According to reports Russia-based YotaPhone is bankrupt. YotaPhone developed dual-screen smartphones. Its latest device was the YotaPhone 2 -which sported a 5" OLED front display and a 4.7" E Ink touch screen on the back
The Yotaphone were innovative, but sadly it seems as there was low consumer demand for such devices.
Last month we reported that E Ink Holdings has teamed up with Advantech, Avalue Technology, Cypress Technology and iMedtac to develop e-paper based displays for the medical market. Yesterday Avalue launched its Avalue E Ink series healthcare solutions.
The new "smart ward" wireless solutions include the bedside card with its color (Black, white, red) small E Ink display, the E-Note tablet with its 13.3" E Ink display and the Pick-to-light E Ink tag. Avalue also released a 42-inch smart E Ink monitor for hospitals.
Visionect and Radiola Land have installed E Ink signage at Auckland Airport's public transport terminal.
Each sign includes two 13.3" E Ink screens to provide Real Time Passenger Information (RTPI) to commuters. The signs display important travel information, bus locations and marketing messages.
E Ink Holdings has teamed up with Advantech, Avalue Technology, Cypress Technology and software developer iMedtac to develop e-paper based displays for the medical market.
The partners will develop many application solutions, including medical care information boards, clinic reception displays, drip recording cards, smart drug labelling systems, clinic bed cards and mobile data recording boards. They will use a wide range of e-paper displays, including 2.9-, 5.65-, 13.3- and 42-inch panels.
In early March we conducted a 10 day trip to Seoul, to attend the OLED Korea 2019 conference (and a visit to some local display companies). One thing that we noticed during our trip is the adoption of E Ink shelf labels in stores.
We have seen E Ink ESL displays in Samsung retail stores (used to detail the new Galaxy S10 flexible OLED smartphone family), and in supermarkets across town. The ESL displays were used to display price and information (unfortunatly always in Korean) - and were nicely placed.
E Ink announced that its new Advanced Color ePaper(ACeP) E Ink panels has been used by Japan's Toppan Printing and Isetan Mitsukoshi to develop the world’s first color e-paper digital point-of-purchase (POP) sign.
Isetan Mitsukoshi says that the new POP signage will be helpful in reducing paper waste from in-store promotions. Isetan Mitsukoshi will install a prototype in the Isetan Shinjuku store for their “HANABANASAI” campaign that launched a few day ago.
Lenovo started shipping its Yoga Book C930 Windows 10 tablet/laptop hybrid that features a 10.8" 2560x1600 LCD display and a large (around 8", it seems) E Ink display that operates as a dynamic keyboard, a notepad or an e-reader. Other features include an Intel m3-7Y30 or Core i5-7Y54 processor, 4GB RAM and up to 256GB of SSD storage.
You can now buy the Yoga Book C930 at Amazon.com (note: affiliate link to Amazon).
The Likebook Mars is now shipping for $239 (note: affiliate link to Amazon.com). This is a high-spec e-reader/tablet that features a 7.8" 1404x1872 (300 PPI) E Ink display, an octa-core RK3368 chipset, 2GB of RAM, 16 GB of storage, microSD and a modified Android OS.
Google has unveiled a simple new 3D-printed Google Assistant device called Google Assistant Connect. Using a small E Ink display, this is Google's idea of how a smart gadget can combine communication, display and its own assistant software and service.
This seems to be just an early prototype, and we don't know if Google aims to actually produce such devices in the future or suggest this has hardware reference designs to third party developers.
Idemia developed a new credit card that has changing CVV codes, that can help reduce online credit card fraud. To enable the dynamic code, the credit cards use a small E Ink display that shows a new code every refresh cycle in an efficient process (a one-hour refresh rate has a four-year lifetime).
US-based PNC Bank is now running a pilot project to test the new cards, which will run for 90 days. Upon the successful end of the trial, Idemia hopes to start offering the new credit cards to customers in early 2019. It is estimated that a "Motion-Code" credit card with the E Ink display will cost about $15 (compared to $2-4 for a regular chip-based card).