Sony’s newest E Ink e-reader with Neonode IR touch screen, wifi and new fast E Ink refresh allowing for smooth scrolling and fast page turns without a full page black flash on each page turn or on each web page scrolling. It can synchronize and share highlighted quotes of text in Evernote and on Facebook.
Category: E-readers
Wexler at IFA 2012
Wexler is the first to have release a flexible plastics based E Ink e-reader. The Wexler Flex One is to be followed by other flexible E Ink devices, they also sell Tablets including a Tegra3 7″ tablet.
PocketBook Touch at IFA 2012
Posted by – September 2, 2012
159€/$159 E Ink e-reader from PocketBook with a capacitive screen for which they claim readability is nearly as clear as infrared touch or no touch because the capacitive layer is somehow integrated.
PocketBook Basic New for 89€ at IFA 2012
Posted by – August 31, 2012
The newest entry level E Ink e-reader from PocketBook.
Wexler Flexible E Ink reader
Posted by – June 7, 2012
Category: E-readers, Exclusive videos
Check out this flexible, compact, unbreakable, thin, light, E Ink based E-reader using the Rockchip RK2808 processor.
Rockchip RK3066 Launched at the HKTDC Electronics Fair
Posted by – April 14, 2012
Category: Tablets, E-readers, Set-top-boxes, Exclusive videos, Rockchip, HKTDC Electronics Fair, Android
http://www.rock-chips.com shows their newest Dual-core ARM Cortex-A9 processor integrated in already a range of 9.7″ tablets being made by a series of Rockchip partners, also being optimized for the Set-top-box (I guess possibly Google TV!), and they are also talking about Google Certification, and their new RK2906 processor which removes the HDMI output and other things to further lower the cost of entry level tablets. Rockchip also announces RK31XX for Q2 and RK32XX for Q3 2012, bringing 28nm Single-core ultra-low power consuming ARM Cortex-A9 and bringing even Quad-core.
Boeye Sibrary RK2818 fast refresh E Ink e-reader
Boeye shows a Pearl E-ink based e-reader using the Rockchip RK2818 processor and a software optimization for fast page turns. They claim it’s as fast as the latest Kindle Reader.
Freescale i.MX6 Lite Series launched at CES 2012
Posted by – January 19, 2012
Freescale launches 2 new i.MX6 ARM Cortex-A9 processors at CES 2012, while demonstrating the performance of their quad-core, they are also launching the new i.MX 6SoloLite processor, which is designed specifically for next-generation eReaders and is the follow-on to the company’s i.MX508 processor and the dual-core i.MX 6DualLite, targeting a broad array of smart devices and products including tablets, IPTVs, IP phones, medical patient monitoring systems and home energy management solutions.
Related articles
- Freescale’s Cortex-A9 SoCs include E Ink controllers (linuxfordevices.com)
- Freescale introduces new low-power chips for eReaders, tablets, TVs (liliputing.com)
E Ink On Every Smart Surface
Posted by – January 15, 2012
Exclusive 17-minute interview with E Ink’s CMO at CES, where they showed me a Triton color display for signage with color so saturated that it looked like an LCD except that it was thinner than OLED, sunlight readable, uses no backlights and uses very little power. I also saw the SURF display used in a hand drill which has not been filmed before. The 11.5″ 300DPI eDocument reader made in collaboration with Epson. The Triton color display based Ectaco eReader that had just won the CES innovation award, it is being deployed in Russian schools. New E Ink watches from Phosphor and Seiko. Finally, the Eton Ruckus music player with E Ink display that was launched this week was demonstrated, it is considered to be indestructible.
E Ink has shipped over 25 million E Ink screens for e-readers alone in 2011, that’s up from 10 million screens in 2010 and 4 million screens in 2009. Now E Ink is also working to expand into new markets, signage, appliances, everywhere. The idea is that more and more devices and surfaces may get an E Ink screen on them that thus by being bi-stable can show the informations for a long time without using any battery. While many electronic paper technology companies show samples, E Ink is actually in mass production with monochrome, color and segmented displays and they claim that no technology in the world comes close to the reading experience on E Ink’s displays and these displays are easy on the eyes since they don’t have a shiny background or light emitting backlight.
E Ink also provided me with following amazing video featuring the actual E Ink Pearl roll display material used in Nook, Sony, Kindle etc. The video was shot alongside the Charles river in Cambridge/Boston and you can see MIT (E Ink is MIT spin off) and Boston skyline in the background. The display is a few feet wide and can go one kilometer (it was 500 meters in this video):
Related articles
- Etón Corporation launches Rukus, the solar-powered Sound system (armdevices.net)
- Ectacto Jetbook Color eReader already available in Russia (liliputing.com)
- E Ink thinks its displays belong on pretty much everything (dvice.com)
- CES 2012: Color e-Ink readers are finally a reality, though not in the U.S. (news.consumerreports.org)
PocketBook at IFA 2011 Press Conference
Posted by – September 3, 2011
This is the full PocketBook press conference (partly in English and partly in German) at IFA 2011, where they launch the new PocketBook A10 Android Tablet.
Sony PRS-T1 Reader Wi-Fi, 6″ e-reader with infrared multi-touch
Posted by – September 2, 2011
Sony is launching their new generation of Eink e-readers with this Sony Reader Wi-Fi, it supports dual touch using infrared technology. The Wi-Fi can be used for stuff like web browsing, Google searching, Wikipedia searching for words highlighted in any book and for downloading e-books from the web or even viewing e-books within the web browser.
Latest news from E Ink at IFA 2011
Posted by – September 2, 2011
Sriram Peruvemba, Vice President of marketing at E Ink, gives us the latest news from E Ink, they announced that they will ship between 25 million and 30 million E Ink screens this year, just for the E Ink e-readers like the Kindle 4 and Nook Touch. Yup you read right, 30 million of those devices to be sold this year.
E Ink in Credit Cards
Posted by – September 2, 2011
You push a button behind the credit card, it displays a unique security code which can be used as pin code for payment security. The battery in that credit card lasts for up to 2 years, it’s the same size and weight as a normal credit card and it is unbreakable.
Freescale i.MX50 processor series for e-readers launched
Posted by – July 11, 2011
Freescale is expanding their line of processors that are customized for e-reader type of applications with the i.MX502, i.MX503, i.MX507 and i.MX508 processors. Compared with i.MX51/53, i.MX50 is built to lack GPU for 3D acceleration (unnecessary on e-readers) but they can do 2D and have the option (i.MX503 and i.MX508) to hardware accelerate vector graphics through the OpenVG accelerator. This series is the first processor on the market to combine ARM Cortex-A8 with an EPD controller. Those are in different configurations to be used for e-ink (i.MX508 with OpenVG and i.MX507 without) or LCD e-readers (i.MX503 with OpenVG and i.MX502 without). Read the full press release here. Find more info at freescale.com
Kobo Touch, $129 i.MX508 WiFi infrared-touch e-reader
Posted by – June 23, 2011
This may be the best e-reader on the market today. If it does run Android, if Kobo decides to open up the access to those Android features and not lock it down to only be about buying ebooks on their ebook store. Right now it may not be running Android at all, at least Kobo is not taking advantage of the potential Android openness yet. Hopefully Kobo updates their firmware for it to run a fully open Android, they can monetize e-readers in other new ways not only by locking it for a e-book store.
Android Infrared-touch i.MX508 are the new thing for E Ink e-readers
Both of the new amazingly priced Nook Touch ($139) and Kobo Touch ($129) seem to use the new Freescale i.MX508 (I first filmed i.MX508 a year ago) to facilitate smooth touch interfaces using Infrared Touch technology (first used in the Sony PRS-650) but also to easily enable those to be the first Android powered e-ink e-readers! Basically i.MX508 and Android makes first real useful use of WiFi and Touch on e-ink e-readers! Using Android on e-ink is awesome to provide for great files support, web browser, easily add apps like news readers, rss readers, Chrome-To-Phone functionality (just beam any article or any text from your Chrome browser on your laptop to your e-ink e-reader in one click!), synchronizing of bookmarks, wireless beaming of web based ebooks, all in one click. Android on e-ink just increases the e-readers potential greatly. Using infrared touchscreen technology is a great way to provide the best possible readability, not adding any layers on top of the screen.
Look forward to much more fascinating devices to come with:
i.MX508 + Android + infrared touch + WiFi/3G + e-ink = Low-cost e-ink e-readers!
Also see my video of the alternative Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) touch technology.
An interesting thing to follow though will be to see how open Android i.MX508 e-ink e-reader makers will be towards allowing for alternative e-book stores, and allowing for full open Android apps installation and full unrestricted access to the web browser. As it may be that part of the profit margins on these new low-cost e-ink e-readers may be subsidized by the hardware makers expecting to make later huge profits on selling e-books, like Amazon does with their Kindle e-book store, it will be fun to see if all the e-ink e-reader makers will seize the opportunity to be open with Android on e-ink and at the same time find new interesting ways to monetize those. I for example would prefer paying less than $10 per month for unlimited legal access to all e-books, all newspapers, all blogs, all websites, everything, perhaps even certain 3G bandwidth included, but will content owners and hardware makers be open minded enough to let that happen quickly?
When will Google officially announce open source Android optimizations for e-ink devices and with deep integration of Google Books, Google Reader, Google Fast Flip and more?
Here’s how I think those e-ink e-readers could be sold in the best way: $99, $10/month optional pre-paid plan gives 100mb 3G data (upgradable bandwidth for $1/100mb or less) and full unlimited access to all e-books, all e-newspapers, e-magazines, blogs through RSS/search and more. Full unrestricted web browsing on e-ink. And nice complete cloud syncing with your Smartphone, Tablet and Laptop. While e-ink e-reader market is doing great perhaps reaching 20 million units to be sold this year, if they price them right and open them fully, I think they’ll do even better.
Sources for these videos: the-ebook-reader.com, engadget.com
Related articles
- Kobo Bets on a Smaller, Touch Sensitive E-Reader (gigaom.com)
- Tipster: New Nook is ‘The Simple Touch Reader’ (news.cnet.com)
- $129 Kobo eReader Touch Edition unveiled, original slashed to $99 (geek.com)
ShiZhu Technology shows Pixel Qi Tablets at Computex 2011
Check out how ShiZhu’s new Pixel Qi tablet series perform outdoors and indoors against other regular LCD based new Android tablets such as the HTC Flyer (with an anti-glare coating) and the Archos 70 Internet Tablet, you can see how the Pixel Qi screen is much more readable outdoors. This tablet is based on the Samsung Hummingbird Cortex-A8 processor. They are releasing also a 7″ and they can provide them in several different designs.
e-ink touch screen technologies shown by Freescale at Computex 2011
Posted by – June 2, 2011
Tyco Electronics introduces Acoustic Pulse Recognition (APR) touch screen technology in a reference e-ink touch screen based on Android on the Freescale i.MX508 platform.
Play Doom on an E-ink screen
Posted by – April 20, 2011
Fun demo playing Doom on an e-ink screen using the new PocketBook 360 Plus.
Related articles
- Doom 2 gets ported to PocketBook 360 Plus e-reader (video) (engadget.com)
- Pocketbook 360 Plus ereader plays Doom 2 (who needs ebooks?) [Video] (slashgear.com)
- Doom 2 seen running on an E-Ink display (geek.com)
Hanvon B516, new e-ink e-reader
Posted by – April 20, 2011
Hanvon presents their new e-ink e-readers.
