Here's an interesting comparison, a Pixel-Qi transflective LCD technology (with a touch layer) against the Google Nexus-One AMOLED display. The Pixel-Qi behaves much better than the AMOLED display... It'll be interesting to see how it compares to the new Super-AMOLED displays.

E Ink and Chilin Technology Corporation announced a partnership today to bring E Ink displays to the marketplace. Chilin will be able to produce, distribute and sell vizplex E Ink imaging film. This joint effort combines Chilin's expertise in developing custom displays and turnkey solutions with E Ink's unique low-power, paper-like, sunlight readable, lightweight displays.

One target application for this effort is industrial controls or mobile industrial applications where the low-power and daylight readability qualities of an electronic paper display provide value. Another example use is shop owners struggling to manage in-store product price information in a timely and economical manner. Joint solutions in the electronic shelf label space support dynamic and accurate updates of in-store information displays.

The One Laptop per Child Foundation (OLPC) and Pixel Qi have signed a permanent and royalty-free cross-licensing agreement. As a result of the agreement, OLPC receives full license to all Pixel Qi “3qi” screen technology, including 70+ patents in process and all current and future IP developed by Pixel Qi for multi-mode screens. The agreement also calls for Pixel Qi to receive full license to the dual-mode (indoor and outdoor) display technology used in the XO.

We have talked to Mary a few weeks ago.

Liquavista is based in Eindhoven, the Netherlands and was founded in 2006 (a spin-out from Philips Research Labs). They have developed a new type of display technology that can operate in transmissive, reflective or transflective modes, has a great optical performance and is very efficient. Liquavista's display are based on the principle of Electrowetting (when a voltage is used to modify the wetting properties of a solid material). With Electrowetting displays, a simple optical switch is obtained by contracting a colored oil film electrically.

Johan Feenstra, Liquavista's CTO, was kind enough to answer a few questions we had. Johan joined Philips Research Labs back in 1999, where he co-invented Electrowetting displays and co-founded Liquavista.

Q: Johan, can you explain Liquavista's three product families?

• LiquavistaBright: monochrome display with improved optical performance compared to existing readers, while providing a seemless UI (iPhone-like) or even videos.
• LiquavistaColor: full-color reflective version with video rate, so also seemless UI
• LiquavistaVivid: Hybrid version with a highly reflective, low power monochrome mode and a full-color mode with saturated colors. The color is made with so-called Field Sequential Color Mode, so no color filter, but a fast switching Red/Green/Blue backlight.

A few months ago Art Technology released a new range of E Ink watches, called Phosphor watches. Now they have released a new model (black case Digital Hour), and have kindly send us one for review. The watch is now available for 190$.

The watch

The Digital Hour watch is a curved, light-weight watch. It's not thin, though, which is surprising because the display itself is very thin (more on this later, but it's under 400 micron thick!). The watch functions are pretty basic: you can view the time (in two modes: analog/digital combined, and just digital), the date, and there's also an alarm you can setup. The watch is always in 12-hours mode (no military time).

There are two buttons: one is used to flip between the 4 display modes (analog/digital time, digital time, date and alarm setup). The other button is used to flip the display between white on black or black on white. The two buttons are also used to setup the watch. You can see the analog/digital mode above, and here are the other 3 modes (from left to right: digital time, date and alarm). You can tell it's the date mode because of the small icon on the top-left.

Engadget has got some new information on Qualcomm's Mirasol display exhibited at CES:

• Qualcomm claims a 6X (!) power advantage over E Ink in a typical usage scenario, even with the color and video.
• Qualcomm expects that the first product that uses their display will indeed use the 5.7" XGA display that Qualcomm are showing.
• The display can be paired with a capactivie or resistive touchscreen (which impairs visibility a little, just like it does with any other display).
• Qualcomm has a method to light the display from the edges, which will provide even lighting across the display.

Qualcomm says that they are on-track to deliver their full-color Mirasol displays for e-readers late in 2010. These are 5.7" displays at XGA resolution. They have a fast refresh rates, can play videos, and are readable in direct sunlight. Qualcomm says that the battery consumption is good, too.

I had the good fortune of talking to Sriram peruvembra, E Ink's marketing VP. Sriram is always happy to help, and has agreed to do a short interview with us.

Sriram Peruvemba is VP of Marketing for E Ink Corporation. He has over 20 years of experience in the electronics industry including extensive background in the electronic display industry, having held management positions with Suntronic Technology, Planar Systems, TFS and Sharp. He holds a BSEE and a MBA.

Q: What kind of displays does E ink currently offer?

E Ink makes a display platform referred to as E Ink Vizplex. The E Ink Vizplex imaging film is used in Active Matrix displays for applications such as eBooks. For SURF displays for applications such as wrist watches. And in Ink-In-Motion displays used in applications such as signage. The active matrix displays have a glass based backplane whereas the SURF and Ink-In-Motion displays use flexible backplanes.

HP announces a new display technology called Electronic Skins. eSkins is a flexible reflective color film, that can alos display icons or alpha-numeric characters.

HP eSkins technology offers brand manufacturers new ways to personalize their products with an electronically controlled color surface created using HP’s breakthrough roll-to-roll manufacturing platform. Designed to make fine-scale circuitry on plastic substrates, the platform processes flexible screens in rolls rather than individual sheets, offering the potential for more cost-effective manufacturing.

This new device architecture is compatible with roll-to-roll plastic circuits that can be combined with proprietary, electrically controllable “inks” to achieve print-like color performance, as well as transparency. Using a technology similar to color printing, HP is developing the capability to produce specific “ink” colors within the PANTONE MATCHING SYSTEM® range. The vibrant, print-quality colors have excellent visibility in direct sunlight and can electronically shift into a transparent state, revealing the surface below the eSkins film.