Archive for the ‘Color eReaders’ Category
Mirasol-based ereader launched in Korea no comments
Kyobo Book Centre, Korea’s largest bookseller, has launched a new color ereader utilizing Qualcomm’s mirasol display. 
Unlike LCD displays, mirasol display technology is reflective rather than backlit and therefore has the potential to be used in color ereaders and tablets that are easier on the eyes than those with LCD displays. Sunlight is also no enemy of mirasol, which is completely viewable under bright lighting conditions. Like other reflective display technologies, mirasol also enjoys excellent battery life.
The Kyobo e-Reader features a 5.7-inch mirasol touchscreen display in XGA format (1024 x 768) with a resolution of 223 ppi. The new ereader runs a customized version of Android 2.3 on Qualcomm’s 1.0 GHz Snapdragon S2 processor.
Size of the device is 6.85 x 4.68 x .51 inches and it weighs just under 12 ounces. Slightly smaller and a couple of ounces lighter than the Kindle Fire.
The Kyobo e-Reader is priced at KRW349,000 ($310 USD), with discounts for members of Kyobo’s loyalty program. Kyobo’s ebookstore currently has around 90,000 titles.
Last year there was speculation that Amazon or another large player would launch a color ereader with a mirasol display, which of course didn’t happen. The last mirasol demos I saw were at SID 2011 and included a number of simulated ereading apps. I was rather disappointed by the readability; most of the demos I had seen prior to that concentrated on mirasol’s skills at displaying color images. Indeed, shortly after SID, Qualcomm canceled plans for a mirasol-based ereader that probably would have been out by now. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs said at the time that he was not happy using the then current generation of mirasol in the planned ereader.
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Delta to begin production of QR-LPD color epaper this year? no comments
You may remember QR-LPD (quick response liquid powder display), the color epaper display developed by Bridgestone under the brand name AeroBee and to be used in color ereaders manufactured and marketed by Delta Electronics? There were reports a few months ago that Delta had shelved plans to release a QR-LPD based ereader but would continue its R&D efforts on the technology.
Today the Taiwan Economic News is reporting (based on reports by a Japanese news agency) that Delta and Bridgestone now plan to go ahead with production of QR-LPD epaper displays in a variety of sizes by the end of the year. According to the report, an 8.2-inch display will be used in an ereader that will be the first to feature Chinese handwriting recognition.
I remember being less than impressed with the QR-LPD prototypes that Delta had on display at CES. The page refresh rate seemed much too slow to me for use in an ereader — hopefully Delta has been able to improve this. Otherwise I would imagine that the display has more potential for success in the signage and advertising industries.
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PocketBook unveils new reader tablet no comments
PocketBook International is introducing a new color reading tablet at IFA 2011 in Berlin. The new tablet, dubbed the PocketBook A 10, features a 10-inch TFT screen and runs Android 2.3.4.
Some of the features of the PocketBook A 10:
- 10-inch TFT display; 1024 x 768 resolution; Multitouch capacitive touchscreen.
- Processor: TI OMAP 3621 – 1GHz.
- Memory: 4GB; MicroSD card slot (up to 32GB).
- Dimensions: 207 x 244 x 15 mm (8.15 x 9.6 x .6 inches); Weight is 670 g (23.6 ounces).
- Battery life is around 6 hours or slightly more, depending on usage.
- Plays music (MP3, WAV) and video (AVI, MKV, MP4).
- Built-in accelerometer.
- Connectivity: Wi-Fi, Bluetooth, optional 3G.
- Internet browser and email client.
- Text-to-Speech function.
- Microphone; 2Mp front-facing webcam.
The PocketBook A 10 has a black and white casing. The back is not flat but has a raised portion that is designed to make the tablet more ergonomic. The TTS feature supports multiple languages and the A 10 comes with 47 built-in dictionaries for definition and translation. The release from PocketBook says that the tablet will have access to the Android Market, but since the A 10 is running Gingerbread I’m not sure how that will work. Pricing TBA.
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New Pandigital Nova ereader/tablet at Best Buy no comments
Best Buy is listing a new reading tablet from Pandigital. The Nova features a 7-inch LCD touchscreen (600 x 800 resolution) and runs Android 2.3. 
As with the other Pandigital ereaders, the Barnes & Noble Nook ebookstore is integrated. The Pandigital Nova is priced at $169.99 and is currently shown as expected to ship in 1-2 weeks.
Some of the Nova ereader’s other features:
- MicroSD card slot.
- Mini USB 2.0 port.
- Wi-Fi (802/11b/g/n).
- 4GB internal memory.
- Dimensions: 7.6 x 5.25 x .5 inches; weighs 13.8 ounces.
Update: The Nova is one of three new 7-inch tablets from Pandigital. The other two run Android 2.2 and are named the Planet and the Star. Pandigital also says it will announce a fourth tablet in September.
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Fujitsu demos newest color epaper no comments
Fujitsu showed off the latest version of its color epaper at the International Digital Publishing Forum last week. The display appears to be faster and the colors more vibrant than previous versions. The prototype is also thinner and lighter than the displays previously used in Fujitsu’s FLEPia color ereaders. Fujitsu is now using Linux rather than Windows to operate the display.
The video below is from DigInfo TV.
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Qualcomm takes Mirasol ereader back to the drawing board no comments
Pocket-lint is reporting that Qualcomm has canceled an ereader product using
the Mirasol display that was planned for this year. Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs is quoted as saying that he wasn’t happy with the product and decided not to launch it with the current generation of Mirasol. Jacobs also said that the planned device was “a low volume ereader product,” which I’m interpreting as meaning it would have been quite expensive.
Qualcomm is continuing work on the technology and hopefully we will see devices using an improved version of this low-powered reflective color display, but that’s not likely this year.
Most of the prototypes I’ve seen were flaunting the Mirasol display’s prowess at showing color images, but at SID 2011 I got a good look at a Mirasol demo running an ebook simulation. It did seem to me that while Mirasol’s reflective color display is quite good at color graphics, it is not as good as e-ink for reading ebooks.
This bit of news probably lends more credence to the rumors that Amazon is using an LCD screen for a forthcoming tablet.
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SID 2011 no comments
The Society of Information Display International Symposium (SID) was held in Los Angeles this year and I got to spend a couple of hours exploring the exhibits. There were, as should be expected, quite a lot of tablet and ereader related display technologies on display at this year’s exhibition.
Mirasol
Qualcomm provided its Mirasol booth with a number of demonstration units at SID. This included the demo unit shown in the photos below that was connected to a multimeter to demonstrate its low power consumption.
Most of the videos you see of the Mirasol display are showing off its ability to display color images. At SID Mirasol also had a demo running a video loop of an ebook reading app that I caught on video.
As you are no doubt aware by now, the Mirasol display technology was originally inspired by the iridescence in nature of such things as butterfly wings and the feathers of peacocks. There is in fact a bit of an iridescent quality that is noticeable in the display. This slight metallic sheen is much more apparent to me when the demos I’ve come across are showing pages of text rather than color pictures.
Based on the demonstration units I’ve seen, I’m thinking that Mirasol may not be quite as good for ereading as e-ink displays are, though it will be far easier on the eyes than a backlit LCD screen. Of course it is hard to form an opinion with only limited viewing time on demo displays running video clips. We will have to wait for an actual finished product to see for sure. The reps at the Mirasol booth were quite confident that tablets and/or ereaders with Mirasol displays will be on store shelves by the end of the year, so we shouldn’t have long to wait.
E Ink Holdings
E Ink Holdings had the higher resolution epaper announced a few weeks ago on display. These were just static displays and I could not see any page turns. This is basically a Pearl display with a higher resolution backplane, which results in almost twice the resolution of the standard Pearl display. It is very good for viewing schematics and intricate line drawings. The photo below shows the two prototypes E Ink had on display.
You may recall a few weeks ago there was another rumor concerning the much speculated about Amazon Kindle Tablet? According to this particular rumor Amazon has placed orders for tablets to be manufactured by Quanta Computer. These tablets are said to make use of the FFS LCD display from Hydis, 
which is a division of E Ink Holdings.
This beauty was on display at the E Ink booth as well. The Hydis display has very vivid colors and comes in a variety of sizes. To the right are a couple of shots of a 7-inch Hydis panel. The color banding is from my camera.
This display would indeed make for a gorgeous tablet.
Samsung
Before SID began Samsung announced a new tablet display, an ultra-high resolution 10.1-inch WQXGA PenTile RGBW screen with a resolution of 2560 x 1600. This screen uses 40 percent less power than legacy RGB stripe LCD displays. Comparing this display with the Hydis above, the Hydis FFA LCD seems to have the lusher colors, while the PenTile provides an exceedingly sharp image.
Samsung also had a 10.1 inch WXGA MEMS display at SID. This is the world’s largest MEMS display. Not sure if it will be coming to a tablet anytime soon, but it was impressive.
The photo below shows the PenTile screen on the left and the MEMS on the right.
Samsung also had a few demos of the reflective electrowetting display technology that came with its acquisition of Liquavista. In addition to a demo of the color electrowetting display, Samsung also had a couple of black and white lower frequency displays that sip even less power for applications where color or video are not needed. Liquavista’s display technology has the potential to be very power efficient by combining intelligent power management with the ability to dynamically adjust the frame rate depending on the requirements of the content being shown.
When I asked the Samsung reps when we might see products shipping with their electrowetting displays they really didn’t seem to have any idea, but the consensus seemed to be sometime next year. Personally, I’ve always liked this color display. The colors are not as vibrant as some of the competition, but it looks more paper-like to me — kind of like an older comic book.
Ricoh Color ePaper
Okay, I didn’t get to see this one. Ricoh’s press release says that they
introduced the technology at SID, but I don’t think there were actually any prototypes on display — Ricoh didn’t have a booth at the exhibition.
At any rate, the display Ricoh is working on looks interesting, though it looks like it will be some time before the technology can be used in something like an ereading tablet. The company has been working on this since at least 2009, when it developed the world’s first new organic electrochromic material that is capable of producing the three primary colors cyan, magenta and yellow.
Ricoh says that it has achieved color displays in still images that are 2.5 times brighter and have four times the color reproduction range of other color epaper technologies. Some other features include lower manufacturing cost than competing forms of epaper; the capability to be used on flexible plastic substrates; it also sounds as if this will be a bistable display — does not use power except when refreshing the screen — and so will be very power efficient.
Something to hopefully see at next year’s CES. The picture is from Ricoh, and you can read more of the details of how Ricoh’s epaper works here.
Below is a short video I made that shows a few of the displays mentioned above. Please note that the rather bad color banding in the MEMS display is the fault of my video camera, which also does not do close-ups very well — the text in the Mirasol display really is much better than my video shows. Also, that is not me in the background complaining because the electrowetting display has no backlight 
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Bridgestone/Delta color epaper news no comments
You may recall the QR-LPD color reflective display created by Bridgestone and to be marketed by Delta Electronics. Digitimes is reporting today that Delta, in spite of having invested up to over $100 million on epaper production facilities at its Taiwanese plants, will hold off on bringing an ereader using the technology to market.
According to the article, Delta will continue its epaper R&D program but will focus on larger format epaper displays for periodicals and signage. The main reason cited in Delta’s decision is the negative impact tablets have had on dedicated ereader sales (presumably this is referring to the Chinese market).
I have not been overly impressed by the QR-LPD displays I’ve seen at CES. The screen refresh on the demos I’ve seen in person and in videos has been too slow, resulting in page turns that are too slow and distracting to make an effective ereader. The touchscreens of the units I saw at CES 2011 also seemed to be not very responsive, although that may have been software or hardware problems unrelated to Bridgestone’s display technology.
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New Amazon tablet rumor no comments
Another day, another Amazon tablet rumor. Today’s buzz is somewhat more creditable-sounding — to me at least. DigiTimes is reporting that Quanta Computer, the largest ODM notebook manufacturer in the world, has received orders from Amazon for a tablet PC.
According to the report, Amazon’s tablet will feature an FFS LCD touchscreen from E Ink Holdings’ Hydis division. Like the IPS LCD display of the iPad, FFS (now usually known as AFFS — Advanced Fringe Field Switching) technology enables a wider field of view than a normal LCD. According to the Hydis website an AFFS LCD display is also capable of being readable outside in bright sunlight.
Digitimes sources report that Quanta is expected to start shipping the new tablet as soon as the second half of this year. The report goes on to say that E Ink has recently been trying to book up the production capacity of a Taiwanese small to medium size panel maker, which would add veracity to the story.
This could be just another rumor, but the fact that this type of LCD can at least be read out of doors does add some credibility, even though it is still a backlit display. From what I’ve seen I like Mirasol as a color display for the Kindle Tablet, but perhaps Amazon just does not feel it can afford to wait until Mirasol or another suitable non-backlit display can go into mass production.
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Intel invests in Kno no comments
It had seemed that the interesting but expensive Kno tablets were
DOA, confirming the skepticism they were frequently met with. Now it seems that Intel Capital has made a $20 million investment in the startup. So apparently Kno, the company, will live on in some form. While the Kno tablets looked quite good, especially for the educational market they were aimed at, it always seemed doubtful they could compete at the announced prices.
There were reports a couple of months ago that Kno was planning to sell its tablet hardware business and to then concentrate on its software. The press release below from Intel Capital appears to confirm this. The Kno website has been replaced with a simple page proclaiming “We’re unveiling something new.”
The Kno Blog has not been updated for almost three months.
The press release:
Intel Capital invests $20 million in Kno.
- Intel and Kno to work together to optimize Kno’s touch-based applications for Intel’s educational platforms.
- Intel continues strong support of 1:1 eLearning environments.
SANTA CLARA, Calif.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–Intel Capital, Intel Corporation’s global investment organization, today announced a $20 million investment in Kno Inc., an education software company. The investment is part of a $30 million Series-C round led by Intel Capital, which includes participation from Andreessen Horowitz, Advance Publications, First Round Capital, FLOODGATE and SV Angels. Kno will use the funding to develop its innovative educational software solutions for multiple platforms, including Intel® architecture.
“Intel® AtomTM processors and the underlying technologies are well-suited for Kno’s touch-based applications, and provide the power-efficient performance and responsiveness today’s students have come to expect from tablets.”
Kno, short for knowledge, is an education software company on a mission to make learning engaging, effective and social for students. The companies will work together to address the growing interactive and 1:1 student learning environments by exploring opportunities to make Kno’s touch-based applications available for Intel’s educational platforms.
“The increasing consumption of digital content has primed the textbook market for disruption, creating an exciting opportunity for technology innovation to fundamentally change the way 1.4 billion students globally learn,” said Arvind Sodhani, president of Intel Capital and Intel executive vice president. “Kno’s purpose-built education tablet, along with its unique software solution, delivers a learning experience that directly supports Intel’s 1:1 eLearning vision.”
"Intel and Kno have a shared goal of accelerating the global education technology market so we are very pleased to have Intel Capital’s support," said Osman Rashid, CEO and co-founder, Kno Inc. "Kno’s software makes learning more engaging, effective and social for students, which we believe has the power to transform how students learn."
“Intel technology is increasingly becoming a favorite in devices for consumers as well as vertical industries like education,” said Bill Kircos, marketing general manager, Intel Netbook and Tablet Group. “Intel® AtomTM processors and the underlying technologies are well-suited for Kno’s touch-based applications, and provide the power-efficient performance and responsiveness today’s students have come to expect from tablets.”
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