Mirasol Displays Coming to an eReader Near You, in 2011

[brbubba]

Originally Posted by screwballl

To me this is another thing to confuse people further in a market with already too many devices... There are 2 main things going against this first gen type of device:
1) if it is built as primarily a reader, people will be disappointed expecting a cheap tablet/ipad...
2) if it is released as a multipurpose device, people will be disappointed as it would not have the speed, power or capability of the ipad or tablet style laptop.

Couldn't agree more and CES 2011 seems to be all about the tablet device. And ereaders in the $300 to $400 range are competing with tablets, which is an absurd proposition. As we see prices on those tablets fall they are going to eat the higher end ereaders alive.

[toronado]

Anyone know anything about "front-lighting"? This CR article mentions it:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/ele...colorwise.html

Sounds like a great way to have your cake and eat it too. A reflective display that isn't backlit, but with a built-in light source that lets you use it in dark environments without using an external light source sounds like the ultimate eReader.

[snipenekkid]

Originally Posted by toronado

Anyone know anything about "front-lighting"? This CR article mentions it:
http://blogs.consumerreports.org/ele...colorwise.html

Sounds like a great way to have your cake and eat it too. A reflective display that isn't backlit, but with a built-in light source that lets you use it in dark environments without using an external light source sounds like the ultimate eReader.

Sony tried it and wiff'd the design. Maybe they just had the wrong display type to make it work..hard to say. But one thing is due to the laws of physics revolving light falloff being an inverse square relationship, it makes it hard to evenly light the display. Then add to it the difficulty in illuminating the display w/o blasting the light into the user's eyes and you have a tricky problem.

Honestly the best option is a much improved transflective LED/LCD panel that is vastly more efficient in reflecting the light back in transflective mode than the older displays used in PDA's that could be used in sunshine by simply turning off the backlight. My old PDA used this sort of panel and it worked very well though I never did read for long periods outside simply because it was not quite bright enough. I think this was the goal of Mary-Lou Jepson and her Pixel Qi displays. This first generation is not quite there as the examples we have seen are not strong as really good displays when the back light is on and they are also not as good in direct sun as any of the EPD displays (think eink brand display panels.) Still over all the Pixel Qi is a nice option for a more flexible device that can be used under more conditions compared to the very limited EPD type technology.

[Fastolfe]

Originally Posted by OrcaBlue

Here are some photos of the Mirasol diplay.

http://www.engadget.com/2011/01/07/mirasol-equipped-qualcomm-reference-tablet-hands-on/

This has a potential to be a very good for reading and web surfing.

At least *they* aren't afraid of Huck Finn

[murraypaul]

Originally Posted by markbot

Imagine 5 years in the future how this technology is going to be. A basic black/white ereader will be $99 or less and color ereaders with extra features like touch and video capabilities will be under $199....larger versions perhaps $299. To put this in perspective, just one college textbook can cost $199. This color ereader should replace all college text book. The only reason it wouldn't is due to the publishers.

You still have to buy the books, and the eBook versions would probably cost $249, based on what we've seen so far!

[markbot]

Originally Posted by murraypaul

You still have to buy the books, and the eBook versions would probably cost $249, based on what we've seen so far!

I'm assuming that the prices would be lower on the ebooks since there is no printing and transport cost. I believe they would be. Although this cuts off the used book market.

[markbot]

Cnet had article on mirasol today.
http://reviews.cnet.com/8301-18438_7-20028028-82.html

[Daithi]

Nice article markbot. I also have to say I'm becoming a little disillusioned with Mirasol. In terms of a black & white eReader the 6" screen is great because it is roughly the same size as a paperback. However, this is too small for a color device. Paper based media that displays color images tend to be much larger. They tend to be magazines, textbooks, cookbooks, books displaying art, etc. and an eReader with a 10" screen is far more appropriate. Yet the article from CNET indicates that Qualcomm has no intention of producing a large screen version for at least a year. The article also mentions that there doesn't seem to be much progress from what was displayed last year, no product using the screens was being announced, and there wasn't even a Mirasol booth as it was just lumped in with the Qualcomm booth. I guess I was expecting a little more. I'm also starting to fear that I smell the whiff of Plastic Logic.

I remember when I read about Mirasol last year and I envisioned that by this year's CES they would be displaying a 10" eReader, maybe using the Android operating system, and with the potential to work as a Tablet. I envisioned that not all the kinks would be worked out, but that by the end of 2011 or start of 2012 they would have something I couldn't wait to get my hands on. Like I said, I'm a little disappointed.

[pboss]

Thanks for the article. I just want to see one of these screens in real life. If it pans out like I think it will, just let me put Mirasol in my Kindle and I promise I won't buy another ereader for 12 months!

[Dulin's Books]

Daithi,

Its not going to go poof like the Que. They didnt announce a device partner because the device simply wasnt ready yet. It wouldn't have been fair to announce it but have only not quite working devices to show.

Qualcomm has just started the build of the new factory solely for producing Mirasol displays, investing nearly a billion dollars to do so and have said which plant will be building the displays until the factory is complete. Qualcomm is totally behind them now.

[Daithi]

Originally Posted by Dulin's Books

Daithi,

Its not going to go poof like the Que. They didnt announce a device partner because the device simply wasnt ready yet. It wouldn't have been fair to announce it but have only not quite working devices to show.

Qualcomm has just started the build of the new factory solely for producing Mirasol displays, investing nearly a billion dollars to do so and have said which plant will be building the displays until the factory is complete. Qualcomm is totally behind them now.

I'm not saying they are abondoning the Mirasol technology altogether. I'm just saying that they aren't progressing as quickly as I'd like -- hey, I can be a demanding customer. Mirasol has a lot of potential, but they can't wait too long in getting it to market (and small screen devices aren't going to cut it either).

Last year their rep. implied they were partnering with Amazon and would soon release a color Kindle.

This year their rep. says Qualcomm will "not be developing any larger screen sizes this year." (And no mention of Amazon)

Not to mention that it has been a year and it doesn't look like much progress has been made (ala Plastic Logic). Just saying I'm not as enamoured with Mirasol as I was a year ago, and I'm a bit disappointed with their CES showing this year.

[brbubba]

They better get that price down on the Mirasol or it's going to be dead in the water. I think one of the articles I saw had it at a $400 or $500 price point. And as I stated in another thread, should the iPad ever get a retina display it's all over at that price point and of course now there are rumors that the next iPad will indeed get a retina display.

[toronado]

Originally Posted by brbubba

They better get that price down on the Mirasol or it's going to be dead in the water. I think one of the articles I saw had it at a $400 or $500 price point. And as I stated in another thread, should the iPad ever get a retina display it's all over at that price point and of course now there are rumors that the next iPad will indeed get a retina display.

Actually I think the iPad 2 is getting "higher" resolution, which is great, but not the "retina" resolution of the iPhone 4, which would be epic, but probably cost-prohibitive at this point. Either way it'll still be a backlit display which is not ideal for long reading sessions.

Still, whatever it is, it's going to be better than the current screen, especially if they work out some sort of anti-glare solution while still keeping the viewing angles at IPS levels.

[roc]

Originally Posted by Polyglot27

Archos did put out an update to 2.2 Froyo before Christmas. It had a bug that prevented connection to wi-fi (of all the stupid things) but even that was corrected in a firmware update just before New Year's day. My Archos 70 IT now runs quite fast. You should check the updates on the Archos site.

Thanks, but, unfortunately, there have been no such updates for the Archos 5 IT since Sept 13/2.0.38.

[toronado]

News on front lighting:
http://www.the-digital-reader.com/20...about-mirasol/