Posts Tagged ‘ink technology’

Another E-paper debuts in Japan

Monday, March 16th, 2009

Time and time again, we’ve seen technology progress forward more and more with plenty of improvements made along the way. One of those areas in life is the electronic paper, or e-paper for short. While we’ve seen plenty of such e-paper technology in the past as well as a fair number of e-book readers in the market (With the Amazon Kindle 2 being the most famous among the recent releases), there is always room for a new one in this fledgling niche market. Brother Industries Ltd. will be at the helm by releasing its “Brother Document Viewer SV-100B” – what is basically an information terminal equipped with an electronic paper module from June 1 onwards in Japan later this year. According to Brother, this product is meant to “allow users to carry around information equivalent to 10,000 sheets of A4-size documents.” With such a huge weight trade off, I’ll gladly tote one around.

Brother is not targeting the average Joe on the street with the SV-100B e-book reader – no sir, it will actually cater more towards folks like home visit nurses, lawyers and text accountants as it makes it a snap to function as a display manuals for field maintenance services. Since corporate users will make up the bulk of the targeted user base, it won’t come cheap (no matter how bad times are, it seems as though corporate companies will be milked by virtually any party to get that extra bit of income in their pockets) as Brother’s direct shopping website will list it at a whopping ¥139,800 (around $1,423).

Measuring 15.5mm thick, the SV-100B tips the scales at around 600 grams and comes with a microSD memory card slot that is able to hold a maximum capacity of 2GB. As for its battery life, it is able to power the SV-100B for approximately 83 hours (that equals to roughly 5,000 pages assuming you turn the page at every minute). As for the display size itself, it comes with a rather generous 9.7″ electronic paper module that has a maximum resolution of 1,200 x 825. Just like most other black-and-white displays, the SV-100B is capable of four shades of gray, and takes less than one second to replace displayed content thanks to the type of e-ink technology applied.

Source: Tech On!


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[ Another E-paper debuts in Japan copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]



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Sony’s new reader mistaken for Etch A Sketch

Friday, October 31st, 2008

Sony’s eBook Reader is now available in cherry red. The interesting thing, however, is that with two circle wheel control knobs at the bottom, the reader looks like a portrait version of an Etch a Sketch. (memo to Hasbro, get on that, will ya?)

Aside from the cosmetic changes, the Sony eBook reader is exactly the same. Users can install and read novels using Sony’s patented e-Ink technology, play MP3s and view JPG pictures.
It’s built-in memory can hold a library of up to 160 books and newspaper editions. The patented (and proprietary) e-Ink technology makes the electronic image look like traditional print on its six inch screen, and pressing the button shows an animated page turn to the next page – kinda fun. And because it has no backlight, the image doesn’t flicker and as such, is easier on the eyes, but more difficult to read in darker, ambient light.

A handy bookmark feature helps keep the reader in place, and it’s magnification option helps vision challenged readers to enjoy reading as well. Battery life is judged, rather interestingly, at 7500 continuous page turns since the e-Ink screen only uses battery power when you are changing pages.
The one problem Sony’s eBook reader has – other than being mistaken for a child’s drawing toy – is that PDF files are hit and miss compatibility wise since Sony’s obsession with proprietary technology can make anything outside of their sphere of influence questionable to use. Even if it says it will.

But can it give the Kindle a run for its money? Quality wise, it can, but it needs to drop it’s price more to compete on price point and so it’s doubtful it’ll hold ground in this economy. Cost is around $275 from Amazon.

Hat tip – Shiny Shiny


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[ Sony’s new reader mistaken for Etch A Sketch copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]


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