ePaper Displays Sony v. Apple?
At one time I really thought the first company to market a real e-paper display to simulate book/newspaper/magazines would have a big one-up on everyone else. Now I'm not so sure, but I thought I'd set up this thread for discussion now because of this article:
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/36537.html
The Sony device looks interesting, though the keyboard is goofy. Obviously the price will be a problem for awhile, but I hope Apple is thinking of the technology.
With QuartzExtreme and using the pdf standard in the OSX, Apple should have the best and most scalable implementation of standards.
Any thoughts? How big and thin would such a device be to be of interest to coporate America?
http://www.theregister.co.uk/content/54/36537.html
The Sony device looks interesting, though the keyboard is goofy. Obviously the price will be a problem for awhile, but I hope Apple is thinking of the technology.
With QuartzExtreme and using the pdf standard in the OSX, Apple should have the best and most scalable implementation of standards.
Any thoughts? How big and thin would such a device be to be of interest to coporate America?
Comments
I guess I'm really asking, why does it have a keyboard if it's a book replacement?
it also is forward lit meaning less eye strain...
Low power, high rez, monochrome, ultra thin display= book.
I imagine the keyboard is there because it's Sony, and they just like to put extra shit on stuff.
I can't see where this tech will be good for anything but text (signage, downloadable books and newspapers, PDAish stuff) until they can get it to do color. At that point, it may be an interesting candidate for replacing LCD or OLED displays, but OLED seems to have the inside track for Next Cool Display tech.
Anyhow, the hinge opens the wrong way around. Anyone who reads books knows that you open book to the left, not to the right.
But my biggest problem with it, and the reason I won't buy anything like that for a long while: I like reading actual books. I like the feel or a weighty paperback in my hands, etc. Plus, it's my downtime from technology - I sit in front of a computer most of the day, and want to get away from computer screens and powered devices every so often.
But then... Does it have a backlight? Books are kinda difficult to read in the dark.
This one's going to take a lot of debating about, and a lot more evolving to do, before I am convinced to switch methinks.
Originally posted by Mike Peel
The biggest problem I have with that: it has a built-in Qwerty keyboard. As the people above say, it shouldn't even need one for reading eBooks, but moreover - it's Qwerty! What about all us Dvorak users...?
Anyhow, the hinge opens the wrong way around. Anyone who reads books knows that you open book to the left, not to the right.
I don't think a keyboard should be needed. In fact, it's really bad that they included one because that means they will try to incorporate more features than are necessary into it. Look at the iPod. It's a good music player because it's designed entirely to play music, and nothing else. If the iPod had a bunch of superfluous controls, pen input, etc, Apple would feel compelled to make it into a PDA as well. That in turn would cause it to be worse at its core function - playing MP3s.
I don't think there are enough Dvorak users to justify using Dvorak instead of QWERTY. Besides, most Dvorak users also know QWERTY.
As far as the way it opens - that's because the picture they showed was of the Japanese version. Japanese and Chinese (and perhaps other far eastern languages as well) are read vertically top to bottom, moving from the right to the left of a page. English is read horizontally left to right, moving from the top to the bottom. Japanese books are "backwards" compared to books written in English, French, German, etc.
EDIT: First post from my new, shorter username!
In Japan, books open to the right.
Originally posted by cerebrito
Anyhow, the hinge opens the wrong way around. Anyone who reads books knows that you open book to the left, not to the right.
I think it's designed for right-handed people, for whom it's easier to hold the thing in the left hand and type with the right one.
Take out the keyboard.
Make the left hand flap all screen.
Put an iPod scrollwheel for navigation on the bottom of the right flap.
Make the upper half of the right flap into a mini-Wacom or more realistically a large trackpad for drawing and handwriting.
It would be thin, an ebook reader, notebook and pda device that actually would be of a useful size (not too small / calendar "month views" would actually be practical), and optimized as a "pad" and not a "pod" or music/camera device.
This would be slick, comfortable and really practical like an electronic Franklin Planner...the way pda's were supposed to be - paperback sized, but THIN! They don't need lots of stuff to weight them down. By now they should be able to make an entire pda-on-a-chip anyway.
I think keeping it black and white would keep it from becoming a multimedia beast until the technology is there to do a good job with color and video compression ... just like the iPod is doing.
Originally posted by cerebrito
Anyhow, the hinge opens the wrong way around. Anyone who reads books knows that you open book to the left, not to the right.
In Japan, books open to the right.
Isn't it funny then that the text on the display is in Japanese?