Does magnetic button damage the E-Ink screen?

[JackLiu]

Recently, I have found a really good kindle 3 case(I have attached the image).

But, there is a problem bothers me which is I kind of worried about the magnetic button on the case will damage the E-Ink screen since the button will generate magnetic field.

And, the Amazon Kindle 3 leather case use a strap instead of magnetic button.

Does anyone have a idea about this issue?

[MrPLD]

The eInk devices operate using electrostatic forces and so far as I know there's no magnetic/ferrous material in the eInk-balls, so I cannot imagine that it'd be a problem.

That said, I'm sure someone might have ancedotal evidence showing otherwise.

[Tiersten]

Magnets don't affected the Kindle assuming you don't have some crazy powerful magnet.

[ManosHandsOfFate]

I have a cheapy eBay case with a fairly strong magnetic snap. So far so no problem!

[psycholoner]

The things that magnets can screw up are slowly being removed from the electronics scene. The only thing you should need to watch out for are CRT televisons (and screens), HDDs (SSD is fine), floppy disks, and other magnetically coded memory banks. Even with HDDs though, you'd need a relatively strong magnet to screw it up, so there isn't too much of a problem.

Theoretically, even extremely strong magnetic fields can't cause much damage to electronics, but when the field gets TOO strong, a lot of unexpected things COULD happen (i.e. the field makes SOMETHING ELSE screw things up, and doesn't screw the device up directly).

The kindle has metal casings and proper protection on the chips too, so there really isn't anything to worry about. A single magnetic button wouldn't be able to screw ANYTHING up these days. ANY HANDHELD DEVICE should be safe from ANY magnets UNLESS it has internal moving parts (like a PSP UMD drive, or a watch). Feel free to stick some on your phone, an iPod, iPhone, iPad w/e. It won't do anything.

[Tiersten]

Originally Posted by psycholoner

The things that magnets can screw up are slowly being removed from the electronics scene.

A magnet can saturate the inductors in the switched mode power supply circuitry in electronic devices. This will cause a "brownout" as it won't be able to supply the necessary current and the device will act oddly or crash.

Generally you're safe unless you have a big Neodymium or other rare earth element magnet and are waving it up close to the device.

Originally Posted by psycholoner

Feel free to stick some on your phone, an iPod, iPhone, iPad w/e. It won't do anything.

Strong magnets will make the iDevices crash because of the power supply issue above. There isn't much the manufacturers can do as magnetic shielding is expensive and bulky. The onus is generally on the user not to wave big magnets that close to their electronics devices.

The Sony readers have used covers with magnets for a long time with no bad effects. The covers have tiny magnets that stick to the metal case of the readers in order to stay closed.

[psycholoner]

Originally Posted by Tiersten

Strong magnets will make the iDevices crash because of the power supply issue above. There isn't much the manufacturers can do as magnetic shielding is expensive and bulky. The onus is generally on the user not to wave big magnets that close to their electronics devices.

I forgot all about that. Thx.