inking

If you love doodling with a pen but hate accumulating paper, Sony and E Ink are coming out with a tablet/digital notepad that's large and relatively light for its size compared to big e-readers.

The 13.3-inch Digital Paper touch-panel display was recently shown off at Educational IT Solutions Expo (EDIX) in Tokyo. Sony is planning to try it out at Japanese universities and bring it to the general market this year.

It incorporates the E Ink Mobius electronic paper display, announced earlier this month. Mobius is based on thin film transistor (TFT) technology developed by Sony and is being billed as the first large-format flexible display to enter mass production.

Built on a plastic substrate, they can be much lighter than glass-based TFTs, with 13.3-inch screens weighing only 2.1 ounces. … Read more

Samsung is said to be in talks with Amazon to sell an e-ink technology company it acquired a couple of years ago.

The two tech giants are currently holding discussions for Samsung to sell Liquavista, a firm it acquired in 2011, to Amazon, Bloomberg is reporting, citing people who claim to have knowledge of the discussions. An exact price hasn't been determined yet, but Liquavista is expected to go for less than $100 million.

Samsung acquired Liquavista in January 2011 after the company, which develops e-ink technology for e-readers, made a splash at the 2011 Consumer Electronics Show with … Read more

Microsoft has finally unveiled Microsoft Office 2013. CNET's already had a chance to do an in-depth review of Office 365, the subscription version of Office 2013. Have more questions? Check out our answers below.… Read more

LAS VEGAS--The fight to build the thinnest watch has finally been won, folks. At least for now. Central Standard Timing has partnered with E Ink to create the CST-01; purportedly the world's thinnest watch.

At 0.80mm the watch is thinner than a credit card. I briefly got a chance to hold the extremely light watch and it is indeed the thinnest I've ever seen.

According to Central Standard Timing, the patent-pending CST-01 is assembled by laminating thin, flexible components into a 0.5mm pocket etched into a single piece of flexible stainless steel. This is different from … Read more

For many urban dwellers who live close to work, commuting by bike is like eating vegetables. You know you should, but sometimes you just want the burger and fries.

Industrial designer Adam Taylor, who is working toward a master's degree in future design in England, has devised a system that he thinks will help motivate commuters to pedal to the office. The two key features are the system's self-powered smart card and the bike itself, which is a beauty.

On the blog Bicycle Design, Taylor says he envisions the bike, which he calls "Tim," and the system, which he calls "Go Fara," to be bought in bulk by major corporations that institute a "green employee of the week" rewards program. Using the smart card, the employer has access to mileage and time stats to reward the highest achievers.… Read more

The sun is busy powering all sort of devices these days. There's a solar plane, a solar keyboard, and a solar Apple data center. Solar iPad and iPhone cases have been around, but they often require a fair amount of sunshine to make them work well.

The KudoCase from Kudo is taking a slightly different approach. As far as the KudoCase is concerned, sunlight is nice, but indoor light will do just fine.

Kudo claims that your iPad can go 10 days, with 2 hours of iPad use per day with average light. That's all a little vague, but it's also plenty intriguing. I usually plug my iPad in for a recharge every two days. It would be nice to extend that time a bit.… Read more

Today we'll take a critical look at the way people respond to celebrity deaths in the wake of Maurice Sendak, Adam Yauch, and Vidal Sassoon. We'll take you through the five typical stages of "grief" based on what Vice Magazine calls the Facebook Death Patrol.

We also have some bad news to report to children of millennials: your parents are still getting it on, and they're probably using a smartphone at the same time. A survey from Meredith's Parent Network questioned 1,000 moms born between 1977 and 1994 and found that 21 percent of them used their smartphones in the bathroom, while an astounding 12 percent admitted to using them in coitus! Sorry if we just ruined your day, kids.… Read more

A few months ago, I bought a Kindle. The cheap kind: $79, with "Special Offers." I bought it because I wanted to read more efficiently, and because the iPad 2's screen was giving me eye fatigue.

You'd think that with the new Retina Display iPad that my Kindle had been one-upped. Clearer, crisper text is exactly what I was hoping for on an iPad, and it did indeed come to pass. I upgraded to a third-generation iPad, although I did it mainly for storage space and to explore gaming with the new A5X graphics.

Yet, the new iPad hasn't been able to unseat my little old Kindle. Not entirely. In fact, I've been surprised to find that the Kindle has carved out a special place in my heart, and it's one that the iPad has a hard time filling.… Read more