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Apple Exploring E-Ink/Video Hybrid Displays for iPhone?
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The lack of gloss on the Kindle is a strength but it is not the major issue with the iPad's usability in sunlight.
If you put a piece of glass on top of your Kindle, it would cause some annoying distractions but it would still be easy to read provided the image of the sun isn't reflecting directly off the glass into your eyes.
The iPad is simply impossible to read given bright enough ambient light. It's just a consequence of the human iris adjusting for the incredibly blinding light of the sun, which an LCD panel could never hope to compete with.
I finally sat at a pool with my iPad for the first time in Hawaii, cranked it up to full brightness, and I had to put a towel over my head and the iPad to see anything. The Kindle was the opposite - it becomes easier to read the brighter it is outside.
Uh, iPad 3..
Can you say iPad 3..
They are all ready saying that iPad 3 will be a worth a song and dance.. this is a reason, I'm assuming retina display with eInk.
Guess we have to wait about another 330 days to find out..
If 2011 is the "year of the iPad 2" why would they release iPad 3 in September.. food for thought.
Can you say iPad 3..
They are all ready saying that iPad 3 will be a worth a song and dance.. this is a reason, I'm assuming retina display with eInk.
Guess we have to wait about another 330 days to find out..
If 2011 is the "year of the iPad 2" why would they release iPad 3 in September.. food for thought.
E-ink is so much better for reading in large quantities on a tablet.
I think people who are primarily purchasing a tablet as a reader will still go for the kindle as it is cheaper and good at the one thing it does.
Still this will be great if Apple can do this.
Or they could just put an e-ink screen on the back of the ipad if it is cheaper. LOL
I think people who are primarily purchasing a tablet as a reader will still go for the kindle as it is cheaper and good at the one thing it does.
Still this will be great if Apple can do this.
Or they could just put an e-ink screen on the back of the ipad if it is cheaper. LOL
Agreed. You could have the rear e-ink display a bit larger than the main (front) display if you skip the home button. You could go to iBooks as you do nowadays and it opens the book on the front screen. Flip the device around (the proximity and motion sensor should be able to tell if you have just turned the phone around) and the main display turns off and the e-ink turns on. Now it's like you're taking a break from technology and reading a book because the bright colorful screen is out of sight, helps you relax/focus on what you're reading.
The rear e-Ink display could show the Apple logo, serial number and FCC approval stamp when not in use.
Anyone remember the compaq ipaq PDA?
That had a colour lcd but it had a reflective poleriser so in sunlight it would use the sun to illuminateNit was like a colour e-ink display, it was really good for reading outdoors and acted as a normal lcd indoors!
That would of been perfect for the ipad if apple modded it to use leds and uped it to retina!
The ipaq was the best PDA of its time even got into the guinness book of records!
I loved mine!
That had a colour lcd but it had a reflective poleriser so in sunlight it would use the sun to illuminateNit was like a colour e-ink display, it was really good for reading outdoors and acted as a normal lcd indoors!
That would of been perfect for the ipad if apple modded it to use leds and uped it to retina!
The ipaq was the best PDA of its time even got into the guinness book of records!
I loved mine!
I say go for it! I love to have options. I enjoy reading books on both screens but agree that if I am reading in the dark the LCD hurts my eyes
Reading a book in the dark hurts your eyes too...... that's why they invented the lightbulb.
Yeah, they have nothing that is any good.
Are you from Mars, Uranus or other planets? Can't be from earth with this comment.
I think e-ink would be awesome as well. I too am a Kindle user, and though I probably wouldn't give it up for an iphone/ipad/touch as a reading device it would do amazing things for battery life. I'm picturing using the e-ink for time/date displays, battery indicator, signal, etc... for everything that doesn't refresh (often). Also when on the call after a few seconds it could switch to e-ink for the various buttons. The ability to use e-link where it makes sense, and LCD everywhere else could drastically improve battery life.
You make a really good point.
I remember the first LED watch I had in 5th grade in the 70's. It was cool. But, to get the time you had to push a button. The face was black. When you pressed the button the time would be displayed in red, then go away after a moment or two. That seems so primitive now.
Wonder if soon we'll look back and laugh at how we have to turn on our smartphones every time we need to use them.
It would appear that the patent is not on the technology per se, but on the SW logic that decides under what circumstances to use which display mode.
[You can then scream and rant about whether or not so trivial an algorithm is patentable, but that's a different matter.]
Kind of makes you wonder if just a matte screen and a better back light/light sensor system would work just as well as going to e-ink
Amazing, hopfuly it will go In the next iPad, even in the iPhone it would be cool but I think it would serve better on an iPad.
I'd get an iPad if Apple could pull this off successfully. My sister has a Kindle and its AMAZING!!
johnnyturbouk
macrumors 68000
The patent application was also filed in Q4 2009. When they say a "patent application coming out of Apple today" what they mean to say is "the USPTO finally got around to point in their patent application review process where they publish the patent application for public review".
But even if they were not first to the punch with the general idea of it -- it is the method they choose to implement that is patentable not the general idea itself.