The Register® — Biting the hand that feeds IT

Feeds

Fujitsu demos next-gen color e-paper

iPad lite

Fujitsu has announced its next-generation color e-paper, ushering in the possibility of lightweight color ebooks with long battery life and fast - well, tolerable - page-refresh rates.

The announcement by Fujitsu Laboratories claims that the company's new e-paper has improved the display's color quality, plus tripled its contrast and doubled the refresh speed of the first-generation technology, announced in 2005.

Fujitsu color e-paper, first generation

Fujitsu color e-paper, first generation...

Fujitsu color e-paper, second generation

...and second generation - better, but still trading vibrancy for weight and battery life.

That earlier technology found a home in Fujitsu's FLEPia ebook - or, in Fujitsuese, "mobile information terminal" - which debuted in Japan in 2007. The FLEPia weighed 385 grams (13.6 oz.), was 12.5mm (0.5 in.) thick, had a claimed battery life of 40 hours, and could display 260,000 colors on its eight-inch display.

In comparison, Amazon's monochrome e-paper Kindle with a six-inch display weighs 290gm (10.2 oz.), is a hair over 9mm (0.36 in.) thick, and has a battery life that Amazon claims to be "up to 1 week" - and that's with 3G wireless turned on.

Apple's iPad eschews the low-power, low-weight advantages of e-paper, and weighs in at a noticeably chunky 680 grams (24 oz.) for the WiFi-only version and 730 grams (26 oz.) for WiFi + 3G model. The "magical and revolutionary" Cupertinian tablet is 13.4mm (0.53 in.) thick and has a battery life of around 10 hours.

The iPad's 9.7 inch display is, of course, both color and back-lit - and a lot better looking than color e-paper. But we have found its weight makes a long stint of reading with it in hand a somewhat tiring experience - a problem not found in lightweight monochrome ebooks.

But the first-generation color e-paper Fujitsu's FLEPia met with tepid reviews when it appeared in 2009. Not only was its color rather washed out, but its page-refresh rate was turgid and its price of approximately £750 ($1,115) attracted only the most ardent early adopters.

With its new color e-paper technology, however, Fujitsu hopes to revive its color ebook prospects. (And may we suggest a more euphonious name than FLEPia, as well?) Based on cholesteric LCD technology, the new e-paper maintains the advantage of "remembering" what color to display when power isn't flowing to the LCD pixels, but improves reflectivity by 1.3 times to 33 per cent, resulting in brighter colors.

The display's contrast ratio has been increased to 7:1, which Fujitsu claims is a three-fold improvement, and page-refresh time for a 1,024-by-768 pixel display has dropped to 0.7 seconds, "roughly twice as fast" as previously.

Fujitsu plans to "commercialize" the technology later this year in the Japanese market, but provided no specific product plans. But if you happen to be in Tokyo this Thursday or Friday, you can check out the new e-paper at Fujitsu Forum 2010, and ask a friendly Fujitsu rep about when you might be able to pick up a next-generation color ebook reader.

And make sure to also ask them whether they're talking with Amazon about a color Kindle - or even with Google about Mountain View's rumored ebook plans. There's a lot more to a successful ebook than hardware - content and a content-distribution system, for example. ®

Mirasol

I think Qualcom's Mirasol technology looks better. See http://www.engadget.com/2010/01/09/qualcomm-mirasol-display-video-hands-on-in-glorious-1080p/

1
0

Might be usable

I'd be interested in trying out a device like this for a while. It could be useful for travel.

Judging from the images in the story, I'd guess color images are roughly equivalent to what you'd get in a book printed on non-glossy paper; so not up to the quality of a good textbook or a glossy periodical, but fine for casual illustrations in novels, color diagrams and graphs, and so forth.

Rather than a 1024x768 screen with a 0.7s refresh time, I'd like to see 800x600, which (assuming refresh time is proportional to area) should refresh in under half a second. The Foxit eSlick has an 800x600 screen, and judging from their photos that looks suitable for my tastes.

0
0

On the right track

Seems that they doing it right to me.

Not quite there yet, but getting there.

So keep it up, people !

0
0

The title is required, and must contain letters and/or digits.

PRS-505 specifications

* Size: 175 × 122 × 8 mm (6.9" × 4.8" × 0.3")

2mm less

0
0

Better

Not brilliant. Not perfect. But perhaps the start. of some actual competition.

So far *only* kindle breaks the 10mm barrier IE the thickness of an 80 sheet pad of A4 paper.

0
0

More from The Register

Android is a mess and needs sprucing up, admits chief
Can Google really fix it? It isn't in control any more
New Lumia 925: This, loyalists, is the BIG ONE you've waited for
Nokia veep drills high-end master plan for El Reg
Android device? Ooohhhh, you mean a Samsung phone
Koreans nabbed nearly all the Q1 profits – more even than Google
Review: HP Pavilion 14 Chromebook
All roads lead to Chrome?
Borked your iDevice? Pay EVEN MORE to have it fixed by Applecare
Or scream at their hapless techies on their forums
Euro PC shipments plummet into bottomless pit of DOOOOM
11th quarter of decline, 20pc drop on last year - Gartner
MIT takes battery-powered robot cheetah for a gallop
Biomimetic big cat needs no power cord, just a walker