Archive for the ‘mirasol color ereaders’ tag
eReader & Tablet News 9/11/2010 no comments
A roundup of some of the news from the past few days.
Kindle software update version 3.0.1 is now out of beta and is available for download.
Besides improving stability, the new update also adds the ability to create a new Amazon account directly from the Kindle, rather than having to do this with a computer.
Kindle 3 continues to sell well enough to keep pushing shipping dates out — new orders are now shipping on September 24.
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Kobo has launched its first contest of the month. This one only lasts through September 16, 2010, and will give away 25 Kobo eReaders. Every ebook purchase counts as an entry. There is, of course, a non-purchase route of entry as well. Full details at Kobo.com.
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Last month I wrote about a new tablet from Stream TV called the eLocity A7 that was supposed to launch the following week. Well, the eLocity missed its original launch date, but is now available for pre-order at Amazon.
The eLocity runs Android 2.2 and is built with the NVIDIA Tegra 2 SOC. No 3G, but you can connect with the built-in Wi-Fi. The price is $370.
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Speaking of Froyo (Android 2.2) and tablets, Google says that Froyo is designed to be used on phones and is not meant for tablets. Tablets running Android 2.2 may not have access
to the Android Market and many apps won’t run on such devices. It is expected that we will have to wait for the Gingerbread release of the Android OS for a version that is designed to be used with tablets.
The Samsung Galaxy Tab runs on Froyo and does have access to the Android Market because it operates like a large phone rather than a tablet computer.
As the Android OS gains popularity it would probably be a good idea for Google to have some sort of certification logo program, otherwise some consumers are going to be disappointed when their shiny new Android-based tablet cannot access the Android Market.
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Recent reports of the demise of Interead, maker of the Cool-er ereaders, were apparently somewhat exaggerated and premature.
Pocket-lint reports that Interead will be partnering with Elonex to produce five new Elonex Cool-er branded ereaders.
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Also via Pocket-lint — Qualcomm is saying that there will be a device, most likely an ereader, with a Mirasol display announced at CES and then launched in Q1 of 2011.
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Mirasol Delays; Notion Ink News no comments
From what Mirasol has said in the past, we were led to expect their reflective color display to be in production as soon as this fall. Now ZDNet is reporting that Qualcomm still has to figure out how to put its color epaper display into production profitably and in sufficient quantity that it could be used in something like a color Kindle. This is disappointing news to say the least.
In related news – at least in terms of how hype surrounds a new and eagerly awaited gadget, and all of the complications that cause delays – SlashGear has a good article on the Notion Ink Adam tablet. The article quotes Notion Ink as saying that if they had not locked themselves in with their first investors the Adam would already have been available in 12 countries by now. It looks like the Adam is now expected to be launched in December.
The SlashGear article is accompanied by an interesting timeline graphic that charts the hype vs maturity of Notion Ink’s product. I would say that Mirasol’s unwelcome news has put them firmly in the “Trough of Disillusionment.”
There is definitely something to be said in favor of the way in which some companies (Apple or Amazon, for example) develop their new products in relative secrecy, with maybe a few leaks to keep the buzz going, rather than talking their products up for long periods of time before they are even close to ready (Plastic Logic comes to mind here). Of course, it is easier for a large company with lots of resources to develop their products quietly. Smaller manufacturers probably need more hype to attract the necessary investment.
Notion Ink has meanwhile launched a pretty new website, which lists the current specs of its proposed tablets – both with and without a Pixel Qi display.
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eReader News and Links– 6/30/2010 no comments
Color Kindle coming sooner rather than later? Pocket-lint, in a brief article covering a demonstration of Mirasol display tech and the coy comments of a Qualcomm spokesperson does absolutely nothing to dampen hopes that we may see a color Kindle with a Mirasol display by the end of the year. Some nice photos are included as well.
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Copia, which will sell both ebooks and pbooks and will have a strong emphasis on social networking is set to launch in July. The company also has been planning to launch six different ereaders – four with 6-inch and two with 9-inch e-ink displays – with varying feature sets.
Publishers Weekly quotes Copia senior VP Anthony Antolino as saying that Copia has reconfigured its ereader lineup and will be selling a 5-inch color LCD model for $99 and a 10.1-inch touchscreen LCD model for $299. It is not clear from the article if Copia will be completely abandoning its e-ink based devices.
The new ereaders have not yet made an appearance at the Copia website. It really never made much sense to me that Copia would have so many different ereader models, and it makes even less sense now in the current market.
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Baker & Taylor, Inc, which makes claim to being the world’s largest distributer of books both paper and digital, is also one of the powers behind the Blio reader. B & T recently announced that they have entered into an agreement with F+W Media to bring that company’s rich, highly formatted content to Blio.
F+W Media publishes full color, richly illustrated instructional titles for graphic designers, artists, craftsmen, woodworkers and others. Baker & Taylor has announced similar agreements to bring graphics-rich content to Blio from other publishers, including John Wiley & Sons and Elsevier. The latter is a leading publisher of medical, scientific and technical books.
I’m looking forward to having Blio on the iPad; I saw the Blio demo at CES and it was impressive.
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Amazon’s previously announced 70 percent royalty option for its Digital Text Platform (DTP) goes live today. Amazon also announced some feature improvements to make DTP more convenient for authors and publishers: a more intuitive “Bookshelf” feature and a simplified two-step publishing process.
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The New York Times is reporting that Google is close to reaching a deal with the American Booksellers Association which would make Google Editions the main source of ebooks on the websites of most independent booksellers.
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Amazon’s Kindle will be sold at some airports around the US. HMSHost has signed an exclusive deal with Amazon to sell the 6-inch Kindle at its shops in the following airports:
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Atlanta Hartsfield Jackson International: Simply Books
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Charlotte Douglas International: Simply Books
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Dallas Ft. Worth International: Simply Books
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George Bush Houston Intercontinental: Simply Books
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Miami International: Simply Books
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Minneapolis-St. Paul International: Simply Books, Authors Bookstore
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LA/Ontario International: Authors Bookstore
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Salt Lake City International: Simply Books
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San Diego International: Authors Bookstore
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Mineta San Jose International: Authors Bookstore
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Tampa International: Authors Bookstore
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Color eReaders – Liquavista and Freescale Collaborating on New eReaders no comments
Liquavista and Freescale Semiconductor announced today that the two companies are collaborating to bring ereaders to market by the middle of 2011 that feature Liquavista’s electrowetting displays and the Freescale i.MX515 processor. From the press release:
Freescale’s high-performance i.MX51 system-on-chip provides the necessary file decoding capabilities to match the enhanced graphics and video functionality of Liquavista’s displays. By combining both technologies, eReader manufacturers can produce a wide range of highly compelling consumer products that enable increased usability and enhanced content.
Liquavista’s displays create bright and colourful images that deliver excellent indoor and outdoor viewability and use dramatically less battery power. Offering significant advantages over existing eReader technologies, Liquavista’s high performance displays support color and high-speed video providing a true multimedia experience not currently available with today’s eReaders.
Freescale’s highly integrated i.MX515 processor has multiple processing units including an ARM Cortex™-A8 core, a vector floating point unit and an image processing unit. The i.MX515 provides up to 1680 Dhrystone MIPS and can scale in performance up to 800MHz. Advanced power management features allow for extended battery life and eliminate the need for fans or heat sinks.
Available for two of Liquavista’s launched product platforms, LiquavistaBright and LiquavistaColor, each SDK includes a 6” electrowetting display, driving circuitry, a mobile application processor host platform and a Linux based operating system.
Qualcomm has said that there will be ereaders using its Mirasol based displays on the market by the fall of 2010. Unless Mirasol hits some kind of production snags it still looks like this will be the first color ereader display technology to hit the US market. If I had to place a bet as to which color display the first color Kindle ereader will use my money would be on Mirasol.
Meanwhile Fujitsu announced (via Akihabara News) a few days ago that it has developed new color epaper with a 7:1 contrast ratio and much faster page rewrites than the epaper used in its FLEPia ereader. Fujitsu says that they plan to commercialize the new technology this fall for the Japanese market. The FLEPia ereader was priced at around a thousand dollars and was only sold in Japan.
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Qualcomm Mirasol Ereader This Fall; iPad Ebook DRM no comments
Slashgear has a nice video of a Mirasol display panel in action. Qualcom is saying that an ereader using their color display will be out in the fall, but won’t name names. Could it be the next Kindle?
iPad Ebooks Will Come With FairPlay DRM
The LA Times is reporting that publishers whose ebooks are sold on the iPad will have the option of using FairPlay DRM. Apple formerly used FairPlay to limit the number of times music tracks could be copied to different computers. FairPlay is still used on movies and television shows at the iTunes Store.
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Qualcomm’s New Mirasol Tech Could Result in Color eReaders by End of 2010 no comments
A few days ago Qualcomm demonstrated a new application of its Mirasol display technology which could be used in color ereaders. An ereader mockup with a 5.7 inch 1024 x 768 color screen has been developed and was demonstrated in an interview with Slashgear.
While not fully functional, the mockup demonstrates technology that could lead to color ereader screens that like current grayscale e-ink screens use no power when not turning pages; indeed Mirasol is said to add 20 percent to battery life compared to current ereaders. Mirasol-based displays are readable in full sunlight, and the fast refresh rate enables multimedia playback.
Quallcomm says that they plan to bring an ereader using Mirasol technology to the market by the end of 2010. Other color ereader technology reported so far usually seems to point to 2011 as being the year of the color ereader.
You can see pictures of the demo at the Slashgear link above, and Intomobile.com has some videos of a very small Mirasol screen in action.
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