How about spreading a word about e-ink?

[Neru]

Good day, I was reading 'are eink devices a niche product?' and I was thinking if it's because with e-ink You could only read e-books? (while there are other products that uses e-ink i'm writing about devices like e-readers, computer monitors and other stuff that we use a lot).

What I mean is that they are too slow for comfortable web browsing or video watching or other things that we use every day.
Now who would want watch videos, surf the web or do stuff with e-ink screen? People with bad eyes (who don't want to get them even worse) and those who needs to sit and look at the screen all day because of their work or hobby.

Why haven't we seen e-ink devices for everyday use that is currently in sale?
Is it because companies (or other people who are able to make e-ink devices) are thinking that no one needs it?
So in short- how about spreading a word to the world that we need more e-ink devices like monitors, phones, e readers, ect.? I know that this is abstract and silly, and while I don't think that this would get any direct results like companies and kickstarters releasing more e-ink devices but at least this would get more people talking about this topic.

What are You thinking about this stuff? Would be intresting to know as my knowledge is small about this, thanks for reading.

[HarryT]

There are a lot of devices with eInk screens on the market. The only reason you perhaps think they're only used for readers is because readers are what interest you. There are eInk phones, watches, advertising displays, and all sorts of other things on the market.

[theducks]

Way back around 2010-11 someone posted that someone had done (slow) video on e-ink.

1) the displays are expensive (relatively) for their size
2) Color is even more expensive
3) Slow
4) Some folk can't get past the black 'flash'
5) Week long battery life with Greyscale has little marketing flare.

I think there are many applications where stingy battery usage would be an advantage. The issue is CHEAP, always wins (for consumer products. Remember the $400 Toilet seat?)

[cvkemp]

I read my books with e-ink, I will not read for more than 15 minutes at a time on a tablet or computer screen it hurts my eyes. But I can read for hours using my Kindle voyage.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I will not read for more than 15 minutes at a time on a tablet or computer screen it hurts my eyes.

Have you visited an optician? In all seriousness, there's something very wrong if looking at a computer screen for 15 minutes makes your eyes hurt. I really would seek professional advice.

[cvkemp]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you visited an optician? In all seriousness, there's something very wrong if looking at a computer screen for 15 minutes makes your eyes hurt. I really would seek professional advice.

I am 69 and my eyes are not what they were, and I use to sat in front of a computer screen 10 or more hours a day for so many years. I also have to set the screen very bright to see it. So yes I do have eye problems and they are being controlled the best they can.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I also have to set the screen very bright to see it. So yes I do have eye problems and they are being controlled the best they can.

Isn't it contrast that determines how easy a screen is to read, rather than just brightness? As someone with very poor eyesight myself, I appreciate your problem, but turning the brightness up on an LCD screen really isn't the way to solve it. Staring into a bright light for hours at a time would be painful for anyone! I read on both my Kindle and my iPad, and have the light set to a fairly low level on both.

[cvkemp]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Isn't it contrast that determines how easy a screen is to read, rather than just brightness? As someone with very poor eyesight myself, I appreciate your problem, but turning the brightness up on an LCD screen really isn't the way to solve it. Staring into a bright light for hours at a time would be painful for anyone! I read on both my Kindle and my iPad, and have the light set to a fairly low level on both.

I normally do not use my computer in a lighted room so I can turn down the brightness. But I have found that the IPad is much better for my eyes than a normal computer screen. And to be honest MS windows is the worst that I have found for me.
I have not tried a Mac so I really do not know about them. But if the Mac laptops use the same screens that a IPad uses then I it should be much better for me.

[HarryT]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I normally do not use my computer in a lighted room so I can turn down the brightness. But I have found that the IPad is much better for my eyes than a normal computer screen. And to be honest MS windows is the worst that I have found for me.
I have not tried a Mac so I really do not know about them. But if the Mac laptops use the same screens that a IPad uses then I it should be much better for me.

As I say, I do sympathise. Perhaps worth trying high-contrast displays rather than turning the brightness up.

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

Have you visited an optician? In all seriousness, there's something very wrong if looking at a computer screen for 15 minutes makes your eyes hurt. I really would seek professional advice.

I have the same problem. I can read 15 minutes, sometimes even 20 minutes, with no problem. Much longer and I can't read for a while.

I've discussed this with ophthalmologists at length. It's something they're very aware of. There's a big difference in reading on an LCD screen and doing other things on them.

I was a computer programmer long before computers hand screens but when they got them I started having to deal with eyestrain issues. Nothing serious. Nothing I couldn't deal with. But too much intense staring into the screen would give me eyestrain. As a programmer that was mostly pretty easy to avoid. When I was thinking I'd look away or close my eyes. Actually most of the time I was programming wasn't spent gazing into the screen anyway. Only certain tasks did that. Designing a user interface was a sometimes example.

Reading, on the other hand, is staring straight into the screen, almost unblinkingly, for extended periods. That's more than I can handle. I'm careful to adjust the brightness as low as is comfortable. Reverse modes help a little but I prefer black text on a light background so I read that way for short times. I read on my phone 10 or 15 minutes at a time every day, many times a day. If I try it for 30 minutes I can't read at all on any device for a few hours.

I'm just about to turn 76 so it would seem age might have something to do with this but really it's something I was aware of in my 40's. Maybe earlier.

I started reading ebooks in the early 1990s, mostly on an HP 95lx with a non-backlit LCD screen. It was no problem at all. When I tried it on my PC I had problems. When I got a Palm 3x with a non-backlit screen that was fine. Then the Palm 3c with a backlight gave me problems.

Fortunately a lot of people aren't bothered much by this. I recently lent a Nook HD to a neighbor for reading and she says she reads 4 or 5 hours a day on it and it doesn't bother her a bit. There's just no way I could do that. She's a couple years older than I am. A lot of people read on backlit LCD devices. A lot of people can't do it easily.

Barry

[barryem]

Originally Posted by HarryT

As I say, I do sympathise. Perhaps worth trying high-contrast displays rather than turning the brightness up.

When I have to read something lengthy on my PC I either use a Chrome high contrast plugin or I reverse the text. That helps but really the easy way for me is to send it to my Kindle.

Barry

[Neru]

There are a lot of devices with eInk screens on the market. The only reason you perhaps think they're only used for readers is because readers are what interest you. There are eInk phones, watches, advertising displays, and all sorts of other things on the market.

You are right, mostly I'm interested in readers and monitors. And phones also (but there are only so much that it's hard to find it. And for monitors we only have dasung for now) but it's not about what only interests me but its about spreading sthis stuff about how we need more progression in e-ink technology (to be more precise to do this we would need a lot of other e-reader and eink devices forums and communities help to gather information on what people want, then writing something like a big petition (I think that its one of most official things to collect opinion in one place from people?) and then when a lot of people says their opinion that they agree it needs spreading online- like asking news sites, blogs, forums to post this as news (I think that really a lot of sites would agree to post this petition(lets say its petition) stuff about how we want e readers, because it already would be people doing something and news sites, blogs, ect. are interested in this.

Way back around 2010-11 someone posted that someone had done (slow) video on e-ink.

1) the displays are expensive (relatively) for their size
2) Color is even more expensive
3) Slow
4) Some folk can't get past the black 'flash'
5) Week long battery life with Greyscale has little marketing flare.

I think there are many applications where stingy battery usage would be an advantage. The issue is CHEAP, always wins (for consumer products. Remember the $400 Toilet seat?)

Exactly, thats why we need better and cheaper technology- its 5-6 years already and still not much improvement in speed (I mean page turn speed improved but still no good for surfing and videos). So more people will talk about this stuff, more people will do some research about it.


About eyestrain- there also are whole lot of people who is not even 20 years and has problems that they can't read for long (me included). For some of them it's not that they can't read for more than half hour because eyes hurts but after lets say month they can already notice that their eyesight has gone a little bit worse and each year for about -0.5 or more (after using computer for about 2 hours a day) -what optican say's- to use computer for even less time or not ise it at all, it's not like they can do anything to stop this (at least for now).

[Barty]

Originally Posted by cvkemp

I normally do not use my computer in a lighted room so I can turn down the brightness. But I have found that the IPad is much better for my eyes than a normal computer screen. And to be honest MS windows is the worst that I have found for me.
I have not tried a Mac so I really do not know about them. But if the Mac laptops use the same screens that a IPad uses then I it should be much better for me.

I'm guessing here that the iPad has better contrast and higher dots per inch than the PC monitor you are using.

You can also increase font size in Windows

http://www.pcworld.com/article/24294...font_size.html

[crich70]

Originally Posted by HarryT

There are a lot of devices with eInk screens on the market. The only reason you perhaps think they're only used for readers is because readers are what interest you. There are eInk phones, watches, advertising displays, and all sorts of other things on the market.

And some games even work on eink reading devices. I know because I have a few of the games that Amazon put out for on the keyboard and Paperwhite.

[crich70]

Originally Posted by Neru

About eyestrain- there also are whole lot of people who is not even 20 years and has problems that they can't read for long (me included). For some of them it's not that they can't read for more than half hour because eyes hurts but after lets say month they can already notice that their eyesight has gone a little bit worse and each year for about -0.5 or more (after using computer for about 2 hours a day) -what optican say's- to use computer for even less time or not ise it at all, it's not like they can do anything to stop this (at least for now).

And in an appearance on Charlie Rose back when one of the newer kindles was coming out Jeff Bezos pointed out that a back lit monitor (such as what we use on our computers) is like trying to read with a flashlight shining in our eyes. That's why eye strain is often less on eink (no overly bright light from behind the screen). Hence often less eye strain.