Devices - Page 2

The Good E-Reader site posted a review of Seiko's SBPA003, their 2nd-gen E Ink watch. The watch uses an active-matrix E Ink panel, 1.5" in size (300 PPI). Seiko says it's got a new active-matrix drivers that enable it to be very power efficient. The watch recharges via a small solar-panel (which is located around the display). The watch synchronizes automatically via signals from atomic clocks, but these aren't available in all places.

The reviewer says that the watch is great, although there's no way to sync to Android or iOS.

Back in October 2012 we posted about an Onyx E Ink phone prototype, and now we hear reports that the company plans to launch this phone soon. The so-called E43 Android phone sports a 4.3" E Ink panel and a 1 Ghz CPU.

The company is also working on two new E Ink e-readers. Both will have Wi-Fi, a touch display, 4GB of RAM and a 1 GHz CPU. They will actually be Android (v2.3) tablets, limited by the E Ink display. The BOOX R65 will have an IR touchscreen while the BOOX C65 will have a capacitive touchscreen.

Back in December 2013, Yota Devices presented the YotaPhone - the smartphone with two 4.3" displays, a 720x1280 LCD and a 200 dpi E Ink. The company said they will production in Q3 2013, and today they announced that it signed a production deal with Singapore's Hi-P international (a company that produced Amazon's e-readers and other Apple and RIM products).

Yotaphone also announced it is opening a Singapore-based R&D center - to work on future Yotaphone generations.

Remember the Pebble E Ink smartwatch? Allerta says that they will begin shipping watches to Kickstarter backers on January 23rd. It will take them six to eight weeks to ship all 85,000 orders. Afterwards the company will begin to ship to other buyers ($150).

Allerta's Pebble is a smartwatch that can connect to iOS or Android devices. The watch has a 144-168 active-matrix E Ink display. The phone includes a vibrating motor, four buttons, a 3-axis accelerometer and Bluetooth.

CST is showing their new CST-01 ultra-thin, flexible E Ink watch. The whole device is just 0.8 mm thick and weighs just 12 grams. It can full charge in 10 minutes (and runs for about one month). The lifespan is said to be about 15 years. Here's our friend Sriram Peruvemba (E Ink's marketing chief) showing this very cool phone:

CST just raised over $300,000 on Kickstarter to start production (the project goal of $200,000 was reached within 48 hours).

Yota Devices (a spin-off from Russia's Yota telecom) is the company behind E Ink's dual-display (LCD/ E Ink) phone shown at IFA 2012. Back in September E Ink said we should expect such a device in 2013 - and Yota indeed says they will launch it in Q3 2013. Yota currently has a fully working prototype (called the YotaPhone) that has two 4.3" displays, a 720x1280 LCD and a 200 dpi E Ink.

Other features of this interesting phone include a dual-core 1.5Ghz CPU, 2GB of RAM and at least 32 GB of flash memory, LTE and a 12 mp camera. The whole phone weighs just 140 grams and is less than 10 mm thick. Yota says they are already in talks with US and European carriers to launch this phone overseas.

There are reports that Amazon are going to announce new Kindle devices soon, and some rumors suggest that the new E Ink Kindle will sport a next generation E Ink panel. The new display will sport higher contrast and resolution compared to Pearl panels (used in current Kindles).

In fact, the new contrast is so good that Amazon refers to the new Kindle as "Paperwhite". Of course none of this is still official, we'll have to wait till September 6 for Amazon's press conference.

E Ink is showing an interesting prototype at IFA 2012 - a smartphone that has two displays, an LCD and an E Ink - one on each side. The E Ink will be used for reading and showing "persistant" data such as network status, battery level and information that the user needs for a long time (such as boarding pass information). This will not only conserve the battery but also free up space on the main (LCD or OLED) display.

The most interesting thing is that E Ink says that several vendors are considering this idea, with at least one vendor that plans to release such a phone in 2013. We can't wait!

Here's a summary of my visit to E Ink's booth at SID 2012. E Ink had a very large booth, showing dozens of E-readers and other devices that sport E Ink panels. Lot's of these used Ink-In-Motion, E Ink's segmented displays (rather then the active-matrix ones used in e-readers for example).

The largest display at the booth, and one of the most interesting ones was the hybrid EPD/LED traffic light concept. It uses a large circular e-paper panel, color filters and LEDs (in an outer ring). The hybrid traffic light provides higher visibility in direct sunlight than regular traffic lights (who need to "overpower" the sunlight). E Ink's concept uses 24 LEDs vs 200 in a regular traffic light. Great idea. Just below the traffic light E Ink built a small E Ink crosswalk - showing a nice usage of rugged shatterproof panels.

The Eton Rukus Solar is now shipping for $150. The Rukus Solar is a portable Bluetooth sound system with solar panels and a SURF (segmented) E Ink display. This is an outdoor sound system - hence the Solar and E Ink display makes sense...