[LMB] The worth of Ebook readers

[Martin Bonham]

In a post I read in Digest, Vol 35, Issue 67
David McMillan <skyefire at skyefire.org> wrote in part 
> 	OTOH, I took my OLPC X0-1 laptop to Penguicon with me over the weekend 
> (which turned out a bit like taking my uber-cute 4-yo nephew with me to 
> the mall -- chick *magnet*), and while a bit heavy for one-handed 
> reading, the integral handle and E-ink screen still made it pretty 
> decent carry-around system, especially when we were outside in direct 
> sunlight...

Wow sounds great, but do you really have one of those with an eInk screen ?
Are you sure you didn't mean to write LCD ?

I thought that the OLPCs were using a different technology - 
A fancy low power variant of a LCD screen that is dual mode.
I have never seen one but my understand was that it has an LCD screen that can 
switch between low power backlit color, and very low power reflective grey 
scale modes.

This wikipedia article explains the dual mode display
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/OLPC_XO-1#Display
but does also say that future models may use an eInk display.

My understanding is that at present all mass produced eInk displays are grey 
scale. Colour ones haven't yet made it out of the laboratory prototype stage, 
allthought we can only live in hope that they do.
I think I have read that there are some other promising technologies that are 
like a combination of LCD and eInk.



Martin.

-- 
Martin Bonham, Auckland, (Aotearoa) New Zealand.
Home of Middle Earth, Whale Rider, and now also King Kong and Narnia.