Hasta La Gadget!

Though we’ve seen prototype devices before and the Notion Ink Adam here at the show, we got another look at it today from PixelQi founder Mary Lou Jepsen herself. The high resolution display was hacked into a Lenovo IdeaPad S10, and with the backlight on the color LCD screen looked crisp. We did notice that while watching a video clip on the screen horizontal viewing angles were poor in some lighting, but text and the rest of the OS was clear as day. Similarly, when we turned the backlight off, which switches the display to just a monochrome mode, the viewing angles on a movie weren’t great, but a PDF looked just as good as it does on an Amazon Kindle. Regardless, we continue to be impressed with the refresh rates of the display considering you can’t do anything like it with E ink or any other reader on the market. Hit the break for a quick video.

Continue reading Pixel Qi screens to be used by a major manufacturer in 2010

Pixel Qi screens to be used by a major manufacturer in 2010 originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 15:37:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We were already fairly impressed with MSI’s netbook-sized dualscreen e-reader, but this smaller 7-inch screened variation might even be the more alluring of the two. Only the lower of the two screens is touchable, and it while would naturally be a tad small for regular typing, we could almost see a decent thumboarding scenario arising. But really, we’re just taken in with the look of this thing. It’s incredibly thin, pure premium, and the little clock display on the is just icing on an already sexy cake. There’s no word on what’s under the hood here — we’d have to guess some Atom variant, since this will run Windows — and we’re naturally in the dark about the rest of the vitals like price and release date.

MSI dualscreen UMPC concept had us at ‘dualscreen’ originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 08 Jan 2010 14:55:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

We have been hearing about dualscreen laptops (and readers) for too long now, but it’s MSI to be the first to show off a real working unit. And it’s everything we have ever dreamed of — well kind of. Though MSI is calling this dual 10-inch screen device an e-reader, it’s really a netbook with two screens since it’s got an Atom Z Series processor and Windows 7 Home Premium. But it’s how the two screens work together that we can’t get out of our minds. Hit the break for some more impressions and to see this crazy thing on video.

Continue reading MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!)

MSI dualscreen e-reader hands-on (update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 21:46:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments

Brace yourself, more e-readers on your way! First up the open platform: DMC Worldwide announces Copia, a social networking / e-book store hybrid that’s gearing up hit private beta status this month and public beta in March. With that out of the way, let’s talk hardware. Lower on the list of gear is the keyboard-laden Tidal with a 6-inch, 600 x 800 screen and 2GB internal storage. Just above that is the Tidal Touch with a 9-inch, 768 x 1024 screen, earphone / mic jack, 4GB internal upgradeable to microSD. And then we’ve got Ocean, which comes in 6-inch (600 x 800 pixels) and 9-inch (768 x 1024 pixels) variants and both feature capacitive touchscreens, 802.11b/g WiFi, tilt sensors, 4GB internal storage expandable via microSD, and some form of earphone / mic jack. Both Tidal Touch and Ocean 9 have optional 3G connectivity (that in the process halves internal storage to 2GB and nixing the microSD slot). Prices reportedly range between two and three Benjamins and will hit availability status online in April, followed by retail in June. Presser? You guessed right, it’s after the break.

Continue reading Copia promises to blend e-books and social networking into set of new readers

Copia promises to blend e-books and social networking into set of new readers originally appeared on Engadget on Wed, 06 Jan 2010 09:47:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |  Copia  | Email this | Comments

Spring Design was poised to take the official wraps off of its dual-screen, Android-based ereader this Thursday, but we were able to catch an up close and personal glance at the device today here at CES Unveiled. Highlighted over at the Marvell booth (understandable given the choice of processor), the reader was intensely thin and remarkably snappy. We had some gripes with the speed of the Nook, but every action we took on the Alex was relatively lag free. We even downloaded a book and watched it open up immediately, and the touchscreen response was also satisfactory. Spring Design also opted to expose the microSD card slot on the rear; you simple mash your card into the slot and listen for the click, and mash it once more to eject it. You better hope nothing pushes it by mistake, but hey, at least you’re not stuck removing some rear cover just to swap cards. We’ve gotta say — we’re digging this thing based on our brief time with it, and we’d invite you to have a peek at the gallery below till our demo video is prepped.

Update: Video is after the break!

Continue reading Spring Design Alex hands-on (Update: video!)

Spring Design Alex hands-on (Update: video!) originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 05 Jan 2010 19:39:00 EST. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

Permalink   |   | Email this | Comments