Color E-Ink Readers

[Timoleon]

So when the heck is this going to happen?

http://dvice.com/archives/2007/12/color_eink_gett.php

When and if a color display with writing abilities does come about, it truly will "blow everything else out of the water."

I want one. I must have one. My drool cups are spilling over, and I have no spares!

Tim

[carld]

Last I heard color displays were still 2 years from market. I'd bet at least that, possibly even 3 or 4 before we get something like a color Kindle or Sony Reader. And while color would be nice, I pushed my budget just to afford the Kindle. I imagine it's going to be 5 years or more before there's an affordable color replacement.

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

I agree: A color e-ink device could be the hardware everyone wants to have... especially if it can be used to read full-color magazines, newspapers, comics, etc, and especially if it allows the user to "snip and save" pieces of articles, photos, ads, etc, in a sort of "scrapbook" for future use, and discard the rest when done.

I see the "scrapbook" function as a potential killer-app for any periodical-reading device. Combine that with color, and you should have a hit.

[The Skwerl]

Color is nice and all but how many people really need color? The ability to take notes and such I could use but color pages and such not really. It would be more like an e-comic book reader then anything i would think. But thats just me.

[nekokami]

It could be extremely useful for magazines. There are a number we subscribe to that use color images to great effect, including National Geographic, Scientific American, Bead & Button, MAKE, etc. I imagine more "popular" magazines like People or whatever would attract more digital edition readers on a color eink device as well.

I agree on the "clipping" application!

[Steven Lyle Jordan]

Originally Posted by nekokami

It could be extremely useful for magazines. There are a number we subscribe to that use color images to great effect, including National Geographic, Scientific American, Bead & Button, MAKE, etc. I imagine more "popular" magazines like People or whatever would attract more digital edition readers on a color eink device as well.

Exactly my thoughts. In certain areas (art, travelogues, personalities, sexuality, etc), color makes the difference.

Now, imagine a young woman who is enamored with a certain TV-star Hottie, and collects every picture and article she can find from her fave pop and TV magazines. You have the perfect person to download digital mags, "clip" her man's pics and articles, and save it in her scrapbook to swoon over in private (or with her girlfriends-- Eeeeee!).

Now imagine a young man, seriously into African animals, clipping and saving pics and articles about the Great Beasts.

Imagine the adult with a walls-spanning collection of magazines, who'd love to distill that down to collections of their most desired articles in a digital folder, to take with them everywhere, and discard the rest.

And finally, the male adult (or almost-adult) who's into (what else?) girls, and collects pictures of actresses, models and nudes from any source he can get his hands on, so he can carry them around anywhere.

You've just imagined four sorts of people who, if they knew a device would allow them to do this, would pay twice the price of a Kindle for it.

Actually, one of our members mentioned the Zinio reader to me, which I've been checking out. It's a flash-based offline magazine reader for PCs, has a lot of magazines available as individual issues and subscriptions, and some of them can be printed to PDF, allowing you to potentially save individual pages, or the entire mag, and even print them out.

It is close to what I'm envisioning for the "scrapbook" app, with the exception that the user should be able to select parts of a page, not the entire page... and that they should not be limited (by the mag's publisher) in what they can select or clip... and the app should allow them to organize their "clippings" in custom folders.

I predict that few adults, adolescents or children would be able to resist such a device.

[axel77]

Originally Posted by The Skwerl

Color is nice and all but how many people really need color? The ability to take notes and such I could use but color pages and such not really. It would be more like an e-comic book reader then anything i would think. But thats just me.

a digital highlighter would be *the* killer feature.

The underlining you can do with the iLiad is fine, but it just cant reaelly compete with traditional paper+yellow highlighter.

[Format C:]

Originally Posted by Timoleon

So when the heck is this going to happen?

http://dvice.com/archives/2007/12/color_eink_gett.php

When and if a color display with writing abilities does come about, it truly will "blow everything else out of the water."

I want one. I must have one. My drool cups are spilling over, and I have no spares!

Tim

I'd rather use one with a REAL white background and the blackest of blacks and 254 greys in between...

If it's fast enough to be wirelessly connected to a reflex, it'd be THE killer toy for B&W digital photographers...

[MsAstoria]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

Actually, one of our members mentioned the Zinio reader to me, which I've been checking out. It's a flash-based offline magazine reader for PCs, has a lot of magazines available as individual issues and subscriptions, and some of them can be printed to PDF, allowing you to potentially save individual pages, or the entire mag, and even print them out.

Zinio app is awesome on the iPad! I downloaded the latest National Geograhic issue and it blew my socks off! Fantastic color photos and interactive sections are often included (short film on cover of Great Migration issue as example). I also have it on my Mac computer at home but I read it on my iPad.

HIghly recommended for Pcs, Macs, and portable devices.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Steven Lyle Jordan

I agree: A color e-ink device could be the hardware everyone wants to have... especially if it can be used to read full-color magazines, newspapers, comics, etc, and especially if it allows the user to "snip and save" pieces of articles, photos, ads, etc, in a sort of "scrapbook" for future use, and discard the rest when done.

I see the "scrapbook" function as a potential killer-app for any periodical-reading device. Combine that with color, and you should have a hit.

Agree completely, the primary thing not getting the attention is the underlying software to manage using the device. I have long felt until there is good study/research management software on these readers they will be mere shadows of what the potential they represent.

Now not everyone will need a full featured device of that type but by then a simple reading device will be in the checkout at the grocery store for $25.

Color is without a doubt a key component to let readers reach their potential. At least with the advent of the LCD LED backlighted panel devices gives the mfg's and developers a working platform on which to build the app suite needed. I like to use programs like MS OneNote (anymore I would not get anything done w/o OneNote) and in the past Evernote was a favorite. There are a few similar apps which could be used as a starting point. Much as I don't care for the company itself the iPad is a very close glimpse of that potential realized. So is the enTourage Edge and it's new smaller brother.

Still as always power is the bug-bear which the screen tech can pretty much make go away w/o any improvement in the power tech used today. Next is the need for connectivity, and it needs pretty much constant/on-demand connectivity beyond just wifi.

I would be thrilled with a daylight readable dual 7"-8" panel device as my OTG hardware letting me leave the laptop at home. Hence, why I am coming around on the new small enTourage Edge (sorry I forget the exact name but it has a thread here somewhere and is for sale on HSN), it's as close to the Courier as we have seen to date.

I firmly believe the software/firmware is where every single reader to date has failed to deliver. Too much time has been spent on what amounts to very simplistic hardware. And this perplexes me no end, the hardware used on ereaders is nothing special, in fact it is old, inexpensive but proven hardware. Yet little attention has been spent on the underlying software. Worse is not as if we don't already have similar apps on PC's but too much is made of the money in multimedia and developers all seem interested in YAMP (yet another media player)...we must have a billion and a half of those, lets really get these devices delivering.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by MsAstoria

Zinio app is awesome on the iPad! I downloaded the latest National Geograhic issue and it blew my socks off! Fantastic color photos and interactive sections are often included (short film on cover of Great Migration issue as example). I also have it on my Mac computer at home but I read it on my iPad.

HIghly recommended for Pcs, Macs, and portable devices.

I have such a mental block about Zinio as at it's roots it was a horrible application with serious security (read spyware and worse) issues. I admit to not keeping up on it's maturation. Nice to read someone is really enjoying the newest generation. But I still suspect it's too proprietary for my tastes.

[brecklundin]

Originally Posted by Format C:

I'd rather use one with a REAL white background and the blackest of blacks and 254 greys in between...

If it's fast enough to be wirelessly connected to a reflex, it'd be THE killer toy for B&W digital photographers...

on device Wifi + EyeFi Pro card in the camera....and *poof* you have your system. I know a few folks who shoot RAW & JPG who are very pleased with that basic setup with their iPad. Not that I could ever make myself own an iPad, I am genetically predisposed to reject all things Apple though the Nano could seduce me over to the dark side for that ONE sort of device...hahahaha....

[Bikeridr]

National Geographic subscription + Sky & Telescope subscription + 8" Colour eInk and I would be in heaven

[sterdeus]

Originally Posted by carld

Last I heard color displays were still 2 years from market. I'd bet at least that, possibly even 3 or 4 before we get something like a color Kindle or Sony Reader. And while color would be nice, I pushed my budget just to afford the Kindle. I imagine it's going to be 5 years or more before there's an affordable color replacement.

It looks like your prediction still holds true. It's been over 2 years since the article and no colour e-ink on the market yet. As mentioned, its most likely due to cost of production. Or perhaps the ereader makers are looking to get a nice return on investment (black and white e-ink) before they release colour.

[ofey]

I've always said a logical next step is Color. An eReader has no need for a LCD screen. Just color.

I suspect there is no contest at the moment. The tablet PC market is completely separate to the eReader market and with those 2 separate and distinct, there's really no need for them to roll out color yet. Give it another 2 yrs and we might see it trickle through but I suspect Kindle 4 will still be a black and white version. May take till Kindle 6 before we see color eInk.