Hasta La Gadget!

We already had the opportunity to sit down and tinker with a slew of Pixel Qi-based prototype devices here in Taipei, but one in particular managed to catch our eye in a rather surprising location. Innoversal, a new company here in Taiwan just looking to change the world, found itself hosting a striking 10.1-inch device that grabbed our heartstrings and wouldn’t let go. The highlight of the starlet was the expansive 3Qi capacitive touchpanel, with a 1,024 x 600 resolution and the ability to save battery life by flipping the backlight off when in broad daylight. The current build was relying on a trio of ambient light sensors to determine whether or not the backlight would be on, but we begged and pleaded for the company to implement a dedicated on / off toggle switch along the border before shipping it out. Speaking of which, Innoversal will most likely ship the product under its own branding here in Taiwan, but it’s certainly open to selling the design to other major manufacturers who may wish to slap their own logo on there. If all goes well, we could see it first take off this September (globally), with a 16GB + 3G / WiFi model retailing for between $530 and $550.

So, what’s that get you? Besides the best power-saving mobile display this world has ever seen (seriously, the crispness and viewing angles were extraordinary), you’ll also get a 1.66GHz Atom N450 processor, an integrated SSD (16GB, 32GB and 64GB capacities will be available), an SDHC card slot, 8 megapixel camera, 3.5mm headphone jack, a SIM card slot (for 3G data), USB 2.0 connectivity, 802.11b/g/n WiFi, Bluetooth 2.0+EDR and a 6-cell (5,300mAh) battery to boot. We were told that the device will support Windows 7, Android, Ubuntu and Chrome OS, with the former two being on display at the show. The working mockup that was on display was sufficiently lightweight and sturdy, and we’d be fibbing to ourselves if we said we weren’t giddy about the prospect of holding a finalized unit before Old Man Winter comes to visit. Hop on past the break for a video overview… or else.

Continue reading Innoversal’s Pixel Qi-based tablet prototype: $530 for the display of your dreams

Innoversal’s Pixel Qi-based tablet prototype: $530 for the display of your dreams originally appeared on Engadget on Fri, 04 Jun 2010 10:23:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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Well, it looks like you should count yourself lucky if you were among the first few to get the Kindle 2.5 firmware update — Amazon has now announced that it’s pushing back the update for everyone else in order to make some “small adjustments” based on user feedback. Exactly what those adjustments are isn’t clear, and Amazon isn’t offering a new date for the updated update either, with it only going so far as to say that will be rolling out to “more users over the coming weeks.” As far as we can tell, however, there isn’t actually anything wrong with the 2.5 update that did roll out to some users, so go on enjoying your social networking and PDF zooming — if you can.

Kindle 2.5 update pushed back a few weeks for some ‘small adjustments’ originally appeared on Engadget on Thu, 03 Jun 2010 03:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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According to “two people familiar with its plans”, Amazon will be introducing a thinner Kindle in August. It will have a sharper screen, but will still be grayscale and will not feature touch-control.

If true, it would seem that Amazon is doing the right thing by quietly improving on its simple e-reader with adding price-rising extras. After all, why bother with a color Kindle when you can buy an iPad and read Kindle titles on that? Instead, a slimmer Kindle with sharper text would further differentiate itself from bulkier tablets with shorter battery-life and lower-resolution screens that don’t work well outdoors.

The lack of touch, though, is a shame. When anyone who has used a modern smartphone picks up the Kindle for the first time, they touch the screen. Touch would also let the Kindle lose the ugly keyboard, which would in turn allow for either a bigger screen or a smaller case, either of which would be big improvements.

According to the Bloomberg article, there will be one further improvement. The page “turns” will be a lot quicker. At last.

Amazon.com Said to Introduce Thinner Kindle in August [Bloomberg]

See Also:

• Kindle for PC Ships, Hints at Future Color Kindle
• Amazon Shows Off Kindle for iPad
• New Asus Color E-Reader Folds Like a Book
• Amazon's Kindle 2 Slims Down, Adds Audio

Photo: Charlie Sorrel

It’s easy to forget that E Ink is an actual company and not just a display technology, but the company was out in full force at the recent SID 2010 conference to remind folks of that fact, and show off some of its latest and greatest prototype displays. Chief among those is a new color display that promises crisper, brighter colors, though still not quite full color — something that’s apparently achieved by applying a filter on top of a regular black and white E Ink panel, which itself has blacker blacks and whiter whites than before. Also on display was a new “fully flexible” display (not color), and another black and white display that was apparently able to playback Flash video — although E Ink curiously wasn’t allowing anyone to film it in action. The folks from MIT’s Technology Review did manage to capture a brief look at the rest of them on video, however — hit up the link below for their report.

E Ink shows off brighter, crisper, more flexible displays originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 09:46:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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You don’t need to sit down, we’re not about to hit you with any shocking news, but a recent BookExpo America convention has given publishers the chance to air out their laundry list of complaints. Seriously, do these guys ever have anything positive to say? Now they’ve managed to pinpoint a flaw in the Kindle and iPad’s resounding success, identifying the two ebook reading platforms as closed, and expressing a yearning for a universal and open format that all books can be published and consumed on. Of course, they wouldn’t be publishers if they didn’t also lust after robust DRM measures, which might explain why they’re not roundly supporting the readily available EPUB format. It has DRM options, but perhaps they’re not gnarly enough for the dudes responsible for bringing us the psychological horror of the Twilight series. We still don’t like the suggestion that the people, Amazon primarily, who popularized this market should just open it up out of the goodness of their own hearts — maybe we would if publishers ever showed themselves capable of doing similarly noble things.

Ebook publishers seek universal format, lament Apple and Amazon’s closed ecosystems originally appeared on Engadget on Tue, 01 Jun 2010 06:56:00 EDT. Please see our terms for use of feeds.

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