Plastic Fantastic

this kind of technology is easilly going to do its intended design, although it will take a hybrid silicon/plastic chipset with a higher ratio and pipeline display i doubt it will replace all silicon text display devices, this is the actual tip of the iceberg for the introduction of a similar tecnology in star trek also, the isolinear chips were made of thick layers of silicon and plastic polybdimides and laticies. not too far off i would say as far as new ratios in newer hybrid chipsets go…

Just think how many wonderful products like this the government could subsidize if they weren’t fighting a war for that utterly useless substance called oil.

I cannot wait to have this gadget, even at the price of 350. I have a thousand literally) of pages, that I’d like to carry with me. This gadget will make it possible!

Just a comment to Aaron: Your idea of embedded video or view an electoral speech is nice but impossible with the used technology. The used eInk technology is too slow for motion. But downloading newspaper at special outlets will be possible.

Let’s face it, folks. One piece of paper is light, but a document using a ream or two is very heavy. I really wish I had this when I was in college. Students could take notes all day long in the margins of their ‘e-books’. Also, geek alert! The Star Trek padd is here…

This would make life for school easier. Gone would be the day students tote around 50 pounds worth of books to/from home and between classes. I’d say it might make buying books for college courses cheaper, but I’m sure the campus book stores would still find a way to gouge you for the “rights” to download the book to your unit. And if they get the notation interface figured out, students could take notes during class and have them linked to the sections in their books.

Sounds like the PADD of Star Trek

Nice…. I have over 4,000 if not more documents and ebooks on my laptop. I needed them there as I cannot carry my entire text book library with me. Besides that little gadget would be easier to put in a safe if a hurricane was coming, rather than 100’s of text books. Would be nice if it contained a MAC OS X like finder that could search inside of documents rather quickly.

These guys need to team up with Apple and come out with the ultimate tablet.

Don’t freak out folks. As CD’s haven’t totally replaced Vinyl, this type of tech won’t completely replace paper. But it can greatly reduce the amount of paper used in periodicals and non-masterpiece type books. Personally, I would love to be able to take this with me camping or traveling and have several books, etc available to read.

As a former Biomed Tech, having all my equipment manuals with me would be invaluable. I’ve tried using my Palm TX a an eReader device, but the small size was a hinderance.

I have envisioned this technology for atleast 5 years and have the format already designed for the new paper. I had a media reader already set and now Amazon steals it and this new company is taking my ideas as well. I guess all that unwarranted tapping by the government is really paying for the highest bidder.

@Goodman Zervos: What? Books cost money NOW! Libraries will simply stock e-paper readers and won’t be limited by physical space. billions of books and documents will be available to anyone with a reader – either checked-out from the library or owned by anyone with a library card. Today, the library can only stock one or two of each volume. Soon everyone will be able to read the same book at the same time!

Further, electronic paper will likely be free:
Kodak gave away cameras to sell film. Local Papers give away issues to sell ads. This reader will either cost about $20 (US) or be provided free so advertisers can show us their ads (like the ones already in newspapers, magazines and even – yes – in the back of some books).

Goodman Zervos, stop creating dilemmas that don’t exist. This will expand literacy and print availability not impede it…

It is a cool idea. But do you need another electronic device? Airbook by Mac is thin enough, couple more variations and it could weight less. Hopefully this will drive companies to provide smaller/cheaper/tablet type devices. Combine some of the functionality of IPOD Touch

YEAH…no more paper!

the last generation to know books will be the last generation.

As a student using a tablet pc, they have my interest. Sure, $350 may be expensive to most – but if it reads pdfs, text books could easily converted into ebooks.

Yeah, $350 may sound like a lot – but $350 for 13 ounces (instead of a 4-5 pound tablet) that holds all my notes and text books for my academic career would have been wonderful!

Libraries in the future might offer these tablets as part of your library card (local taxes permitting) and books could be downloaded and deleted periodically. The same with periodicals, no pun intended. I love books, and my job has me carrying all types of documents. I am always trying to reduce the amount of printing we have to do, this looks great.

I’ve envisioned something like this for a long time and wasn’t surprised to see the article on this screen. Replacing paper is a great idea. BUT, we also need to institute one rule with ALL high tech firms. Computers, cell-phones, etc. When it is ready for discard, YOU TAKE IT BACK. The companies making money off high-tech electronics are responsible for adding them to the garbage heap in this country. Since these products are going to multiply exponentially in the future, this needs to be addressed. Perhaps these companies should be made to pay into a special fund to ensure safe cleanup of their products…

As the article says, I can see this being a great help to lawyers or people who need to tote around a lot of documents, but paper will never be replaced. It’s been proved that people want to hold a tangible book in their hands and the majority are just not going to stare at some screen for hours on end when they could hold a book or magazine. I am a printer of 15 years, and when I started I was told I should go into something else because copiers would take over printing presses. Well, that’s still far, far off into the future. Every week some tech or another is at the shop fixing a state of the art copier that has decided to crap out while I continue to crank out the work on mechanical printing presses(as opposed to these digital contraptions that look like they’re full of spaghetti when you take off the covers. My press has broken down once in three years and it was due to a broken screw that was easily fixed in about half an hour.

This type of product is the future. Right now it might be a “$350 piece of paper”, but expect the price to come down over time. Don’t forget that it took a while before everyone realized how important computers are.

Every day, I carry between 40-70 pounds of law books on my back. I walk a mile to school each way. The weight is certainly a problem. If I could just carry this product, with all my books stored electronicly, I would be thrilled. They just need to add a few features: color screens, the ability to highlight in different colors, the ability to take notes on the page. If the companies can then pull of some contracts with the big book publishers and subtract the cost of manufacturing and shipping the books, this product will be amazing.

E-documents are the future no matter how much you cry about it.

Do I want one? Depends, whats the screen, LCD? If they can make it 100 bucks and make the screen OLED, they’ll make millions.

Libraries only for the wealthy…sounds like a return to the Middle Ages when books were handlettered by monks using quill pens by candlelight. This technology sounds like a good replacement for a pen and yellow pad, but not for a book.

It may be cool, but it won’t replace the paper on my desk. I need to be able to compare multiple documents side by side. I already carry more information that I can use on my laptop, and this won’t allow me to leave the laptop at home, either.

Nice try, but ultimately not a big help to me.

Paper’s not going anywhere.. calm down people.

I have the Sony Reader, and it is amazing. It has the screen size of a paperback and about the same weight. I absolutely love it, especially because it will read almost any format. The note taking ability seems like the only improvement here, so I agree that it is mainly aimed at businesses and academia.

I have the Sony Reader, and it is amazing. It has the screen size of a paperback and about the same weight. I absolutely love it, especially because it will read almost any format. The note taking ability seems like the only improvement here, so I agree that it is mainly aimed at business and academia.

Dresden is in the former East Germany, a region that has seen high unemployment (16%) in recent years. Maybe new manufacturing facilities like this one indicate a rebirth for that area.

Goodman Zervos makes some very good points. It would be a shame if books ever do become obsolete, but one day soon, this possibility may have to be faced. As far as cost goes, the device itself would probably be less expensive than 2-3 books (and could be available for free at libraries), but how the actual “e-books” and articles will be delivered and paid for is another question. One positive could be that e-books and articles could be very cheap, because no printing and distribution costs. Obviously though, such devices will never be exactly like traditional books, but then I hear that vinyl records are making something of a comeback! There are also new printers on the horizon, that will allow someone to purchase individually printed books, so that many more titles can be custom printed for the same cost as mass produced books. You might then have your option of an e-book or printed book (or both). As long as the option remains and the costs are comparable or less, I don’t think such a development has to be bad. A much worse scenario is that people just STOP reading, altogether – then you will really have something to worry about. Any fan of “The Time Machine” or “Fahrenheit 451″ will know what I am talking about.

Sounds amazing to me! I like it! If I can draw on it with a stylus or something like that and have it go to my image editor, then that is perfect. I would hope that the eBook readers out there will take a page from this technology and make eBooks cheaper…

I can not wait fora $350 piece of paper. why does everything have to be a breakable battery operated bug riddled hard to use expensive gaget

This is awesome. Ever since I was a small kid I envisioned the day paper would become interactive. No longer would I have to look at sequence shots in snowboarding magazines, the video could be embedded right on the page. No longer would I have to write-down hyperlinks and email addresses in my notebooks during lectures and type them in later, I could just transfer the document and go online with it.

This would be the ultimate form of ‘podcasting’. Imagine downloading a copy of “Time”, synching it to your viewer (or maybe some lightweight browser could be built in, like Google’s Chrome), and being able to view an electoral candidate’s speech right on the page, be able to comment on the articles, etc.

And who says only the rich could afford these things? If your government wasn’t spending so much money fighting oil wars they could easily at least subsidize these developments. Sure, hardware ain’t cheap, but it’s a lot cheaper than it used to be.

Gosh, I just sent my column on this to my editor!

This does look promising.

I wish you would have used the high resolution photo from the Plastic Logic web site.

The “E Ink” is crisp and clear, easy on the eyes.

The large display outdoes Kindle.

Plastic Logic still has not come up with an official name yet for this electronic organic-paper reader!

Bits & Bytes

If you’ve ever toted around plan sets as part of your work …you’d be pretty excited about this.

I am so on-board with this. This would be especially cool if you could get subsriptions to major news outlets and entertainment magazines. In addition, it would be good to have the fuctionality to clip and save articles but be able to throw the rest of the magazine issue away.

This also has pretty solid applications in academic fields. There is a huge shift to journal articles available online and this could potentially save professors, students, and departments massive amounts of money in printing costs. It would interest me greatly to hear more about possible applications for similar technology in classrooms.

If I were steve jobs I would want to acquire this company for obvious reasons.

So, in otherwords once paper is gone (and assuming all libraries will be converted), only those with the money will be able to use their reading skills or at least develop them since they will need to buy one of these devices. Even if the libraries remain, they will become antiquated as part of a bygone era and everyone will probably have to pay to get into them or some kind of scientific researcher studying, what will be by that time, ancient manuscripts. Sounds like the dark ages. By-the-way, no one will be able to trust what’s downloaded to these devices since there will no doubt be some form of censorship or rewrite to conform to what is acceptable, politically correct, etc.
More electronics, will it ever end?