Archive for the ‘neonode touchscreen’ tag
Amazon to release color Kindle ereader this year? no comments
Digitimes is reporting (or rumoring) that Amazon will likely release a color Kindle utilizing a color EPD from E Ink Holdings in the second half of this year. According to the report, Amazon will be ditching the Neonode IR touchscreen used in the Kindle Touch and instead use a multi-touch capacitive touchscreen for the new ereader.
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Neonode signs technology license agreement with L&I Electronic Technology no comments
Today Neonode announced that it has licensed its zForce touchscreen technology to L&I Electronic Technology Co., LTD. This is the same touchscreen used in the Nook Touch, Kobo Touch Edition and the current generation of Sony ereaders.
L&I Electronic Technology is a joint venture between LG Display (LGD) and iriver that was established last year to combine LGD’s epaper technology and iriver’s ereader production facilities.
Looks like the next generation of ereaders from iriver will feature zForce touchscreens.
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Onyx licenses Neonode touchscreen no comments
Neonode announced today that it has licensed its zForce touchscreen technology to Onyx International, which makes the Boox ereaders. Neonode’s IR-based touchscreen is used on the Nook Simple Touch, Kobo Touch Edition and Sony’s current generation of ereaders.
The zForce is optically clear and very responsive. There is no overlay on top of the screen to produce glare or otherwise interfere with the ereading experience. Neonode’s touchscreen also supports both high resolution pen writing with a stylus and finger use, including gestures and multitouch.
A couple of BeBook’s ereaders are rebranded Onyx ereaders, so it is not unlikely that the next BeBook reader will feature this touchscreen.
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Neonode announces major customer win for its zForce touchscreen tech no comments
Neonode, which makes the sweet IR-based touchscreen 
used in the newer Sony ereaders, has announced that it has entered into a multi-year technology license agreement with a global retail electronics company to use Neonode’s zForce touchscreen solution in its family of products. The name of the new customer is being withheld, but Neonode says that it is potentially the largest such agreement the company has yet entered into.
“We have taken another important step towards our goal of gaining a significant market share for touch solutions. Another global company has chosen our touch screen solution, zForce, because low cost, fast and accurate full finger support in combination with high resolution pen support and low power consumption has once again proven to be at the forefront of the touch screen revolution,” said Thomas Eriksson, CEO of Neonode Technologies AB. “We continue to experience a growing demand for our touch technology from companies around the world who produce a wide array of hand held consumer and industrial products such as mobile phones, e Readers, GPS devices, office equipment, tablet PCs to name a few,” continued Mr. Eriksson.
Neonode’s patented touch screen technology, zForce, supports high resolution pen writing in combination with finger navigation including gestures, multi-touch, sweeps and much more. zForce uses no overlay (like resistive and capacitive touch screens) on top of the display thus creating a 100% clear window, free from reflection and parallax effects producing a true clear viewing experience. Neonode’s touch solution for portable devices is many times more cost effective than any other high performance touch solutions in the market today. zForce is currently integrated in or being integrated into products such as mobile phones, e Readers and mobile internet devices/tablet PC’s.
Neonode’s zForce touchscreens are optically clear and very responsive. Sony used this touchscreen on its PRS-350, PRS-650 and PRS-950 ereaders, thereby achieving a major improvement in usability over the prior generation.
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eBooks, eReader & iPad News – 7/18/2010 1 comment
A quick look at some of the recent ereader and iPad news that I didn’t get to cover elsewhere.
App Inventor for Android
So you have an idea for a most excellent app for your Android device but don’t know how to program it? Well, now there’s an app for that. Google will soon have a beta version of App Inventor that easily lets you create apps with no programming knowledge by using a visual interface. The visual interface is said to make building an app easy for those who don’t know how to program.
The App Inventor comes with most Android functions available as modular building blocks, ready to plug into your creation. There are blocks for everything from using the GPS-location sensor or the phone features of your Android phone to blocks that perform more programming-like things such as storing information, repeating actions or performing certain actions under certain conditions.
Google will be opening up access to the App Inventor over the coming weeks. To get started you will need to fill out the online form at the link above.
via NYT
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iPad Software Update
Apple has released software update iOS 3.2.1 for the iPad. In addition to various bug fixes and improvements the following are addressed:
- Improved Wi-Fi connectivity
- Fixed an issue that could prevent copy and paste of single-page PDF attachments in Mail
- Addressed an issue that could cause video playback to freeze
- Improved reliability of video-out when using iPad Dock Connector to VGA Adapter
- Added Bing as an option for Safari’s search field
Compatible for both the Wi-Fi and 3G models of the iPad. To download the update connect your iPad to your computer and iTunes should detect and install the new software. You may need to click on your iPad in the left pane to get to the Update button on the Summary tab.
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3G nook at FCC
Barnes & Noble has applied with the FCC for a 3G version of the nook ereader. B&N’s internal project names for the 3G nook are CR Nook 3G and Bravo Delta 3G. There is not a lot of other info – schematics, photos and antenna specs have been withheld at the request of B&N. Too bad – maybe Apple could have learned something to improve the antenna of the new iPhone. 
via Best eReaders
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Neonode Signs zForce License Agreement
Neonode is an interesting touchscreen maker of very responsive IR-based touchscreens. The company announced recently that it had “signed a technology license agreement with one of the leading e-publishing companies in China in partnership with one of the largest ODM companies in Taiwan. The zForce license includes Neonode’s patented touch screen technology supporting high resolution finger navigation with gestures and sweeps.”
The last time I wrote about Neonode was when the company’s zForce touchscreen was to be used in one of the Chinese ereaders. That was just before Amazon bought TouchCo, which was a touchscreen startup.
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eBooks Becoming Big in Japan?
At the moment, most of the ebooks available in the Japanese language seem to be either manga or shorter light romance and porn. That could change soon. The Mainichi Daily News reported recently that NTT Docomo will be entering the ebook market in the early part of next year.
NTT Docomo is Japan’s largest cell phone carrier, and is most interested in marketing ebooks to its mobile phone customers. In Japan dedicated ereaders have never really taken off; most Japanese who read ebooks do so on their phones, which probably explains why a lot of the available ebooks are shorts. The introduction of the iPad to Japan may help change this.
Sony also recently announced that it was partnering with Asahi Shimbun Company (one of Japan’s largest newspaper publishers), Toppan Printing Co (one of Japan’s leading publishers) and KDDI Corp (telecommunications operator) to form an ebook distribution company.
Sony seems to be aiming its ereader business in other directions besides the North American market where it faces very stiff competition from Amazon’s Kindle and the Barnes & Noble nook ereaders.
A few days ago the WSJ JapanRealTime blog wrote that Dai Nippon Printing Co., LTD, which is one of Japan’s larger printing houses, is now also planning to open an ebook store by this autumn. The new store will offer about 100,000 titles from various publishers.
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New Koobe eReader uses Neonode Touchscreen no comments
The Swedish company Neonode announced in a press release that Koobe Inc has launched a new ereader using Neonode’s zForce touchscreen. The new ereader is named the Jin Yong Reader, is ARM-based and has a 6-inch electronic ink (sic) screen.
It seems that this new ereader is meant for the Chinese market, but Neonode’s touchscreen technology does sound interesting:
“Electronic ink and reflective thin film transistor (TFT) liquid crystal display (LCD) panels with no backlight used in e-book readers need a 100% transparent touch solution to achieve the desired ‘paper like’ reading experience. Current touch solutions like resistive and capacitive reduce the brightness and contrast of the display and have a negative impact on the user experience. Our new e-book touch screen platform, zBook, fulfills the need for both consumers and manufacturers and will usher in a new era of e-books using full featured touchscreen applications,” said Thomas Eriksson, CEO of Neonode Technology AB.
Neonode’s touchscreen technology sounds like it might not have the glare issues associated with capacitive touchscreens such as those used by Sony on its ereaders. It may also be cheaper than using Wacom touchscreen technology, and can accept finger input as well as a stylus. 
The zForce touchscreen was used in the Neonode N2 mobile phone a couple of years ago. The responsiveness of its touchscreen was one of the noted features of the N2. Neonode’s touchscreen appears to use infrared to detect interaction with the screen.
The quote above and most of the material on Neonode’s website seem to reference the use of the company’s touchscreen technology on LCD screens. Neonode spokesman Mikael Westmark did assure me in an email that zForce “supports electrophoretic and e-ink displays”.
