Hasta La Gadget!

Who can forget the Plastic Logic Que proReader — a textbook study on the vaporous gadget. Start with an incredible (but truthful) claim to have developed plastic semiconductors that could be used to fabricate flexible e-reader displays. Then follow up the breakthrough with the all-important consumer tease: an amazing (for the time) 8.5 x 11-inch e-reader with a gesture-based UI that would launch in the first half of 2009. Unfortunately, the Que never shipped and was ultimately canceled, partly because of
reliability issues associated with manufacturing those early Que displays and partly because of the launch of a rather disruptive Apple tablet you might have read about. Fast forward to today and we’ve got the state-owned Russian Corporation of Nanotechnologies (Rusnano) announcing a $700 million investment in the US-based Plastic Logic Inc. Why? Are you listening? Plastics. Here’s how this “unprecedented” investment was described by Georgy Kolpachev, Rusnano’s managing director:

“Flexible plastic electronic displays will provide another major milestone in how people process information. Entering this new disruptive segment at the stage of its inception gives Russia a chance to win a leading position in global market of future electronics.”

The investment will be used to pay off Plastic Logic’s debt including a $50 million loan the company took out after approaching financial collapse. The rest will be used for a second plastic electronics factory in Russia (a sister to the Dresden Germany plant) which is expected to start production in 2013 or 2014.

Update: Press release added after the break offering more details on the “world’s largest commercial plastic electronics factory” that will be capable of producing hundreds of thousands of “next-generation plastic electronics displays” per month.

Continue reading Plastic Logic receives massive $700 million Russian investment

Plastic Logic receives massive $700 million Russian investment originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 18 Jan 2011 04:26:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Clicking your way through Ulysses and having a hard time remembering just what it is Bloom ate for breakfast or, indeed, just what he did on the beach? Don’t blame James Joyce, blame your Kindle! A Princeton study entitled “Fortune favors the bold (and the Italicized)” (their emphasis) has shown that readers retain information more reliably when they are challenged with so-called “disfluent” fonts (like the top one above). This flies in the face of the belief that easy to read text is easier to remember and should give typographical titans something else to ponder when placing text upon a page character by character.

Now, what does this have to do with e-readers? Most are stuck with standard fonts that cannot be changed and fall squarely in the “fluent” category — they’re so easy to read your brain spins down. The solution is, of course, to add more and broader font support to the devices, something we’d love to see regardless of scientific merit. Until that comes to pass try holding your Kindle at odd angles or squinting. Maybe that’ll help. Or, you could just put down the Proust and pick up some Clancy.

Princeton study shows that easy fonts make things harder to remember originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 17 Jan 2011 15:24:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Nook Color meet Ubuntu, Ubuntu meet Nook Color originally appeared on Engadget on Mon, 10 Jan 2011 19:07:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Our trailer was just visited by an iriver rep bearing his company’s Kindle killer in waiting, the Story HD. This 6-inch e-reader touts a bodacious 1024 x 768 resolution, which contributes to an even better contrast ratio than on Amazon’s E Ink slate, while software optimizations between now and release are expected to make the Story HD the fastest-refreshing device of its kind. The display itself is built by LG Display and is accompanied by a Freescale Cortex A8 CPU, 2GB of onboard storage, and an SDHC card-reading slot. Sun rays are, as expected, absolutely no problem and we have to admit that on first sight we thought the device had a sticker affixed to its front — its that good at reproducing printed materials. Physically, it seems to have been constructed with the third-gen Kindle as its dimensional blueprint, albeit with quite a different control scheme. The hand-built proto unit we played with wasn’t really ready to have its ergonomics judged properly, but iriver has plenty of time until the expected May launch to iron out any kinks. Content distribution partnerships have already been sewn up for the US, so now it’s just a matter of patience until we get our e-reading on in gorgeous XGA resolution. Video hands-on after the break.

Continue reading iriver Story HD e-reader preview (video)

iriver Story HD e-reader preview (video) originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 07 Jan 2011 19:42:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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What a difference a year makes, right? At CES 2010, we were staring at iriver’s Story e-reader, wondering if the future would ever be the same. Today, we’re doing something similar, albeit with way more pixel density. Sure to please our own, in-house Pixel Density Enthusiast Paul Miller, iriver has just let loose the world’s highest resolution 6-inch e-reader. The Story HD — which was designed in cooperation with LG Display — still relies on e-paper, but it packs an XGA (1024 x 768) screen resolution. According to iriver, that represents a 63.8 percent pixel increase over the competition, offering increased legibility, faster response performance and finer fonts. You’ll also find a Freescale processor, built-in WiFi and a content access portal that’s being kept under wraps for now. It’s also equipped with Easy Wi-Fi Network support, a battery good for up to three weeks of use and compatibility with DRM-laced ePUB and PDF files. If you’re curious to know just how badly this thing will undercut those LCD-based alternatives, you’ll have to wait; we’re simply told that it’ll be “competitively priced” and available for purchase in Q2 2011.

Continue reading iriver teams with LG Display on Story HD e-reader, bumps resolution to 1024 x 768

iriver teams with LG Display on Story HD e-reader, bumps resolution to 1024 x 768 originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 06 Jan 2011 00:00:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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