Archive for the ‘hanvon’ tag
Looking for color ereaders at CES 2011 no comments
I just got back from spending a day and a half at CES. 
The disappointing news was that there was no new color ereader announced that would be hitting the shelves here soon. I did get to see demos of three color ereaders using reflective display tech: Mirasol from Qualcomm, Hanvon’s color ereader using a color e-ink display from E Ink Holdings, and the color ereader manufactured by Delta Electronics using Bridgestone’s QR-LPD (AeroBee) display. Curiously, Liquavista did not seem to have a display this year, and the company has not even sent out any recent press releases.
Apologies on the quality of the videos – CES is extremely crowded and noisy. It also didn’t help that I started loosing my voice by the end of the first day.
Qualcomm’s Mirasol display definitely looks like the best by far of the reflective color display technologies for dedicated ereaders. The colors on both the color e-ink and QR-LPD displays were very muted. The QR-LPD display took a long time to refresh and the color e-ink seemed slower than the monochrome version as well. The QR-LPD based ereader has a touchscreen that requires a stylus. At times it seemed not very responsive, but this could have just been the demo unit – these things take a lot of abuse.
Vivitek will be distributing the Delta Electronics/Bridgestone ereader in China this year. At the booth I was told that they hope to bring it to the US in the second half of 2011. There are two sizes: an 8.2-inch model and a 13.1-inch model that seems more targeted at business users. The resolution of the QR-LPD displays is not very high: 480 x 384 for the 8.2 inch and only 800 x 600 for the 13.1-inch display. Bridgestone’s display technology will also be used for signage.
Hanvon’s color ereader will be available in China in a few months and most likely come to the US later this year.
We should see Mirasol-based ereaders some time this year from some as of yet undisclosed ereader maker (quite possibly PocketBook). Of the other technologies, I like the Liquavista display demo I saw last year better than either the color e-ink or QR-LPD solutions.
As expected there were tablets galore at this year’s CES. I really liked the Motorola tablet shown in the video below. Its guardian at the Motorola booth said that the Xoom is what the engineers at Google have and are using to develop Android 3 (Honeycomb) on (not sure if it is the only tablet they are using). This is also one of the few new tablets that comes close to matching the iPad’s battery life. Verizon will be the service provider for the Xoom tablet and it is expected to be released in the first quarter of 2011.
Another very interesting tablet from an ereading perspective is the Android-based LT-W Cloud Communicator from NEC. This is a dual 7-inch screen device that is very portable and versatile. When web browsing you can display one page in either portrait or landscape mode across both screens or have separate windows open in each screen. You can also do things like show a whole document on one screen while zooming in for a closer view on the second screen. The dual displays can either work together on one project or on separate projects. When reading ebooks the LT-W displays one page on each screen just like an open pbook. I was impressed with the LT-W and will do a separate post on it.
And finally, a couple of small bits of news I heard while touring the booths:
I was told at the M-Edge booth that the company presently has no plans to produce the waterproof Guardian Case for the Kindle 3. They were eager instead to focus my attention on their new product – MyEdge – a new service that will let you design and personalize your own Kindle and Nook jackets for about $40 and iPad jackets for $50.
At the OverDrive booth I was told that an iPad optimized version of the OverDrive Media Console that will include support for ebooks should at last be available by the end of Q1. In the meantime you can of course use the iPhone app, but it is not optimal.
Possibly Related Posts:
Hanvon ereader first to use color e-ink display no comments
Back in August E Ink Holdings chairman Scott Liu 
spilled the beans on an upcoming ereader from Hanvon that would utilize E Ink’s long-promised color electrophoretic display. The New York Times reported yesterday that the new color ereader will be announced tomorrow by Hanvon at the FPD International 2010 trade show in Tokyo.
Hanvon’s new color ereader will have a 9.68-inch screen and will be priced from $440. It is expected to be available from March, 2011 in China.
The first gen color displays from E Ink will only be capable of showing simple animation — not video playback. The colors are also said to be rather muted. Bringing color to E Ink’s displays involves adding color filters to a monochrome display, which cuts down on contrast. The new Pearl e-ink display was developed to help solve this problem.
Possibly Related Posts:
eReader & Tablet News – 8/25/2010 no comments
The fracas that the Wylie Agency brought about last month when it decided to unilaterally publish 20 classic (but still under copyright) ebooks via its new Odyssey Editions exclusively through the Kindle Store has apparently come to an end. A joint statement by Markus Dohle , CEO of Random House and Mr. Wylie indicated that they had come to an agreement on the matter.
Reportedly Amazon will remove 13 of the 20 books released by Odyssey, but the ebooks should return to Amazon under Random House’s auspices, although that may mean Amazon will loose its exclusivity. I just checked a few of the titles and all were still available and still shown as published by Odyssey Editions.
Random House will also resume a normal business relationship with Wylie, which had been suspended during the dispute.
So it looks like Random House has won, but Wylie’s move hopefully will do something to speed up the digital publishing of publisher’s backlists, which would be a win for readers.
For more on this see the WSJ.
* * *
Samsung will reportedly be stopping production of e-paper based ereaders, citing the high cost of the displays. The company is not completely abandoning the ereader space though, as it plans to launch an LCD-based ereader next year.
Samsung has also released a teaser video of the Samsung Galaxy Tab, which is below. According to the video the Galaxy Tab will be at IFA 2010 in Berlin.
* * *
Ok, this is rather morbid. At last there is an iPad version of the trivia game “Celebrity Dead or Alive.” This is a game that “tests players knowledge and know-how of which stars are still the life of the party and which have permanently retired their dance cards.” $0.99 at iTunes. Great.
* * *
Hanvon Technology Co., the largest Chinese ereader manufacturer, has announced that it will be using Freescale Semiconductor’s i.MX51 applications processor for its next generation ereaders.
The first Hanvon ereader to use the new 
processor is the E-800, which sports an 8-inch e-ink screen with 1024 x 768 resolution and weighs “only” one pound.
Freescale’s flagship i.MX51 processor delivers a compelling blend of features and functionality to meet the stringent requirements of eReader products. The processor combines an 800MHz ARM Cortex–A8 CPU with a large L2 cache memory to deliver high performance for fast rendering and page turns. It also includes advanced power management features to help extend battery life and increase usage between charges, while innovative ultra-low standby power schemes extend battery standby time.
In addition to i.MX technology, Hanvon’s eReader will also incorporate Freescale’s MMA7660FC low-power capacitive accelerometer and MC13892 power management IC, resulting in highly advanced eReader products that deliver extremely low power consumption in a slim, ultra-thin design.
In other Hanvon-related news, the Daily Yomiuri newspaper yesterday reported that the company will start providing Japanese content to Chinese readers. Tokyo-based Creek & River Co. has contracted to supply Japanese manga, novels and magazine articles to Hanvon.
* * *
ebrary, which is a provider of digital content and technologies, announced today that it has partnered with CHOICE to offer digital editions of more than 1,000 of Choice’s recent Outstanding Academic Titles (OAT). CHOICE is the premier source of scholarly reviews. More from the press release:
Spanning all academic subject areas including Business & Economics, Education, History, Language & Literature, Music, Philosophy, Political Science, Psychology, Religion, and Sciences, ebrary’s CHOICE selection features leading publishers including Cambridge University Press, Duke University Press, Harvard University Press, Oxford University Press, Routledge, University of California Press, University of Chicago Press, Wiley, and Yale University Press. The titles may be previewed at http://site.ebrary.com/lib/choicetitles.
Additional key features and benefits:
- Available anytime through any web enabled device including the iPad—no cumbersome downloads.
- Ability to subscribe to and purchase additional titles that seamlessly integrate.
- 24/7 web-based training with a real person.
- Free MARC records.
- COUNTER-compliant usage statistics.
- Powerful tools for easy researching:
- Multiple options for searching, navigating, and browsing.
- ebrary InfoTools™, which turns every word into a portal to additional information on the web. InfoTools can be customized to link patrons to the resources of libraries’ choice.
- Notes and highlights that are automatically stored on a personal bookshelf.
- Ability to copy/paste and print text with automatic citations and URL hyperlinks back to the source.
- Personal bookshelves with moveable folders that can be shared with others.
- Much more!
£149.00
£109
