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Come on guys, this is effectively a really nice magni-doodle! The physics are almost the same, but the scale is smaller. because of the smaller scale, when the black particles are removed from the front plane they are not far enough away from a frosted surface to be unnoticed, so they had to have an opposite particle that would rise to the surface... It would not surprise me at all to find out that either the "black" or the "white" particles are not polarized at all, and they just switch to the proper state because of spacial restraints... sort of like a milky oil with a bunch of iron dust.
the 16 levels greyscale has to do with the magnetics and controllers.... I imagine also that the improved screens on the 505 vs the 500 have a slightly improved "fluid" in the individual cells. This would explain the 5-10% improved contrast.
It is certain that this or a similar technology will get better. It has been made clear that the screen is not white, and neither is a normal mass market paperback, newspaper, etc...
To get back to the original question of why they are so grey... because they are a semi mechanical device that has a mixture of light grey and dark grey particles, that across significant use get even more mixed... most things that are "white" are more like reflective with strong diffusion... and nothing is black. Try finding a good white ink... Most decent oil painters still go back to the old lead oxide. House paint had to move away from that a while ago, and I dobt anyone wants it in our e-ink devices.
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