Imagine carrying a tablet around with you with a screen 2.5 times larger than the Kindle, weighing two ounces more and a third of the Kindle's thickness. It will enable you to read your daily news digitally and is the latest ebook eink device to hit the market. Today many of us get our news feeds free direct to our mobiles and PCs, but that obviously is not seen as the answer for these technology people. Some may say that it is technology for the sake of technology.
The new electronic newspaper, reported in today’s New York Times is a large portable screen that is constantly updated with the latest news. The new device is based on eink technology, produced by Plastic Logic and is to be launched next Monday. The Plastic Logic’s device, which will be shown at an emerging technology trade show in San Diego, can be continually updated via a wireless link, and can store and display hundreds of pages of newspapers, books and documents. Plastic Logic’s gains its weight benefit by using lightweight plastic, rather than glass technology.
The reader will go on sale in the first half of next year but today there is no newspapers announced to be available through the service,nor a price fixed.
E Ink expects that within the next few years it will be able to create technology that allows users to write on the screen, view videos and of course view colour pages. The biggest competitor is not the Kindle or other ebook pretenders, but the web itself and the guys working on the news web sites and offering today full colur, digital copy for free.
Lets again step back and ask the question whether we need another device. Are you seriously going to work with a laptop in bag, mobile in pocket and now a tablet under the arm? Can you remember when muggers targeted iPods? Well they will have little problem spotting these!
It's one thing to provide a screen big enough to support newsprint layout, but its another to ask, why do we have to? Even The Times shrunk in recent years and newspapers constantly have to now reconsider their layout!
A shaman friend once wanted to create a web site for debate, that when confronted by a new idea would ask ‘Is it wise.com?’ We think this one would fail the test and oit makes us question the manufacturer's name - Plastic Logic.
1 comment:
I've often thought about how many devices I am realistically willing to carry round at any one time. I'm sort of convinced now that it is going to come down to a smart phone and a tablet PC. A good low spec tablet PC (like the XO) should be able to double as an ebook reader.
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