E Ink are showing a new credit card with a small E Ink display. It is used to display a generated secure transaction code with the press of a button. The battery lasts for 3 years. Apparently they're already producing and shipping these in Korea:
Fujitsu and Sapporo Shirakaba-dai Hospital announced that it jointly developed a clinical appointment guidance system that uses color e-paper. The system has began full operation at the hospital. The new system guides patients to examination rooms or diagnostic testing rooms and is wirelessly connected to an electronic medical record system. Patients can view in real-time their place in queue when waiting to see their doctor.
We're guessing Fujitsu is using their own color e-paper technology. Fujitsu announced a hospital registration system back in July 2010, which used monochrome E Ink, but the new one uses color e-paper.
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Fujitsu has a new hospital registration system. It uses a small tag that has an E Ink display, into which you insert your "patient" card which then analyzes your medical history and latest info and uses wireless connectivity to tell when a doctor/nurse will be available to attend. The service will start in February 2011.
Amazon has announced an upgrade to the original Kindle DX: the new Graphite Kindle DX. It has a new 9.7" E Ink display that has 50% improved contrast, and is cheaper - $379 (down from $489!). It still has free US 3G access (Sprint 3G) and 4GB of internal memory. Oh, and it's gray.
The Graphite Kindle DX will ship on July 7th for $379. You can pre-order it now.
Skiff (owned by Hearst corporation) has announced their Skiff e-reader. It has the largest display of all current e-readers at 11.5". It's actually a flexible E Ink touchscreen, with a 1200x1600 pixel resolution.
The display is a rugged metal-foil on a flexible stainless-steel substrate. It is made by LG Display (who licensed E Ink just a few days ago). Skiff say that it's shatter-proof and crack-proof.
Smarthouse reports that Apple will soon launch a new tablet with a 10.6" display, made by LG Display. It will either be an OLED, or a LED-based LCD. The new tablet will double as an e-reader, competing with Amazon's new Kindle DX).
This is interesting. E Ink displays are much more suited for books than LCDs (more efficient, readable in the sun, and easy on the eye) - but a general table has much more usages, and also color, of course. What will people prefer?
Update: We have posted our own review of these cool E Ink watches
Art Technology has released a new range of watches that has E Ink displays. They will be sold under the brand phosphor, and include 3 models (a curved watch, a curved 'calendar' watch, and an analog-digital style watch). The display is segmented (not active-matrix) - the total thickness is less than 400 microns, made entirely from plastic. Price will range from 175$ upwards...
Phosphor curved E Ink watchesSamsung has a new phone, called the Alias 2, that is due soon, and has a keyboard in which each key is a small "display". Engadget now claims that they got it confirmed - it uses an E Ink display.
Samsung Alias2The phone is said to cost only 79$... It should be interesting to see how this story unfolds later this month.
Samsung will release a new phone soon, the Alias2:
Samsung Alias2Interestingly, each 'key' in the keyboard is actually a small display. There are several OLED keyboards around, but in this case, we hear that the keys actually retain their display when the power is off. So this might be an e ink display.