Color Comes to an E-Reader

[DMcCunney]

http://gadgetwise.blogs.nytimes.com/...o-an-e-reader/
______
Dennis

[Dulin's Books]

The Literati borrows Apple’s bookshelf paradigm for displaying texts.

ugg...

[Lady Fitzgerald]

Forget the e-book; the article itself isn't all that great. It leaves the impression that all current e-book readers have e-ink displays.

[athlonkmf]

Originally Posted by Lady Fitzgerald;

Forget the e-book; the article itself isn't all that great. It leaves the impression that all current e-book readers have e-ink displays.

Somewhere, between 3 years ago and now, some kind of rule/impression filled the minds of late adopters that ereaders can only be called ereaders when they have einkscreens...

[kjk]

Originally Posted by athlonkmf

Somewhere, between 3 years ago and now, some kind of rule/impression filled the minds of late adopters that ereaders can only be called ereaders when they have einkscreens...

Yeah, never understood that attempt at co-opting the term. eReaders have been around well before eInk.

[Talldog]

The Literati’s LCD screen offers 400 x 800 resolution, but its angle of view is very narrow; move your head a few inches off to the sides and rainbow patterns appear on the screen as contrast significantly decreases, none of which may be a problem, as most people would read a book with the device perfectly aligned in front of their face.

Huh?

I can hear Customer Support now. "I'm sorry sir, the manual clearly states that the device must be perfectly aligned in front of your face."

[ebsebs]

It looks an awful lot like the Augen "The Book" - same size and shape, same screen resolution,
same keyboard and joystick (I think), etc. I wonder if they have better firmware???

[kevinp]

"would be disappointed with today’s E Ink color products."

I wasn't aware there were any 'E Ink color products' on the market yet? Did I miss something?

[DMcCunney]

Originally Posted by kevinp

"would be disappointed with today’s E Ink color products."

I wasn't aware there were any 'E Ink color products' on the market yet? Did I miss something?

Nope. eInk doesn't do color.

eInk screen manufacturer PVI announced a prototype 12 bit color eInk screen in December 2006, that was supposed to be in volume in production 2007. It never happened.

My guess is some combination of underestimating the problems involved in ramping from prototype to volume production, unsatisfactory performance, and/or higher costs for the color screens than the market was likely to accept.

There are several different low power color screen technologies out there, but eInk isn't one of them.
______
Dennis

[daffy4u]

Isn't that slow pokey Fujitsu Flepia color e-ink or ePaper (I don't know the difference)?

[Dulin's Books]

no its cholesteric lcd

[Viseguy]

That narrow screen would bother me (judging by the photo in blog post).

[rogue_librarian]

Originally Posted by DMcCunney

My guess is some combination of underestimating the problems involved in ramping from prototype to volume production, unsatisfactory performance, and/or higher costs for the color screens than the market was likely to accept.

Don't forget demand. I don't see eInk Color happen until Amazon promises to buy a few million for their Kindle 5 C.