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The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

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Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#21

Post by ptx »

freekh wrote: post #7

My biggest dream is a big epaper or pixel qi screen to do development on. The bazillion nits is killing my eyes...

Your dreams might have come true, then, with the Dasung Paperlike[1], a 13-inch e-ink monitor. The first generation connected to the PC via USB and special display drivers, but the current generation uses HDMI like a normal monitor.

My girlfriend is quite happy with her second-generation Paperlike Pro. There is apparently now a third generation[2] with higher resolution.

There are some disadvantages (of e-ink in general). It's not fast – the mouse cursor feels laggy, but typing is OK. You might have to tweak various appearance settings to make things look better in black and white – they have software to help with this for Windows, but not for Mac. Lastly, it's not particularly cheap.

[1] http://www.dasungtech.com/

[2] http://dasungtech.com/english/detail/id/223

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#22

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

askvictor wrote: post #18
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

It looks like it is already solved with just very high brightness on regular screens. Using a flagman phone, I can't remember a single time using it in the past when the sunlight was a problem.

Even in the highest brightness on a recent AMOLED phone, if the sun is shining on it directly (i.e. sun is over your shoulder), you can't see the contents of the screen, in large part due to the reflection on the very shiny screen (which needs to be shiny for maximum brightness). In these circumstances you need to position your phone into your shadow (maybe you do this instinctively and don't notice) And that says no…

I guess it sure seems like there are different usage patterns and some people are really experiencing this still being an issue? I can see how some people might need to be using it really in direct sunlight where reflection can't be tweaked away by rotating the phone just a couple of degrees (which I think I do without even thinking about it).

So you're right, the current screen tech has not completely solved sunlight problem.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#23

Post by Erlich_Bachman »

lsc wrote: post #15
Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #9

Earlier quoted context omitted.

This might be an anecdote, but I am an avid consumer of e-reader-like products, and me not having bought (even though having had researched thoroughly) any pixel QI products has nothing to do with Kindle. I have bought 8 e-readers during the years and none of them were Kindle. In this year it is so easy to do research about any available products, and order any available products, that it is hard to compete only by b…

do you know of an e-ink device that runs a fairly standard and up-to-date (google play store compatible) version of android? such a thing would be pretty useful for me.

https://onyxboox.com/ are making some very cool devices, I think most are running Android. It might not be updated by the manufacturer every 6 months (not even many phones do that), but it definitely runs most of the latest apps.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#24

Post by crocal »

ptx wrote: post #21
freekh wrote: post #7

My biggest dream is a big epaper or pixel qi screen to do development on. The bazillion nits is killing my eyes...

Your dreams might have come true, then, with the Dasung Paperlike[1], a 13-inch e-ink monitor. The first generation connected to the PC via USB and special display drivers, but the current generation uses HDMI like a normal monitor. My girlfriend is quite happy with her second-generation Paperlike Pro. There is apparently now a third generation[2] with higher resolution. There are some disadvantages (of e-ink in gene…

Thanks for the link! Based on your experience, would it be a good fit for hacking? How does a Emacs/Vi session comes across?

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#25

Post by ianai »

Erlich_Bachman wrote: post #22
askvictor wrote: post #18

Earlier quoted context omitted.

Even in the highest brightness on a recent AMOLED phone, if the sun is shining on it directly (i.e. sun is over your shoulder), you can't see the contents of the screen, in large part due to the reflection on the very shiny screen (which needs to be shiny for maximum brightness). In these circumstances you need to position your phone into your shadow (maybe you do this instinctively and don't notice) And that says no…

I guess it sure seems like there are different usage patterns and some people are really experiencing this still being an issue? I can see how some people might need to be using it really in direct sunlight where reflection can't be tweaked away by rotating the phone just a couple of degrees (which I think I do without even thinking about it). So you're right, the current screen tech has not completely solved sunligh…

I’m more concerned about always having to have a backlight. I guess people just don’t care enough.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#26

Post by anonu »

Curious what people's views are on e-readers here at HN? Personally, I've tried to adopt an e-reader over many years. The convenience of having 100s of books without the weight is great. Being able to read in a dark room as well. However, the feel of a real book I think still wins out over any advantages of an e-reader.

Also my informal and anecdotal survey of how people use technology - mainly on the NYC subway - doesn't really bring to mind many people reading on e-readers. It usually a real book.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#27

Post by proaralyst »

anonu wrote: post #26

Curious what people's views are on e-readers here at HN? Personally, I've tried to adopt an e-reader over many years. The convenience of having 100s of books without the weight is great. Being able to read in a dark room as well. However, the feel of a real book I think still wins out over any advantages of an e-reader. Also my informal and anecdotal survey of how people use technology - mainly on the NYC subway - do…

I can hold it in one hand or set it on a surface and read while eating, brushing my teeth, holding onto a train etc.

I still love paper books but these situations always make me miss my kindle.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#28

Post by arendtio »

I bought a Notion Ink Adam back when it came out and while other complained about the faint colors, I was pretty happy when I had no problem reading at the beach :-D

I wish they would have developed a Pixel Qi version with a AMOLED (not sure if that is possible), as that way we could have nice colors combined with a readable screen in bright sunlight. I still want to have a Pixel Qi screen for my smartphone every single time the sun is so bright that I have trouble reading anything on it.

Until now, I was wondering what happen to the technology. It is just sad, that they weren't able to make the whole thing an economical success.

Re: The Rise and Fall of Pixel QI

#29

Post by rdl »

anonu wrote: post #26

Curious what people's views are on e-readers here at HN? Personally, I've tried to adopt an e-reader over many years. The convenience of having 100s of books without the weight is great. Being able to read in a dark room as well. However, the feel of a real book I think still wins out over any advantages of an e-reader. Also my informal and anecdotal survey of how people use technology - mainly on the NYC subway - do…

I have used kindles since the beginning. The only device which competes with it for me is my iPad (1 through 10.5 Pro) running the Kindle app. I actively avoid books not available on Kindle; if I’m forced to read something else I use the iPad to read PDF, pirate the book in PDF, or destroy the book in scanning it (100 books for $100) and then read PDF.

I hate the physical limitations (weight, damage, water) of books. I am indifferent to touch.

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