Large-screened E Ink devices have been tried by many companies in the past but none managed to gain ground on the academic market. Sony is also not a new player, but they are still trying their luck. Their latest product is a 13.3-inch flexible E Ink prototype device which is targeted at students and offices.

The device is coming with the new Mobius e-paper display technology with lightweight, shatterproof or rugged characteristics. With this new tech, Sony can make bigger display sizes without making the reader too heavy.

The slate measures in at 233 x 310 x 6.8 mm and weighs just 358 g, and it’s coming with 4GB of on-board storage (with a microSD slot) and a 1200 x 1600 resolution screen that’s an electromagnetic induction touchscreen, which allows you to do page swipes and menu selection. It also supports stylus input for making notes. And there’s WiFi for sharing notes, and its rechargeable battery is said to last for three weeks (with the wireless tech turned off), but the device currently supports only the PDF file format.

The device will be trialed at three Japanese universities, after which the final product will be available on the market but that might take a year or more.

But the question is whether this device will be appealing since there are many tablets out there with fast processors and high-resolution screens, as well as third-party apps. Sony’s own Tablet Z is one of the many options currently available. But if the price is not too much (the Sony Reader PRS-T2 costs $129.99), this new e-reader could be useful for many.

[Source]

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A storm is quietly brewing in South Korea, with two major players preparing to wage a war of sorts. No, I’m not talking about North and South Korea, I’m talking about LG Display and Samsung as they battle over the future of flexible display technology.

Samsung has been lauding the virtues and uses of flexible display technology for years now. Recently they have even come rather close to putting their money where their mouth is with its YOUM brand of flexible displays, as seen back at January’s CES. Still, after all these years of hyping the technology, Samsung has yet to release any product using the technology commercially and LG is inching towards a similar flexible display future.

According to a recent Korea Times column, LG is continuing to advance in the areas of OLED Tvs, UHD displays and flexible screen technology. They’ve even managed to successfully demonstrate and prepare to market a flexible e-paper display.

Now LG has put a firmer timeline on when its first batch of flexible displays will surface, and the goal is set for later this year. In contrast, Samsung’s plans seem to point more towards 2014.

What flexible displays mean for the future

Let’s say that LG manages to reach production yields for flexible display tech ahead of its rival. What can of devices can you expect? Regardless of whether Sammy or LG is the first to deliver, you will likely see the first flexible display in something that looks about the same as smartphones today – in other words, it won’t really be bendable, as its battery, casing and other components will still be firm.

Instead, the flexible display will be used to create curved panels, or perhaps just to help make the displays a little more shatter-proof then currently found in your typical smartphone. Of course that’s only the beginning.

The first LCD displays were very primitive by today’s standards, but years of evolution saw them fit into uses that were never imagined during their inception. Once LG or Samsung breaks the barrier and gives us the first commercial flexible display-equipped device, the path will be set towards an interesting future that will likely unfold in the decades to come.

Who knows, ten or twenty years from now, displays might be cheap, disposable, fully flexible and capable of fully replacing phamplets, newspapers and finding their way into all sorts of unique devices like the recently patented Apple curved display iPhone.

What would you like to see in the next few years when it comes to devices equipping flexible displays? Any crazy ideas or concepts you can think of? Share them with us in the comment section below!
Source: KoreaTimes via Android Authority
[Image Source]

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Until the most recent update to the iPod Nano, one of the coolest things about the little iDevice was that it was very easy to turn the phone into a capable smartwatch.

Through the use of 3rd party watch straps, users would slap the music players onto their writs and would use the built-in clock app to make it work like a watch. There were even a few different clock skins for the Nano.

While the days of using the Nano as a watch are over, a new rumor claims that Apple might be working on an official smartwatch of their own. This space is continuing to increase with competition and interest, with projects like the Pebble smart watch coming to mind.

This is an area where Apple could certainly establish itself as a niche device for fans of their products. The claim is that Intel is developing this watch for Apple, interestingly enough.

The rumor suggests the watch will feature a 1.5-inch OLED display with ITO coated glass, but not much more is known about its specs or what kind of features it could bring to the table.

If this rumor has any true to it, it is more than likely the device would also work nice with syncing to other iDevices like the iPhone.

Though an Apple smartwatch doesn’t seem like that far of a stretch, keep in mind this is just a rumor and shouldn’t be taken too seriously until we have more concrete evidence.

Apple device rumors arrive all the time and yet never truly materialize as real products– we still regularly hear claims about a Smart TV from Apple, after all.

Would you be interested in purchasing an Apple smartwatch down the road if this is true?

[ source ]

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Google wants to surround your entire body with tons of computing devices, it seems. First we have the smartphone, which Google already controls through Android. Next we have the Project Glass computerized glasses. It’s not enough to have a computer in your pocket (your phone, duh) and a computer in your glasses, now they want your wrist, too.

A new patent from Google has surfaced for a smartwatch with a transparent, flip-up touchscreen. The screen would be used for notifications and other information transmitted from your smartphone- not unlike the many other smart watches already on the market. Of course Google isn’t going to make something without putting a new spin on it. Unlike many other watches, the transparent flip out screen would give you access to full apps and would also allow you to look through it for augmented reality purposes.

In many ways the smart watch would act a lot like Google Glasses. Augmented reality functions would include letting the watch “see” objects around you. It would use this information to give you GPS-based instructions and directions based on landmarks that it detects.

The patent also describes putting the watch at objects and getting detailed, augmented information about them on the fly. Point to that brand new car you are considering at the lot and it will automatically bring up information about fair retail price and how cheap you can get it if you are willing to haggle, for instance.

What do you think, would you want to consider a smartwatch with similar functionality and abilities to Project Glass?

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The Pebble smartwatch is still one of the most success projects to ever generate funds through Kickstarter, although the Ouya almost did as well. The smartwatch is certainly a unique market, and even though solutions using the iPad Nano already somewhat exist- many people enjoy the idea of having a smartwatch that interacts with their iPhones and Android devices. The newest smartwatch project to come to Kickstarter is the Martian smartwatch.

What makes this device different is that it mostly is controlled via voice commands using Bluetooth. The video below shows the concept in action, using a lot of Siri commands, which Android devices don’t support. The Martian should also work just fine for taking calls via Bluetooth.

The watch comes in three distinct styles. All Martian designs come with a regular analog clock that takes up half the face, the other have has a small OLED display for things like notifications and caller ID. As you can also tell from the picture, this just looks like a basic watch- instead of a futuristic touch-screen device like the Pebble.

For those that want a normal watch experience but still want smart functions, like dictating back text messages, this could be a cool way to do it. A commitment of $95 will allow you to reserve a low-end G2G Martian watch model. The other two models are the Victory or the Passport.

What do you think of something like this as opposed to the more touch-oriented Pebble?

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As of this writing, the Ouya Kickstarter project has raised over $4.5 million and it still has 26 days to go. Needless to say, people are pretty darn interested in this cheap system that is promising free video games for all. While it’s unclear exactly what games will launch with Ouya, the Kickstarter page does at least depict Canabalt, a fun and simple game that I’ve been playing through the Chrome Web Store. The tentative dashboard, which is vaguely reminscent of the Xbox 360 Dashboard, also shows Samurai Vengeance, Dead Trigger, Shadowgun, Racing Live, TripleTown and Minecraft.

Because Ouya is based on Android, app developers aren’t restricted to just playing games. They could theoretically develop whatever Android application they want. Again, on the Kickstarter page, they’re showing that Ouya could have a Twitch.tv app for live streaming of gaming tournaments and events. The Ouya prototype is already up and running, but they need money for the next stage of development.

Whereas it took the Ouya just a little over 8 hours to raise $1 million, the next closest Kickstarter project (Double Fine Adventure) took 17 hours and 30 minutes. Remember that Pebble e-watch that had everyone raving? That took 27 hours to raise $1 million. Yeah, this Ouya thing could be a pretty big deal.

[Kickstarter Blog via HuffPo]

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Arie Abecassis and Michael Semegran (pictured) are the brains behind the operation at AppStori. They say that one of the biggest differences with AppStori is that it’s about more than just the crowdfunding. They also help developers with beta testing and app discovery, as well as more help through the blogging and social media support. Even if you don’t reach your funding goal, you can continue to use these features through the AppStori platform.

And unlike Kickstarter, AppStori is much more focused. You won’t find smartwatches or robot drones; it’s completely focused on mobile apps, though they’re open to every mobile platform.

Check out the full interview on MobileDevMag.com.

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Before you get too excited about curling up this e-reader to stuff into your backpack, realize that the flexible e-paper display here is still inside a reasonably stiff chassis. But that doesn’t mean it’s not without its benefits.

The first to use a new line of flexible screen displays from LG is the Wexler Flex One. The 6-inch monochrome panel has a resolution of 1024×768. While you can’t exactly fold up this e-reader, the flexible plastic display–at 0.7mm–is about a third the thickness as an equivalent glass e-paper display. It’s also just 14 grams and has proven to be quite durable.

There is an unofficial (below) that demonstrates some of its functions and you can see the e-reader can be bent and flexed a little. Aside from that, you have a rather blasse e-reader. It supports the usual range of formats, like EPUB and DJVU, and you navigate through the menus and page turns using the provided physical buttons; this is not a touchscreen. LG’s e-paper tech will soon find itself in other e-readers too. We just have to wait for the one we can wrap around our wrists.

[Source]

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Yes, the Pebble e-watch is also an app platform and its first app partner comes by way of RunKeeper, which is developing an app specific to the upcoming smartwatch. In fact, this won’t even be a download that you’ll need to do on your own; the RunKeeper app will be pre-installed and integrated with the Pebble right out of the box when it launches this September.

As with the RunKeeper app that you may already have on your smartphone, the e-watch version will let you start your RunKeeper runs, monitor your progress, stop your activity, and so on. As with almost everything else on the Pebble, the app will require a Bluetooth connection to your smartphone to work.

[Source]

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The idea behind the Pebble is pretty straightforward. It’s a smartwatch that can connect wirelessly with your smartphone over Bluetooth, displaying basic info pushed over that connection. The e-paper display helps with battery life, as well as being easier to see in direct sunlight. It’ll look like a piece of paper, rather than like the backlit display of an iPod nano watch. It even has some nifty watch face styles if you want to be a little more creative with your time.

Speaking of being creative, an API for the Pebble e-paper smartwatch is available too. This should give the devs some interesting opportunities. The early bird special on Kickstarter has come and gone, but you can still secure a Pebble smartwatch by pledging at least $115 before the funding round ends on May 18.

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