E Ink has been making some the most popular digital paper screens on the market for a number of years. Screens from this company have turned up in many of the most popular digital readers around. E Ink has today unveiled its next-generation electronic ink display technology called Carta. The Carta display promises to be […]
Amazon recently unveiled their latest generation Kindle Paperwhite e-book reader, and of course, it goes without saying that Amazon could never have arrived at such an “achievement” unless they had some help from other manufacturers. Case in point, E Ink, being a long time name that has been associated in the e-book reader industry, has managed to work on its next-gen display technology which is known as “Carta.” E Ink claims that their Carta displays are capable of delivering whiter backgrounds and higher contrast ratios compared to any other ePaper displays in the market. Hmm, this is starting to sound like those instances of TVs a few years back which tend to advertise “blacker blacks”.
Having said that, E Ink’s Carta technology is also touted to deliver a 50 percent contrast ratio improvement and 20 percent improvement in reflectance compared to its predecessors. The new screens also do not need to go through a full refresh mode after every few page flips unlike earlier displays, which means you can now read even more pages without getting distracted by your screen flickering to black. We are quite sure that Amazon’s recently announced Kindle Paperwhite might be the first e-book reader to rely on the new display technology, and chances are it won’t be the last, either.
E Ink And Their Carta Next-Gen Display Technology original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Once upon a time, the possibility of a color e-reader seemed a reality just around the bend. As the sun set on the 2000s, though, prototypes and the potential for multi-hued e-paper devices seemed to disappear. In this issue of our weekly, Sean Buckley examines the events surrounding the once bright future of the tech and why we’re still e-reading in black-and-white. As far as reviews go, we offer up our detailed analysis of the TiVo Roamio Pro, OLPC XO Tablet and Motorola Droid Ultra. Eyes-On peeks at Blue Microphone’s latest, Weekly Stat examines the broadband build-up and Recommended Reading profiles Marissa Mayer. The weekend is finally here, and there’s plenty to peruse, so go on cozy up with a fresh copy via the usual download spots.
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Last month, we caught wind of a 3d-printed cast that is able to give your wounded area, such as your arm, some much needed ventilation as it helps heal your busted bones, and is also recyclable. We thought the concept was pretty neat, but the concept of the Comfort Cast makes us want to go play in traffic in hopes we’ll limp off with a broken bone or seven. (more…)
Comfort Cast Helps You Update Doctors, Facebook While Your Bones Heal original content from Ubergizmo. 
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Whenever you have a broken limb, life can get quite difficult. There aren’t plenty of ways that you can make it better, however, sticking a screen on it and completely modernizing is something I hadn’t thought about before now.
The Comfort Cast concept by Kyuho Song is definitely an improvement over a traditional cast. You can use the e-Ink screen to Facebook your status, and it will even allow doctors to monitor your condition remotely, and has a media player built in. It even has an air pressure system so the cast can be adjusted.
The system includes a charging and disinfection system which makes the Comfort Cast reusable too. It’s going to be interesting to see if something like this will ever be available. Hopefully, you’ll be able to rent them directly from hospitals and give them back once you’ve fully recovered.
[via Yanko Design]
No matter what you’re doing at a computer, two displays are always better than one, and that could soon be true for your mobile devices as well. Prototypes of dual-display smartphones
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While consumer electronics sales hit peaks and valleys, when a manufacturer like E Ink Holdings reports a significant loss, it’s time to stop and pay attention. The display manufacturer reported a 46% decline in sales over the past year, with a net loss totalling $33.6 million to boot. While reporting a loss isn’t all doom […]
E-readers, such as the Kindle and the Sony Reader, were a novelty five years ago. But they are already on their way out. Display manufacturer E Ink Holdings reported its quarterly earnings and sales are down 46 percent year over year with a net loss of $33.6 million. It isn’t the first net loss, but it is the biggest one in four years. More importantly, the company announced on its conference call that it expects e-reader sales to range between 10 and 15 million for 2013 — flat compared with last year.
Overall, e-paper displays represent 70 percent of E Ink’s revenue. The vast majority of those displays go into e-readers. It has the advantage of consuming very little power and being easy on the eyes. Yet, it’s slow to refresh and black and white, making it exclusively useful for e-readers, smartwatches and other edge cases.
One of the reasons behind this quarter’s downturn is attributed to the fact that ereader companies are now updating their products during the third quarter, one quarter later. In other words, it suffers from seasonality. It’s not entirely true as the Kindle e-readers were updated during Amazon’s September event. Amazon still leads when it comes to market share.
E Ink is confident that sales will be much better as we get closer to the holidays, but still wants to diversify its offering to rely less on ereader sales. At the same time, the company relies on international growth in Asia and Russia to boost its display sales.
But the future of e-readers looks gloomy. Sales in North America and Europe are probably not as good as E Ink expected. E-readers were great devices when there wasn’t any cheap 7-inch tablet. But now, people can buy a Kindle Fire for $159 or a Nexus 7 for $269. The reading experience is worse on a tablet, but carrying multiple devices represents a cognitive burden. Moreover, e-readers were always a niche product. Market saturation of this small segment could come sooner than anticipated.
They use the same basic screen technology, but not all e-readers are created equal.
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