Fujitsu Debuts Bendable Electronic Paper 304
An anonymous reader writes "Fujitsu today announced their joint development of the world's first film substrate-based bendable color electronic paper with an image memory function. The new electronic paper features vivid color images that are unaffected even when the screen is bent, and features an image memory function that enables continuous display of the same image without the need for electricity. The thin and flexible electronic paper uses very low power to change screen images, thereby making it ideal for displaying information or advertisements in public areas as a type of new electronic media that can be handled as easily as paper. The jointly developed electronic paper will be showcased at Fujitsu Forum 2005, to be held July 14 and 15 at Tokyo International Forum."
Screenshot (Score:5, Informative)
At 2:19am, I just want to look at pictures.
Re:Where are the e-ink products, damnit? (Score:4, Informative)
Nothing mystical about it. I've played with one, and it's neat. The screen is wonderful. In a store it looks really good but a little washed out, since the white isn't really white and the black isn't tuly black. When you bring it out into daylight, it's amazing. Where a normal screen would be hard to read, this one just gets better instead. It really has the general feel of reading on paper, not on a screen.
Unfortunately the drawbacks are numerous as well. First, the unavoidable one: the update frequency is sedentary at best. I mean, you really wait slightly for the screen to change when you flip the "page". Not a problem for a text reader to be sure, but forget anything about animations or a normal GUI. And unfortunately, Sony's implementation of the device is screaming-defiance-at-an-uncaring-world frustrating. The case, buttons and so on feel cheap and unreliable, and the whole thing is DRM:ed to h*ll and back. Forget about easily moving your own texts to it - no, you're supposed to rent books. And the memory is paltry; about 10Mb if I remember correctly.
It's an absolutely great reader, that I will never in a million years actually buy since the execution just isn't there. If it was slightly smaller, DRM free, could display all normal formats (html, Unicode text and PDF at the least), USB2 connection, had good amount of memory and/or an CF card slot, and preferably could also work as an mp3 player and radio (there's a definite limit on the amount of gadgets I'm willing to carry) I'd get one today.
Re:Good, now add a touch screen on top of it (Score:5, Informative)
They already exist. They're called Tablet-PCs. I'm writing this with a stylus now on an A4-sized screen
(Actually, while I've found that tablet-PCs are way better than normal laptops, they're still not up there with a good pencil and sheet of paper for many tasks. The dead trees will be with us for some time
Re:nifty (Score:1, Informative)
You can also get Bluetooth or WiFi tablets that work with them to either send or receive the image.
AC.
PARENT IS *NOT* A TROLL (Score:5, Informative)
Re:Constitution (Score:3, Informative)
Re:that's great but... (Score:2, Informative)
Of course in Diamond Age, the paper had computing power too complete with voice recognitioin and the ability to fold itself.
Re:Not Minority Report (Score:2, Informative)
15 years [imdb.com].