February 2015

Pebble Technology, the company behind the successful Pebble smartwatch, is now developing a new version called Pebble Time - that sports a color e-paper display. The company launched a kickstarter campaign with an aim to raise $500,000. It took them one hour to raise $1 million, and a few days later they already passed $8 million in funding.

The Pebble time uses a "color e-paper display" The original pebble used a 1.26" (144x168) monochrome memory LCD (transflective LCD made by Sharp). It's not clear what kind of displays will be used in the new Pebble, but as far as I know sharp do not produce a color memory LCD.

UK's retailer Sainsbury is trailing new E Ink shelf price labels at its Shoreditch Old Street Local store. Sainsbury hopes that the new digital labels will enable them to provide quicker and efficient digital pricing information. The trial's aim is to see how much paper and time is saved using the new labels.

Each unit is assigned to a certain product, and then prices and offers are updated automatically from central systems. The units use secure, encrypted software and are designed to resist cold temperatures in fridges and freezers. Some of the units will use E Ink's new Spectra panels that support white, black and red colors.

Plastic Logic, the OTFT backplane developer and EPD producer has split into two companies. Plastic Logic will remain as an EPD developer and producer (based in Dresden, Germany) while FlexEnable (based in Cambridge, UK) will handle the OTFT backplane development and offer technology licenses to display makers.

Here's an article from OLED-Info explaining Plastic Logic's technology. In September 2014 Plastic Logic demonstrated the world's first display based on a graphene backplane (a 150-PPI active-matrix E Ink panel).