E Ink released a couple of very interesting videos. The first shows a SURF (segmented) E Ink display printed on cloth. E Ink are obviously thinking about wearable displays here:
The second video shows an E Ink display on a Tyvex cloth - which is a very durable cloth (used as insulation on houses and for shipping envelopes):
Seiko's active-matrix E Ink watch is now shipping in Amazon Japan. It costs ?84,000, which is just a little over $1000...
Seiko's active-matrix E Ink watch is now up for pre-order via Amazon Japan. It costs ?84,000, which is just a little over $1000...
Phosphor has released a new E Ink watch - the World Time Curved, and we got one to review. The watch has got a "surf" (segmented) E Ink display that offers 24 time zones, several displays zones. The display is very similar to Phosphor's Digital-Hour watches (here's our review of those) - in fact E Ink tells us it's pretty much the same display. The new watch is thinner, though, at 9.3mm (you hardly notice this, to be fair).
The watch costs $150 and is now shipping from Phosphor's own shop (hopefully it'll arrive in Amazon.com soon as well). The Digital Hour watch is still available for 195$ - so the new watch is actually quite cheaper.
Remember Seiko's Active-Matrix E ink watch? now we hear that it'll be available by the end of 2010, and the price will be 'reasonable'. The E Ink offers 80,000 pixels (at 300dpi) and 4 gray levels. It supports synchronization via radio (from the nearest atomic clock), solar cells and a 180-degree viewing angle.
A while back we reviewed the Phosphor E Ink watch, and today we posted a review of a watch that uses an OLED display. It was interesting to compare the two displays outside. Not surprisingly, the OLED is almost useless outside, but the E Ink looks great in direct sunlight:
HP has developed a new wearable E Ink display for the army that is flexible and solar-powered. It can be wrapped around a soldier's wrist, and could show maps or directions. The whole display is just 200 microns thick. HP plans to offer first prototypes in early 2011.
The E Ink displays will be manufactured using a roll-to-roll process. HP says it will work with a company called Phicot that it spun out recently to produce these displays.
Seiko has announced a new EPD Watch that has an Active-Matrix E Ink display. It's the world's first phone with such a display (there are already some with segmented E Ink "Surf" displays). The display has 80,000 pixels (300dpi) and 4 gray levels. The watch can display the time, date and a world-clock option with a nice photo of the earth.
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$.
 |
 |
The Digital Hour watch is a curved, light-weight watch. It's not thin, though, which is surprising because the display itself is very thin (more on this later, but it's under 400 micron thick!). The watch functions are pretty basic: you can view the time (in two modes: analog/digital combined, and just digital), the date, and there's also an alarm you can setup. The watch is always in 12-hours mode (no military time).
There are two buttons: one is used to flip between the 4 display modes (analog/digital time, digital time, date and alarm setup). The other button is used to flip the display between white on black or black on white. The two buttons are also used to setup the watch. You can see the analog/digital mode above, and here are the other 3 modes (from left to right: digital time, date and alarm). You can tell it's the date mode because of the small icon on the top-left.
Update: We have posted our own review of these cool E Ink watches
Art Technology has released a new range of watches that has E Ink displays. They will be sold under the brand phosphor, and include 3 models (a curved watch, a curved 'calendar' watch, and an analog-digital style watch). The display is segmented (not active-matrix) - the total thickness is less than 400 microns, made entirely from plastic. Price will range from 175$ upwards...
Phosphor curved E Ink watches