Apple tablet may be colour e-ink?

[Jim Lester]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I WANT IT!

Not the "color video e-ink." What they were smoking when they thought they saw color video e-ink.

Well they could've stacked up a whole bunch of screens (already rendered), and then use them as a flip book

Originally Posted by badbob

There is a better chance for Apple to come out with a LCD-based tablet device powered by a mini disposable nuclear power cell

Yes mini nuclear batteries would probably make it in first...

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Shaggy

He's basically making things up about what Apple's (mythical) tablet would do. He also clearly doesn't know anything about eInk technology.

eInk video?

To be fair eInk corp. has shown a prototype that can handle video. Though even they admit it's years away from production.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by Elfwreck

I WANT IT!

Not the "color video e-ink." What they were smoking when they thought they saw color video e-ink.

Umm...

[HansTWN]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If Apple is really about tech done right, then why did they release the iPhone and iPod Touch? I especially like the burning iPhones. Those are really right tech.

The iphone is about locking people into Apple services. About having mastered the art of hype while skimping on basics like memory, FM radio, standard bluetooth in favor of a few silly gimmicks. Apple is about giving those who are taken in by the hype a false sense of superiority even though the phone cannot do half what the other phones could do three years ago. And yes, nice looking design.

[fugazied]

Very very far fetched rumor. Apple has been pushing the gaming aspect of the ipod touch so you would think any new tablet would be able to also play those apple store games and use those apps. That means it HAS to be touchscreen and it has to be LCD to perform quick changes on a high res screen.

The money Apple could make from a specialised e-reader friendly device pales compared to the money in movies, games, music which requires a decent res LCD screen.

[carlobee]

Originally Posted by JSWolf

If Apple is really about tech done right, then why did they release the iPhone and iPod Touch? I especially like the burning iPhones. Those are really right tech.

Agreed on this one.

[Donnageddon]

<yawn>

[HarryT]

Sounds perfectly reasonable to me. What better for a "vapourware" device to use than an equally vapourware screen technology?

[sircastor]

Originally Posted by HansTWN

The iphone is about locking people into Apple services. About having mastered the art of hype while skimping on basics like memory, FM radio, standard bluetooth in favor of a few silly gimmicks. Apple is about giving those who are taken in by the hype a false sense of superiority even though the phone cannot do half what the other phones could do three years ago. And yes, nice looking design.

This has always been kind of a funny thing. When the first iPod showed up, there were other PMPs that had more space, more features, and cost less. The same was the case when the iPhone came out, the same has almost always been the case with the Macintosh. Critics always cite "Hype" to be the source of interest. My experience has been that Apple has a talent for putting together technologies in ways that make sense.

Apple wasn't the first to come out with a digital media store, but they were the first company to really make it work. That's why iTunes became popular, and why it rules the market today. Now that the DRM is gone from iTunes, the lock-in is out.

Apple didn't invent the GUI, or the MP3 player, or the smart phone, but they built upon those technologies to make something unique. The iPhone wasn't the first phone with a web browser, but in my opinion it was the first phone with a reasonable one (and I've owned a few). The iPod likewise wasn't the first MP3 player, but the interface made sense, and the package made sense. I think the big competitor at the time was a 20gb mp3 player, and it was bulky and kind of awkward. Apple's product was $100+ more expensive, and people predicted it's failure. But the iPod succeeded because it made sense to people. (Even if it didn't make sense to their pocketbooks)

You might say that Apple's practice is to lock people into their products... but isn't that generally the case with most companies? Microsoft certainly developed a strong ecosystem with Office. Windows and IE put them into a tough position about a decade ago. Red Hat is hoping you'll run your servers with them and as a result, you're reliant on Red Hat to provide support if you need it, and it's bound to be more cost effective to stick with them, than move to something else. (Even just over to CentOS.) Most people can't shell out $300-$500 for an unsubsidized phone, so they buy the subsidized version and are locked in with their provider. Lock-in is a pretty common thing, and Apple is no more locking-in their customers than any other company.

</off-topic tirade>

[juj1n]

here's some new info on the prospective apple tablet.

http://gizmodo.com/5370252/apple-tab...-and-magazines

I have a feeling apple is going to do to ebooks what they did to music. First they'll charge a flat rate for all ebooks. Then they'll change their marketing strategy charging more for the more popular ebooks and 'less' for the not so popular ones. Oh and they'll definitely have their own DRM for ebooks.

[Sonist]

Originally Posted by sircastor

... My experience has been that Apple has a talent for putting together technologies in ways that make sense....
</off-topic tirade>

Yep, you nailed it.

Apple has it's failings, but then there are some who don't have a clue about it's products, or have very limited experience with them, but love bashing them, for being stylish, or feature-poor, or expensive....

The bottom line is, Apple's products do make sense. My previous HTCs could do many things, but in a way which was awkward, and it often felt hacked together. My iPhone on the other hand just works, in a simple, elegant way. So, I like it much better, and actually use more of the features.

If any company can bring ereaders to a broader market, it's Apple. Let's wait and see what happens.

[charleski]

Two years ago, while shooting interviews at e-ink in Cambridge Massachusetts, we saw what was probably the first demonstration of an e-ink display that was in color and supported full motion video.

Is Cringely just making this up? Has video eInk really been demonstrated? The 'video' on the Esquire cover a year ago was rubbish.

eInk, or any technology that relies on physically moving particles, no matter how small, is always going to suffer serious refresh problems.

[Dylrob]

Originally Posted by charleski

Is Cringely just making this up? Has video eInk really been demonstrated? The 'video' on the Esquire cover a year ago was rubbish.

eInk, or any technology that relies on physically moving particles, no matter how small, is always going to suffer serious refresh problems.

Please refer to my earlier post.

[charleski]

Originally Posted by Dylrob

Please refer to my earlier post.

That video is pretty unconvincing.

The polymer display is just flashing a static image on and off. Though it does show that they can accelerate their particles to moderately reasonable velocities, the actual switching rate of individual elements in that demo is not much more than 1fps. I suspect that eInk has problems with the settling time required after a cell has been changed, possibly associated with the need to decelerate the particles and then accelerate them back in the opposite direction. There's a brief glimpse of a screen with a colour section overlaid on top of what looks like a regular eInk display. What's going on there? They don't say, but I do know that there's been research done on integrating eInk and LCD displays.

Finally, that video is over 2 years old. It's strange we haven't heard more about colour video eInk in the meantime, don't you think? So no, I don't think that YouTube clip is proof of colour full-motion video in a product in the next 2-3 years. If Cringely thinks Apple will whip one of of their hat early next year then he needs to lay off the moonshine.

[300com]

I feel that half these articles are written so people delay the purchase of a reader. It can be worth millions to apple if people just "believe" that their tablet/reader is going to be the shiznitz.