The Development of E-Paper Technology

Computerworld takes a look at the development and the future of e-paper. Brought into the mainstream by e-book readers such as the Kindle, e-paper is rapidly becoming its own industry. The article notes some of the current limitations of the technology and looks ahead to a few of the upcoming ideas, such as the Fujitsu Fabric PC. Quoting: "The resolution of EPD screens is improving rapidly. Active-matrix displays like those used on the current generation of e-book readers can work at relatively high resolutions (the Kindle screen displays 167 pixels per inch), and Seiko Epson recently showed off an A4-size (13.4-in.) display prototype with 3104 by 4128 resolution, about 385 ppi, that uses E Ink's electrophoretic ink on a Si-TFT glass substrate."

one page version

[larry bagina]

The printable version [computerworld.com]

linky

[Anonymous Coward]

There's the prototype. Makes me want one for PDFs!

http://techon.nikkeibp.co.jp/english/NEWS_EN/20080521/152071/

Re:Cheaper ebooks, please

[larry bagina]

kindle ebooks (generally $9.99) are cheaper than hardcover ($20+), but more expensive than paperback.

Just say NO to ebook DRM!

[Anonymous Coward]

Just say no to the DRM-infested Kindle!

A better alternative is the iLiad Book Edition [irextechnologies.com] that is much more open (yes, it runs Linux and you can install your own programs) and has impressive specs (including optional wifi) and a very long battery life. It costs 500 â.

Disclaimer: I have no relationship with iRex, I'm only a happy customer and a user afraid of what DRM can do to books.

Re:Hey, with all this e-paper, why not an e-librar

[kesuki]

there Are electronic libraries. there are drm encumbered systems that have contracts with most library systems, then there is drm free project gutenburg, then there are a few other e-book libraries that cover more targeted groups than gutenburg and contemporary drm encumbered ebooks.

http://www.overdrive.com/ [overdrive.com] http://www.gutenberg.org/catalog/ [gutenberg.org]

although as different as night and day, both the above sites offer 'free' to the end user, e-books, one at the cost of the public library system, the other with books that have fallen out of copyright, due to the death of the author.

The death of paper - it's a good thing

[gary_7vn]

The kindle is not an ebook anymore than a model T was a car, or an MP3 player circa 1999 was an iPod. In time someone will address all the concerns expressed here. For now I will say that the Kindle is extremely ugly and I won't reiterate its many deficiencies. Having said that though, I will say that the day of dead tree data is over. Killing a tree, grinding it into a pulp with poisonous chemicals, then packaging it with yet more dead tree boxes, shipping it thousands of kilometers with giant polluting trucks, storing them in the huge museums that some people call libraries or book stores, until they are worn out, and then packing them up in more paper boxes and burning them or burying them somewhere is beyond stupid - it is criminal. As far as paying 10 dollars for a book, this is theft, it is too much. The only true value of a book is in its IP. The ultimate goal is to cut profiteers like bezos right out of the loop. For those dinosaurs who still love the smell and feel of books you can always recycle by collecting some old newspaper and wrap your kindle in that. That way it will even dirty your fingers - just like a cheap romance novel. The kindle of the future will hold hundreds of thousands of books! And in no way will the paltry power requirements and this tiny bit of plastic be worse than all that trash. Besides it will be solar powered. Why do we still have newspapers? It is insane! Megatonnes of waste so some dino can get his sports scores! I do not think so. Think about students who will be able to download the latest textbooks for cheap - assuming that we can get greedy billionaire thieves like Bezos out the loop. Impossible you say? They are already doing it in Korea, a country apparently not crippled by the turgid thinking of stuck in a rut bibliophiles. A book is a terrible way to acquire data, you cannot look up a word, check a reference, resize the text, and you sure as shit can not read your email in between. In 20 years there will, thank god, be no books. Just like you cannot buy a ridiculous film camera anymore. And good riddance to an outdated, polluting technology. Oh, there may still be specialty books such as coffee table books and the like for a while, but even those will be superseded eventually by superiour storage and display technologies. I do not love books; I love the stories and the information. And I do not love the dry dead corpses of what were once living trees that breathed, shaded, and were homes for animals. Save a tree, save the environment, and buy an ebook, just not the Kindle, it is ugly and Bezos has enough money. Most of it stored electronically by the way, not on paper - yeuch

Re:Just say NO to ebook DRM!

[HAKdragon]

Keeping in mind that the iLiad also supports DRM'd books (Mobipocket to be precise (who are, ironically, owned by Amazon.)). Though both devices let you view plain text files. The Kindle requires you to email PDFs to Amazon for conversion and last I heard, that was rather spotty.

As usual, Microsoft doesn't get it.

[Eric Smith]

The article quotes Len Kawell, a distinguished engineer at Microsoft:

You're moving physical objects around and that takes physical time, not like LCD displays that change the state of electrons.

He obviously has no clue how an LCD works. The applied electric field causes physical movement of the liquid crystal molecules, affecting the polarization of light. Granted the movement is primarily twisting of the molecules, but that is definitely a form of physical movement, not a process in which electrons cause emission or modulation of photons.