Chaos
04-27-2007, 12:18 PM
Sorry, this was posted already, here (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?threadid=10480). Sorry for any confusion - I'm still getting back into things...
Fujitsu issued a press release (http://www.frontech.fujitsu.com/release/prs070420.html) (useless unless you can read Japanese - and I can't), stating that they're going to release a colour e-ink reader, first discussed in another news post (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10078). The hardware looks quite nice, including the standard XScale ARM processor, an SD card slot, 802.11b/g, and a battery somehow 'rated' at 50 hours. Some of the less common hardware includes a stereo headpone jack, and the ability to play music from the SD card slot. Oh, and the screen is touch-sensitive!
So, of course, all this is too good to be perfect. The price, for one, is over $1000 per-reader (for ten readers, for testing purposes - presumably the final product will be slightly less expensive), for the small size. The large size more-than-doubles that price. It's also running "Japanese Windows CE 5.0" (apparently something different from Windows Mobile), and will only be available in Japan.
While the price and software may not be what everyone's looking for it, does at least mean the industry is beginning to show an interest in colour e-ink, meaning the e-book reader will become more and more useful for magazines, textbooks (with diagrams - like anatomy), and anything else that requires, or is enhanced by, colourful pictures.
[Found through PC Word (http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/2007/04/black_white_ebo.html), pointing to Digital World Tokyo (http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2007/04/fujitsus_color_epaper_comes_to.php), pointing to the actual release.]
Fujitsu issued a press release (http://www.frontech.fujitsu.com/release/prs070420.html) (useless unless you can read Japanese - and I can't), stating that they're going to release a colour e-ink reader, first discussed in another news post (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10078). The hardware looks quite nice, including the standard XScale ARM processor, an SD card slot, 802.11b/g, and a battery somehow 'rated' at 50 hours. Some of the less common hardware includes a stereo headpone jack, and the ability to play music from the SD card slot. Oh, and the screen is touch-sensitive!
So, of course, all this is too good to be perfect. The price, for one, is over $1000 per-reader (for ten readers, for testing purposes - presumably the final product will be slightly less expensive), for the small size. The large size more-than-doubles that price. It's also running "Japanese Windows CE 5.0" (apparently something different from Windows Mobile), and will only be available in Japan.
While the price and software may not be what everyone's looking for it, does at least mean the industry is beginning to show an interest in colour e-ink, meaning the e-book reader will become more and more useful for magazines, textbooks (with diagrams - like anatomy), and anything else that requires, or is enhanced by, colourful pictures.
[Found through PC Word (http://blogs.pcworld.com/digitalworld/archives/2007/04/black_white_ebo.html), pointing to Digital World Tokyo (http://www.digitalworldtokyo.com/2007/04/fujitsus_color_epaper_comes_to.php), pointing to the actual release.]