Hasta La Gadget!

Sony’s new e-ink prototype is getting the test-drive treatment at Japanese universities, but SID provides a perfect opportunity to give the North American market a demo. We found the Digital Paper slab parked at E Ink’s booth — fitting, as the company’s new Mobius flexible display is the device’s biggest selling point.

At 13.3 inches, the panel is larger than your typical e-reader’s, but it weighs just 60 grams. That light footprint comes courtesy of E Ink’s TFT tech, which allows for larger, more rugged devices without the extra weight. The Digital Paper’s form factor matches the size of a sheet of A4 paper, and the on-board digitizer lets users scrawl notes on the electromagnetic induction touchscreen. Naturally, this is just one implementation of the E Ink’s display, but it’s neat to see a prototype in action nonetheless. Head past the break to do just that.

Filed under: Displays, Tablets, Sony

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Earlier this week, we learned of Sony’s plans for a 13.3-inch e-ink slate with stylus support pitched at students, and now Diginfo has caught up with the prototype device at the Educational IT Solutions Expo in Japan. The A4-sized tablet is said to be the first piece of hardware with an E Ink Mobius display that’s flexible and light due to its new plastic construction. Co-developed by Sony and E Ink, the display only contributes 60g to the overall weight, which is apparently 50 percent lighter than similar screens built with glass. Sony says the software isn’t quite as slick as it’d like it to be just yet, but nevertheless, you can check out people scrawling, annotating and highlighting on the prototype in the video below.

Filed under: Sony

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Source: DigInfo (YouTube)

Sony’s no stranger to the odd e-ink device, but its latest prototype creation isn’t targeted at the bookworm, it’s intended to educate. The e-paper slate is quite a lot bigger than most tablets, let alone e-readers, sporting a 13.3-inch screen (1,200 x 1,600) to match the standard A4 size of normal, boring paper. That display is also an electromagnetic induction touchscreen for poking at menus and scrolling, but more importantly, it supports stylus input for scrawling notes and annotating PDFs (the only file format it currently supports). The prototype device is also only 6.8mm (0.27 inch) thick and weighs 385g (13.6 ounces) — perfect for slipping into school bags. There’s 4GB of on-board storage (with a microSD slot to increase that) and WiFi, which Sony plans to use for sharing notes with those who didn’t make it to class on time. With WiFi off, the rechargeable battery inside is expected to last for three weeks of solid learning. These specs are for the prototype, of course, so after the late-2013 field trials at three Japanese universities, we might see some revisions before commercialization goes ahead sometime during the 2013 fiscal year.

Filed under: Sony

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Source: Sony (Japanese)

Microsoft has put forward an offer to buy complete control of Nook Media LLC, according to internal documents seen by TechCrunch. Redmond’s joint venture with Barnes & Noble was set up last year to handle the Nook e-reader, tablet and college bookstore business. If the documents are accurate, Microsoft will dump the academic retail chain while retaining the digital arm of the partnership for $1 billion. The evidence also suggests that Nook Media will axe its Android tablets by the end of the 2014 financial year, concentrating instead on pushing the Nook store onto third-party devices including Windows 8 and/or Surface hardware. Simple Touch owners shouldn’t be too worried, however, as the leaked documents state that Nook Media’s e-reader division won’t be killed off, as the technology is facing its own “natural decline.” We’ve reached out to Barnes & Noble for something more official, and we’re waiting to hear back.

Filed under: Tablets, Microsoft

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Source: TechCrunch

Looking to save some coin on your tech purchases? Of course you are! In this roundup, we’ll run down a list of the freshest frugal buys, hand-picked with the help of the folks at Slickdeals. You’ll want to act fast, though, as many of these offerings won’t stick around long.

Today’s collection of discounted tech links runs the gamut from home entertainment wares to Ultrabooks and ends up at Barnes & Noble’s tablet. A 55-inch 3D HDTV from LG and that Nook HD+ are tempting options on their own, but there’s a whole lot more to peruse on the other side of the jump.

Filed under: Home Entertainment, Laptops, Tablets

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Source: Slickdeals