pandigital

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

Digital Dead Sea Scrolls

Links from Wednesday's episode of Loaded:

HP announces the Palm Pre 2 and a new operating system WebOS 2.0

Xbox.com gets a makeover with some new features

Microsoft launches Office 365

Target lets you print your Facebook photos at the store

Barnes and Noble may be getting a new Nook ready to launch

Pandigital launches a new eReader called the Novel

Google is tasked with digitizing the Dead Sea Scrolls

And don't miss CNET's live blogging of the Apple conference today where we believe new MacBooks are on the way! If you do miss it, … Read more

Pandigital introduces second Novel e-reader

After getting off to a shaky start with its first e-reader, a color reading device called the Novel, Pandigital is taking a second stab with a monochrome e-ink model that has built-in Wi-Fi, a touch-screen interface, and a direct link to the Barnes & Noble eBookstore. The Novel 6-inch Personal eReader carries a list price of $200, but we suspect that the street price may be slightly less when it ships later this month.

Here are the key specs:

6-inch ePaper electrophoretic display (made by Sipex/AUO) with 800x600-pixel resolution and 16-level grayscale Measures 6.75 inches long by 4.… Read more

Android Atlas Weekly 12: Oracle vs. the open Android (podcast)

Oracle taking on the 'open' in Android, the G1's soon-to-be sibling, and Honeycomb. You read that right. Plus we discuss the somewhat confusing world of personal and corporate Gmail co-existing on your Android phone. Today's special guest, Senior Writer for HowStuffWorks.com, Jon Strickland!

Subscribe:  iTunes (MP3) |  iTunes (320x180) |  iTunes (640x360) |  RSS (MP3) |  RSS (320x180) |  RSS (640x360) EPISODE 12 Oracle Sues Google Over Android Java Use Adobe: AIR Coming to Android Market After End of Year Why Android developers are losing money, and it's not due to piracy Pay for your Android apps with Paypal - coming soon Revealed: Android Honeycomb next up from Google T-Mobile G2, first HSPA+ smartphone coming soon T-Mobile's Moto Charm on sale August 25 for $75 Verizon Inventory Leak Shows Motorola Droid Pro, White Droid 2 And Motorola Tablet … Read more

Pandigital's Android e-reader is 'hobbled'

If you know of Pandigital, you probably know it for its photo frames. However, the company is moving into the hot e-book reader market with a device that a lot of people have been waiting for: an affordable color-screen e-book reader with ties to a major bookseller.

Integrated with the Barnes & Noble's e-book store, the Pandigital Novel is an Android-powered e-book reader that has a full-color 7-inch touch-screen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, and multimedia capabilities. On the surface, this all sounds pretty good and when we first saw a picture of it it, we thought it looked a lot … Read more

E-readers seek frame and fortune

Before the iPad, it was often said that there has never been a successful electronics device in a screen size between the cell phone and the laptop. Indeed, the form factor and functionality of such devices have been tough nuts to crack, but there have been a few successes.

While the most widely adopted of these was the so-called "portable" DVD player embraced by many top-tier consumer electronics brands, a more modest success story has been the digital picture frame.

Cleverly branded, overgrown multimedia players that had undergone battery removal surgery, the digital picture frame was a star … Read more

Pac-Man never dies

Yahoo and Nokia announced an extended partnership in New York today. The companies hosted a fancy press conference at the New York City NASDAQ for news that is relatively unfancy.

The news is that Yahoo will power mail, chat, and maps in Nokia devices. That's nice I suppose. It will have somewhat of an impact on developing countries and overseas where Nokia phones are popular.

The bigger news is what Yahoo CEO Carol Bartz said as a non sequitur during the event: that Yahoo products will get more social features integrated in the next few weeks.

Yahoo has experimented … Read more

Pandigital, B&N partner on $200 color e-reader

If you know of Pandigital, you probably know it for its photo frames. However, the company is moving into the hot e-book reader market with a device that a lot of people have been waiting for: an affordable color screen e-book reader with ties to a major bookseller.

Integrated with the Barnes & Noble's  e-book store, the Pandigital Novel is an Android-powered e-book reader that has a full color 7-inch touch-screen display, Wi-Fi connectivity, and multimedia capabilities. According to Pandigital, the reader will cost $199.99 when it ships in June.

While we're surprised to see Barnes & Noble partnering with Pandigital, but as anybody who has played around with the iPad knows, it's not a big leap from digital photo frame to e-book reader. Judging by the Novel's press shots, it looks a lot like the rumored smaller version of the iPad that some sites and analysts have been alluding to. That said, the Novel 800x600-pixel resolution display isn't as sharp as the iPad's is, and its resistive touch-screen interface--while responsive--isn't as responsive the iPad's capacitive touch-screen interface is.

An Arm 11 processor powers the Novel, which measures 7.5 inches tall by 5.5 inches wide by 0.5 inch thick and weighs 16 ounces. It has 1GB of built-in memory and has an expansion slot for SD/MMC memory cards--with support for cards up to 32GB in capacity. Pandigital rates its Novel's battery life at six hours in reading mode.  That's not a terrible battery life, but it's neither near the iPad's battery life nor the battery life of dedicated e-ink-based e-book readers, such as the Amazon Kindle, that don't have to be recharged for days or even weeks.

While the Novel has multimedia features as well as a built-in Web browser, e-mail client, calendar, and alarm, Pandigital is billing its new devices first and foremost as an e-book reader. According to the company, Novel owners will have "easy access to Barnes & Noble's expansive eBookstore catalog of more than one million eBooks, newspapers and magazines, a wide variety of free eBooks and more than half a million free classics." Novel users can also use Barnes & Noble LendMe feature that lets you share certain e-books with friends and family for 14 days; however, currently you can only lend a book out once. … Read more

Pan-tastic Pancake-thin Pandigital PanTouch Clear

The Pandigital PanTouch Clear 10.4-inch frame (also known by the far-catchier name PAN1000DWPCF2) is not only fully loaded with features, but it's really thin, too, at just 0.3-inch thick. The 4:3 frame uses an HD-quality LCD with a 1,024x768 resolution and it has a full touch-screen interface on fingerprint-resistant, clear glass. It's all very exciting.

With an MSRP of $229.99 you better be getting more than just a thin, pretty touch-screen frame, and you do. There's integrated Wi-Fi for connecting to a home wireless network and you'll be able to use … Read more