Asus DR-570 E-Reader To Bring OLED Display 70
MojoKid writes "Reportedly, Asus will be introducing the DR-570 color eReader by the end of 2010, but it won't be just another one in the crowd. In fact, it just might be a game-changer. The reader will supposedly have a 6" screen, but rather than using e-ink like every other reader out there, this one will utilize a color OLED screen. Word is the unit will last a whopping 122 hours on a full charge. It should also be able to run Flash applications, download books over 3G to Wi-Fi, and most likely surf the web, unlike any other reader out there."
Asus will be rolling out two other ebook reader models this year as well.
vaga222 (Score:2, Interesting)
122 hours on full charge? Really?
Does anyone have any information to back this up? OLED screen power requirements etc?
O RLY? (Score:5, Interesting)
Okay...
According to Wikipedia [wikipedia.org]: " OLEDs typically produce only around 200 nits of light leading to poor readability in bright ambient light, such as outdoors "
They're proposing that an OLED E-Reader which cannot be read properly in sunlight will be "game changing". Forgive me for being not quite so optomistic.
Re:O RLY? (Score:5, Interesting)
I saw this a few days ago, and it sounds like a nice tablet machine. If it's hackable then I'd be very interested in one, especially if I can use it with a Bluetooth keyboard. As an eBook reader, it sounds pretty poor.
Of course, that's assuming that it just has an OLED display. One thing I've been hoping for for a while is a hybrid with eInk under transparent OLED. You'd designate different regions of the screen to the different displays, so you could have colour images and videos in boxes on a text page. For something like a web page, most of the text would be rendered on the eInk display, but videos and images would use the OLED, unless you were in low-power mode, then videos would be disabled and images would be converted to greyscale. Touch a button and it would make the eInk black under the image and use the OLED to show the picture.
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That just blows my mind
Two Words (Score:5, Informative)
With the ability to alternate between a black-and-white as-readable-in-direct-light-as-eInk mode and a standard color LCD mode, both with fast (normal LCD) refresh rates, and cost to manufacture on par with current LCD displays, this technology is the future of tablets (which will subsume the eReader market). And the first product, the Notion Ink Adam, is coming out this year.
Emissive vs passive (Score:2)
> Pixel Qi
Exactly. I got a good laugh out of that claimed 122 hours of runtime. Not with the screen showing anything it won't. Yes OLED has some important advantages over LCD but not that great. Unless it is going to have a huge ass battery pack sticking out current battery tech won't light up the screen for a hundred hours. Can't avoid the reality that emitting light consumes power. Of course there are ways to cheat the spec. Only light a small percentage of the pixels at less than full brightness
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> Pixel Qi
Can't avoid the reality that emitting light consumes power.
Thats true - but why must it emit light? - using reflective technology you can achieve significantly less power needs. as well as being able to read in sun light - it is also the most natural way of looking at anything (not just video screens)
Case in point: the gameboy --its Display spec was : "Reflective LCD 160 × 144 pixels"
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Game_Boy#Technical_specifications [wikipedia.org]
of course - it would be best to have back lighting for when you are in the dark too
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BS. Have you ever seen a kindle in bright light? You can't read shit. Even indoors if there is any sort of glare from a light shining directly on it you can't read it. The same is true for *ANY* display in direct sunlight outdoors.
As a Kindle owner, I call BS. I can read outdoors, and in brightly lit rooms. Yes, if you're shining a bright light directly onto the screen then it won't be readable. But you can still shine light onto the screen to read it, they even sell a number of clip on lights for this purpose.
"optomistic"? (Score:2)
They're proposing that an OLED E-Reader which cannot be read properly in sunlight will be "game changing". Forgive me for being not quite so optomistic.
I'm trying to figure out whether that's a clever pun (since we are talking about visibility in different light conditions) or just a typo...
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Sorry, spelling mistake. On the upside it has made me realise I'd forgotten to install the English dictionary for Firefox! Oops.
Dang. I'd started to like the "clever pun" theory. :)
Missing the E-ink point. (Score:5, Interesting)
The point about e-ink is that it's passive. It doesn't emit light. That's what makes it very easy to read for extended periods. Throw that away and you might as well go back to reading books on your laptop.
Maybe... (Score:2, Interesting)
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Re:Missing the E-ink point. (Score:4, Informative)
Well, that and the screen doesn't have to refresh.
LCDs dont refresh. Please let that very tired meme die. Next meme up to bat, "e-ink refresh rate".
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Refresh_rate#Liquid_crystal_displays [wikipedia.org]
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Liquid_crystal_display [wikipedia.org]
"Refresh rate: The number of times per second in which the monitor draws the data it is being given. Since activated LCD pixels do not flash on/off between frames, LCD monitors exhibit no refresh-induced flicker, no matter how low the refresh rate."
Sure that was an appeal to authority, quoting wikipedia. But lets think about it, a CRT flickers because an electron beam sweeps a fast decay phosphor. LCDs don't have a "sweeping electron beam" or a rapid decay phosphor. I suppose you could simulate a flickering CRT using an LCD by updating the entire screen at 120 Hz and alternating data and a black field.
If your eyes hurt looking an "old fashioned" LCD but feel great looking at a "new expensive" e-ink, then you probably have audiophile-itis, easily cured by following solutions:
1) Green marker around the perimeter of the LCD
2) Install the LCD in a $3000 brushed aluminum enclosure
3) Use monster cables instead of cheap interconnect cables.
Alternately your eyes might hurt when you look at a LCD screen because your eyes are screwed up. See an eye doctor before you go completely blind.
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For further reference, see: staring at the sun; staring at the moon.
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I was an art student, so i had color theory. I have a good understanding of additive and subtractive color systems. It's been my understanding that you can create a certain color either through reflective or emissive means, but ultimately your eyes are receiving a certain nm of light at a certain intensity, it shouldn't really m
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I see a lot of people talk about this difference. What is the difference between looking at an object reflecting light, and an object that is emitting light of the same intensity?
Well, that's the trick. With a photosensor an LCD screen can ramp up its display brightness to fit the ambient lighting - and ramp it back down again if it gets dark... But LCD screens often can't get bright enough to do well in sunlight, while a reflective screen will be reflecting some amount of light comparable to the ambient light.
I sort of suspect the OLED screen won't be as visible in bright light as the E-ink - but I haven't seen it, so...
I was an art student, so i had color theory. I have a good understanding of additive and subtractive color systems. It's been my understanding that you can create a certain color either through reflective or emissive means, but ultimately your eyes are receiving a certain nm of light at a certain intensity
Just want to correct something:
Light can be made up of one o
Re:Missing the E-ink point. (Score:4, Funny)
LCDs dont refresh. Please let that very tired meme die.
Er, yes they do. You've misunderstood the actually quite explicit wording of the wiki article. They don't flicker due to refresh, but they sure tear/judder/blur due to refresh. Do some acid and/or shrooms and tell me you don't notice the diff between 60Hz and 120Hz. xD
However, this is not directly relevant to an e-reader, unless it is being used for video.
3) Use monster cables instead of cheap interconnect cables.
No, it's Denon [amazon.com]. Get ur references straight. :P
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Alternately your eyes might hurt when you look at a LCD screen because your eyes are screwed up. See an eye doctor before you go completely blind.
You're right that it's not caused by a refresh rate. What is causing it is that CRT/LCD/OLED screens emit light, while eInk reflects it. Doesn't mean there's not something wrong with your eyes (astigmatism or glaucoma causing blurring or halos, for example), but the emitted light is the reason doctors suggest you take frequent breaks when looking at a screen (TV, computer monitor, etc) for a long period of time.
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Adjust the brightness of your screen. It doesn't matter whether the light is emitted by your LCD or reflected by your e-ink, so long as it is done so in a reasonable ratio to the intensity of the ambient light. Light is light.
Reflected light automatically adjusts itself to the ambient. An LCD screen can do this as well, but requires a sensor. Failing that, you can use the backlight control, often labelled as "brightness" to adjust it manually.
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Just because LCD monitors don't refresh like a CRT does, doesn't make them perfect.
I had a Viewsonic VG930M 19" LCD, which was an absolutely lousy monitor. Certain colors and shades would be very obviously and visibly noisy, due to the dithering used to approximate colors which the display was incapable of producing. (This is mentioned in your linked Wikipedia article on LCDs, down under the Drawbacks [wikipedia.org] heading.)
For a demonstration of this and some other problems with these displays, head over to this handy
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The flicker on LCDs is apparently because they use pulse-width modulation to vary the output level of the backlight in a power efficient manner. Yet the frequency is hideously low, so you can see it flicker. I am not sure why they don't use frequencies in the kHz instead of Hz range. The electronics should be able to handle it easily.
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There's that problem, too. And it's a dumb problem to have: The inverter driving the backlight tubes actually becomes cheaper to produce, the higher the frequency is.
But please do go visit the LCD test page I previously linked before you start with absolute statements like "the flicker." There's a few things that they often get wrong -- sometimes, very, very wrong -- and you'll be able to see some of it there with your own eyes.
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The point about e-ink is that it's passive. It doesn't emit light. That's what makes it very easy to read for extended periods.
No, that makes it harder to read. One of the primary advantages of eink is low power consumption and that goes away with a backlight. Therefore marketing pushes the crazy idea that its easier to read something thats all dim.
Anyone who knows anything about photography knows its easier to focus on a bright light due to smaller pupil size.
Its just endlessly repeated marketing BS.
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So... your newspaper has a backlight?
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And they only use power to update the page
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That and the battery life - I presume your laptop doesn't do 122 hours.
Features, not bugs (Score:3, Funny)
"It should also be able to run Flash applications, download books over 3G to Wi-Fi, and most likely surf the web, unlike any other reader out there."
So given enough time I can catch some nasty Malware - with no proper way to remove it besides opening it up and ruining the warranty?
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The lines are definitely being blurred here.
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Depending on the vendor, I can pop open a tablet PC, use the hard drive as a slave drive, clean it off, put it back in, and still have my warranty.
OLED? (Score:1)
Reportedly (Score:5, Funny)
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World hunger will be solved by Product Y, which will also be able to read Excel spreadsheets and shoot deadly laser bolts from its nipples.
You can say that again. [gizmodo.com] (NSFW)
but... (Score:2)
I thought the WHOLE POINT of an e-book reader is that e-ink displays are easier on the eyes for long periods than other display technologies.
Otherwise jeez just use a tablet PC.
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I thought the WHOLE POINT of an e-book reader is that e-ink displays are easier on the eyes for long periods than other display technologies.
Not really, there's also the very long battery life. Which of those two is more important depends on who you ask, though.
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Reality check (Score:5, Informative)
At the bottom of the article is the following update that might put things in a more realistic perspective:
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Update - 1/18/10 - 10:25PM EST:
This just came in from our contacts at Asus here in the US. It looks like things are a bit premature at this point (of course) but it does appear that Asus will be making a major play in this arena in the near future.
"As for the status of the unit, we do have plans to bring a series of innovative products into this market sector. All details about the product(s) are still to be finalized with the goals of outstanding responsiveness and battery life being of prime importance for us to ensure a great end user experience. The mass production schedule is still under discussion as is pricing, availability, and channel selections. However, based on our history with mobile products, the digital reader series will be cost competitive with other solutions while offering a wealth of features.
ASUS believes that content and applications are the keys to success in the market sector. Once we have a concrete software and application plan, we will disclose additional information to you."
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download books over 3G to Wi-Fi? (Score:2)
Does this mean that the unit can act as a cellular tether/wireless access point? Sweet!
Sorta looks like Android...? (Score:1)
not good enough (Score:1)
Wake me up when they get to handheld 3d porn. I need a refresh rate of at least 120 Hz, right? Do OLEDs even have non-glowy refresh rates suitable for 3d? (Legitimate question, not sarcasm.)
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If a cheap slate computer's battery can last for 5 days of usage, I agree. If I have to recharge my book after a few hours, no.
You'll probably have to pick either battery life or features. And if the iPhone and the netbook craze told us something, it's that features don't always win over the market.
Apple will be first (Score:1, Interesting)
I predict Apple has kept the iSlate super-secret because it's not just a tablet PC, it's a color e-reader with multi-touch support and weeks-long battery life (when not used for video or wireless).
We know the technology is there, and Apple only releases new product lines to be game-changers of existing product categories. What could be game-changing about a simple tablet PC? Many other are offering them now. A highly usable full-color e-reader in early 2010, on the other hand...
Make up your mind (Score:2)
Either Apple is first, or Apple iSlate.
*ducks*
Fujitsu already beat them (Score:2)
The Fujitsu FLEPia is already released, last year in fact:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Fujitsu_FLEPia [wikipedia.org]
http://ezinearticles.com/?Fujitsu-Flepia-E-Reader-Review&id=3326541 [ezinearticles.com]
http://www.technologyreview.com/computing/22332/?a=f [technologyreview.com]
It has 40-50 hours battery life, so yes, it is reasonable to consider this as an e-reader (as opposed to most handheld devices that only have a few hours of battery life).
I found this with a trivial Google search. Although it's sad that from reading Slashdot, I'd have no idea of it's rel
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How is a tablet pc not an e-reader??? If you install a pdf viewer on a computer, you have an "e-reader."
resolution? (Score:1)
So, I recall one of the main e-ink perks being the "print-like" sharpness. Is this something OLED (or LED, for that matter) can achieve? That for me would be the deal-breaker.
Lookin' Good (Score:1)