This is just an initial release/prototype. Pretty sure it will improve with time. Glad to see Sony breaking new ground and also glad that e-ink technology is improving.
No, it's being offered for sale....
Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
51–60 of 83 posts
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#52Is there a source for this that isn't blogspam?
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#53Earlier quoted context omitted.
YES! This replaces your legal/letter notepad your drag meeting to meeting, not your Kindle.
If the pad and display was good enough to keep up with handwriting, I would be all over this at work. I've worked with Laptop or iPad/Keyboard and I can make it work, but nothing beats a pen and folio.
Microsoft Surface Pro
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#54I actually want/need a digital sketchpad, and while I do read/annotate PDFs, this is not what I would do the majority of the time. If this device would be hackable (run linux on it), I would find so many use cases for it that I could justify the price in a heartbeat. Somehow, being a device from Sony, I expect this reader to be a piece of junk software-wise, to the point that I wouldn't be surprised that you need to…
If you want a cheap digital sketchpad, look at the Boogie Board LCD slates. They're nowhere near as good as a proper graphics tablet, but you can draw and save stuff on them. High end model is around $100, other models more like $30.
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#551200×1600 greyscale and 13.3" is great, but I feel that 'flexible' is a lower priority than 'not $1100'.
that is only if you haven't broken a few e-ink screens already :) As soon as I saw this I thought "no way anyone sensible is buying this, it will break in a week". Factoring this in, a rigid screen would have probably meant "unsellable".
Use a case? Include a free fake leather case with every purchase?
I've had zero problems with my Kindle screens, but I've never dropped them.
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#56Earlier quoted context omitted.
I wonder if the $1100 price is for the dev kit and not an actual retail product.
It's not a retail product, it's a professional product. Sony hasn't launched it in the US, it's being imported by Worldox, which is targeting lawyers etc. http://www.worldox.com/news/sony-digital-paper-worldox I wonder if people would be better informed if there were more professional journalists and not as many crappy blogs...
This tech, and that business plan, is nothing new. Plastic Logic aimed squarely at the professional market with a flexible e-ink reader that debuted at CES 2009. [0]
It hasn't worked out so well for them. I visited their booth in 2009, and they showed a large flexible screen housed in a rigid case. It was to be the advent of flexible e-ink, and the beginning of a new era. Eventually, their announced content partners fell through, and despite an initial splash it never really materialized.
Plastic Logic did launch in the US, but shut down their US ops in 2012. [1] They are still a going concern, however, and still focusing on the business market.
[0] http://www.slashgear.com/plastic-logic-que-wireless-ebook-re... [1] http://www.ft.com/intl/cms/s/0/1a08be60-9eba-11e1-9cc8-00144...
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#57Earlier quoted context omitted.
This is not meant for reading paperbacks. A kindle paperwhite, at $120, is a far better choice for that. This is for reading and annotating documents, and generally replacing paper in an office or academic setting. Given then number of research papers I've printed out (thousands and thousands of pages), I can see a huge use for this. It may still not be cost effective, but is still much more environmentally friendly…
For research papers... maybe 50 pages including technical graphics? With a monochrome laser printer, we'll give a very high estimate of $0.10 per page, or $5 per paper. That's still 220 papers to break even, at least, and only one person can use it at a time, unlike the printer, which can be shared for the whole office. My home printer is over 10 years old, and I still don't think I have spent more than $800 on it du…
> For research papers... maybe 50 pages including technical graphics? With a monochrome laser printer, we'll give a very high estimate of $0.10 per page, or $5 per paper. That's still 220 papers to break even
Okay, so, yes, its cheaper to print paper than to carry a letter-sized, write-on-it, ereader.
OTOH, its a lot more convenient to carry one ereader if you have a lot of stuff to view than it is to carry a stack of books/research papers/etc.
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#58At $8.95 apiece, $1100 can buy you 122 mass-market paperbacks. I certainly hope that someone can bring that retail price down a fair chunk, or this tech is not going far.
You can get an e-reader for around $40 these days. This is a one of a kind specialty product.
> You can get an e-reader for around $40 these days.
Yeah, but you can't get a letter-sized eink reader for around $40.
Re: Sony releases the Holy Grail: A flexible e-ink screen
#59Earlier quoted context omitted.
It's not a retail product, it's a professional product. Sony hasn't launched it in the US, it's being imported by Worldox, which is targeting lawyers etc. http://www.worldox.com/news/sony-digital-paper-worldox I wonder if people would be better informed if there were more professional journalists and not as many crappy blogs...
This tech, and that business plan, is nothing new. Plastic Logic aimed squarely at the professional market with a flexible e-ink reader that debuted at CES 2009. [0] It hasn't worked out so well for them. I visited their booth in 2009, and they showed a large flexible screen housed in a rigid case. It was to be the advent of flexible e-ink, and the beginning of a new era. Eventually, their announced content partners…
baschcoder, or scholia, do you guys know of a blog that follows the professional market?