Hasta La Gadget!

“So it’s extremely difficult to read the time, but how do you feel about that?” That’s the question Kisai is posing with its new Rorschach watch, which puts one of the company’s trademark inscrutable watchfaces into the shape of the famous psychiatrist’s inkblots. You can choose between three levels from “readable but still not easily” to “please just tell me what the hell time it is!” (Actually, once you get the hang of it, the hours are read at the top right, and the minutes from the bottom left.) The watch uses an e-paper display, giving it high contrast and a battery life of 2-3 years while letting you switch between black on white or vice-versa. You can grab one in white, brown or black with a leather strap, or black and silver with a metal bracelet at $179 for the next two days — though you may have to line up behind Watchmen fans.

Filed under: Wearables

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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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Filed under: Announcements, HD, Mobile

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Source: iTunes, Google Play, Windows Store

Although smartwatch makers have had access to e-paper for a while, there have been few such displays tailor-made for our wrists. E Ink is more than willing to fill that void with a new, watch-oriented version of its Mobius screen. The flexible, 1.73-inch panel won’t floor anyone with its 320 x 240 grayscale picture, but it can be cut into timepiece-friendly shapes that take more abuse than a typical e-reader. More importantly for us end users, E Ink already has at least one hardware partner lined up: Sonostar is using the tiny Mobius for a smartwatch this summer, and the odds are that the company won’t be alone.

Filed under: Peripherals, Wearables

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Source: Sonostar, E Ink

Although there’s no dearth of rugged tablets, most are still built on the assumption that civilization is close at hand. Sqigle, however, suggests that its upcoming Earl tablet could work even if there’s no civilization left. The new, crowdfunded Android 4.1 slate centers on a light-up, 6-inch e-paper screen that both extends the battery life to 20 hours and makes the 5 hours of solar-powered recharging sound reasonable — theoretically, Earl never needs to see a wall outlet. It’s also built to do as much as possible without leaning on either WiFi or a PC. Along with both analog and digital radio, the design should incorporate ANT+ sensor support and preloaded topographical maps. The project isn’t ideally timed for outdoorsy types when it’s expected to reach backers in the late summer, but the $249 advance price is low enough that it might justify a camping trip in the fall.

Filed under: Tablets

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Via: TechCrunch

Source: Earl

Flexible displays are still a novelty at this point in time, as they have yet to be turned into a component in smartphones and tablets that are cost effective to warrant inclusion without causing the customers to balk at the final price tag. Still, it is nice to see companies continue to work on flexible display technology, and hopefully they will stumble upon a low cost yet effective approach sometime down the road. Both Toppan Printing Co Ltd and Plastic Logic Ltd recently showed off a prototype of flexible electronic paper (e-paper) that has a size which is equal to a 42-inch display, using it as a large-size digital sign at Retailtech Japan that happened earlier this month in Tokyo, Japan. This unique flexible e-paper was manufactured by using 16 pieces of 10.7-inch black-and-white e-paper, where the pixel count stood at a respectable 1,280 x 960.

In order to churn out a display device that is worthy of the e-paper, E Ink Holdings Inc’s electrophoretic front plane laminate was summoned to report for duty. As for the front plane laminate, it was driven by an organic TFT substrate which was manufactured at Plastic Logic’s Dresden Plant in Germany. Plastic Logic has long been working on flexible organic TFT substrates for the better part of the last six years, and they successfully established a volume production system a couple of years back, and has since been producing organic TFT-driven displays by using the 3.5th generation-size plastic substrate.

At the R&D facilities, a single piece of 10.7-inch e-paper was used per substrate, although at the manufacturing plant which saw the 3.5th generation-size plastic substrate being used, up to 9 pieces of 10.7-inch e-paper were obtained per substrate, and Plastic Logic figured out that the e-paper will eventually see action on subscreens of smartphones and tablets, as well as the digital signage industry. The ad industry would definitely take a huge leap forward with such e-papers being more affordable.

Source
[ Flexible electronic paper could be future of public advertising copyright by Coolest Gadgets ]