E Ink has revealed its latest color e-paper, with Kaleido Plus promising brighter hues and improved readability for future ereaders. The new panels - which can display 4,096 colors, but consume a fraction of the power of a traditional LCD or OLED screen - also support larger sizes than E Ink's current color e-paper product.
eBook readers like the Amazon Kindle, Kobo, and the Barnes & Noble Nook have been highly praised for their simplicity and benefits to the eyes because of their use of e-paper displays or EPDs. Those strengths, however, also come with their own weaknesses, like their inability to display color or do much else beyond reading ebooks. That's no longer true these days, though, with many eReaders adopting Android for more functionality. And then there's the new breed of EPDs that are showing off some colors, like the new PocketBook InkPad Color that is finally making its way to International markets.
The flexible display fever isn't stopping at smartphones, of course. Lenovo already made available its somewhat foldable ThinkPad X1 Fold but that's still squarely within the realm of typical computers. Such flexible LCD and OLED panels aren't the only game in town either and famed electronic paper giant E Ink is now trying to break new ground not just with colored ePaper or just flexible ePaper but a combination of the two that could finally turn wearables into technology you can literally wear, and not just on your wrist.
Being confined indoors most of the time has resulted in a rise in the consumption of digital content but it isn't just videos and games that have suddenly become even more popular than ever before. Without easy access to libraries and bookstores, bookworms have taken to eBooks to get their fix. And because most people are on tight budgets, Kobo is launching a new no-frills eReader that knows a trick or two to help you read your favorite books wherever, whenever.
If 5G was the common feature that most smartphone makers were touting last year, this year's theme seems to revolve around the screen once more. No, not some punch-hole cutout, in-display sensor, or even curved edges. Many if not all high-end phones boast of 90Hz refresh rates or even higher. In a sea of such advanced handsets, Hisense's next phone will stand out from the crowd with an almost opposite kind of innovation, bringing the world's first slow refresh rate smartphone with a colored electronic paper display.
There has been a small but prominent rise in interest in e-paper technologies like E-Ink due to their simplicity, energy-efficiency, and extensibility. Tablets and even phones using this kind of display are no longer unheard of, though rare, and that represents just one innovation in that field. Another, courtesy of a company named "Waveshare" is looking into how digital paper screens can operate without any batteries. All they will need is an NFC receiver.
E-paper tablet reMarkable has returned with a second-generation slate, with the reMarkable 2 an even slimmer, longer lasting paper notepad alternative. Unlike almost about all other tablets on the market today, reMarkable 2 doesn't use an LCD or OLED touchscreen. Instead, it relies on a low-power E Ink panel, much like a Kindle ereader.
We are too glued to our screens and yet almost all the solutions being offered mostly involve quitting cold turkey with a dumber than dumb phone. That may no longer be that practical in this day and age but that doesn't mean there isn't an answer. One answer could come in the form of phones using colored e-paper displays such as the one shown off by Hisense at CES 2020. This phone, which is a significant step up from regular E-Ink displays, could offer a perfect balance of utility and simplicity that could keep people off their phones.
Amazon's flagship ereader, the Kindle Oasis, is getting another update, adding a color-adjustable front light for its new e-ink display. Now in its third generation, the slender ereader carries over the style - and the waterproofing - of its predecessor, the second-gen Oasis launched in late 2017.
The folks at E Ink have a new sort of film that'll enable digital writing on a wide variety of new devices. This film is like a plastic sheet - sort of - and can be applied to any surface to create a simple electronic paper experience. Once installed, this material allows writing that'll stay in-place for an indefinite amount of time - and can be removed with a single tap of a button.
A good idea can turn into a great one if you stick with it, and happily Lenovo has done just that with the new Yoga Book C930. Building on the innovative but flawed idea of the original Yoga Book in 2016, this second-generation model addresses the most common complaints, throwing in a second, E Ink display, upgrading the processor, and generally making for a much more flexible - and thus useful - ultraportable.
Lenovo has a second-generation Yoga Book 2 coming later in the year, the company has teased, and chip partner Intel may have given us a big preview with its Tiger Rapids reference design. Revealed at Computex 2018 this week, the dual-screen ultraportable is Intel's vision of what its new 8th Generation Core processor can do when paired with both traditional displays and E Ink panels.