Why Kindle 2's Screen Took 12 Years and $150 Million 524
waderoush writes "Critics are eating up everything about Amazon's Kindle 2 e-book reader except its $359 price tag. But if you think that's expensive, take a look behind the Kindle at E Ink, the Cambridge, MA, company that has spent $150 million since 1997 developing the electronic paper display that is the Kindle's coolest feature. In the company's first interview since the Kindle 2 came out, E Ink CEO Russ Wilcox says it took far longer than expected to make the microcapsule-based e-paper film not only legible, but durable and manufacturable. Now that the Kindle 2 is finally getting readers to take e-books seriously, however, Wilcox says he sees a profitable future in which many book, magazine, and newspaper publishers will turn to e-paper, if only to save money on printing and delivery. (Silicon Alley Insider recently calculated that the New York Times could save more than $300 million a year by shutting down its presses and buying every subscriber a Kindle). 'What we've got here is a technology that could be saving the world $80 billion a year,' Wilcox says."
purell (Score:5, Funny)
Sold (Score:2, Funny)
Re:Sold (Score:4, Funny)
Oh noes (Score:5, Funny)
eInk will never replace newspaper!
How will we start beach bonfires? What will we line the bottom of the bird cage with? What will we do when we forget our umbrellas? What will we put under kitty's food bowl? What will we roll up and smack our friends with? How will we "copy" things with Silly Putty?
Re:Oh noes (Score:5, Funny)
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
That assumes that some of us won't cut down trees just for the fun of it.
You're speaking with someone who lit a tire on Earth Day just because it pissed off the hippies in the neighborhood.
Re:Oh noes (Score:1, Funny)
Like real Men! With real tinder!
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
I also tried to do the same thing last year. Except that I'm Canadian.
The police didn't find it funny that I tried to burn a Canadian Tire on Earth Day just to piss off the hippies in the neighborhood.
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
You guys scare me....Canadians I mean.
90% of you live within 10 miles of our border.
Are you guys getting ready to invade?
Re:While good in one way (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Kindle 2 got your tongue? (Score:2, Funny)
Your (troll?) post confuses me to no end. You seem to rebuke criticism of the Kindle in your points while admitting there might some truth to the complaints. That sounds like you like it.
Jump ahead to your summary, and you say "it sucks ass".
Inbetween those areas, you reference an outdated rumor about a now confirmed/release second Kindle.
Summary: You work for Fox News.
Re:purell (Score:3, Funny)
Re:While good in one way (Score:5, Funny)
But I have an even better idea. Why don't we use our military to evacuate cities and then destroy them. Think of all the jobs that will be created in the evacuation, military, and construction industries!
Comment removed (Score:5, Funny)
Re:While good in one way (Score:2, Funny)
not to mention the critical role they fulfil in maintaining an informed electorate.
A what? Since when did one of those every exist?
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh noes (Score:2, Funny)
How will we "copy" things with Silly Putty?
You had me at Silly Putty.
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Oh noes (Score:3, Funny)
How will we start beach bonfires?
short the battery and stuff it under the wood. you'll have a fire soon.
What will we line the bottom of the bird cage with?
flexible plastic that you clean off. Why are you looking for a wasteful solution?
What will we do when we forget our umbrellas?
Get wet.
What will we roll up and smack our friends with?
Hit them with the kindle. or better yet a panasonic toughbook. They wont forget that one and you wont damage anything important.
Re:Daily Show appearance (Score:3, Funny)
it would really be nice to hear about a new book, download it, and start reading it in minutes rather than wait a few days for it to arrive in the mail.
Yeah! Fuck you, patience.
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
The last time I tried to get into Canada, I was turned back at the border, so I have no idea how many are up there.
Next time, I'll try growing a mullet to bypass the checks at the border
(Mullet == Canadian Passport).
Re:Oh noes (Score:5, Funny)
> How will we start beach bonfires?
Kindle boxes!
> What will we line the bottom of the bird cage with?
Kindles!
> What will we do when we forget our umbrellas?
Kindles!
> What will we put under kitty's food bowl?
Kindles!
> What will we roll up and smack our friends with?
Kindles! (bonus for harder smackability)
> How will we "copy" things with Silly Putty?
Damn, you got me there. I knew there was something wrong with this Kindle-utopia. :-)
ob. xkcd (Score:5, Funny)
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
Are we about to be invaded by people wearing hockey masks? Chain saws optional?
Re:Sold (Score:4, Funny)
Not too worried... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:purell (Score:4, Funny)
Old growth forests have maximized the amount of carbon they will ever sequester and don't even really provide a lot of oxygen to the environment (compared to other sources). Cutting them down is not inherently bad, as long as you aren't freeing up that carbon--if you're making paper or wooden products out of the trees (two-by-fours, chairs, whatever), it's fine.
killing endangered animals is not inherently bad either. As long as all the elephants and tigers have their carbon properly sequestered into house hold products or jewelry it's fine.
Re:Oh noes (Score:5, Funny)
sudo mod me up
sudo make me a sandwich, and I'll mod you up.
Re:While good in one way (Score:3, Funny)
You just won 5,000,000 internets.
It would have been 10,000,000 if you'd gone further and mentioned 1984 and DRM.
e-Toilet Paper next? (Score:1, Funny)
Now all we need is e-Toilet Paper and we'll start making some real headway on saving the forests!
Re:While good in one way (Score:4, Funny)
You seem to think that discussions here always wind up with the same old erroneous arguments. If that were the case, Slashdot would lose its common carrier status.
Re:purell (Score:3, Funny)
From Questionable Content: (Score:2, Funny)
Source [questionablecontent.net]
Faye: "It's a little known fact that every Canadian citizen is born with a sharp, serrated edge somewhere on their body as protection from polar bears and enraged Quebecois."
Marten: "Every night they quietly hone their blades, biding their time until the Great Curling, when they will cleanse the earth of all other nations. That's why they're all so polite- they know we're all doomed eventually."
Re:Still shouldn't cost almost 400 (Score:4, Funny)
Greed? How so?
It's basic economics of supply and demand. There is no more "Greed" in the equation than that of the publishers selling paper books at $20, they have their margins and operating costs.
My guess is what your definition of greed is, "It's a toy that I can't justify for the price, though I might like to have it if it was cheaper".
Sounds more like your crying 'sour grapes' to me.
Re:purell (Score:3, Funny)
that's two hippies with a single stone!
No, that's two hippies with a single tire!
Re:Oh noes (Score:1, Funny)
> How will we start beach bonfires?
Kindling!
Re:purell (Score:5, Funny)
But be careful. If you die in Canada, you die in real life too.
Re:purell (Score:3, Funny)
actually if you click the "Looking for company info? Click here" button you get company info where you can find nuggets of wisdom such as
"Canadian Tire has a long-standing tradition of operating with integrity and we aspire to be Canadaâ(TM)s most trusted company. We expect each of our team members to perform in a manner that maintains the trust and confidence of our shareholders"