December 2016

2016 is soon over - and this has been an interesting year for the e-paper industry. In 2016 we continued to see the trend that began a few years ago - with the focus of the industry on signage and retail applications rather than e-readers. 

Here are the top 10 stories posted on E-Ink-Info in 2016, ranked by popularity (i.e. how many people read the story):

• Visionect launches an E Ink meeting room digital sign (Jan 12)
• Amazon Kindle was a huge success at the company's second annual Prime Day (Jul 14)
• E Ink demonstrate new color and flexible e-Paper panels at SID 2016 (Jun 4)
• Singapore installs 11 color E Ink bus stop information boards (Aug 7)
• Guangzou OED develops a graphene-based e-paper technology, to start making displays within a year (May 1)
• E Ink shows tiled digital signage demonstrator (Jan 9)
• E Ink invest in Wuxi Vision Peak, to collaborate on e-paper applications (Jan 28)
• Is Amazon ready to release an 8" color electrowetting e-reader soon? (Jul 7)
• Video interview with E Ink's global marketing chief (Jan 18)
• CHK to introduce E Ink digital bus stops and other public transportation information solutions (Mar 17)

2016 will soon come to an end, and we are getting ready to summarize another interesting spintronics year. One year ago we posted the top E Ink stories in 2015, and you can see the list below again:

• World's first E Ink traffic signs installed in Australia
• E Ink reports Q4 2014 financial results, expects modest grow in e-reader shipments
• Waveshare now offers 4.3" E Ink Serial modules
• Onyx reportedly developing a consumer 13.3" E Ink e-reader
• Hauwei's P8 flagship smartphone has an E Ink cover accessory
• Displio: a 2.7-inch E Ink connected display
• Pebble raises over $8 million towards the color e-paper watch
• Will Samsung release an E Ink cover for the Galaxy S6?
• Looksee launches a successful crowdfunding campaign for their Eyecatcher E Ink bracelet
• Microsoft demonstrates a tablet keyboard cover with an E Ink touch display

What will be the most popular E Ink stories in 2016? We will soon post our yearly review, stay tuned!

The Triby is Invoxia's new connected speaker. It can play music from your cell phone (or connect to music apps like spotify), make in-group VoIP calls and send messages, on top of being the first non-Amazon device to take advantage of the Alexa Voice Service. The Triby includes a 2.9" active-matrix (296x128, 112 PPI) E Ink panel, and the company was kind enough to send a review unit to E-Ink-Info.

The Triby is a great looking device, with a fun design that can be defined as retro-chic. It actually reminded me of an old-school kitchen radio - which it sort of is, but with a modern twist. The Triby has physical buttons for options like volume control, contact/radio station selection and an Alexa button. A nice touch was a yellow flag that pops out the side of the device to signal receiving a message. After someone reads the message, they can push the flag back in and the sender will get a notification that their message was read.

Dasung launched the Paperlike - a 13.3" 1600x1200 USB E Ink monitor back in 2015, aimed to be a secondary computer display for reading documents. Dasung's monitors have been shipping through IndieGogo and are now finally arriving at Amazon.com, for $1,049.