e ink - Android Police - Android News, Apps, Games, Phones, Tablets

Jan

PaperTab Is An Awesome Flexible, E-Ink Display, Introduced In The Weirdest, Most Unproductive Way

Posted by Eric Ravenscraft in News

Have you seen Firefly? I have. I love that show. Whedon's "used future" conceptions are second only to the Star Wars universe. In this world, the two dominant language cultures are Chinese and English, space ships can be cheap junkers like someone's first Honda is today, and crime bosses can toss around amazing, full-color, flexible displays like they're nothing. This is the future I want. To be very clear, PaperTab, while a great-looking concept, is not going to be taking us there.

"Watch out tablet lovers!" is how the description for the video starts. Given what we end up seeing, I can only interpret this as a warning shot.

Dec

Yota Devices Unveils YotaPhone – A Phone With Dual LCD/E-Ink Displays That 'Keeps You Different'

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Jelly Bean 4.2, News

Looking to "rebalance the relationship" between humans and their smartphones, Moscow-based Yota Devices has announced the YotaPhone, a smartphone with an LCD display on one side, and an e-ink screen on the back.

The reason behind (between?) the dual screens, Yota says, is to deliver the information users want, right when they want it, without disengaging from the real world by pressing a power button and unlocking a screen. Users can choose to see information ranging from news stories to social media updates, calendar entries, and more. The information updates itself constantly, and is always ready to be looked at. Since the e-ink display uses very little battery power, the phone's 2100mAh pack should allow users to enjoy usage comparable to devices with a single display.

Oct

Onyx International Working On Android-Powered E Ink Smartphone [Video]

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Android OS, News

E Ink has long been lauded as a versatile, universally legible display technology, making appearances in NOOK tablets, Amazon Kindle devices, and a couple of weird prototypes over the years.

Onyx International, a manufacturer of ebook readers, has evidently created a prototype smartphone – powered by Android – that uses a full E Ink display.

The phone you see above is apparently the only prototype of this device in existence (so far). While the specs aren't named, we can see that the device is running Android Gingerbread, and not without its issues. Of course, as a – presumably – unfinished device, bugs are to be expected.

Apr

Pebble E-Paper Watch for Android And iPhone Sets Kickstarter All-Time Record With Over $5 Million In Pledges

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in News

Kickstarter is getting to be the only way to launch an audacious project. It seems like very time you turn around, a new Kickstarter drive has set a record and raised millions of dollars. It was just last month that Double Fine Adventure reached $3.3 million to make a game. Now the Pebble e-ink watch has become the top project on Kickstarter with more than $5 million in donations.

The Pebble is a smart-looking watch with an e-ink face that does the mundane stuff like tell the time, and tell you what day it is. When paired with a compatible mobile device, it becomes a completely different, and more interesting fashion accessory.

Apr

Barnes And Noble Equipping New Nook Simple Touch With Front-Lit E-ink Screen

Posted by Ryan Whitwam in Barnes & Noble, News, Nook

Anyone that has ever spent any length of time with an e-ink based e-reader like the Kindle or Nook can attest to their uselessness in dark spaces. Now it looks like Barnes and Noble is going to be taking a crack at fixing that shortcoming of e-readers in an effort to gain some traction in its battle against Amazon. Leaked signage points to an updated Nook Simple Touch with a front-lit screen, and it might be here sooner than you think.

Barnes and Noble will apparently be calling the technology GlowLight, and if you don't like the name, tough. The retailer is going to be pushing it as a major feature of its Android-based e-reader.

Oct

Sony's PRS-T1 Reader Hacked To Run Full Android... On Its E-Ink Display

Posted by Liam Spradlin in Development, News, Tablets

The Sony Reader PRS-T1, a 6" e-ink reader that debuted earlier this year, has been hacked to run Android. It's a known fact that the Reader has been running Android from the get-go, but it runs a heavily modified build, and many thought that it would never see true Android goodness. Any doubt users had, however, can now be laid to rest - an unnamed hacker has got the T1 running Android with AWLauncher, and a bevvy of reading apps in tow.

While this is certainly interesting news, don't get too excited just yet - the build is still very much a work in progress.

May

Barnes And Noble Unveils The Next Nook: 2 Months Of Battery Life, Android, E-Ink, And More For $140

Posted by David Ruddock in Barnes & Noble, News, Nook

It seems Barnes and Noble gave everyone a bit of a surprise today. It was expected that the bookseller would be launching a 3G version of its wildly popular NOOK e-reader (or maybe even a 3G NOOKcolor), but instead, B&N went straight for the competition's throat, launching the 6-inch e-ink display sporting, Android-powered (albeit Android 2.1) NOOK Simple Touch Reader. And all for the low, low cost of $140 - a price suspiciously reminiscent of a certain other e-book reader.

Look mom, no buttons!

Anyway, as I said, the screen is e-ink - so you're only getting black and white. But you're also getting absolutely ridiculous battery life: B&N claims 2 months on a single charge with Wi-Fi turned off.

May

[Deal Alert] enTourage Pocket eDGe Dualbook Android Tablet/e-Ink Reader $150 At Woot.com Today (May 4th, 2011)

Posted by Artem Russakovskii in Deals, eDGe, enTourage, News

The enTourage eDGe Dualbook is one of the more interesting devices released last year due to its 2 screens - a 7" touchscreen LCD and a 6" e-Ink. Similar to the Spring Design Alex eReader, the Dualbook lets you read ebooks on one screen while simultaneously Googling, browsing Wikipedia, checking email, and doing anything Android lets you do on the other screen. However, if you find yourself reading late at night, just throw the book over to the LCD screen, and suddenly you can read in the dark. Pretty cool, eh?

The tablet/eReader features a 1.2GHz Marvell ARMADA PXA168 CPU, 3GB internal memory, a microSD slot, Android 1.6 (although a 2.2 ROM is supposedly floating around), a 2MP front-facing camera, a speaker, a microphone, 802.11 b/g Wi-Fi, and Bluetooth.

Apr

Exclusive: Amazon To Introduce 4.3-Inch Dual-Core "Blaze" Smartphone This Summer [Leak, Pictures]

Posted by Jaroslav Stekl in AT&T, News, Verizon Wireless

Last Updated: August 1st, 2012

Update: If you haven't caught on yet, you should probably check out the date on which this post was published.

This special Android Police project was brought to you by:

The amazing Grant Garrison, who tackled the design side
Jaroslav Stekl, who came up with most of the rest
Artem Russakovskii, who made sure everything went and looked perfect

Amazon's been making waves in the Android blogosphere recently with such new products as the Appstore and the Cloud Player, but it looks like they're not done yet; in fact, they're only just starting. According to the same source who tipped us about the Appstore a few months back, the company will be launching the Blaze, which looks to be a smartphone of pretty high caliber, come August - and in a sentence, there's a lot to look forward to.