“Specialized tablets” with multitouch first to use Pixel Qi displays*******************************EXCERPT************************
Monday, Dec 7th 2009
Pixel Qi have announced that their first batch of production displays will be ready shortly, and confirmed that the first recipients for the panels will be “specialized tablet devices with multi-touch”. Project lead Mary Lou Jepsen does not reveal the identity of the manufacturer using the Pixel Qi screens – which work as color LCDs in regular lighting, but can be read as easily as e-ink panels in direct sunlight – but did say that the company’s customers will be at CES
with her company.
She also says that “increasingly these screens will be super-slim, but some customers prefer the standard thickness”. It seems likely that one or more or Pixel Qi’s initial customers would use the displays for ebook readers, since the technology would both support video and low-power text display.
From :
Notion Ink Tegra Android smartpad uses Pixel Qi display
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Friday, Dec 18th 2009
The Notion Ink smartpad measures 6.3 x 9.8 x 0.6 inches and weighs 1.7lbs; as well as the triband (850/1900/2100) UMTS/HSDPA, WiFi b/g and Bluetooth 2.1+EDR it also squeezes in A-GPS, a digital compass, accelerometer and proximity, ambient light and water sensors. Connectivity includes USB, HDMI, a 3.5mm headphone jack and a microphone input, and there’s also a 3-megapixel autofocus camera with video recording support. Onboard storage is either 16GB or 32GB of SSD, and there’s an SD slot for augmenting that.
Initially – at least as it’s to be shown at CES – the smartpad will use the regular Android UI, with full gesture support. Navigation is either via the touchscreen or a trackpad, and Notion Ink have added a matte-finish anti-glare, oleophobic and scratch-resistant coating to the Pixel Qi display. Of course, the panel itself can be viewed indoors as a regular LCD, or outdoors in either transflective mode with reduced color vibrancy or fully reflective 64-level grayscale mode. Notion Ink say they’ve been developing a number of applications that should be added sometime after CES, including Office-style software, Flash-based titles and some graphics apps that include physics-based functionality. Ebook reading is also another possibility, and the company are in talks with several (unnamed) content providers.
Perhaps most importantly for a web-browsing tablet, battery life estimates are impressive.