space for inspiration, introducing flagship devices on which reading was just one of many features. Heck, even the readers themselves started to look more tablet-like, with many abandoning of physical keyboards in favor of infrared touchscreens. But here we are at the end of September, and this product category has never been more exciting. Back in May, Barnes & Noble captured our hearts and midnight reading marathons with the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight, a wordy name for a great little device that made reading in bed at night a little easier. (A problem, according to Barnes & Noble, that was tearing the country's families apart.) But don't let it be said that Amazon doesn't believe in the American family. Earlier this month, the company launched the Kindle Paperwhite, the latest addition to a product lineup that has more or less become synonymous with the term "e-reader." At that launch event, CEO Jeff Bezos described the four years of R&D that went into the front light technology powering that bright screen. It was clear from our hands-on time with the device that, although Amazon is placing extra emphasis on the Fire line these days, it still has a lot invested in the e-reader fight. The sharpened, illuminated text is impressive, and Amazon has gone so far as to describe this as the Kindle it's always wanted to build. That's all well and good, but how does it compare to similar offerings on the market? Is this worth the $119 asking price (with ads)? Let's find out.
Amazon announces $119 Kindle Paperwhite with illuminated, capacitive touch display
Have you been enviously eyeing the self-illuminating screen on the Nook SimpleTouch with GlowLight, but didn't want to give up your digital library of Kindle wares? Dear reader, today is your lucky day, with Amazon announcing the Kindle Paperwhite. No, not paperweight, Paperwhite. It has a new, front-lit display that will let you read in the dark, and a capacitive touchscreen that goes away from the IR based systems we've seen in the past. Jeff Bezos tells us that it has 25 percent more contrast than the Pearl screens in the current Kindles and, with 212ppi, it has a 62 percent higher resolution. It relies on a fiber optic like system to direct light down onto the display, not unlike the Nook but, from what we can see, the color is much whiter. It's just 9.1mm thick, the battery is said to last for eight weeks and there are no physical buttons for control. You're entirely dependent on that touchscreen to flip those pages -- which, by the way, are said to turn 15 percent faster. The interface has seen some tweaks too. The fonts are more detailed now, as they should be with that higher resolution, and you can tweak the brightness of the display with a slider. The software will calculate your reading speed and estimate how long it will take you to finish a given chapter or book and there are now author bios. Price is $119 for the WiFi version and it ships October 1st! If you'd like a little 3G connectivity with your Kindle, you're looking at $179. Both of those prices are for the models with "Special Offers," though -- you'll have to shell out $139 and $199, respectively, if you want to get rid of the ads.%Gallery-164576% %Gallery-164615%
Amazon launches India Kindle Store, swap rupees for good reads
Indian consumers haven't been cut off from Amazon's world of e-book goodies, but their experience is about to get a lot more native with the launch of a local Kindle Store. The prices of over a million books are now available in rupees, and if you're in need of hardware, the latest bare-bones Kindle can now be found in-store at Croma for Rs. 6,999. That E Ink Pearl screen comes at a premium, however, as there are more than a few budget-friendly tablets available in the country which support the Kindle app. The best news is probably reserved for fledgling writers, who now have access to Kindle Direct Publishing to showcase their work and hopefully net some purchases.
E Ink acquires SiPix, may dominate e-paper universe
If challenging E Ink's supremacy in the e-paper market was hard before, it just became Sisyphean. The company is acquiring e-paper module maker SiPix through a share buyout worth about NT$1.5 billion ($50.1 million) if all goes smoothly. What goals E Ink has with the merger aren't as apparent, although the company wants to go beyond just supplying the parts for another Kindle Touch or Nook Simple Touch -- the aim is to "diversify into newer applications" even as the company corners those markets it already leads. The deal should close in the fall if regulators sign off on the deal, although we wouldn't be too quick to assume clearance is a sure thing. As NPD DisplaySearch warns, the deal would give E Ink complete control of the electrophoretic display technology that dictates the e-paper field. That doesn't allow for a lot of variety in the space when alternatives like Qualcomm's Mirasol are being scaled back.
Engadget's summer gear guide 2012: e-readers
In the interest of keeping cool this summer, we've put together a list of the hottest products out right now. From smartphones to e-readers and everything in between, there's no time like the present to re-up that post-spring-cleaning stash. So grab a popsicle or a cold one and dive in -- the water's just right. Summer is coming. Time to relax by the pool with a good book -- though, judging by what's on your reading list this year, perhaps it's time to go for the anonymity of an e-reader. No one needs to know how you've been slogging through Fifty Shades of Grey for the past two months, right? Thankfully, there's no better time to buy one of these devices -- there's plenty of choices and, thanks to competition, some seriously good deals. One thing all of these readers have in common: E Ink displays -- way better for reading out in the summertime sun than their LCD counterparts. So let's not delay that warm weather reading list any longer. Head on past the break to see our picks.
CTIA 2012: a look back at our favorite devices
CTIA 2012 is wrapping up and we thought we'd spend a few minutes reminiscing about some of the more interesting devices we had a chance to see for the first time or that were launched here. Unfortunately for us -- and thereby for you, too -- the show lacked the bite we've seen at previous events, in fact it barely registered a nibble. We did catch up with five products we'd like to highlight so follow on after the break for our recap.
Sun stops shining on E Ink Holdings: company reports first loss in two years
E Ink Holdings made a loss of over $25 million last quarter, despite supplying its backlight-free panels to popular e-readers like the Kindle and the Nook. Why the poor showing after ten quarters of solid money-making? The company's accountants blame "off-season effects" and "inventory adjustments" by customers, which may simply be corporatese for "the screens aren't selling so well." Overall revenue tumbled 63 percent compared to the same period in 2011 and the outlook remains "conservative" -- although it's hard to believe that everyone suddenly wants to stay indoors and stare at pixels.
Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight hands-on
What's American's number one problem in the bedroom? Honestly, whatever you first guessed is probably the right answer. For the sake of this conversation, however, let's just assume that it's light, as Barnes & Noble suggests. People are keeping their partners awake at all hours by leaving the light on as they finish the final gripping pages of that Stieg Larsson novel. There's got to be a better way! Something like, say, the Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight (make sure to put little sparkly illustrations over the last word when you read it aloud, by the way). As you'd imagine, it can see in the dark. -- or, rather, you can see it in the dark, so you won't have to get kicked out of bed for reading The Hunger Games anymore. The clunkily named Nook Simple Touch with GlowLight is up for pre-order now at $139 a pop. Plunk down your information today, and it should be on its way to you in early May -- just in time for Mother's Day and with a bit of time to spare for 'ole pops. So, how does the reader stack up to its predecessor? Click on through to the other side to find out.
Kyobo eReader with Mirasol display gets video walkthrough, does things E Ink can't
Qualcomm's Mirasol display technology was supposedly inspired by butterfly wings, and its progress over the past year has been appropriately erratic. It was happening, then it wasn't, then it was again -- but only in the Korea-confined Kyobo e-Reader. Despite all the flitting about, however, some consistent promises have been made: a 'converged' screen that's like E Ink because it requires no backlight and lasts for "weeks" on a single charge, and like LCD in its ability to refresh quickly and handle color video. Thanks to Netbook News, we now have some eyes-on of the 5.7-inch, 1024 x 768 Kyobo in action, powered by a 1GHz single-core Snapdragon S2 and Android 2.3, and it's yours for the glimpsing right after the break. There's room for improvement, especially with color saturation, viewing angles and reflectiveness, but we're not quibbling -- this ₩349,000 ($310) device evidently lives up to its central claim.
Ectaco jetBook Color offers your eyes a break for $500, ships in January
Sure all of those newfangled e-reader / tablet hybrids are nice, but what about a matte finish, color screen that's a bit easier on the ol' peepers? Enter the Ectaco jetBook Color equipped with a 9.7-inch, 1600x1200 Triton Color E Ink display and an impenetrable fog of a UI . The slate sports "virtually unlimited format support and endless battery life," as well as microSD storage up to 32 GB and WiFi connectivity. Fair warning though: this isn't a new device, merely the worldwide release of one that has found success in Eastern Europe and the education sector, as you'll notice from all the scholarly extras. If you're already itchin' to get your study on and don't mind waiting until after January 15th to do so, hit that source link snag the "holiday price" of $500.
Kindle Fire vs iPad: How to decide
If there's any real comparison to be made between Apples and orange, it's the iPad and Kindle Fire use cases. After having spent a couple of weeks with Kindle, there's much to be said for the device. I'm quite fond of mine, frankly. But to paraphrase the late Sen. Bentsen, I know iPad, I served with iPad, and the Kindle Fire is not the iPad. As we enter into the holiday shopping season, a lot of people are asking me: should I buy a Kindle Fire or an iPad? Here's a run-down to help explain how you can make that choice, and you can also watch TUAW TV Live at 5 PM ET today (or later when the video is embedded) to see Steve Sande and me talk about this very topic. At just under $200, the Kindle Fire offers many of the same surface features the iPad does: a small mobile device powered by a touch screen interface. However, the Kindle Fire functions primarily as an Amazon multimedia consumption device. An accessory to the Amazon Prime service, the Fire offers a huge library of streaming movies and TV shows, tight integration with your Amazon Cloud music account and your Kindle ebook library. If you are a big Amazon customer and you subscribe to Prime, you'll love the way you can seamlessly access this media. The Fire's wins include its size, portability, low cost factor, and streaming media integration. I can easily put my Fire in my purse (not my backpack, my purse) and pull it out to read books using a significantly bigger screen than my iPhone. The drawbacks are these. First, there's no 3G on offer for the Fire. You can only consume streaming TV and movies when you're located at a Wi-Fi hotspot. Although you can purchase and download video, music, apps, and books the Fire goes "network dark" (so to speak), away from those hotspots you can only enjoy the material stored locally on the device. Second, the apps and book reader are acceptable but they are not compelling reasons to purchase the device. The apps aren't as good as those you find on the iPhone or iPad, and the book reader isn't as good as the eInk rendering you get on traditional Kindles. The screen is shiny, no getting around that. That eInk and size factor is the big win for traditional Kindles. If you want to read books outside with a screen that remains readable despite sun glare, you're not going to do better than a standard Kindle. What you don't get includes apps, video, full web browsing and so forth, items brought to the table by the Kindle Fire. Then there's the iPad. The most expensive of this bunch, it does everything well but it does it with a shiny screen and a larger form factor. My knee jerk response when it comes to the iPad is this: if you don't have one and you don't know why you need one, just go and buy one. In a couple of weeks, you'll know why this is the best mobile device in your life ever. (You'll want to pick up an iPhone a few weeks after that. The iPad is a gateway drug.) The iPad excels at many things: movie watching, game playing, book reading, checking in at work, editing documents, downloading apps, etc. If the current iPad 2 entry price is too high for you, go ahead and buy a second-hand original iPad for about the same cost as a Kindle Fire. That doesn't mean I don't recommend the original or Fire Kindles. I do. Their price points are insanely good, and the hardware fits well into your life for either book reading (eInk) or Prime customer enhancement (Fire). If you're parenting a bookworm, consider a traditional Kindle. If you want to watch streaming videos at the gym (with local Wi-Fi), pick up a Fire. What I'm saying though, is neither one replaces the iPad -- and neither should. Life with both iPad and Kindle is great if you can swing the costs.
