Hacking Esquire's E-ink Cover 205
ptorrone writes "I picked up the Esquire E-inked cover today and took a bunch of high res photos, for the makers out there. It has a programming header, 5-pin ISP, a Microchip PIC 12f629 which is flash programmable, 8 pin, 6 lithium coin cell CR2016s, 3 volts each. Two E-ink screens with flex connections — looks like it was made to be reprogrammed and different screens. The top screen has 11 segments, the bottom has 3. It was designed 2008-06-04. The PCB was made by Forewin, half thickness, 2 layer board (FR4). I think someone out there will likely reflash the PIC and make the segments go on / off at different times and perhaps put other displays on it, there's a little bit of hacking to be had but not that much really."
Great for the environment (Score:3, Insightful)
Most of these magazines are going to end up in landfills with all the toxic materials that are in the display, batteries, chips, and PCBs. Thank you Esquire.
Re:What would happen (Score:5, Insightful)
I don't get it. What do YOU think will happen?
All I can see is a company gets a black eye, blames the whole thing on 'those evil hackers', and sends a potentially cool technology away forever.
And if the first thing you think of when you think of porn is 'Goatse', man, I'm sorry.
what a waste (Score:5, Insightful)
Why are e-ink based e-books so expensive, while Esquire can afford to use it as a cover for their magazine? Something's missing here.
Re:Great for the environment (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What would happen (Score:1, Insightful)
Is goatse porn? man it never occured to me...
you just ruined my day
Re:Recycling instructions (Score:4, Insightful)
Fascinating.
All of it can be recycled through your local municipal waste program in the same manner as you dispose of household batteries.
Last time I checked, household batteries go to the landfill. At least that's what happens where I live. GP has it right.
Re:What would happen (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:? (Score:3, Insightful)
Same reason the original blink made it to HTML - because the can. Reminds you a lot of the Jurassic Park line..."they> were so preoccupied with whether or not they could, they didn't stop to think if they should."
Re:Great for the environment (Score:5, Insightful)
Why did Slashdot even run this? (Score:3, Insightful)
Is this entire thing about how there really isn't any point at all in hacking this thing?
Gee, thanks for telling us!
Even the summary has lost interest by the time it reaches the last sentence.
Re:Recycling instructions (Score:5, Insightful)
A fear of getting caught isn't the reason people comply, it's to keep hazardous material out of the landfill. The same reason we recycle our electronics through free programs instead of burying them in the backyard (well technically the fee is paid at point-of-sale).
Re:Great for the environment (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What would happen (Score:4, Insightful)
Re:Great for the environment (Score:5, Insightful)
Which component in paticular do you think is toxic?
Re:Great for the environment (Score:3, Insightful)
Electronic waste is a real problem but it is addressed in the article.
Re:What would happen (Score:5, Insightful)
If the internet has done one thing for me, it has killed whatever curiosity I had to go look at new shock images.
Re:What would happen (Score:3, Insightful)
Re:What would happen (Score:3, Insightful)
from what I saw, they were mentioning "hacking" powering the device when the batteries go dead. And with such large segments, there's just so much you can do with it. Can't even do a power bar unless 1/3, 2/3, 3/3 is of interest.
What would be interesting is if you could put a homemade backing on it to energize the e-ink and draw custom things inside those segment areas.
LoB
Re:Adn so it begins... (Score:5, Insightful)
And they already know how to make flat paper speakers so they damned things will be talking whenever somebody is in range.
If they had video cameras, they'd be vandal resistant too.
"Watch Big Brother! Tonight of ABC! Watch Big Brother Tonight on ABC! Mr Morris, please do not touch this advert, it is the property of Orwell Advertising Inc. Mr Morris, video of the incident has been sent to law enforcement"
Re:Great for the environment (Score:4, Insightful)
I wonder if it occurred to the bright bulb who designed this that the magazine will spend most of its time in total darkness on someone's shelf? A cheap photosensor would have saved at least a few of those 6(!) coin cells, I'd bet.
That would also have solved the shipping problem, since presumably it's dark as all hell inside a Chinese cargo container.
Re:Recycling instructions (Score:5, Insightful)
http://www.esquire.com/features/recycle-e-ink-cover [esquire.com]
"Simply tear off the cover and dispose of the display unit in your recycling."
Colour me very surprised if the council don't just landfill the thing because it is too much effort for them to split it up into it's component parts...
Re:More details (Score:5, Insightful)
+1, (Only relevant information in entire thread)
Re:Recycling sucks! (Score:1, Insightful)
Have you tried reading your own references?
"The average saving, however, does not include added energy costs of collection and transportation."