11-08-2010, 05:51 PM | #1 |
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eInk announces colour technology
Color Comes to E Ink Screens - NY Times article.
It is made out of regular eInk technology but with a colour filter on top. This means it won't have vibrant colours and it has the usual limitations with refresh that eInk already has. It will do the flash to black reset as well between pages. The sharpness of the screen will be affected as well by the fact there is an extra filter. If/when Amazon deem it to be viable then there will be a colour Kindle but not until then. To stop the inevitable fear and raging, your brand new Kindle 3 or Sony PRS isn't obsolete or useless but I'm sure people will still complain even though Sony and Amazon haven't announced anything and won't until next year at the earliest due to the PRS and Kindle 3 just being released. If you really want a colour eInk reader then you'll have to wait for this Hanvon reader to be released and then somehow find somebody you can order it from in China. |
11-08-2010, 07:09 PM | #2 | |
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11-08-2010, 07:13 PM | #3 | |
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Nearly all of my books don't even have diagrams so the ability to display colour isn't very useful for me currently. Sure, it'll be handy when I use the browser but I don't use it that often anyway. |
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11-08-2010, 08:37 PM | #4 |
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Some new pics of the mirasol display. Haven't seen these images demoed before.
http://www.pcworld.com/article/20720...l_updated.html http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_016K...layer_embedded |
11-08-2010, 08:39 PM | #5 | |
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11-09-2010, 12:34 PM | #6 |
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Black on white text will be "good enough" for some people to last another few hundred years or so. Don't think we need to worry too much.
Besides, you need 3x the pixels to do color, and you lose 3x the resolution in 1 dimension to do this, so text will always look fuzzier when you do this. Color displays will take a few years to get up to par anyways, the fist gen will only have 16-128 color display capability anyways right? That's not exactly CGA, but it's a huge step back from even the low end SVGA displays of the late 80's |
11-09-2010, 01:34 PM | #7 |
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It is called eInk Triton. There is a photo of a demo unit but as always with these types of photos take them with a massive pinch of salt.
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11-09-2010, 01:51 PM | #8 |
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I don't understand the use case for a sub 6 inch color ereader, which is what the mirasol is, so far. The main excitement seems to be for magazines and books with images and illustrations. But there's a reason you don't see a lot magazines, children books, or textbooks in pocket size: it's kind of unsatisfying and hence pointless. In that size, you have mostly novels or mainly text materials, like dictionaries and Readers Digest. And b&w e ink is fine for that.
Color e ink would just come off as a poor imitation of LCD. Which is okay, I guess, since you have to start somewhere, but there's a loss of opportunity cost here where less r&d money and man hours are being spent on improving b&w e ink. I want a paper white background, more gray scale levels, higher resolution. Everyone who has seen my kindle remarks on how book like it is. No one has complained about lack of color. |
11-09-2010, 02:39 PM | #9 |
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While I would like color to see the covers of my books, this isn't something I want...yet When the technology is perfected and there are sharp clear color I might buy one. But for right now, I'm happy with my Kindle just the way it is.
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11-09-2010, 03:09 PM | #10 |
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I don't want a color ereader. I have a new K3 and its perfect. What I would like is a pocket size color tablet at a reasonable price. (Like the ipad, but kindle size, and kindle priced). I'd like to get one for my husband someday....in a year or two I hope tablets like that will be available.
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11-09-2010, 03:47 PM | #11 | |
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If it is an Android tablet then make sure that it is actually Google approved as otherwise you don't have access to the Google Market for applications or the Google branded applications like Maps or Gmail. Anybody can use Android but to get those apps or market access then you need to have an agreement/contract with Google. It is getting better though because there are more manufacturers entering the small tablet arena but its still a bit hit & miss at the moment for quality. Last edited by Tiersten; 11-09-2010 at 03:49 PM. |
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11-09-2010, 04:19 PM | #12 |
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Tiersten, I have read that the big brand name companies are going to be coming out with the kind of tablet I want, next year possibly. So that is what I am waiting for. I don't want the unknown ones you have described.
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11-09-2010, 04:33 PM | #13 |
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Yup. Good plan I'll probably look into getting one as well around then.
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11-09-2010, 08:59 PM | #14 |
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Hm, the minimal contrast ratio seems to be the same for eInk Pearl and eInk Titron
http://eink.com/sell_sheets/triton%20sell%20sheet.pdf http://eink.com/sell_sheets/pearl%20sell%20sheet.pdf |
11-09-2010, 09:15 PM | #15 | |
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The specs seem to be the same except the reflectivity is slightly different and the refresh time is also different. The change in refresh time is massive though! 120ms for mono vs 240-980ms for colour. Thats a heck of a jump! Worst case would be nearly a second for a colour page refresh which is going to be painful and even best case is double what the existing mono screen can do. |
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