E Ink, the Cambridge, MA, company that invented the electronic paper technology behind Amazon’s Kindle e-book devices and Sony’s PRS-500 line, announced today that the same 9.7-inch screen going into the new Kindle DX will be available as part of prototype kit that will go on sale this month, before Amazon ships its own device.
The so-called Broadsheet AM300 kit—which includes an active matrix electronic ink display, a Marvell XScale processor, a Bluetooth transceiver, an MMC card reader, lithium-ion batteries, all mounted on a Gumstix computer board—will cost $4,000. Another kit including the 6-inch display used in the current Amazon and Sony devices is already available from E Ink’s online store for $3,000.
E Ink’s prototype kits are intended for hardware engineers developing next-generation electronic paper devices. Indeed, because E Ink will sell the basic technology to anyone, the larger 9.7-inch screen could become the basis of a number of devices that compete directly with the Kindle DX.
The success of E Ink’s so-called “Vizplex” e-paper films—which contain millions of tiny balls filled with electrically charged black and white particles—“has prompted a lot of interest in eNewspaper and eTextbook applications,” Sriram Peruvemba, E Ink’s vice president of marketing, said in today’s announcement.
Author: Wade Roush
Between 2007 and 2014, I was a staff editor for Xconomy in Boston and San Francisco.
Since 2008 I've been writing a weekly opinion/review column called VOX: The Voice of Xperience. (From 2008 to 2013 the column was known as World Wide Wade.)
I've been writing about science and technology professionally since 1994. Before joining Xconomy in 2007, I was a staff member at MIT’s Technology Review from 2001 to 2006, serving as senior editor, San Francisco bureau chief, and executive editor of TechnologyReview.com. Before that, I was the Boston bureau reporter for Science, managing editor of supercomputing publications at NASA Ames Research Center, and Web editor at e-book pioneer NuvoMedia.
I have a B.A. in the history of science from Harvard College and a PhD in the history and social study of science and technology from MIT. I've published articles in Science, Technology Review, IEEE Spectrum, Encyclopaedia Brittanica, Technology and Culture, Alaska Airlines Magazine, and World Business, and I've been a guest of NPR, CNN, CNBC, NECN, WGBH and the PBS NewsHour. I'm a frequent conference participant and enjoy opportunities to moderate panel discussions and on-stage chats.
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