New E-Ink

[dbrowdy]

Just came across this tidbit that says there's a new e-ink coming out later this year.

"E Ink's next-generation technology will offer 12:1 contrast ratios (up from 7:1) and refresh rates fast enough to carry basic animations (up from 0.74 second), visible in sunlight.

The screens will ship to partners by Q4, with products arriving next year. "

Sounds promising.

EDIT - Link on that page leads to original article HERE.

[Xanthe]

Thanks for that info.

[George]

Originally Posted by dbrowdy

"E Ink's next-generation technology will offer 12:1 contrast ratios (up from 7:1)

I'm all for the contrast upgrades and would spend the money for a new reader once they get this right. So far I'm really disappointed with my reader even though I still continue to use it.

What would the contrast, in terms of ratio, on the PRS-500 be compared to the PRS-600?

[Ervserver]

seems kinda blah

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by dbrowdy

Just came across this tidbit that says there's a new e-ink coming out later this year.

"E Ink's next-generation technology will offer 12:1 contrast ratios (up from 7:1) and refresh rates fast enough to carry basic animations (up from 0.74 second), visible in sunlight.

The screens will ship to partners by Q4, with products arriving next year. "

Sounds promising.

EDIT - Link on that page leads to original article HERE.

About bloody time e-Ink! Let's just hope it's not vapourware ...

[LDBoblo]

Yeah this has been posted already a while back. I found it interesting that they didn't do any side-by-side with current Vizplex.

What's also amusing is that the details usually provided alongside the video don't actually match those mentioned in the video.

[pboss]

Laggy page turns and crap animations don't really bother me. Improved contrast ratio is much more welcomed and would worth the extra money. Considering power consumption and the effect LCD screens have on your ciradian rythm eInk is clearly the way to go.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by pboss

Laggy page turns and crap animations don't really bother me. Improved contrast ratio is much more welcomed and would worth the extra money. Considering power consumption and the effect LCD screens have on your ciradian rythm eInk is clearly the way to go.

There are more options out there than E-Ink and transmissive LCD. Hopefully in coming months we'll see products displaying a broader range of displays that help eliminate some of the major drawbacks of both.

[SensualPoet]

My sole experience is with the Kindle 2. I don't understand the fuss about "slow" page turns. Faster is better, I suppose; but I actually think some momentary transition is "more natural" than an instant swap. I can certain do with animations of turns though. Sheesh.

[LDBoblo]

Originally Posted by SensualPoet

My sole experience is with the Kindle 2. I don't understand the fuss about "slow" page turns. Faster is better, I suppose; but I actually think some momentary transition is "more natural" than an instant swap. I can certain do with animations of turns though. Sheesh.

Because not everyone uses devices slowly. Try flipping through a 20-page range of text to find a quote. To that end, E-Ink is rubbish. Try quickly skimming through a dozens or even hundreds of pages of a PDF document to find a page with a certain chart. Again, E-Ink is not really sufficient for the task. These are just a couple of simple examples based on reading, without any discussion of other types of media.

E-Ink's speed is a horrible turn-off when considering e-paper devices for academic reading or research. Sure it's understandable that some people have slow reading habits. They won't need speed. But is it really so hard to understand that some people have higher standards?

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Because not everyone uses devices slowly. Try flipping through a 20-page range of text to find a quote. To that end, E-Ink is rubbish. Try quickly skimming through a dozens or even hundreds of pages of a PDF document to find a page with a certain chart. Again, E-Ink is not really sufficient for the task. These are just a couple of simple examples based on reading, without any discussion of other types of media.

E-Ink's speed is a horrible turn-off when considering e-paper devices for academic reading or research. Sure it's understandable that some people have slow reading habits. They won't need speed. But is it really so hard to understand that some people have higher standards?

And you really shouldn't take the 505 to represent the current standard of e-ink. Flipping through dozens of pages is really not a problem with the page turning speed of current devices (an exception still being full page graphics of several 100KB per page and larger). With the right software and a bigger screen size even 2 column scientific/mathematical papers work pretty well. My nephew is working on his PHD in physics and was sending me some of his papers for testing. After zooming away the margins even full page view in portrait is comfortably readable. And half page or two column modes also work fine.

The 505 is a novel reading machine and more than good enough at that. If you demand more than some e-ink devices do deliver that, too. Even layout and typesetting is quite good. Just read PDF books in their original layout. At 8" or 9.7" not really a problem. Fully justified text in Epubs, but I have yet to see a hyphenated word at the edge and no large gaps between the words. The problems I have is font sizes -- the smallest one is ok already, the others are too large. And you do run into occasional words running into each other. I have no idea if that is Epub or bad editing.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by LDBoblo

Because not everyone uses devices slowly. Try flipping through a 20-page range of text to find a quote. To that end, E-Ink is rubbish. Try quickly skimming through a dozens or even hundreds of pages of a PDF document to find a page with a certain chart. Again, E-Ink is not really sufficient for the task. These are just a couple of simple examples based on reading, without any discussion of other types of media.

E-Ink's speed is a horrible turn-off when considering e-paper devices for academic reading or research. Sure it's understandable that some people have slow reading habits. They won't need speed. But is it really so hard to understand that some people have higher standards?

This issue has been discussed in other threads ad nauseum already. E-ink is good for "sequential" reading (e.g. novels, and such), but not that good for reference material where you need to skip pages and passages.
I found with my PRS-900 that the software features of the reader help overcome this issue a great deal:
1. Good ToC support - all my PDF material is so much easier to use now that I can go back to ToC and drill-down through the chapters to where I need to go in a flash.
2. Bookmarks - also easy to use
3. Text search

Of course, I've spoken to people who don't find this good enough, but they also tend to stick to paper books and post it notes for bookmarks and note taking.
Hopefully with the new tech coming out some of these issues will see significant improvements.

[bob1xxx]

That was interesting but I still think the future is going to be some sort of Reflective LCD or possibly Oled screens with non glossy mat finishes (unlike the imax) with better power management/lighter more power lithium batteries will be the wave of the future . E ink is fading, expensive, slow , colorless and its only real advantage is its lower power needs and new papers and magazines are desperate for color digital distributions of their publications which gray scale e ink does not meet.

[m-reader]

Originally Posted by bob1xxx

... and its only real advantage is its lower power

In my books another big advantage of eInk is that it's not back-lit.

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by bob1xxx

That was interesting but I still think the future is going to be some sort of Reflective LCD or possibly Oled screens with non glossy mat finishes (unlike the imax) with better power management/lighter more power lithium batteries will be the wave of the future . E ink is fading, expensive, slow , colorless and its only real advantage is its lower power needs and new papers and magazines are desperate for color digital distributions of their publications which gray scale e ink does not meet.

Of course, high end e-ink will be replaced by a suitable color technology (perhaps even color e-ink) in the next few years. But the reader for $50 with gray scale screen will be swamping the novel reader markets. And e-ink is taking over some other usages, for signs and inventory tags, for example. Signs that only need power when the message changes. You can have a separate device that is attached only when you want to change.