The Future of Information is e-Ink - Article in The Age

[m-reader]

Interesting take on e-Ink technology and what it means for the future ... They do like the idea of Readius! It must be an Australian thing

http://www.theage.com.au/news/articl...e#contentSwap2

Information

The newspaper you're holding may be next. Despite recent advances in ultra-thin and flexible e-paper/ e-ink displays, the lingering threat of e-books making paper publications redundant has failed to come true. This is perhaps largely because devices such as the iRex, Sony's e-reader and Amazon's recently launched Kindle (www.KindleBookReader.net) are all substantial metal/plastic planks that fail to disappear when you've finished reading.

This year, a pocket gizmo called the Readius (www.polymervision.com) will finally begin to deliver on years of e-paper promises. Its refreshable reading screen is a paper-toned film that rolls out of its mobile-phone-sized case to roughly the width of a paperback.

The flagship consumer model due to be launched in Italy later this year has 4GB of memory and a remarkable 10-day battery life, which means you could digest a decent chunk of Agatha Christie's canon without getting off your beach towel on your next holiday.

With a few media partners on board, you'll soon be able to wirelessly download newspapers and magazines into your hand - the one left empty, presumably, by the book you no longer need on the tram.

The developer of Readius, Philips subsidiary Polymer Vision, aim to lighten our personal baggage further with the ambitious mission to place "a rollable display in every mobile device" on the planet. That's a lot of rollable displays.

As with the mirror telly, the ultimate dream they're selling is convergence to the point of virtual invisibility: a book, a newspaper, a phone, a camera, diary, browser, media player and GPS system tucked away in one single, easy-tolose gadget.

[sianon]

"The newspaper you're holding may be next. Despite recent advances in ultra-thin and flexible e-paper/ e-ink displays, the lingering threat of e-books making paper publications redundant has failed to come true. This is perhaps largely because devices such as the iRex, Sony's e-reader and Amazon's recently launched Kindle (www.

KindleBookReader.net) are all substantial metal/plastic planks that fail to disappear when you've finished reading."

damn, I didn't realise that I was disadvantaged by the fact that my Illiad didn't disappear when I finish reading. I have been rather reassured by the fact that it remained a solid and tangible object. Now I find it is a disadvantage.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by sianon

"The newspaper you're holding may be next. Despite recent advances in ultra-thin and flexible e-paper/ e-ink displays, the lingering threat of e-books making paper publications redundant has failed to come true. This is perhaps largely because devices such as the iRex, Sony's e-reader and Amazon's recently launched Kindle (www.

KindleBookReader.net) are all substantial metal/plastic planks that fail to disappear when you've finished reading."

damn, I didn't realise that I was disadvantaged by the fact that my Illiad didn't disappear when I finish reading. I have been rather reassured by the fact that it remained a solid and tangible object. Now I find it is a disadvantage.

Hey, the guy must've just finished reading The Diamond Age, give him a break
This sort of comments are to be expected, but overall I think it's all thumbs-up for e-readers ...
I just hope the business will pick it up in Australia and actually start selling them. At the moment we have the choice of buying Illiad from Dymocks or getting it from overseas.
Businesses do read The Age and hopefully more of these kind of articles will get people to actually start selling e-Readers in Australia.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

As with the mirror telly, the ultimate dream they're selling is convergence to the point of virtual invisibility: a book, a newspaper, a phone, a camera, diary, browser, media player and GPS system tucked away in one single, easy-tolose gadget.

If that's what he wants, he's late to the party. He can have that with a smartphone right now.

[Cthulhu]

Some people are never satisfied.
When I first learned of the SONY Reader, many comments of the tech blog were along the lines of "it only does one thing? absurd & useless!" Never mind the single-mindedness of most ipods.

Then there are the those from the other extreme:
"I can't use AA batteries? There's wifi to suck the battery? Why Oh Why can't I just have an individual device for everything that I want to do?!"

I love my SONY Reader. It does very few things very well. I Think that many people confuse the metaphorical notion of good tech "disappearing" with the physical notion of magical gadgets. There are limits to science and physics.

@ M-Reader: nice Stephenson allusion. Sadly, am afraid that old Neal has corrupted a generation of geeks. Someday, instead of crying "Where's my flying car?!" We'll shout "Where' my matter compiler?!"

[JSWolf]

My cell phone I got because it's a good cell phone. My GPS is a good GPS. Garmin Nüvi 200. And eventually it will save money because it doesn't cost extra to connect to the satellite like it does with a cell phone based GPS. My eBook reader I got because it does that well. My Rio Karma does music better then ANY cell phone or iPod. It sounds better then an iPod Touch for sure. Basically, I have what I want at the moment. I don't want my 505 to do it all. I don't want my cell phone to as well. All separately, I have better then most do in a single device. Plus, I don't need mega expensive cell phone service to use these.