color e-ink

What's next for e-readers: a Mirasol in the making?

At last year's CES, the e-reader product a lot of people were talking about didn't exist. It was a concept from Mirasol, a Qualcomm-backed company that was showing off its screen technology in a prototype unit.

Mirasol's screen caught people's attention for a few reasons. For starters, it was color. Secondly, its high-tech reflective display technology was not only energy-efficient but readable in direct sunlight. And finally, it was capable of displaying full-motion video. Marrying the best of what e-ink had to offer with some of the strengths of LCD, it looked a lot like the … Read more

New e-paper begins chapter for color e-readers

E-book readers that use e-ink are getting a splash of color, courtesy of a new e-paper technology.

Display maker E Ink announced today the release of its new color e-paper, called E Ink Triton, which will offer e-book makers a way to add color to their e-ink devices. The new technology will make its debut with a color e-book reader set to be released in China next March by Chinese e-reader vendor Hanvon, an E Ink representative told CNET.

"E Ink Triton marks a major milestone in the e-book revolution," Hanvon's Chairman Liu Yingjian said in a statement. "E Ink has the right technology, manufacturing capability, and know-how to transition Hanvon's product vision into reality. With E Ink Triton technology, Hanvon is enabled to release the world's first [e-ink-reliant] color e-book reader today."

The new e-paper is being geared to show off a variety of applications and content, including charts, graphs, maps, photos, comics and, of course, advertisements. Screens using the new Triton e-ink can display thousands of colors, as well as 16 levels of gray scale, according to E Ink. The text and color graphics are also designed to be fully viewable in direct sunlight and are maintained on the screen, even when the device power is turned off.

E Ink is touting the speed of its new electronic paper, claiming that displays made with Triton can perform up to 20 percent faster than ones made with older e-ink technology.… Read more

Color-screen Kindle is years off, says Bezos

Those of you holding out for a color version of the Kindle may be disappointed to learn that Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos is telling the world it won't be arriving anytime soon. In fact, a color-screened Kindle is "multiple years" away, he said Thursday, adding: "I've seen the color displays in the laboratory, and I can assure you they're not ready for prime time."

We weren't expecting a color-screened Kindle in the near future, particularly one that anyone can afford (Fujitsu has just launched the FLEPia color e-book reader in Japan, but … Read more

Fujitsu e-book reader makes Kindle look cheap

We've had a lot of CNET readers tell us they're waiting for a little color before they jump onto the e-book reader bandwagon. Well, as one might expect, a little color is going to cost you a lot of dough, as Fujitsu gets set to release its Flepia color e-book reader in Japan with a $1,000 price tag.

In the works for several years, the Flepia has a bigger display than does Amazon's Kindle 2--it has an 8-inch 1,024x768-pixel XGA touch screen that can display 260,000 colors (Fujitsu refers to its e-ink technology … Read more