You know, if the refresh rate is fast enough, I’d actually consider picking this up.
This is super exciting because color E-ink is a long time coming, but Delta Electronics really couldn’t have picked a worse day to announce a 13.1” ereader.
I’m not a die hard Instapaper fan like some people I know, but I do use it to save something for later here and there. Could this application of taking a website and making it more e-ink friendly be a sign of the kinds of things to come to Amazon’s Kindle app store (courtesy of the SDK)?
I always love it when new technology tries to emulate the traditional way of doing things but does it better. Take this flexible, newspaper-replacement e-ink screen from LG. Like Engadget, I highly doubt we’ll ever see something like this in production (in this form, at least) but the research that went into making it should benefit devices for a long time.
My father goes to CES every year for his business dealings, and this year I’m honored that he’s there representing my ventures along with his own. He’s spent a great deal of time checking out some ereader devices, and here’s what he thinks of each after going hands-on with them for a while and conversing with executives from each.
Plastic Logic QUE proReader: “Hands down the most impressive specialized device here in terms of design, both hardware and software. It’s ‘specialized’ because it’s really aimed at its very specific niche and it serves that market extremely well.
The hardware is slick and will result in many happy business people on planes since the battery lasts much longer than a laptop. The interface is well designed and puts the content quickly within reach, but having to sync it with Outlook could be the one hang-up. The announcement of a 3G model is a great step, and hopefully will bring along wireless syncing.”
Entourage eDGe: “These guys win for most versatile device. If this thing had a keyboard instead of an e-ink screen, it would just be a rather large netbook. The inclusion of the e-ink screen makes it something really unique and overall, it works surprisingly well.
One of the coolest features is being able to highlight a diagram or table on the black and white screen and display it on the color screen. This is a huge boon for textbook publishers who haven’t yet been shown that ebooks are a viable alternative for them.”
Havnon WISEreader: “What people may not realize in the States is that Havnon is a gigantic name in China, nearly a household name. Many international companies (think Nokia, Sony and Samsung) use Havnon technologies, software and patents in their devices.
Here at CES, they’re showing off some readers, but the more interesting aspect are the features of those readers that will show up in other devices thanks to Havnon’s willingness to license. Their executives are more excited about people coming up to them with OEM partnerships than purchasing agreements. Spefically, Havnon makes very impressive doodling and screen writing software [editor: think Wacom].”
Dad’s still walking around the show, so more impressions when I get them!
CES is like the nerd show that keeps on giving. My father spent lots of time with tons of devices today. His impressions will come later tonight. Here’s the straight up news of happened today at CES about ereaders and ebooks!
Plastic Logic QUE proReader in-depth video hands-on (Engadget)
Skiff and Marvell make it easy(er) for people to build their own e-ink devices (sorta) (Engadget)
Borders is the ebook store of choice for the Alex (mediabistro)
Mediabistro’s hands on with the Entourage eDGe (mediabistro)
COOL-ER reader was apparently developed in less than 8 months, is #1 in Europe (mediabistro)
Interview with CourseSmart’s Frank Lyman (mediabistro)
Pixel Qi promises screens in devices in 2010 (Engadget)
Speaking of Pixel Qi screens in devices, here’s the Notion Ink Adam (Engadget)
Bookeen debuts Orizon touchscreen ebook reader (Engadget)
Best selling author talks about ereaders and ebooks (mediabistro)
More time with Havnon’s WISEreader ereader lineup (Engadget)
Enough with the ereaders already, says Gawker (mediabistro)
There you have it! Our own hands on impressions coming later tonight.
What a day! Here’s a little recap of what went down in Vegas today. Tomorrow I’ll have someone on the ground (read: my dad is at the show) to give me hands on impressions, but for now (in chronological order), announcements and initial impressions from around the web!
Havnon demonstrated their ereader device, which is available in OEM form for third parties (Engadget)
Qualcomm’s Mirasol low-power color screen shown playing video (Engadget
The HP Slate goes wah wah waaaaaah (biggest let down of the show so far; it just runs Windows) (Engadget)
Lots of positive press for the Entourage eDGe! (PC Pro)
Release date and pricing info for the eDGe (Engadget)
Hands-on and video demo of a dual LCD screen tablet concept from MSI (Engadget)
Ray Kurtzweil’s Blio book distribution framework demonstrated (Engadget)
Another look at Blio from mediabistro
Samsung’s first ebook devices for the US market go hands-on (Engadget)
Spring Design gives Alex a fighting chance by dropping the price already (Engadget)
RCA takes hardware from Audiovox and software from Barnes & Noble for their ereader (Engadget)
Plastic Logic shows off the versatile QUE proReader aimed squarely at business users (Engadget)
Fujitsu proves that e-ink can be in color! (Engadget) The Japanese are way ahead when it comes to this, Bridgestone also has compelling color e-ink tech coming
The Skiff gets quite possibly the best review of any ereader hardware so far (Engadget)
The first device to sport a Pixel Qi screen, the Notion Ink Adam, finally shows up (Engadget)
Copia intros ereader devices and social media platforms (Engadget)
Which devices are you most looking forward to? Leave it in the comments!Flexible displays have been around for a while, but I’m pretty sure this is the first time they’ve putting one in a device intended for mass market consumption. They’ve definitely got the design down, it’s downright pretty!
