EIH invested NT$1.5bn ($49m) in CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) in July this year, in an attempt to secure production for its FFS displays. Panels using the technology were at one point tipped for inclusion in the iPad 3, with an analyst suggesting back in February that Apple would use an FFS Retina Display for the third-gen tablet. However, more recently it has been indicated that Apple will likely use AH-IPS panels produced by Samsung, Sharp and LG Display.

It’s unclear how the shifting allegiances will impact LG Display’s use of FFS technology, though the indication is that the company will no longer be able to manufacture such displays since Hydis will continue to hold the patents. FFS screens are used in Kobo’s new Vox tablet/ereader, though it’s unknown who actually provides Kobo with the 7-inch panels themselves.

E Ink has the incredibly advantageous nature of extending battery life as none of the backlighting or power that is usually needed for conventional displays is needed for the World Time Sport watch’s E Ink display. And the fact that your watch usually goes with you everywhere, either inside or outside, all the time, makes the application of this technology even more relevant and useful. The World Time Sport makes it Phosphor’s second commercially available E Ink digital display watch to date.

Furthermore, the World Time Sport is able to select from 24 time zones from one display mode, while being able to simultaneously display a second time zone, which is easily configurable by the user. It’s initially available in three colors of your picking, black white and orange. The Phosphor watch also features a lightweight silicone band and a durable plastic casing. Pre-order the watch now for $79, or at retail later for $99, available from Phosphor online and select retailers nationwide.

[via Phosphor Watches]

According to DigiTimes, industry sources in the supply chain say that Barnes & Noble has placed orders with TPK for the touch panels, while Inventec will take care of assembly with additional help from Pegatron. The two contract manufacturers could supply two to three million units of the Nook Color 2 by year-end. It’s said to feature a 7-inch full color touchscreen and have support for email, music, games, and apps.

However, what throws some doubt into this report is the claim that “E Ink will continue to supply e-paper backplanes for Nook Color 2″ because the current Nook Color utilizes a full color LCD touchscreen display instead of E Ink. It is possible, though, that a new iteration of the Nook Color could incorporate E Ink technology with a touchscreen LCD panel similar to what’s being done in the All-New-Nook.

It’s also possible that the Nook Color 2 could go with a color E Ink display, which we’ve seen demonstrated along with other new E Ink technologies at IFA 2011.

[via Pocket-lint]

E Ink CMO Siriam Peruvemba demonstrated the Triton color display, which uses an E Ink Pearl panel with a color filter layer overlaid. The existing prototype runs at around 160dpi, but the company has been working with Epson on a 300dpi color version of the monochrome screen announced earlier in the year. Two companies already have Triton products announced, but there are apparently several more using the next-gen screen for incoming devices. Meanwhile, faster versions that can support more fluid transitions are in the pipeline.

As for bank security, E Ink showed the new generation of its SURF display (Segmented, Ultra-thin, Rugged and Flexible) which can be slotted into a regularly-sized credit card complete with battery and a control button. The screen can show a six-digit code – created with each purchase – to introduce an extra check before the transaction goes through. According to Peruvemba, the battery should last for at least two years before you need a new card.

Finally, there are flexible displays. LG, Sony, Samsung and HP are all working on their own bendable panels, replacing the normal glass substrate with a plastic one. Plastic Logic is perhaps the best known, but each company could have products on the very market soon.

There are already plenty of rumors surrounding Amazon’s next Kindle successor with Amazon’s last domain registration for KindleAir.com. But this new domain registration is more telling and could be a sign of a neat new feature. Perhaps, the next Kindle will be paired with a stylus to incorporate note-taking capabilities on its e-ink display.

This could come in especially handy for students if, for instance, the feature lets users markup pages in a digital textbook. Pictured above is the NoteSlate concept tablet we saw earlier this year and it’d be awesome if the next-gen Kindle went a similar route.

Tablets may be appealing for all the multimedia functionality, but nothing beats the convenience of incredibly lightweight e-readers if consuming books is your main necessity. And if Amazon’s e-reader can now also double as a note-taking device, that would be a dream come true. We can perhaps truly get rid of most of the paper in our lives, including those crumpled up notes that get lost in purses and bags.

[via Fusible]

Previous reports have suggested that Amazon will use a Fringe Field Switching (FFS) display technology sourced from E Ink to rival IPS panels as used in the Eee Pad Transformer and iPad 2. E Ink recently announced plans to invest NT$1.5bn ($52m) into CPT, in return gaining access to the company’s 6th-gen production line and thus increasing yield for E Ink subsidiary Hydis’ FFS manufacturing.

Amazon’s 7-inch tablet – codenamed Coyote - will use a glass-on-glass touch panel, DigiTimes reports, provided to assemblers Quanta by both Wintek and CPT. The retailer is aiming big, too; 2.0m – 2.4m touch panels are expected to be shipped by the end of September.

A singificant number of 10-inch tablets are believed to be in the works, too, with the so-called Hollywood slate – that may use NVIDIA’s new quadcore Kal-El chipset – making up the remainder of around 4m Amazon tablet shipments estimated for 2011. Foxconn is believed to be constructing the Hollywood model for Amazon.

Both slates are expected to compliment, rather than replace, the existing monochrome epaper Kindle line, with two new models tipped for release by October 2011. One is expected to be a cheaper model targeted at students – perhaps using the same advert-subsidies as have been successful on the current range – while a second should add a touchscreen layer to the E Ink screen.

I would totally crash that snowboard into a tree, a pole, or another skier and break it in short order. It seems odd at first glance to have an E Ink screen on a snowboard, but the more I think about it, it would actually be cool. The screen could be used to show any warnings or updates on the conditions at the mountain. Perhaps it could be linked to a smartphone and allow texts to show up on the E Ink for the rider to read without messing with their smartphone while wearing gloves.

The snowboard display has a compass, clock, weather indicator, and a signal strength indicator. That last bit seems to indicate connectivity with a smartphone or other communications device. As cool as the snowboard is, that isn’t all the stuff on display at SID 2011 packing in an E Ink display. There was also a really cool E Ink music holder being shown off and a thermostat with an E ink screen.

[via Engadget]

Sony has developed a new color e-paper screen that might be perfect for future eReaders that measures 13.3-inches and is flexible. The screen is only 150μm or less in thickness and weighs about 20g or under. The lightweight and thin design is thanks to the ability to use a plastic substrate. The screen has a decent color gamut at 13% based on NTSC standards and has a contrast ratio of over 100,000:1. The reflectance of the screen is 10%.

The screen has RGB pixels along with white subpixels and a pixel count of 800 x 1200. The resolution of the screen is 75ppi. Sony was able to hit the higher color gamut and reflectance rating by attaching the TFT substrate to the E ink front plate with high precision. Sony used a glass substrate to attach the TFT substrate to the front plate and that glass can be made with existing equipment. There is no indication of when the new screen might make it to a consumer product.

[Techon via OLED-Display]

There’s gold and silver awards in each of the following three categories: Display of the Year, Display Application of the Year, and Display Component of the Year. The first two categories had the same two manufacturers in first and second, Apple and Samsung. Samsung is more than likely crying and stomping their feet because everyone knows that their AMOLED displays are wild and they’re gunning for the top. That said, here’s the results:

Display of the Year
Gold Award: Apple iPhone 4 Retina Display
Silver Award: Samsung Mobile Display On-cell Touch AMOLED

Oh my goodness what a battle that was! Those winners and every other winner is explained in a bit more detail in the press release below. Continuing on with the Display Application of the Year, it’s again Apple and Samsung in the first and second place. Whether or not Apple is pumping their first for their winning iPad entry is anyone’s guess – Samsung on the other hand just can’t seem to win enough awards for it’s undeniable Galaxy S line of Android phones.

Display Application of the Year
Gold Award: Apple iPad
Silver Award: Samsung Galaxy S Mobile Smartphones

Finally, the oddity. Display Component of the year is the sweet category where real odd and awesome innovation is really high-fived the most. It’s here that Apple and Samsung don’t even show up, much less get first and second. E Ink Triton Color ePaper and some flexible substrate for displays from ITRI are the big Gold and Silver. Flexibility in ePaper – a combination that cannot be beat save for by the real thing. No more dead trees!

Display Component of the Year
Gold Award: E Ink Triton™ Color ePaper Display
Silver Award: ITRI Flexible Substrate for Displays

Do you think these are the best choices for each of the gold belt titles? Which display did you like best in 2010? How about thus far in 2011? Let us know, let’s talk!

Check out the full press release for all the extra details:

SOCIETY FOR INFORMATION DISPLAY NAMES PRODUCTS CHOSEN FOR 2011 DISPLAY OF THE YEAR AWARDS

Apple, E Ink, ITRI and Samsung Top Field in Remarkable Year for Display Innovation

CAMPBELL, Calif., May 17, 2011— (Virtual Press Office) – The Society for Information Display (SID), the leading global organization dedicated to the advancement of electronic display technology, today announced its selections for the 2011 Display of the Year Awards (DYAs). The prestigious annual awards honor the products judged by the international DYA committee to exhibit the greatest degree of technical innovation, commercial significance and likely social impact, among other factors. This year’s winners comprise myriad breakthrough developments, and given the preponderance of mobile/handheld technologies, DYA 2011 could easily be subtitled the “Up Close and Personal” awards.

Bob Melcher, chairman of the SID Display of the Year Awards committee, noted, “This list of 2011 DYA award winners honors innovations that are continuing to make interactions with handheld communication and computing devices more exciting, intuitive and useful than ever before. They demonstrate the remarkable contributions made by the display industry to broaden and enhance the lives of people.”

The six products chosen—two each for Display, Display Component and Display Application of the Year—will be honored during Display Week 2011, being held this week at the Los Angeles Convention Center. The Gold Award-winning company in each category will screen a short video on its winning product during the awards ceremony at the annual SID luncheon on Wednesday, May 18.

A brief description of each of the winning products is provided below. In-depth descriptions of the award winners can be found in the Display Week 2011 Show Issue of Information Display magazine.

Display of the Year

Gold Award: Apple iPhone 4 Retina Display
This year, Apple extended its track record of revolutionizing personal communications technology with the introduction of the industry-leading iPhone 4 Retina display. Packing four times the number of pixels into the same 3.5-in. dia. screen found on earlier iPhone models, the 640×960-pixel Retina display set a new benchmark for mobile display resolution, low power consumption and image quality. Utilizing Mobile IPS (in-plane switching) technology, the iPhone 4 Retina display achieves a viewing angle superior to conventional mobile LCDs, providing an enhanced viewing experience for the end user in virtually any application. The display features a host of technical advancements: customized LTPS TFT backplane with organic passivation and optimized pixel design; user-customizable, auto-adjustable brightness using ambient light sensing; advanced IPS compensation polarizer technology for high contrast (800:1) and color consistency regardless of viewing direction; 8-bit color depth; an ultra-thin, tiny-footprint driver IC; and patent-pending mechanical integration.

Silver Award: Samsung Mobile Display On-cell Touch AMOLED
Samsung Mobile Display developed its OCTA – on-cell touch active-matrix light-emitting diode (AMOLED) – display to meet the ever-increasing performance and industrial design demands of today’s modern mobile devices. Unlike prior-generation touch-capable mobile displays, the OCTA display integrates the touch sensor onto the display itself, rather than fabricating the sensor on a separate glass substrate and then laminating it onto the display. This innovation, embodied in the OCTA’s projected capacitive touch detection technology, greatly reduces product weight and thickness, while increasing touch performance and response via the multi-sensor input capability that enables gesture recognition for the most advanced mobile devices. Moreover, because AMOLEDs are self-emissive, no backlight is required, allowing the Samsung OCTA display to deliver very high performance and exceptional display quality, with highly accurate and sensitivity-optimized touch input, in a module that is less than 2 mm thick and provides nearly 100-percent light transmission and exceptional outdoor visibility.

Display Application of the Year

Gold Award: Apple iPad
The iPad marks a new era of tablet computing, transforming the way people communicate, consume and create content, play games and learn. The iPad LCD’s Mobile IPS technology combines with its innovative Multi-Touch user interface and unique system design to enable the iPad’s versatility in numerous applications. The iPad display provides a superior viewing experience with a minimized gamma shift over viewing angles, enabling designers to create innovative apps that further enhance the viewing experience. The iPad’s fully customized design leverages the existing amorphous silicon thin-film transistor (a-Si TFT) infrastructure in an innovative, ultra-thin product with the unique LCD and an innovative power-management system that achieves maximum power efficiency – 10 hours of battery life for WiFi web surfing and 9 hours for 3G web surfing.

Silver Award: Samsung Galaxy S Mobile Smartphones
In June 2010, Samsung Mobile launched its first-ever premium portfolio of smartphones – the first-ever premium smartphone suite to be simultaneously unveiled by all four major U.S. mobile carriers. The Galaxy S lineup provides a premium viewing experience with a brilliant 4-inch display powered by Samsung’s Super AMOLED touch-screen technology, which yields thinner displays to enable some of the industry’s thinnest, most responsive, full-featured smartphones. Created to be an ideal medium for viewing premium entertainment content, the Samsung Galaxy S phones tap into Samsung’s own content service, Samsung Media Hub, optimized for the best viewing and audio experience based on device screen size, screen type, video resolution, memory type, processor and sound profile. The next-generation Super AMOLED Plus adds RealStripe screen technology and a greatly increased sub-pixel count – 50 percent more sub-pixels than the original Super AMOLED – complementing the mechanics of the human eye to ensure images look clearer and more detailed than ever before.

Display Component of the Year

Gold Award: E Ink Triton™ Color ePaper Display
E Ink Triton™ is a color electronic paper display, which delivers the same great paper-like reading experience adopted by eReader devices around the world, but now with the added capability of color. Triton delivers the same high-contrast, sunlight-readable, low-power performance as the black and white E Ink Pearl™ product. The addition of color enhances the reading experience to better address the needs of ePublishing markets, including eBooks, eNewspapers, eMagazines and eTextbooks, as well as electronic signage. Triton adds a color filter array (CFA) over a black and white electrophoretic display (EPD) film. Each pixel in the CFA consists of four sub-pixels; red, green, blue and white. This arrangement creates a low-power EPD display with thousands of colors that is highly readable in direct sunlight yet does not sacrifice the black and white reading experience. In addition to color, E Ink Triton delivers 20 percent faster page update times compared to previous technologies.

Silver Award: ITRI Flexible Substrate for Displays
ITRI has developed an innovative flexible substrate for displays of all sizes. Compatible with existing TFT infrastructures and processes, the ITRI flexible substrate is a novel inorganic dominated silica/polyimide (PI) hybrid film whose silica content can be increased to as high as 60 percent of the total weight, making it highly suitable for the fabrication of flexible displays. The ITRI flexible substrate can be manufactured with either batch-type or roll-to-roll (R2R) processes. For batch-type processes, the substrate is prepared by coating the PI solution on glass carriers, and then fabricating TFT devices on the substrates. The PI/silica film exhibits excellent adhesion with silicon dioxide, silicon nitride and indium-tin-oxide without requiring any other primer or surface treatment process. For R2R processes, the ITRI substrate can be made with a variety of attractive properties, such as a low coefficient of thermal energy (CTE) of 20 ppm/ºC, high transmittance (around 90 percent, within the wavelength range of 400 to 700 nm) and excellent flexibility. To date, a flexible color filter, an active-matrix electrophoretic display (AM-EPD) and a flexible touch film have been made on the ITRI flexible substrate.

E Ink will be responsible for the display itself, which is expected to find its way into “epaper document readers” – that’s big-screen ereaders to you and I – and be particularly popular among business and education users, as well as in countries with character-based text. Epson, meanwhile, will be taking charge of the display controller, which will incorporate not only the display controller IC but an applications processor, system power management IC and firmware.

That controller will support various sensor inputs to allow for handwriting recognition support, as well as promising high-speed image rendering and page-turns. Epson claims it’s a departure from the traditional e-paper controllers, using tech borrowed from the company’s photo-quality printers.

No word on when the new panel will be commercially available at this stage.

Press Release:

E Ink and Epson Achieve World-Leading ePaper Resolution

- TOKYO, Japan, and HSINCHU, Taiwan, May 17, 2011 -

E Ink Holdings Inc. and Seiko Epson Corporation (“Epson”) today announced the joint development of a 300-dpi electronic paper device with razor-sharp text and images for ePaper Document Readers. Combining E Ink’s high-resolution ePaper display and Epson’s high-speed display controller platform, the new device will enable the world’s highest resolution ePaper tablets. With sharply improved readability and ease-of-use the ePaper Document Reader is expected to catch on in business and education settings where huge amounts of data have to be processed, as well as in countries that use character-based text, including Japan and China.

Thin, lightweight, energy-efficient eReaders with easy-to-read, paper-like displays have won over consumers, who are snapping up ePaper devices in unprecedented numbers, causing the market to surge. Demand has also been on the rise in business and education, market segments that require exactly what ePaper provides: the fast and accurate display of enormous amounts of information. Applications in these segments demand higher resolution than that offered by today’s 160-dpi displays due to the need to crisply render, with smooth gradations, engineering diagrams, illustrations, Asian characters, and other fine or intricate content. These market segments also demand faster page navigation and sophisticated user interfaces to allow instant viewing of vast amounts of data.

“As the adoption of eReaders continues to rise worldwide, the opportunities for our EPD technology are expanding in new market segments including business and education,” said Scott Liu, chairman of E Ink. “We continue to improve E Ink’s technology to meet the demands of our customers and the needs of consumers, and this new EPD delivers the low power, sunlight readability and thin, lightweight form factor users have come to expect from E Ink at an even higher resolution.”

“We developed this device specifically to meet the high data demands of business and academia,” said Torao Yajima, managing director at Epson. “Our IC controller and processing power enables the display to handle large files while maintaining the excellent display control and operability found in today’s EPDs, including fast page navigation and a sophisticated user interface.”

Epson’s high speed controller platform is an ideal choice for developers who wish to develop high resolution eTablets with ease and within a very short period.

The respective roles of E Ink and Epson and the products they offer are described below.

E Ink

E Ink will manufacture, sell and support the newly developed 300-dpi ePaper displays, which measure 9.68 inches on the diagonal and have 2,400 x 1,650 pixels. These paper-like, high-resolution displays demonstrate in full the very best features of ePaper: crisp and clear text and images on an easy-on-the-eyes screen, a thin and light form factor, and ultra-low power consumption.

Epson

Epson will manufacture, sell and support a high-resolution, high-speed display controller platform optimized for controlling E Ink’s high-resolution display. Leveraging Epson’s experience with image processing technology developed for photo-quality printers, the display controller platform combines a display controller IC, applications processor, system power management IC, and firmware to provide excellent display control and improved operability.

Moving forward, E Ink and Epson plan to continue collaborating to promote the popularization of ePaper based devices in the business and education markets by developing technology, expanding and upgrading the product lineup, and providing customer support.

Exhibition plans
High-resolution e-paper device

The jointly developed device will be on display at the E Ink booth at SID, to be held in Los Angeles from May 15 to 20.

Hardware specifications are in short supply, and indeed it’s not entirely clear which members make up this new family. That could mean a range of tablets – perhaps spanning the 5-inch through to 10-inch form-factors, with maybe 7- and/or 8.9-inch models in-between – or indeed it might see Amazon push out a smartphone-scale device of its own. Amazon might also be considering a set-top box.

That flexibility is because the retailer is expected to use Android Ice Cream Sandwich, Google’s homogenized platform for phones, tablets and Google TV STBs. Amazon is believed to have outsourced development of the software environment to an embedded systems specialist, which will cook up a distinctively different UI for the new range.

As for the holiday launch, the tipsters supposedly “gave the impression” that Amazon was working with Google on the family of devices, shaping up for a Q4 release with Ice Cream Sandwich onboard. There’s also likely to be bundled and subsidized data options, with WiFi and/or 3G; the display, meanwhile, is said by some insiders to use Pixel Qi technology, though Amazon may well be looking at alternatives like Qualcomm’s mirasol.

Qualcomm recently showed off a prototype ereader/tablet design using an LED front-illuminated mirasol screen. That technology was tipped to show up in commercial designs sometime this fall; it’s unclear if they will have Amazon’s brand on them, at this stage. Amazon CEO Jeff Bezos recently told Consumer Reports that while color E Ink panels are “not ready for prime time” as “the colors are very pale,” that “it makes a lot of sense for there to be a low-power, reflective color display. I think that’s something you could build a fantastic product around.”

Much will depend on pricing, of course, but with Amazon’s strength in the marketplace – and the persistent sales success of the Kindle – it would be naive to think it wouldn’t flex that dominance to make its Android devices look competitive against the other tablets it ranges.

[via NetbookNews]

Since that new screen surfaced last year, called Triton, we haven’t heard a lot out of E-ink, but that doesn’t mean the company has been resting on its laurels. The team has been hard at work and recently offered a glimpse at some demos of E-ink screens with technology that is available right now. All that needs to happen for the screens you are about to see to come to market is a company willing to pay the production costs.

The first video below is a SIRF screen that can be printed on cloth making it like a “living billboard.” That screen has some limitations though. The main limitation is that the screen can’t be used for eReaders and is suited to on/off style signs sort of like a high tech neon flashing sign. The cooler one is a screen that can be placed onto Tyvek cloth that is resistant to cuts and tears. The screen is flexible and very cool. A demo of the color screen is also offered below. The colors are still muted compared to what a LCD provides today.

[via the-digital-reader]

E Ink obviously already supplies the displays for the Kindle ereaders, but by using an LCD panel Amazon’s tablet would be able to show color graphics, video and other more dynamic content. Fringe Field Switching panels -  which are actually produced by E Ink subsidiary Hydis – are similar in technology to IPS displays such as used in the iPad 2 and Eee Pad Transformer, with boosted viewing angles and better color accuracy.

Meanwhile, that Hydis FFS display will be paired with an E Ink touch panel, as Amazon attempts to take on markets outside North America and Europe, where it has reportedly struggled with Kindle penetration. The sources suggest Amazon is looking for 700,000 to 800,000 units at peak production, with deliveries first expected in the second half of 2011.

The 4510L has a WiFi b/g/n radio and an E Ink display to show network and wireless status along with battery life. Novatel reckons a full charge is good for up to 5hrs of active use, and there’s WEP/WPA/WPA2 and VPN pass-through support along with backward compatibility with 3G EVDO Rev.A networks.

In all, Verizon is saying LTE coverage should lead to 5 to 12 Mbps downloads and 2 to 5 Mbps uploads. The Verizon MiFi 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is available online today, and in-store from April 21.

Press Release:

The MiFi® 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot Available On The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Network Beginning April 18

04/18/2011

BASKING RIDGE, NJ — Verizon Wireless and Novatel Wireless (NASDAQ: NVTL) today announced that the award winning MiFi® 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot that runs on the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network is available online today at www.verizonwireless.com. The MiFi 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot is the next-generation of the Novatel Wireless MiFi Intelligent Mobile Hotspot, building on innovation and design, proven performance and industry-leading user experience.

The MiFi 4510L allows businesses and consumers to create a personal Wi-Fi cloud capable of sharing the high-speed Internet connectivity of the Verizon Wireless 4G LTE and 3G Mobile Broadband with up to five Wi-Fi-enabled devices simultaneously. The 4G LTE MiFi 4510L includes new features, such as an intuitive status display on the device showing signal strength, battery level, roaming and number of connected devices.

Key features:

4G LTE – customers can expect download speeds of 5 to 12 Mbps and upload speeds of 2 to 5 Mbps in 4G Mobile Broadband coverage areas
Backward compatible with the Verizon Wireless 3G network
Simple one-touch connectivity
Intuitive eInk® display with status indicators
Security: WEP/WPA/WPA2 and VPN pass-through support
Supports Windows, Macintosh and Linux operating systems
Advanced integrated antenna technology
Battery: up to 5 hours usage
WiFi connectivity: 802.11b/g/n
Dimensions: 3.74”(H) x 2.36”(W) x 0.53”(D)
Pricing and availability:

The 4G LTE MiFi 4510L is available today online at www.verizonwireless.com and will be in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on April 21 for $99.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement on a 4G Mobile Broadband plan.
4G LTE Mobile Broadband plans begin at $50 monthly access for 5GB. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted. Data usage can be tracked by logging on to My Verizon online at www.verizonwireless.com/myverizon.
The Verizon Wireless 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network, launched in December 2010, is the fastest, most advanced 4G network in the United States, providing speeds up to 10 times faster than Verizon Wireless’ 3G network. Verizon Wireless’ 4G LTE Mobile Broadband network currently reaches one-third of all Americans, with plans to expand the network to the company’s entire 3G coverage area over the next three years.

For more information on the MiFi 4510L 4G LTE Mobile Hotspot or other Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

Rather than an all-or-nothing choice of either the electronic paper or LCD panels, the screen would be divided into segments which could selectively be set to show one or the other. That could mean video playback on the top half of the screen, using the color LCD, and text underneath, using the e-paper.

The hardware isn’t the only special thing Apple is hoping to patent, however. The submission also describes a system of intelligent switching which would analyze to what extent the on-screen graphics and text were dynamic and moving, deciding between the two panels automatically depending on which is better suited to the content. So, static text would trigger the e-paper display, while video content would activate the LCD display. Alternatively, the color composition of what was being displayed could trigger the change.

What would of course be necessary is an e-paper or LCD display that could be suitably transparent/translucent to allow the other layer to be seen through. Alternatively, Apple could look to technologies like Qualcomm’s mirasol, which offer both the low power consumption and zero-backlighting requirements of traditional e-paper, but can also show color images at video-friendly refresh rates. Still, mirasol and other color e-ink technologies still lack the saturation and refresh rates of LCD.

[via AppleInsider]

“Thank you for your interest in Alex. Spring Design is phasing out the current Alex Reader within the next 6 months. We have not announced the product change and introduce any new product yet.” Spring Design

Their interest had been prompted by a persistent “out of stock” notice on the Spring Design webstore for both the white and black versions of the ereader. Although the company doesn’t say it outright, it looks like there’ll be no new stock in the meantime, too.

As for what Spring Design have waiting in the wings to replace Alex, there’s no word. The company had ambitious plans in early 2010, with talk of global-modem equipped versions and Kindle-style bundled data packages, but it seems the ongoing legal case with Barnes & Noble – in which a judge most recently said there was “significant factual dispute” over whether NOOK development had been unduly influenced by Spring Design’s own work – may have taken some of the wind out of their sails.

The NoteSlate is a concept tablet right now, but the manufacturers hope to have it available for purchase soon. The tablet features a new ePaper screen technology, which allows for the display to have one color shown at one time: red, blue, green and black models are the ones being planned for now. However, the company does have plans of creating a tablet that can do all four colors. The tablet features a 13-inch capacitive touchscreen display, with a resolution of 750 x 1080.

It’s designed for those who want to draw, take notes, and save what they want — or delete what they don’t — in an easy fashion. Unfortunately, considering it’s just a concept right now, with talk about the tablet heading to manufacturing in just a short while, we’re not so positive this will see the light of day. But, they company is already looking ahead to a future software update, which will provide PDF support. They also suggest that the battery life will last weeks, and weigh in at only 240g.

[via The Digital Reader]

BAE Systems has designed a concept that would work with a collection of sensors, and E-Ink distributed over the entirety of a tank. The idea is that the sensors would take readings from the surroundings. The sensors would take in the terrain, colors, and other information that the E-Ink would then be projected over the tank’s body, essentially camouflaging it on the spot.

Unfortunately for BAE Systems, the technology needed to make this happen is simply too expensive at this point, especially to deploy it into a battlefield. However, the defense firm believes that they can get it up and running inside of Afghanistan within a few years.

[via DVICE]

“This engineer will work with other baseband engineers and other disciplines to design, architect, and evaluate advanced phone concepts. The qualified candidate will have experience in specifying the optical properties of mobile cameras and displays, be capable of measuring the performance of mobile cameras and displays, and be capable of integrating those components into prototype phone designs.” HTC listing

While the scope of job specs is often far greater than the actual role might entail, there are definitely possibilities in the smartphone industry for both 3D and e-paper technologies. E Ink’s low-power screens make for ideal status displays, since they require power only to update the image, not to maintain it; we’ve seen Samsung attempt an AMOLED status sub-display with the Continuum, but E Ink would be even more power-efficient.

As for 3D, the job description calls for someone responsible not only for display but for ”camera technologies,” which implies HTC is considering 3D-capable optics on next-gen devices. Given the spread of 3D in the home entertainment and camcorder markets, it seems likely that HTC would be looking at how its smartphones could also get in on the trend.

[via Android Community]

The Pocket eDGe runs Android and has WiFi b/g, Bluetooth, 3GB of internal storage, a 2-megapixel camera and a microSD card slot. There’s also a microUSB port and a headphones socket. The two displays work hand-in-hand thanks to Entourage’s tweaks to Android, so you can flip webpages over from the LCD to the E Ink for easier reading and annotation.

At $399.99 it’s still not cheap, but it’s an interesting alternative to the Huawei S7 and Samsung Galaxy Tab. More information in the video below.

[via Android Community]

Press Release:

WORLD’S SMALLEST DUALBOOK, POCKET EDGE, ENABLES MOBILE LIFESTYLES WITH MULTIMEDIA TABLET, NETBOOK AND E-READER FUNCTIONALITIES

McLean, VA – Consumers who crave portability, but don’t want to be weighed down by numerous consumer electronics can now easily read, write and surf the Web on-the-go with enTourage Systems’ Pocket eDGe – a device that gets users through the day with its comprehensive professional and entertainment applications, combining the functionality of a touch screen tablet, e-reader and notepad.

The Pocket eDGe is a compact, multi-purpose, WiFi-enabled device, weighing just 24 ounces as the smallest dualbook available on the market. It is comprised of hinged LCD and E-Ink screens that interact for better communication and engagement with multi-media materials. Available content includes a vast array of e-books, periodicals and music available through enTourage Systems’ Web store.

The 7” LCD screen is ideal for Web browsing or viewing videos. The LCD side allows users to send emails to quickly stay in touch and manipulate Microsoft Office documents. Users can take advantage of useful applications that are already incorporated into the software, such as the built-in calendar app which makes it easy for users to keep track of appointments. The Pocket eDGe also operates on the Google Android operating system, providing access to numerous helpful Android applications available at enTourage Systems’ application store and other third-party developer sites.

The other side of the product contains a 6” E-Ink screen for accessing any e-books and documents in EPUB. It is also compatible with PDF documents. The E-Ink screen is Wacom Penabled, allowing for easy annotation or note-taking with an included stylus, when the Journal function is activated. With this technology, users can mark up documents, such as notes, recipes or contracts, and then send them as PDFs to friends and colleagues.

The two screens uniquely interact. Users have the ability, for example, to search terms and key words from e-books in Google, a dictionary or via Wikipedia on the LCD side. The Pocket eDGe has built-in speakers, a microphone and a camera – letting users record lectures and meetings, or capture images, listen to music and watch videos. The mobile professional or student can also project presentations through a USB-Video adapter.

“Consumers are becoming increasingly mobile and demand technologies and information access regardless of their location,” said Asghar Mostafa, CEO of enTourage Systems, Inc. “The Pocket eDGe is compact and lightweight, but full of all of the features and tools an on-the-go user would need for work, school or recreation anytime, anywhere.”

To-date, enTourage Systems has secured more than 250,000 trade books and hundreds of New York Times best sellers, in addition to the more than one million free public domain books digitized by Google, that are all available at its e-book store. enTourage Systems provides access to over 1,300 newspapers from 82 countries and 39 languages, and also has enhanced its e-store with more than 8 million music tracks and albums from major and independent labels – creating a one-stop solution for digital content.

The Pocket eDGe inspires a green lifestyle, allowing users to store all notes, documents and books digitally to decrease paper waste.

The Pocket eDGe can be oriented to view the LCD vertically or horizontally, or it can be held like a book, propped open like a laptop, or opened the full 360-degrees to view only one screen.

The Pocket eDGe will be available in November 2010 at major online retailers for $399. For more information, please visit www.entourageedge.com, the enTourage eDGe Facebook page or @enTourageeDGe Twitter feed.

The device has a 9.7-inch display capable of showing (muted) colors and basic animations, though the underlying E Ink technology is still insufficient for smooth video playback. Instead, it seems Hanvon will be targeting ebooks and business use, suggesting it could be used for viewing and editing PowerPoint presentations while on the move.

That’s aided by a hybrid touchscreen supporting both electromagnetic pen and finger touch input, a notes app and address book, along with text-to-speech and Chinese-to-English translation. There are also some basic games, according to Hanvon’s press release, though they’re not specified. North American availability is presumably still expected in March 2011, though a more affordable price tag of $440 was initially suggested for the WiFi + 3G version of the ereader.

[via DigiTimes]

Press Release:

Hanvon Grandly Launched the World’s First Color Electronic Paper Book

(November 10, 2010, Japan) Hanvon Technology Co., Ltd. (Hanvon) was established in 1998 and is a high-tech enterprise that is dedicated to the development and production of intelligent products, technologies and services in the field of man-computer interaction. In the global handwriting recognition market, Hanvon always is a leader. In 2008, with its strong technological strength, Hanvon entered the e-book market. With a full range of technological integration capabilities, it has developed a variety of e-book products and occupied 95% of China’s e-book market and become a global leading e-book manufacturer. In order to better develop international markets, on November 10, 2010, Hanvon grandly launched the world’s first color electronic paper book at the FPD International Exhibition in Chiba, Japan.

The Hanvon color electronic paper book is the world’s first large-screen high-resolution color e-book. It is one of preferential high-end business and office products. The whole e-book is equal to the size of the A4 paper. Its screen uses the latest Triton screen launched by E-INK, having a wholly new window-type user interface and an electromagnetic pen + finger touch, making the operation more conveniently and smoothly. Compared with the traditional black and white E-INK screen, Hanvon color e-book can restore the true feelings of paper reading to a greater degree. Meanwhile, it inherits all the advantages of the E-INK screen. This product can support a variety of formats, speak in TTS voice, comment in PDF at any time and make instant Chinese-English translation. It can allow users to feel like reading color paper documents. It also contains notes and address books to provide better business and office services to users. It has WIFI and a 3G wireless network to make users enjoy online life anytime and anywhere. With the constant development of e-book and screen technologies, Hanvon color e-book can now become one of paperless office devices. At the same time, it can replace the function of printers and has a variety of small game features to provide users entertainments at their spare time.

With the rapid development of high-tech electronic technology, Hanvon has become a star brand in the e-reader market. Hanvon electronic paper books not only have advantages in quality, functionality and the performance vs. cost ratio, but also integrate Hanvon handwriting technology to facilitate users to comment, modify and excerpt contents and can read and write. The Hanvon electronic paper book is not only a revolutionary e-reader but also your private library that can go with you at any time. It can enable you to carry thousands of electronic data with you and easily read them anytime and anywhere. In order to meet the needs of e-reading in more human ways, Hanvon will continue to be dedicated to the research and development of color e-books to provide consumers with more perfect reading experience.

The new watch is called the World Time Curved E Ink Watch. It can be had with a black polyurethane band, white band, black leather band, or a stainless band. Either of the polyurethane colors sell for $150, the black leather one sells for $165, and the stainless band version is $195.

The watch supports time keeping for all 24 time zones around the world, there are five display modes the user can choose from with white or black backgrounds, and the watch face can show time in two zones at once. The face of the watch curves for comfort and style and it is only 9.3mm thick. The watch is available right now with free shipping.

That latter point is important, since the Zeal can be opened like a traditional clamshell, or folded on its long edge in landscape orientation. While there’s no fashionable smartphone OS, you do get Microsoft Exchange email support and a Social Beat widget that pulls in Facebook, Twitter and MySpace information, as well as a 2-megapixel camera, Bluetooth, Skype Mobile and a microSD slot good with cards up to 32GB in size.

On the outside there’s a secondary preview display and media control buttons, and the Zeal is VZ Navigator compliant as well. It’ll go on sale from November 11 priced at $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate and assuming a new, two-year agreement.

Press Release:

FEEL THE ZEAL WITH THE SAMSUNG ZEAL™ FROM VERIZON WIRELESS

Dual-Hinge Messaging Phone Features E Ink Transforming QWERTY Keypad and Social Beat Application

BASKING RIDGE, N.J., and DALLAS – Verizon Wireless and Samsung Telecommunications America (Samsung Mobile) today announced that the Samsung Zeal™, a dual-hinge messaging phone in a unique, flip-style format with an E Ink technology transforming the QWERTY keypad, will be available online at www.verizonwireless.com and in Verizon Wireless Communications Stores on Nov. 11.
Available color: Black

Key features:

· Dual-hinge form factor with E Ink keyboard that changes based on the user’s needs

o Open it vertically as a flip phone and it has a traditional numeric keypad and can change to an alpha-only keypad

o In landscape, the phone features a QWERTY keypad that can change to numeric with symbols

· Corporate Email support for Microsoft Office Exchange so customers can synchronize corporate e-mail, contacts and calendars from their office e-mail

· 2.0 megapixel camera with night and panorama shot, auto focus and camcorder

· Bluetooth® technology with support for headset, hands-free, stereo, phonebook access, basic print, basic imaging, and object push for vCard and vCalendar

Lifestyle features:

Social Beat Widget – Offers a single point for accessing social networking sites, allowing customers to stay connected to Facebook®, Twitter™ and MySpace™ plus more than 50 news, sports and entertainment feeds
VZ Navigator® capable – Receive audible turn-by-turn directions to millions of points of interest and share the directions with others
Media Center – Access downloadable games, ringtones, wallpapers, location-based services and more
Skype mobile™ capable
Mobile Web capable
· Full suite of messaging options, including text, picture, video and voice messaging; Mobile IM; Mobile Chat; Mobile Email; and Mobile Web Email

microSD™ card slot with support for up to 32 GB (card purchased separately)
Personal organizer with calendar, calculator with currency converter, notepad, alarm clock, world clock and stop watch

Price and availability:
The Samsung Zeal will be available on Nov. 11 for $79.99 after a $50 mail-in rebate with a new two-year customer agreement. Customers will receive the rebate in the form of a debit card; upon receipt, customers may use the card as cash anywhere debit cards are accepted.
Customers can purchase the Samsung Zeal beginning today at Verizon Wireless Communications Stores or online at www.verizonwireless.com. For additional information on Verizon Wireless products and services, visit a Verizon Wireless Communications Store, call 1-800-2 JOIN IN or go to www.verizonwireless.com.

Triton is also tipped to be 20-percent faster than previous E Ink screens – though it still doesn’t support a sufficiently fast refresh rate to show smooth video – and can handle simple animations. As with existing monochrome e-paper displays, Triton is readable even in direct sunlight, and bistable so that it can maintain an on-screen image without any power being applied.

According to Hanvon, their color ereader should arrive in March 2011, so we’re guessing that’s when mass production of Triton will be ready. No word on how pricing compares to the monochrome versions.

[via PC Watch]

Press Release:

E Ink Announces Color ePaper

E Ink color ePaper displays enabled by Triton Imaging Film will deliver high-contrast, sunlight readable, low-power performance that will revolutionize the market.

FPD International 2010

MAKUHARI MESSE, Japan–(BUSINESS WIRE)–E Ink® Holdings Inc., the leader in electronic paper display technology, today announced the release of its next generation display technology, E Ink Triton. Triton enables color ePaper solutions, enhancing the visual experience for ePublishing markets.

“E Ink Triton marks a major milestone in the eBook revolution,” said Hanvon’s Chairmain Dr. Liu Yingjian. “E Ink has the right technology, manufacturing capability, and know-how to transition Hanvon’s product vision into reality. With E Ink Triton technology, Hanvon is enabled to release the world’s first color eBook reader today.”

“E Ink Triton is a response to market need for a color ePaper display that mimics the printed paper experience,” said Scott Liu, Chairman of E Ink Holdings. “Triton will compliment our monochrome product line to enable new markets.”

“Color ePaper will enable richer content in eBooks, as well as enabling a broader array of other reading devices, for content such as magazines, newspapers, and educational materials,” according to Paul Semenza, Senior Vice President, DisplaySearch. “We foresee market demand for ePaper displays in these applications reaching $5 billion by 2016.”

Enhanced with Color

For image-rich information applications showing charts, graphs, maps, photos, comics and advertising, color displays made with Triton Imaging Film enable ultra-low power and high mobility devices with a paper-like experience. In addition to 16 levels of grayscale, Triton is capable of displaying thousands of colors. And just like E Ink’s grayscale ePaper products, Triton’s crisp text and detailed color graphics are fully viewable in direct sunlight.

Faster Performance

Displays made with Triton, as well as the recently launched Pearl, can perform up to 20 percent faster than those made with previous generations of E Ink Imaging Film. Whether turning a page, selecting a menu, taking notes, or viewing simple animations, Triton’s update performance will satisfy today’s user-interface product needs. This expands the ePaper experience and displays more dynamic content for signage or advertising.

Proven Technology

The E Ink Triton design leverages the patented two pigment capsule platform found in millions of E Ink enabled eBooks. This technology offers unparalleled image stability; pictures and text can be maintained on the screen even when the power is turned off. With this proven bi-stable technology, devices using E Ink Imaging Film have demonstrated both long life and high reliability, leading to the development of a whole new class of consumer products over the past few years.

That outside panel has a secondary display, along with multimedia controls, though it’s the buttons inside that are really interesting. The Zeal uses E Ink keys rather than regular, printed buttons, which means the phone can change its layout according to what app you’re using or which way you have the handset open.

Otherwise the features are pretty mundane: a 2.6-inch QVGA main display, 2-megapixel camera and Bluetooth, along with Skype Mobile. No word on pricing or availability at this stage, but we’re guessing that if a press release has been prepared, the Zeal will be on sale at Verizon sooner rather than later.

That storage can be augmented with a memory card (up to 32GB), with new ebooks either downloaded wirelessly (without fees over 3G) or side-loaded via USB. Basic text-based browsing over WiFi is also supported, with Google.com, Wikipedia.org, Twitter.com, Facebook.com, cnbc.com and cnet.com all preloaded onto the ereader.

The whole thing measures in at 7.87 x 5.04 x 0.38 inches and weighs 9.6oz, and supports ePub (Adobe DRM protected), PDF (Adobe DRM protected), BBeB Book (PRS DRM protected), Text and RTF DRM-encrypted files, together with ePub, BBeB Book, PDF, TXT, RTF and converted DOC non-DRM files. Online orders are expected to begin shipping tomorrow.

Press Release:

SONY READER DAILY EDITION NOW AVAILABLE IN STORES AND ONLINE AT SONYSTYLE.COM

SAN DIEGO – November 8, 2010 – Rounding out availability for its beautifully-designed new line of Reader™ digital books, Sony today announced that the wireless Reader Daily Edition™ is now available in select retail outlets and online at SonyStyle.com. The new Reader Daily Edition, equipped with Wi-Fi® in addition to AT&T’s 3G network, will provide book lovers the ability to browse, purchase and download books as well as select newspapers and magazines on the go. Like the new Reader Pocket Edition™ and Reader Touch Edition™, the Reader Daily Edition is also outfitted with first-to-market optical touch screen technology, which enhances ease of use and increases reading clarity on its seven-inch, full touch screen.
The Reader Daily Edition gives consumers wireless access to Sony’s Reader™ Store from most of the U.S. via Wi-Fi or 3G, powered by Gobi™ Technology by Qualcomm. It also provides basic Web browsing functionality via Wi-Fi and pre-loaded, reading-based URLs, including: Google.com, Wikipedia.org, Twitter.com, Facebook.com, cnbc.com and cnet.com. There are no monthly fees or transaction charges for the basic wireless connectivity and users still have the option to side load personal documents or content from other compatible sites via USB.
New features on the Daily Edition include intuitive content zoom, adjustable contrast and brightness control, as well as automatic multiple page creation to make documents designed for a standard sheet of paper easier to read. Also, personalized standby screen options give users the ability to download their favorite photos or other images as a screen saver. The collections functionality allows users to group their favorite reads by author, category or other criteria. In addition, the new Reader line offers users on-screen functionality to look up words and phrases with the built-in New Oxford American Dictionary, Second Edition and Oxford Dictionary of English eDictionaries, as well as 10 translation dictionaries in languages such as French, German, Spanish, Italian and Dutch. Just double tap any word to get the dictionary definition or translation and with one more tap, learn more about the word through Wikipedia. The Reader Daily Edition includes 2 GB of memory and expansion slots for additional memory (up to 32 GB). It is available in silver and currently retails for about $299.
Key Facts:
o Sony’s new, seven-inch, full touch screen Reader Daily Edition is now on sale at SonyStyle.com and select retail outlets
o The Reader Daily Edition provides wireless access to the Reader Store from most of the U.S. through 3G and Wi-Fi
o It will also provide basic Web browsing functionality via Wi-Fi on a variety of Websites and pre-loaded, reading-based URLs, including: Google.com, Wikipedia.org, Twitter.com, Facebook.com, cnbc.com and cnet.com
o New features on the Daily Edition include first-to-market optical touch screen technology, personalized standby screen options, intuitive content zoom, adjustable contrast and brightness control, as well as automatic multiple page creation
o The Reader Daily Edition includes 2 GB of memory and expansion slots for additional memory (up to 32 GB)
o It is available in silver and retails currently for about $299

E Ink had previously promised that their color e-paper screens should be available by the end of 2010, though the Hanvon model will miss that launch window. Instead it’s expected to arrive in China in March 2011 – we’re guessing it’ll be brought to CES 2011 in January with great fanfare as well – with a reasonably hefty price-tag of $440, though that will also include WiFi and 3G connectivity for downloading content while mobile.

That price is still cheaper than the iPad in China, though the Hanvon ereader isn’t being targeted as a direct alternative. Instead, it’s more dedicated to ebook duties, and can manage the same sort of battery life as its greyscale cousins since the underlying E Ink screen is the same, merely with a color filter over the top. The panel is unable to display smooth video, only basic animations, and clarity is reduced because of the filter, but it should still be more outdoor-visible than a regular LCD screen.

[via Engadget]

Of the three, the Zeal is the only handset not to run Android.  Motorola’s Citrus is an entry-level Android 2.1 handset first unveiled back in October, with a 3-inch touchscreen and a chassis made from 25-percent post-consumer recycled waste.  Meanwhile, the Samsung Zeal has an E Ink QWERTY keyboard and dual-direction hinge for portrait or landscape use.

Finally, the Continuum offers two displays: one 3.4-inch Super AMOLED touchscreen and another secondary panel underneath for notifications and shortcuts.  It slots into Samsung’s Galaxy S family of handsets, and runs the company’s 1GHz Hummingbird CPU.  All three devices will apparently make their sales debut on November 11 2010.

[via Android Community]

There’s also WiFi b/g in this FCC tested version, which iriver told us at IFA 2010 would allow for basic web browsing as well as wireless downloads of ebooks.  No word on US pricing or availability, though the Cover Story did go up for sale in the UK back in September, priced at around £149 ($239) for the basic model and £179 ($287) for the WiFi version.

[via Wireless Goodness]

There’s also a user-accessible battery, 2GB of internal storage with a microSD card slot, text-to-speech and MP3 support, and a 667MHz processor the company reckons should halve the regular start-up time.  As for any handwritten notes, they can be made directly onto the display, and you can also sync over Outlook appointments from your PC.  Whether that’s enough to make up for the absence of a huge content library, such as on the Kindle, remains to be seen.

[via The Digital Reader]

There’s also a new casing design, measuring 4.7 x 7.2 x 0.4 inches and weighing under 8oz, and it’s finished in a choice of black, silver or lavender with a textured, soft-touch back panel.  The display is still a 6-inch E Ink panel, and Borders reckon you’ll see around 8,000 page turns from a full charge of the battery.

Up to 4GB SD cards can be used to boost storage, and the Kobo Wireless eReader supports ePub and PDF ebooks and is preloaded with 100 classics.  It’ll begin shipping on November 1st, and is priced at $139.99.

Press Release:

Borders® Advances eReading Offerings with Kobo Wireless eReader

Borders Rewards members can now earn Borders Bucks twice as fast on the purchase of the Kobo Wireless eReader and Kobo™ eReader

ANN ARBOR, Mich., Sept. 29 /PRNewswire-FirstCall/ — Borders® today announced the addition of the new Kobo Wireless eReader to its digital assortment that now includes an industry leading selection of seven eReading devices. The addition of the new Kobo device advances Borders as a preferred destination for eReaders for virtually every household. Counting among its successes the recent launch of the Borders eBook store, powered by Kobo, and mobile applications — and its rapidly growing selection of eReading devices — Borders is poised for significant growth in the eReading market.

Borders’ new Kobo Wireless eReader comes with a built-in wireless connection, upgraded hardware in three new colors and a new processor that drives faster page turns. Just .4 inches thick and 7.8 grams, the lightweight eReader is available in three sleek color combinations: onyx, porcelain with a metallic silver back and porcelain with a pearlized lilac back.

The new Kobo Wireless eReader allows consumers to browse more than 1.5 million books in the Borders eBook store and update their digital library wirelessly, directly from the eReader device, a smartphone or the Borders Desktop Application. With the intuitive control pad and a built-in library-management system, customers can easily navigate and organize their library by title, date last read and author. In addition, customers can add documents using an SD card, Adobe Digital Editions, or drag-and-drop. The eReader also supports EPUB and PDF documents, so customers can enjoy the option of borrowing and reading free eBooks from their local library.

Designed by book lovers for book lovers, the new Kobo Wireless eReader reads like print on paper with its specialized E Ink® screen for a true book-like reading experience. With 16 grey scale levels to choose from, the device offers sharp graphics and crisp text that are easy on the eyes. The device also comes pre-loaded with 100 free classics so customers can immediately begin reading.

Priced at $139.99, the device can be pre-ordered beginning today at www.borders.com/kobowifi and will be available for purchase in Borders stores by the end of October.

Borders’ Industry-Leading eReader Selection

In addition to the new Kobo device, Borders also offers the Aluratek “Libre” eBook Pro, Velocity Micro’s Android-based Cruz Reader™ R101, Cruz Tablet™ T103 and the original Kobo™ eReader. The Sony®Touch and Sony®Pocket round out Borders’ “good-better-best” selection of devices, which are aggressively priced from $99 to $299. Customers can now test-drive and purchase eReaders as well as choose from more than 1.5 million titles from the Borders eBook store within the company’s newly unveiled Area-e digital shops. Trained Area-e staff are available to assist customers through the eReader discovery experience, providing demonstrations and answering questions.

“We are committed to offering our customers the best of the physical book and eReading worlds,” said Mike Edwards, CEO of Borders, Inc. “For decades readers have known Borders as a trusted destination for exploring and discovering traditional paper books — and now as the only major book chain with a comprehensive selection of eReaders and digital content, we are meeting our customers’ reading needs on all fronts. Nowhere else can you browse a selection of more than 82,000 paper books, walk over to Area-e, our new digital hub, where you test drive a variety of e-Reading devices, and then search for your next favorite book in our e-Bookstore.

“We’ve long believed that even as more readers transition to eReading they will continue to buy traditional books and a recent Harris Interactive poll bears this out,” continued Edwards. “The poll found that readers with e-book devices are reading more – and they are also more likely than others to purchase physical books. It’s exciting to be in a position to help spur what could very well prove to be a reading Renaissance in this country.”

Customer Support on Facebook

Borders has created a dedicated eReading tab on its newly revamped Facebook page. The tab includes an eReading “tip of the week” as well as an eReader/eBooks “deal of the week.” Understanding that eReaders are still a new concept to many customers, Borders has created an application to help readers decide which device is right for them. The application includes a series of lifestyle questions, such as “How price conscious are you?”; “How much do you read?”; and “How tech savvy are you?” After the customer completes questionnaire, the system recommends five devices and ranks them according to the customer’s preferences.

Borders’ Editorial Voice

For decades Borders has maintained a strong editorial voice, guiding millions of customers to enriching and entertaining books. Now Borders is applying that same authoritative voice to eBooks. When customers visit Borders.com, they immediately see eBooks grouped according to various themes for easy purchasing. For example, they may see featured memoirs, famous series, best in eBooks under $3 and Oprah’s Book Club picks. The company is also redesigning its title detail pages so customers can quickly find a book and purchase it in traditional print format, eBook, audio book or in other available formats.

Special eReading Offers for Borders Rewards Members

Borders Rewards members can now earn Borders Bucks twice as fast on the purchase of the Kobo Wireless eReader and Kobo™ eReader in store and online. In addition, Rewards members can enter for chance to win a Velocity Micro’s Android-based Cruz Tablet™ T103 plus a full year of eBooks in Borders’ Cruz Tablet giveaway sweepstakes going on now through Oct. 19th on Borders.com. Announced earlier this month, the Cruz touch-screen device also plays video and music, and provides a full color web browsing experience. The Cruz Tablet gives consumers Wi-Fi access to the Borders’ eBook store and access to the Cruz Market with downloadable apps.

Earlier this month, Borders unveiled its new Rewards loyalty program, bringing customers more choices, richer benefits and better savings. For complete information on Rewards or to sign up to become a Rewards member, visit www.Borders.com/Rewards

About “Powered by Kobo”: Kobo, Inc.

“Powered by Kobo” is an eBook partner program from Kobo, a global eBook service backed by Indigo Books & Music, Borders Group, REDgroup Retail, and Cheung Kong Holdings. The “Powered by Kobo” program provides a flexible solution for hardware manufacturers and retailers worldwide to launch an eReader or eBook store. “Powered by Kobo” partners have access to Kobo’s catalogue of more than two million titles and applications for smartphones, netbooks, laptops, tablets and dedicated eReaders. Kobo’s vision is to deliver any book on any device and is a strong voice in the eBook industry supporting open standards for eBooks and eReaders. For more information, visit www.kobobooks.com.

About Borders Group, Inc.

Headquartered in Ann Arbor, Mich., through its subsidiaries, Borders Group, Inc. (NYSE: BGP) is a leading specialty retailer of books as well as other educational and entertainment items. The company employs approximately 19,500 throughout the U.S., primarily in its Borders® and Waldenbooks® stores. Online shopping is offered through borders.com. Find author interviews and vibrant discussions of the products we and our customers are passionate about online at facebook.com/borders, twitter.com/borders and youtube.com/bordersmedia. For more information about the company, visit borders.com/media.

Unfortunately, the E Ink panel is the company’s previous-gen Vizplex screen, not the newer Pearl as seen on the third-gen Kindle.  The camera has switched sides, from above the LCD to above the e-paper display, and the controller nubbin on the right has been swapped for an optical trackpad.  It’s also lost some connectivity, being down to a single USB Host port, and the full-sized SD card slot of the original eDGe has been replaced with a microSDHC slot due to size constraints; the battery is now non-removable.

Otherwise the controls are basically the same as before, as are the CPU and the apps the Pocket eDGe will launch with.  As for that launch, no word on pricing but both the WiFi-only and the Verizon models will apparently drop late in October 2010.

In fact, according to TDR, “ it would best be described as something Sony would like to do rather than something Sony will do.”  Still, we’ve a feeling that even if Sony don’t make the jump, one of E Ink’s other customers – and there are plenty, seeing as they currently supply the vast majority of ereader manufacturers with devices on the market – likely will.

Video demo after the cut

Unfortunately, beyond what we can glean from the few lingering shots of the prototype itself, details are in short supply.  The front screen isn’t shown turned on, but the curved rear looks to be an e-paper panel of some sort.

Android is mentioned in the YouTube description, which cheers us up as the last Russian 4G device we saw – the HTC MAX 4G – had to make do with Windows Mobile 6.5.  Still, there’s every chance that this is an ambitious concept that will never make it to market, so don’t get too excited.

[via Recombu]

What you do get is a note-taking app that works with the thin pull-out stylus in the top right hand side, a straightforward four-way navigation control (suited to left- or right-handed users, since the Cover Story has an accelerometer for page rotation) and a fast enough processor to make sure the only lag involved is the e-ink’s inherent pauses.  There’s the usual, slightly cutesy UI too, with the added bonus of some swipes and taps thanks to the touchscreen.

iriver does have a WiFi model coming, which will apparently get basic browsing functionality (though probably not the same sort of Webkit browser as the third-gen Kindle totes) though there’s no mention of pricing for that.  It seems they’re looking more at Sony as their rivals: the 6-inch Cover Story lines up against the similarly wireless-free PRS-650, which is €229.  It’s nice enough, but unlikely to lure Amazon users away from the more well-rounded Kindle.

It can get online via either WiFi or 3G, and download new content that way, but the other two models are stuck with loading ebooks via either USB or SD/Memory Stick Pro.  All three come with a stylus for digitally marking up ebooks, while they have lighter, brushed aluminum casings rather than plastic.

The Sony PRS-350 Pocket Edition will be available for $179 in pink or silver, while the Sony PRS-650 Touch Edition will be $229 in black or red.  Finally, the Sony PRS-950 Daily Edition will drop in November, priced at $299.

[via CrunchGear]

Video head-to-head testing after the cut

Gone is the clunky, text-centric app of before, replaced by – joy of joys – image support and much more desktop-like rendering.  There’s still no touchscreen, of course, but pages load quicker and you’re still getting (with the WiFi+3G Kindle at least) free browsing as part of Amazon’s inclusive data package.

Less impressive, it seems, is the Kindle 3′s new Article Mode, which strips out extraneous images, banners and other in-page elements for easier reading.  Unfortunately it doesn’t seem to quite go far enough in making large pages suitable for the Kindle’s 6-inch display.  More info in the video below.

[via The Digital Reader]

That’s considerably higher than what Amazon and the rest of the ereader market leaders are offering their devices for.  Acer are hoping to differentiate themselves with their ISBN-scanner, which can be used to build up a wish-list of titles owners intend to buy in the future.

So far, Acer are only confirming the LumiRead’s IFA presence, not pricing or availability, but sources claim at least one large German retailer is ramping up for a commercial release.  We’ll be at IFA next week, to see how well the LumiRead holds up to Amazon’s offerings.

Now, you could well argue that the gradually falling price over the course of the Kindle’s lineage may have had something to do with that: the original Kindle was $399, the second version debuted at £359, and the two new models are $189 for the WiFi+3G unit and $139 for the WiFi-only unit.  Still, they’re the most gifted and most wished for products across the US and UK versions of Amazon’s site, and have found buyers in 125 different countries (including, Amazon’s press release helpfully tells us, Mongolia).

Press Release:

NEW GENERATION KINDLES ARE THE FASTEST-SELLING KINDLES EVER AND ALREADY THE BEST-SELLING PRODUCTS ON AMAZON

New Kindles start shipping to customers today—two days ahead of previously announced release date

SEATTLE—August 25, 2010—(NASDAQ: AMZN)—Amazon.com today announced that more new generation Kindles were ordered in the first four weeks of availability than in the same timeframe following any other Kindle launch, making the new Kindles the fastest-selling ever. In addition, in the four weeks since the introduction of the new Kindle and Kindle 3G, customers ordered more Kindles on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined than any other product, continuing Kindle’s over two-year run as the bestselling product across all the products sold on Amazon.com. The new Kindles started shipping to customers today—two days earlier than previously announced.

“Kindle is the best-selling product on Amazon.com for two years running and our new generation Kindles are continuing that momentum,” said Steven Kessel, senior vice president, Amazon Kindle. “Readers are excited about all that the new Kindle has to offer—50 percent better contrast, 20 percent faster page turns, 15 percent lighter, up to one month of battery life—and a new price of only $139.”

The all-new Kindle has an electronic-ink screen with 50 percent better contrast than any other e-reader, a new sleek design with a 21 percent smaller body while still keeping the same 6-inch-size reading area, 15 percent lighter weight at just 8.5 ounces, 20 percent faster page turns, up to one month of battery life with wireless off, double the storage to 3,500 books, no glare even in bright sunlight and built-in Wi-Fi—all for only $139. The all-new Kindle 3G with all of these new features plus the convenience of free 3G wireless is only $189.

Early comments from product reviewers on the new Kindle include:

“This e-book reader’s lighter weight and complete overhaul make the third-generation Kindle the best reader from Amazon yet… After spending some quality time curled up with the new Kindle, I have to say it’s the first e-reader in months that’s left me wanting to read more. Its solid build quality, along with its improved design, integrated store, and cross-platform transportability (books are usable on any Kindle reader app, including iPhone, iPad, Android, BlackBerry, and PC) all add up to a winner that shoots to the head of the pack.” – PC World

“Despite some predictions that the iPad and other Web-oriented tablets would start the Kindle doom clock ticking, its continued popularity bodes well for the future of single-purpose long-form reading devices. The new third-generation Kindle only makes that future brighter. All its basic virtues—instant downloading from an abundantly stocked store, light weight, ability to read in sunlight—are still there, with significant improvements in text readability, physical design, and battery life.” – Wired

“…given its new low price along with its massive library of ebooks and dead-simple book buying, the Kindle keeps its crown as our Editors’ Choice. Simply put, it’s the best dedicated ebook reader you can buy.” – PC Magazine

“Amazon’s newest Kindle (simply called “Kindle,” though it’s sometimes referred to as the “Kindle 3″) is the best ebook-reading device on the market.” – Fast Company

Also in the four weeks since their introduction:
Kindle and Kindle 3G are the most gifted and most wished for products on Amazon.com and Amazon.co.uk combined.
Customers in 125 countries on six continents from Austria to Zimbabwe have already placed orders for the new generation Kindles. Some of the most remote shipments will be sent as far away as Mongolia and the Northern Mariana Islands.
Customers are already ordering books to read on their new Kindles. The most popular are the books in Stieg Larsson’s Millennium trilogy, “Star Island” by Carl Hiaasen and “The Rembrandt Affair” by Daniel Silva.
Kindle offers the largest selection of the most popular books people want to read. The U.S. Kindle Store now has more than 670,000 books, including New Releases and 107 of 111 New York Times Best Sellers. Over 550,000 of these books are $9.99 or less, including 73 New York Times Best Sellers. Over 1.8 million free, out-of-copyright, pre-1923 books are also available to read on Kindle devices. More than 235,000 books have been added to the Kindle Store in just the last seven months, including New York Times Best Sellers “The Girl Who Kicked the Hornet’s Nest,” “The Immortal Life of Henrietta Lacks” and “The Passage.”

Kindle lets you Buy Once, Read Everywhere—on Kindle, Kindle 3G, Kindle DX, iPad, iPod touch, iPhone, Mac, PC, BlackBerry and Android-based devices. Amazon’s Whispersync technology syncs your place across devices, so you can pick up where you left off. With Kindle Worry-Free Archive, books you purchase from the Kindle Store are automatically backed up online in your Kindle library on Amazon where they can be re-downloaded wirelessly for free, anytime.

Customers can discover full details and order the new Kindle and Kindle 3G at www.amazon.com/kindle3G and www.amazon.com/kindleWi-Fi.

It seemingly won’t be ready in time for IFA early next month, however, so we’ll have to make do with the five models the company is willing to tell us about.  Both the Pro 603 and Pro 903 have integrated 3G modems and Wacom touchscreens, too, presumably for ebook annotation.

Each of the ereaders runs Pocketbook’s open-source software and have wireless access to the Bookland ebook store.  Onboard storage is 2GB – we’re guessing it’s expandable – and Foxconn are apparently the OEM tasked with building the new range.  No hard specifications on the Pocketbook IQ tablet, beyond that it will be available in a choice of three colors,

[via Lesen]