Kobo H2O Specs released

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by eschwartz

Thank you Mr. Sensitivity. In some places in the world you can be arrested and maybe even killed based on what you have on your ereader. We should be grateful we don't live there, not scornful of their problems.

Exactly. I can't imagine what having a copy of the Bible in certain areas would mean for the longevity of your life. Or a copy of the Koran. Or a copy of Mein Kampf. Or some book with "objectionable morality" according to your current government.

There are many scary books to have if you live in the right (wrong) place, so security of your reading material is a legitimate concern in my opinion.

[Dr. Drib]

Moderator Notice

A gentle reminder only: Please stick to the topic of the thread's title.

Thank you for your understanding.

[PeterT]

[Canuck_in_Japan]

Originally Posted by crich70

Actually though I can't answer for other e-readers the Kindle does have a password feature. I myself use a passcode on my PaperWhite. It's numerical and even if you just use 4 #'s there are a good many combo's on a number pad that has 1-9 plus 0 on it so that it would take anyone some time to work out what combo was being used.

That's about 10,000 combinations if my high school stats is correct. If it took 5 seconds per try that would be 14 hours.

[Anthem]

A weird thing about the Aura H2O is that they docked the screen resolution by 10 pixels vs. the regular Aura HD: 1440x1080 vs. 1430x1080...

What the heck is that all about?

I also think that it is interesting that they call it "Tablet grade resolution". While that may be true, I have yet to view an e-ink screen of any variety by any manufacturer that really floored me. And yet, this happened to me with the current generation of LCD screens.

Just anecdotal, I know, but still.

[Barty]

Originally Posted by Anthem

A weird thing about the Aura H2O is that they docked the screen resolution by 10 pixels vs. the regular Aura HD: 1440x1080 vs. 1430x1080...

What the heck is that all about?

I also think that it is interesting that they call it "Tablet grade resolution". While that may be true, I have yet to view an e-ink screen of any variety by any manufacturer that really floored me. And yet, this happened to me with the current generation of LCD screens.

Just anecdotal, I know, but still.

Their previous screen was pearl. This one is carta. Other than that, who knows. Btw, I think the pw2 also has a funky unusual resolution.

Apple alone sold 50 million iphone in q4 2013. Now many eink readers have been sold ever? The amount of r and d money in lcd dwarfs that of eink. Eink may also have reached its limit.

[mbovenka]

Originally Posted by Barty

Eink may also have reached its limit.

Nope. A 2400x1650 300 dpi 9.7" Pearl screen assembly exists, but AFAIK, nobody uses it.

[hardcastle]

This is a pretty cool product. It's the sort of "listening to consumers" approach that eReaders need if they're a sagging market.

[Barty]

I meant limit in term of refresh rate and bit depth, which haven't changed much. The resolution as I understand it can always go higher because eink does not have pixel in the usual sense, or at least the number of addressable pixels is very high. They just need to have the requisite controller.

It doesn't mean we won't see ANY improvements. In just mean we're not likely to see a breakthrough that'll make it a viable alternative display for general devices.

Btw, lcd has also pretty much reached its limit too. That's why there is a lot of excitement around OLED, which people are hoping will supplant lcd.

[Lynx-lynx]

Originally Posted by PeterT

That's a fun approach way to introduce a new product

I find it strange though that he doesn't look into the camera until the camera rolls back and the women pop up out of the water.

It gave me an odd feeling because he wasn't looking directly at me, the intended audience.

[JSWolf]

Originally Posted by Barty

Btw, lcd has also pretty much reached its limit too. That's why there is a lot of excitement around OLED, which people are hoping will supplant lcd.

There's eventually going to be LCD that will work much much better in sunlight then what we have now. That will be a big breakthrough.

[Anthem]

Originally Posted by Barty

The amount of r and d money in lcd dwarfs that of eink.

It shows. I love e-ink, but it shows.

[DNSB]

Originally Posted by Barty

I meant limit in term of refresh rate and bit depth, which haven't changed much. The resolution as I understand it can always go higher because eink does not have pixel in the usual sense, or at least the number of addressable pixels is very high. They just need to have the requisite controller.

It doesn't mean we won't see ANY improvements. In just mean we're not likely to see a breakthrough that'll make it a viable alternative display for general devices.

Btw, lcd has also pretty much reached its limit too. That's why there is a lot of excitement around OLED, which people are hoping will supplant lcd.

Would not each of the capsules in the eInk screen be a pixel (picture element)? Just to make it more fun, an eInk screen needs 25% to 33% of the elements that an LCD screen needs (one capsule per pixel vs. the 3-4 elements needed for red, green, blue and in some cases, yellow for the LCD pixel) for the same DPI. So an 300dpi eInk screen would need to address 90,000 elements per square inch while an equivalent LCD/OLED screen would need to address at least 270,000 elements.

On the other hand, since eInk uses physical movement of the pigments, I can't see the speed of an eInk screen ever getting close to that of OLED screens. Milliseconds vs. microseconds.

Regards,
David