Remember the Polymer Vision Readius (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=10152)? Yeah, hardly do I. Those gagging for some hot foldable e-paper action will be pleased to know that Polymer Vision has just stated in a press release (http://www.polymervision.com/News-Center/Press-Releases/Article-14771.html) that they begun volume production of their rollable e-paper displays.

In less than twelve months the clean room facilities have been completed, the first complete manufacturing tool set has been installed and the process has been successfully transferred from Eindhoven to the Southampton facility. The first batch of rollable displays produced has immediately delivered functional displays and from December onwards volumes will ramp up to meet growing customer demand.

Also, the first "samples" of the Readius device are supposed to be shipped to customers before the end of 2007 (i.e. within the next two weeks).

If you had the chance, would you want to grab one?

Thanks to Gert for news (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17169&highlight=polymer+vision)!

Well, I would like to try one at least...maybe they'll send a few of those 2007 Samples to mobileread HQ and let us try them...

But I really don't see anywhere to actually buy these things. We all heard rumours and saw prototypes and photographs, but I don't remeber ever really seeing any real information about them and especially when and where to buy them...and now they are telling us they will be available in the next 2 weeks and there is customer demand??? Is this a b2b deal again?

Aside from wanting something bigger, it seems ideal to me.

I hope they are considering different sizes sooner rather than later.

yup, it looks wonderful. If I could get it for free I'd be a very happy person indeed, would be nice to see how it performed in person :D

I expect I'll be able to afford one when the price becomes reasonable in about 5 years or so, I can see these going for a very high price. I don like the idea of reading from a LED / backlit screen though, get enough of that at work and on the web. But I do love the idea and the look, hope it catches on.

I'll send them a mail asking for a little more information...let's see whether they respond and what they are willing to share. So far we have little to go by apart from the flexible screen 5" screen and the fact that it contains a 3G network card.

...
If you had the chance, would you want to grab one?

Yes, YES, OH, GOOD (AND EVIL) GODS, YES!!!

...but only if it was any good. ;)

Cheers,
Marc (my Gadget-sense is tingling)

Well, I would like to try one at least.

But I really don't see anywhere to actually buy these things. ...and now they are telling us they will be available in the next 2 weeks and there is customer demand??? Is this a b2b deal again?

Direct from PV's FAQ:

1. When will the displays be commercially available in the market?
As announced, Polymer Vision Ltd. will launch together with Telecom Italia Mobile the world's first commercial product with a rollable display in 2008 in Italy. Other countries will follow.

3. What is the target market and application for this display / prototype?
The first product, Readius, is targeting the traveling professional that would like to have updated personalized information while on the move. Mobile Network Operators will provide the service to upload a set of continuously updated information to the eReader device via Edge or UMTS.

10. What customers do you have
Polymer Vision has announced its first customer contract with Telecom Italia for launch of the world's first rollable display enabled device in 2008. We are in discussions with other Mobile Network Operators but it is our policy not to reveal names unless publicly announced.

I wonder if the display will get scarred where the folded screen rubs the housing. I have a clamshell cell phone where the keys just barely touch the screen when closed, and after a year the screen has some light checkered scarring as a result.

-d

I wonder if the display will get scarred where the folded screen rubs the housing. I have a clamshell cell phone where the keys just barely touch the screen when closed, and after a year the screen has some light checkered scarring as a result.

-d

I'd also be worried about the wear level. Wouldn't you think folding a piece of plastic multiple times a day will cause it to get scarred pretty fast?

Personally I do not like the design much at all - screen size is important, and we need something that cracks the education market.

The importance of size lies in two things, when layout IS important such as can be the case in scholarly works, and when things have to be read fast, as in the case of complex works being studied. Needless page turns can destroy complex paragraphs, small screens will break far too many paragraphs too often - comprehension suffers enormously.

At reading speeds of over 400 words per minute, necessary to understand complex paragraphs, page turns a by-product of small sized screens is a major problem - something that will not seem important for light reading, but is crushing for serious reading.

A4, folded in the middle, is not not a pocket sized book, but two A5s are needed for serious reading and works well.

Of course the eink page is not really folded, but rather gently bent, the eink device would have to much thicker, but almost as light (most of the space being empty).

Even a rolled-up pull-out device would be bulky and probably longer than 240 mm, I am not sure that it could be rolled very tightly, so as a scroll it would be bulky.

Should it be tried?

I dearly hope so and soon.

Hmm, a 5" 320x240 screen? Rollable or not, it's probably worth waiting for the second generation!

Rhaaaa, it's the prototype that make me interested in E-Readers !
And I just asked my sister to offer me a sony prs 505 for christmas.

I'm wondering if the roll/unroll mechanism is going to last long.
And looks like 5" is a little small (but i've been reading ebooks on a Palm III so .... )

But if i had the chance to get one, or test it one week or two, i would never say no !

@chef

Thanks for pointing me at the information in that FAQ...I must have been very tired yesterday when I looked at their website, I missed the FAQ completely.

So, this is a personal newsreader...I'm not sure whether I like the idea. I like to read news online, but not something my mobile provider pushes at me...I'm more for roaming the web and reading the news *I* want to read...

5"?
No way.

6" is good for travelling, but for homeuse I would like to have 8" at least or even 9.7" - it is my dream.

Some specifications:

- Dimensions device: 100 mm x 55.6 mm x 21 mm (l x w x h)
- Weight: 150 gram
- Display:
- Type: monochrome reflective
- Size: 5” (128 mm) diagonal; 4:3 aspect
- Resolution: QVGA
- Grey levels: 16
- Contrast: 10:1
- Reflectivity: 35%
- Update speed: 0.5 - 1 s
- Supports: RSS feeds, PDF’s, e-books, e-mail and other text files
- Audio: internal speaker and headphones (with remote control)
- Connectivity: USB and wireless broadband
- Storage: minimum of 4GB

Perhaps (given that form factor) they can integrate a cell phone in the "closed" mode that opens up to an eink reader? Throw in an MP3 player and then all the devices I carry drop to one.

-d

I'll send them a mail asking for a little more information...let's see whether they respond and what they are willing to share. So far we have little to go by apart from the flexible screen 5" screen and the fact that it contains a 3G network card.

Dear mobilereaders, my name is Thomas and I am working for Polymer Vision, the creators of the Readius. Polymer Vision was contacted by one of the editors of the site and here I am to respond to your questions. Obviously my comments will be coloured by my background, you will have to forgive me for that (call it professional de-formation or extreme enthousiasm about the Readius!) Some comments for now:
- The Readius samples shown last February in Barcelona were handmade engineering samples to show the concept.
- The current samples we have are samples of the commercial product we will launch in 2008. They are not fully functional yet.
- Samples will be shown in public and demonstrated during the Barcelona Mobile World Congress in febr. The final specifications of the Readius will then be communicated as well.
- Telecom Italia Mobile is our lead customer and will sell the Readius in Italy. We are in discussion with other customers about launching the Readius in other countries.
- The Readius is a pocket size e-reader ideal for personalised information with the possibility of updating your favourite information anytime, anywhere via its 3G connection.
- The user (via a pc application) will be able to download content to the device and configure the types of favourite info he/she would like to be updated about when on the move (eg. RSS feeds).
- With the introduction of the first rollable display at the size of 5" we already make a big step compared to current mobile display sizes (2-3.5"). But there is more to come. Among others wee are working on higher resolution and larger display sizes . For truly mobile usage (pocketsize device) we think 8-9" is the sweet spot to be working on.
Let me know if you want to know more.

What ebook formats are you going to support?

Thomas 8-9 inch may well be a sweet spot, especially for fiction readers.

Obviously this is a new process and manufacturing problems have to be encountered cautiously and improved upon step by step.

But is it technically possible in the near future to see much bigger screens, rolled up like a scroll perhaps, or gently folded into a thick book form?

A4 has so many applications very different to the needs of fiction reading. Is there an inherent technical problem, or is it a matter of marketing and manufacture?

@Thomas

Thank you for joining us. I just put up a frontpage post so that we have a central place for people to post their question and for you to find them and (if possible) answer them.

Find it here: (http://www.mobileread.com/forums/showthread.php?t=17328)

Thomas,

Is this thing going to be/slated to be a USB Mass Storage Device?

As a user of Not Windows, the notion of "Desktop PC Software" makes me sad :)

If this "Desktop PC Software" is slated in fact to be required for full functionality usability, I know a...guy... that does Mac OS X development that you guys might talk to...

:)

Thanks Thomas and MobileRead. This is an extremely interesting product to us all. Could you share with us a bit more information about the hardware of the device. Specifically, which processor, display controller and other hardware details as well as which operating system you selected. I hope you picked Linux. I am biased because I wrote the E-Ink metronomefb driver. :-)