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New device will have a screen twice as big as the Amazon Kindle

E Ink pioneered the development of a display that unlike the LCD displays we see every day on computers and mobile phones, requires no backlight to operate. The E Ink display is also energy efficient and can be easily read in bright or dark environments. There are already several devices on the market using the E Ink display including the Amazon Kindle and the Sony eReader. Esquire Magazine will also use E Ink technology on the cover of an issue of its magazine.

A new, larger screen similar to the eReader and Kindle is on the drawing board right now according to the New York Times. The device has yet to be named, but is from a company called Plastic Logic. The Plastic Logic device is significantly larger than the Sony and Amazon products with a screen the size of a typical piece of paper that would be used in a printer or copy machine.

The larger screen size will allow for larger pages and full newspaper-like layouts. The digital delivery method is something that newspapers have wanted to move to for a long time thanks to the savings on printing and delivery costs. According to the New York Times, printing and deliver costs can add up to 65% of a newspapers fixed costs.

The Plastic Logic device will feature a wireless connection -- like the Amazon Kindle -- that will allow it to be updated anywhere a signal is available. It is unknown at this time if the device works on WiFi or has a built-in cellular modem of some sort like the Kindle.

Not many details are available on the Plastic Logic device at this time. Among the unknown are specifications, pricing and newspapers that will be offered on the device. The New York Times reports that the Plastic Logic device will be available early next year and full details as well as pricing will be made available at CES in January 2009.

It is also interesting to note that E Ink told the New York Times that it would have a production version of its display that will have the ability to show colors by 2010. The Plastic Logic device is also much thinner and weighs less than the Kindle, even though it has a screen twice as large. The device is able to get the weight and bulk savings by using plastic rather than glass in the screen.

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school books
By cherrycoke on 9/8/2008 2:10:30 PM , Rating: 3
I would love to see this at my university book store as a replacement to all of the many textbooks I have to buy.(especially if it goes to color). Give me a simple option to highlight or make simple notes on the pages and I would be set.




RE: school books
By icanhascpu on 9/8/2008 2:58:26 PM , Rating: 4
I cant find the used pdf section... $_$


RE: school books
By LazLong on 9/8/2008 6:32:33 PM , Rating: 3
I found it....It's at www.thepiratebay.org. ;-)


RE: school books
By daftrok on 9/8/2008 7:40:23 PM , Rating: 1
SHUT UP BOJACK!


RE: school books
By ggordonliddy on 9/9/2008 6:18:41 PM , Rating: 2
I'm just talkin' 'bout Shaft...


RE: school books
By shin0bi272 on 9/8/2008 3:00:34 PM , Rating: 2
Would also save you time shopping for the book because the teacher could essentially email you the thing the first day of class. It would also cut down to the number of books you have to carry to one too. Thus making the worry about having to lug around books all day or not having the right book with you at class a thing of the past.

It could also revolutionize health care (I used to work in paper conversion to CD-Rom) paperwork. No longer will your doctor need to have your chart pulled and brought to him in the office he can pull it up from the database anywhere in the hospital while heading to his appointments.


RE: school books
By jimbojimbo on 9/8/2008 3:32:23 PM , Rating: 2
Yeah, for the convenience they'll charge you extra. Maybe $150 per pdf now. Then they'll determine that if you're in a class you should have the book so therefore should have paid the money for it otherwise get expelled from school for theft. Great.

It's a great concept and in an idela world would be awesome but it's a greedy world we live in.


RE: school books
By Solandri on 9/8/2008 6:38:54 PM , Rating: 2
One of my profs recognized textbooks were outrageously overpriced. He wanted us to have a textbook for just its 40-page appendix which had some really nice reference tables. Instead of forcing us to buy it, he called up the author (who was a personal friend) and got permission to photocopy just the appendix. He had his secretary copy and staple those pages for us at a cost of $2/ea.

Very few teachers are authors of widely-used textbooks (if this weren't so, there wouldn't be any widely-used textbooks). Most of the teachers probably see very little royalties from textbooks they write, so I don't think they'd have much problem with giving away some of their materials for free. Technically, the open courseware stuff from MIT, Stanford, and other universities are already doing this.


RE: school books
By kkwst2 on 9/9/2008 4:46:00 PM , Rating: 3
One thing you have to realize is that many authors no longer own the stuff they wrote. Thus even the author may not have the ability to give permission to reproduce the appendix.

It all depends on the publication agreement. So, there's a possibility the prof could have still been violating the copyright agreement by copying the textbook, even with the author's "permission."


RE: school books
By djc208 on 9/9/2008 7:34:08 AM , Rating: 2
There are a lot of good applications for this type of device since essentially it can give you paper like useability with computer flexibility and connectivity.

Problem so far is no one seems to really have gotten it right. A touch screen or similar setup should be included, and of course flexibility in supported formats.

Price will eventually drop but for now that's going to be the biggest hurdle. The paper cost is a small percentage of the price of most printed media. Gets hard to justify a $300 e-reader when the newpaper dowload still costs the same as the printed one you would buy.


RE: school books
By omnicronx on 9/8/2008 3:35:57 PM , Rating: 2
The ability to see one page at a time may be ok for you, but I would totally unacceptable for me. For any text that just requires reading page by page, and would not have people flipping through it, this would be great. Not so great if your texts are mostly applied knowledge.

But if universities had no texts.. how would they be able to rip us off for 20-30% more than what they paid for them ;) I bought half my books from amazon, usually for half to two thirds the price


RE: school books
By cherrycoke on 9/8/2008 4:37:36 PM , Rating: 2
I do agree with you there, however if production was high enough to lower costs why couldn't it be possible to own 2-3 of these and have the multiple pages open that way. personally I would find that more convenient especially if they were all from the same book. another idea is just to use tabs like you do with internet browsers.


RE: school books
By Comdrpopnfresh on 9/9/2008 3:00:40 PM , Rating: 2
If you thought it was stupid how publishers release new editions quite often, and you can't find a used version of what you need because of it, then you'd go crazy if we used this product for textbooks. You'd be nearly guaranteed to have all required texts each semester only be available as "new."
They could easily come up with a system to prevent simply downloading pdfs or whatnot. With the wireless, there could be some dependence on drm-like protection.


Rippling effects
By icanhascpu on 9/8/2008 2:50:45 PM , Rating: 4
How will this effect the birdcage industry!




RE: Rippling effects
By theapparition on 9/8/2008 3:03:20 PM , Rating: 2
It won't affect them at all.
Now, the birdcage cleaning industry.........well, they'll have some tough times ahead.


Letter size?
By GTVic on 9/8/2008 3:48:59 PM , Rating: 2
Thanks for the definition of "typical piece of paper", why not just list the dimensions or say "letter size".

I love how these articles spell out the minutest details for the complete idiot. For example, how many pages of text a hard drive can hold.




RE: Letter size?
By michaelklachko on 9/8/2008 5:56:34 PM , Rating: 2
Well, that definition was helpful for me. Keep in mind not everyone is American here.


RE: Letter size?
By Solandri on 9/8/2008 6:43:09 PM , Rating: 2
One of the videos linked to from the company's web site says it's A4 sized. ;)


Impressed
By whiskerwill on 9/9/2008 10:04:46 PM , Rating: 2
This looks a lot better than the Kindle. Maybe e-Books will finally take off?




RE: Impressed
By theendofallsongs on 9/9/2008 10:13:02 PM , Rating: 2
Maybe. The E-Ink should be a lot friendlier on the eyes (and especially the battery) than an LCD screen. I once tried taking a notebook with me to read some Gutenburg-project books, but I couldn't see anything in the sun, and after a couple hours, I was out of juice. A book was a lot more convenient.


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