epaper

Russian company Yota has finally taken off the veils from the second generation YotaPhone in two consecutive events in Moscow and London. The YotaPhone 2, one of the brighter stars in this year's CES and MWC expos, gives more class and more power to an already appealing concept. Aside from having a second screen driven entirely by e-ink technology, YotaPhone adds touch to that display, giving users practically two touch screens, switching between the two as the need arises and conserving power along the way.

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Sony's e-paper watch plan rumors sounded mysterious when they surfaced recently, but it turns out we'd actually seen the face-changing, power-sipping timepiece before, only under a different name. In fact, the distinctive timepiece - which uses e-paper not only for the watchface itself, but around the strap itself - was quietly launched on a crowdfunding site as the Fashion Entertainments FES Watch, a brand which Sony has now confirmed was set up by the skunkworks team at the company looking into the broader practical applications of screens more commonly found on e-readers like the Kindle.

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Smartwatches might be useful, at least to some, but their battery lives are nothing to write home about, given the available space you can cram a battery into. Some smartwatch makes, most notably Pebble, have opted to stay with the colorless but more power-efficient e-ink types of display. Based on an insider source, Sony might be eying something similar too, but with an intriguing twist. It won't just be the watch face that will be using e-ink, but the whole wrist band itself as well.

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The dual-sided YotaPhone, which slaps a 4.3-inch E Ink display on the back of an Android smartphone, has gone on sale, with the ability to switch content between its double screens. Revealed at CES back in January, the YotaPhone is up for order now priced at €499 ($679) in Russia, Austria, France, Spain, and Germany, targeting frequent readers who want to prolong battery life by using the more frugal monochrome epaper panel on the back cover.

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Flexible display specialist Plastic Logic has cooked up a new, weatherproof and permanently-connected display that aims to keep public transport users up-to-date while remaining vandal resistant, as the company's technology gradually makes it out into the mainstream. The ZED (Zero Energy Display), produced in partnership with signage specialist SERELEC, is expected to show up at bus stops and tram stations in Q2 2013, pairing two 10.7-inch monochrome Plastic Logic panels into a display with clear outdoor visibility and super-frugal power consumption.

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E Ink is grabbing a majority share of fellow e-paper maker SiPix Technology, the company has confirmed, and aims to snatch up 100-percent of shares in a deal worth around $50m. The agreement, which his expected to be  finalized by the end of the year, is part of E Ink's aim to corner the e-paper market, and will see SiPix tech - including that of its SiPix Imagine subsidiary - integrated into future E Ink products.

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Plastic Logic revealed a big shift in strategy last month, pushing its own flexible plastic-based epaper displays for third-party products, and its new video-capable color panels are top of the agenda. SlashGear caught up with Plastic Logic at the company's Cambridge, UK, R&D center today to see one of the very first demonstrations of the new screen, a flexible panel that can support color video playback at up to 12fps. Read on for the video demo.

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LG's flexible ePaper technology has been in development since 2010 and now the first ebook reader to sport the screen has arrived. Designed by Moscow-based brand Wexler, the Flex One is not only the first flexible e-reader but also claims to be the lightest and thinnest e-reader in the world. It weighs only 110g or 3.9oz with a thickness of only 4mm or 0.16-inches. In contrast, a Kindle Touch weighs almost double at 213g or 7.5oz and is more than twice the thickness at 10mm or 0.4 inches.

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Plastic Logic may have demonstrated a flexible color epaper display earlier this week, but don't expect to see it show up in an own-brand ereader; the company has confirmed it is quitting the market. "Plastic Logic will cease its e-reader product development activities and focus on other applications for its flexible plastic displays" the company said today, instead going on to "actively develop licensing and technology partnerships to exploit its e-reader related capabilities in terms of rugged, plastic displays as well as driver and viewing optimisation software."

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This week the folks at Bridgestone have made it clear that they and their AeroBee technology will be out of the e-paper business inside the year. This news comes at a time when tablets appear very much to be dominating the market while e-readers in general are moving toward a more colorful future. Bridgestone will instead be focusing on its "core business" to provide "maximum value" to its shareholders as well as its customers for the near future.

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Plastic Logic has been running in quiet mode since their new funding and push for the education ereader market in 2011, but the company has a new color flexible e-paper panel with which to tease us this week. Using the same 10.7-inch plastic transistor technology as the company's previous monochrome panels, the new screen Plastic Logic has revealed can display 4,096 colors and runs at a comparatively low 75ppi.

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LG Display has launched a new, 6-inch flexible epaper display that the company expects to show up in bendable products by the beginning of next month. The panel, a 1024 x 768 monochrome sheet, can be bent up to 40-degrees without breaking; in addition, because LG Display has used a flexible plastic substrate rather than the more traditional glass, it's less than half the weight of a traditional epaper panel.

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