Mirasol Displays Coming to an eReader Near You, in 2011

[DonaldL.]

Mirasol Displays Coming to an eReader Near You, in 2011

Qualcomm, the San Diego-based chip maker, is going to finally see its much-vaunted Mirasol color displays come to market in early 2011. The displays were supposed to launch in 2010.

[Dulin's Books]

the article (which i saw reported by engadget just now) is basically correcting misinformation thats out there from bad writing/reporting by the blogs in the first place.

Mirasol was saying to everyone at SID that the 6 inch display would be shipping to customers in Q4 some had samples already and they would make their partner announcements in Q4. Even I jumped the gun on the announcement part because I thought they would use the recent Qualcomm event in the UK for that announcement.

But the "shipping to customers" always meant to the device manufacturers/oems not to consumers. Figure another couple of months at least for production of devices and you are in Q1 of 2011. the blogs like Engagadget never madet hat distinction as clear as they could and with reading comprehension skills being what they are these days it leaves the impression that Mirasol has missed their schedule when its the same as it has been for 3/4 of the year.

[AdamV]

will it support touchscreen feature?

[ShellShock]

The touchscreen used by the new Sonys (350/650) could be fitted to a Mirasol device, as it is not integral to the screen.

[SensualPoet]

This timing then would suggest a number of interesting previews at CES for devices that might actually ship later in 1H 2011.

Amazon bought a couple of interesting technology specialists close to a year ago; one focussed on touch screen. There is room in the market for a wireless/wifi connected colour device which would deliver books, magazines, text books and newsapers in a credible fashion -- at a price and flexibility well below the iPad price. But his content also cries out for screen larger than 6". Is 7" enough? 8" or do we need to land on Kindle DXG / iPad dimensions?

Dunno ... just asking the questions. But something under $300 is probably important for wide spread appeal.

[Ankh]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

But his content also cries out for screen larger than 6". Is 7" enough? 8" or do we need to land on Kindle DXG / iPad dimensions?

The current generation of eInk eBook readers fields 200 DPI as the be best widely available dot density. Apple's "Retina" technology has moved into the 326 DPI space.

A breakthrough in that area might help, as it is apparent that mobility is an issue and that 6" and 5" devices have hit the sweet spot.

[Kali Yuga]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

This timing then would suggest a number of interesting previews at CES for devices that might actually ship later in 1H 2011.

Mmmmmm

So, how many e-book readers were shown at 2010 CES that actually wound up shipping?

[OrcaBlue]

Here are some photos of the Mirasol diplay.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/mirasol-equipped-qualcomm-reference-tablet-hands-on/

This has a potential to be a very good for reading and web surfing.

[roc]

Originally Posted by Ankh

The current generation of eInk eBook readers fields 200 DPI as the be best widely available dot density. Apple's "Retina" technology has moved into the 326 DPI space.

A breakthrough in that area might help, as it is apparent that mobility is an issue and that 6" and 5" devices have hit the sweet spot.

Right for me - I ditched my 7-inch Pandigital Novel for an Archos 5 Internet Tablet - very sweet for me, just big enough, and so light it does not aggravate my carpal tunnel, and thin enough to put in a "normal" shirt pocket (and that is inside a DayPlanner type cover). Now if Archos would just get back to updating it, and bring it up to FroYo, that would ice the cake (so's to speak ).

FWIW, YMMV

[toronado]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

But his content also cries out for screen larger than 6". Is 7" enough? 8" or do we need to land on Kindle DXG / iPad dimensions?

I think there is room for both 6-7" devices, as well as 10-12" devices in the eReader space. For most books and light weight, 6-7" is best. For textbooks, comics, graphic novels, magazines, sheetmusic, etc, the bigger the better.

12" should be considered the absolute minimum for music (though I know people who are using iPads for this), and bigger (folding dual display with each screen around 15-17") would be much better. I realize that's a niche application, but it's one that I'm particularly interested in.

[brbubba]

Originally Posted by Ankh

The current generation of eInk eBook readers fields 200 DPI as the be best widely available dot density. Apple's "Retina" technology has moved into the 326 DPI space.

A breakthrough in that area might help, as it is apparent that mobility is an issue and that 6" and 5" devices have hit the sweet spot.

And the 200 is mostly for 5" readers, the 6" ones are at 160 ppi, half the retina displays! I have a haunting suspicion that Apple's next iPad will sport a retina display, which would destroy anything out there. These Mirasol's look fairly nice, but I'm concerned about price point.

[Polyglot27]

Originally Posted by roc

Right for me - I ditched my 7-inch Pandigital Novel for an Archos 5 Internet Tablet - very sweet for me, just big enough, and so light it does not aggravate my carpal tunnel, and thin enough to put in a "normal" shirt pocket (and that is inside a DayPlanner type cover). Now if Archos would just get back to updating it, and bring it up to FroYo, that would ice the cake (so's to speak ).

FWIW, YMMV

Archos did put out an update to 2.2 Froyo before Christmas. It had a bug that prevented connection to wi-fi (of all the stupid things) but even that was corrected in a firmware update just before New Year's day. My Archos 70 IT now runs quite fast. You should check the updates on the Archos site.

[markbot]

The book is dead; long live the book. Here is a pretty good video of the mirasol screen.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=y21xHGrecMk

Is this not the ereader/smartphone/tablet display of the future?

It plays video.
It is color
It is reflective
It is ultra low power

Only negative is you trade off vibrancy of the colors but I think if it doubles or more the battery life, it must be worth it for some devices, certainly ereaders and some phones.

The tech will get better, but even as of now the quality of this screen appears ready for the masses.

Imagine 5 years in the future how this technology is going to be. A basic black/white ereader will be $99 or less and color ereaders with extra features like touch and video capabilities will be under $199....larger versions perhaps $299. To put this in perspective, just one college textbook can cost $199. This color ereader should replace all college text book. The only reason it wouldn't is due to the publishers.

Personally, I think for the sake of the environment, the US congress should pass a law requiring all educational textbook providers to make their books widely available in digital form.

[carld]

The Mirasol screen is nice, but it's still kind of yellow or sepia toned. I have no doubt that color e-ink of some sort is coming, but I'm not sure Mirasol is the right tech.

[screwballl]

To me this is another thing to confuse people further in a market with already too many devices... There are 2 main things going against this first gen type of device:
1) if it is built as primarily a reader, people will be disappointed expecting a cheap tablet/ipad...
2) if it is released as a multipurpose device, people will be disappointed as it would not have the speed, power or capability of the ipad or tablet style laptop.