
Sony’s e-paper tablet is a great example of Weird Sony - artsandsci
http://www.theverge.com/circuitbreaker/2017/4/10/15242238/sony-dpt-rp1-giant-digital-paper-tablet-notebook
======
chamakits
It's precursor (the DPTS1, which is also mentioned in the article) is just as
weird. Specifically, it's a product that I obsessed over some time, but is
actually incredible niche and not widely available. The resellers specifically
target lawyers and other specific professions.

It's also nearly impossible to find a physical place where you could test it
without making an appointment. There are few things I want more than a product
like this to succeed. I have had a couple of Microsoft Surface products, and
they are amazing. Game changing even. But nothing beats e-ink as far as being
pleasant on the eyes for extended periods of times.

I've been trying to move from books to e-books, just because I don't have a
lot of space to keep books anymore. For non-technical books, a Kindle
suffices. But for anything even slightly technical everything falls short.
Nothing comes close to the experience of physical books. The surface is the
closest for me, but even that the software available for making annotations on
it is lackluster, and just staring at a screen too long is not pleasant. This
sort of large e-ink tablets I hope are the solution, but their popularity
being so lackluster, makes me think that those that have spent the money
aren't quite happy with it.

I wish more products like this keep coming out until one sticks.

~~~
ChuckMcM
I share this sentiment. Way back when Plastic Logic killed themselves by
trying to bite off too much of the ecosystem, their legal pad sized 'Plastic
reader' was something I could see replacing both printouts and faxes.

I came at this way back in the epaper epoch by getting an Illiad2 from IRex
Technologies (a large epaper device with a watcom digitizer), I've since gone
through an iPad, iPad Pro, and currently use a Surface Pro 4 for this
function.

The essential bits are exactly smooth drawing on it and for wide market
penetration low cost. I have been really impressed with Microsoft's ASIC which
makes drawing on Surface almost lag free.

Sony on the other hand has a history of weak business models, I was amused by
their selling of the books made available by the Gutenberg project for their
original e-book (as an example).

The product I would find really interesting (and would buy at least one of :-)
Would be an e-paper tablet that I could draw on at a reasonable PPI (200+)
that was US standard paper drawing area, built in wireless network and
presented to my computer as a 'printer' on the network. I would use it by
printing to it from my phone or my laptop and I would use it to review things
and write notes on them (sort of like Drawboard PDF) and then either push the
annotated prints into an archive or delete them once I was done with them.

~~~
ixwt
Something that might fulfill your interests would be the BoogieBoard Sync[0].
It can bluetooth connect to your phone (iOS and Android), where it will upload
what you write in a PDF format. The device can be connected to a PC via USB,
and the data can also be pulled off in PDF format. You cannot pull up what you
write on the device itself though.

I don't think it's quite US Standard Paper (I don't have mine with me at the
moment to check), but it is quite a decent size.

It takes only a moment to save what you've written, and clearing the screen
takes a split second. You do have to use a special stylus it comes with to
write to the device though, other strokes won't be saved. The battery life is
supposed to be ~7 days of run time, if you were writing continuously. It is
quite slim, and very light weight.

From what I've read, the PDFs store your pen strokes. They claim this is
optimal for OCR, but I've never tested that claim.

[0]:
[https://myboogieboard.com/ewriters/sync](https://myboogieboard.com/ewriters/sync)

~~~
ChuckMcM
I think I have 5 or 6 BoogieBoards around my lab, one of them is a 'sync'. The
challenge with the boogieboard is that they are like writing with a very fat
marker. (and its a bit smaller than standard paper.

If you compare what you can do with that vs a Surface Pro 4 pencil and
Drawboard PDF the contrast is fairly startling (and expected given order of
magnitude difference in price).

I asked the inventor of the Boogieboard at Makerfaire if they had ever
considered making a large whiteboard sized one (that would be pretty useful in
my lab). He said they would consider it but there were technical issues with
the surface area vs the erase mechanism (something like generating a very
strong electric field across a very large area like that).

------
Animats
If Apple introduced this, it would be called "disruptive" and "revolutionary".
From Sony, it's "weird".

eInk still costs far too much per unit area. You can buy wall sign sized eInk
displays, but they'll cost much more than an LCD TV panel of the same size.
32" diagonal display, $3,599.[1] Compare 32 inch color LCD TVs for $200 at
WalMart. Despite talk of cheap "electronic paper" displays, the eInk people
never delivered on cost.

[1] [https://www.visionect.com/product/visionect-development-
kit-...](https://www.visionect.com/product/visionect-development-
kit-32-grayscale/)

~~~
metaphor
>> eInk still costs far too much per unit area.

Any idea what those ballpark figures look like today?

The E ink product you linked is a dev kit targeting a niche market, not a
general CE product manufactured in the millions and benefiting from economies
of scale...I'm simply not seeing the relevance of the comparison.

~~~
Animats
eInk doesn't publicly release prices. It's a "contact sales" kind of business.

Visionect's 9.7" e-ink sign, which is their version of a digital picture
frame, costs $400.[1] That's a product, not a development kit. A comparable
LCD digital picture frame from WalMart costs $70. Color, too.

[1] [https://www.visionect.com/product/visionect-
sign-9-7/](https://www.visionect.com/product/visionect-sign-9-7/)

~~~
Ursa83
Hi there, Ursa from Visionect here. Just a slight clarification: the 9.7 Sign
is not a consumer product in the sense of a digital picture frame. Rather it
is a sort-of development kit, a blank canvas device on which companies can
develop their own products. So geared towards professional use. Plus, the
battery lasts four months;)

------
nabla9
I read lots of research papers and books. I used to think that once I get big
and high contrast e-paper tablet with ability to annotate I don't need paper
anymore.

Then I noticed that e-paper is window to knowledge that allows me to look in
but never allows my mind to enter. There is cognitive wall between myself and
the things I read.

Reading physical papers and books and storing them is concrete memory palace
technique. Writing notes on them, underlying, leaving coffee stains and
folding corners, adding sticky notes etc. is concrete physical creation of of
a memory palace. It helps to arrange, retain and absorb knowledge with spatial
associations.

When I store paper I have just read into a stack of papers, or put it into a
folder in a bookshelf, it's stored in a spatial space that helps with
remembering and recollection just like memory palace memorization technique.
If I look at the paper years later, just quick glance brings in the
associations. E-paper tablet is just the same tablet every time.

I still use tablets and computer to read fiction and skim abstracts. If I have
to fully learn and think what I read, I print it out.

\---

[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Method_of_loci)

~~~
abhgh
I have a very similar problem. I bought a Kindle years ago because I thought
it will solve all my reading problems - I wasn't even thinking about
annotating stuff, so my use-case is weaker/easier than yours.

Now, I tend to do two kinds of reading - (1) research papers - often with
multicolumnar writing, tables, diagrams and mathematical notation (2) "normal"
books.

I realized that kindle is very bad for (1) ---- I could load a PDF but then I
don't get to use flow, and given the screen size, this can be annoying.
Converters (like calibre) don't always work. Math symbols (which can show up
mangled), diagrams and tables can get displaced from the "region" of
discussion. Eventually I just moved to read stuff of type (2) on my Kindle.
For (1), I still use printouts.

~~~
hackpert
For (1), you might want to look into
[http://dontprint.net](http://dontprint.net). Of course it doesn't solve
annotation issues but for reading it works well enough.

------
aeturnum
I've been excitedly watching this product category for a while. I wanted to
buy a DPTS1, but it turns it it _only_ reads PDFs, nothing else. That felt a
little too limited for $900. I've pre-ordered the reMarkable tablet, though
more as a vote for the product category than love for the specific product.

This doesn't replace paper at all, but it does bridge a gap that I've wanted
to bridge for a long time. I've always liked printing out documents and making
notes on them as I read, but it's hard to share those notes with others and
it's impractical to haul the documents around. Products like this let me do
this much more efficiently.

~~~
rbanffy
What other devices of this size are there?

~~~
douche
I got one of these [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-
reade...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-reader)

It's pretty decent, and exactly what I wanted - an old-school Kindle around
the size of a sheet of paper.

~~~
chamakits
Sorry for the incoming barrage of questions, but I've been looking for a good
e-ink device. I've come across this one before, but have read different
experiences with it.

How is it for taking notes?

How smooth is the experience with PDFs?

Is it any good for annotating on top of PDFs?

What file types does it support?

What is it's battery life like?

~~~
douche
> How is it for taking notes?

I've been pretty happy with it so far. The included stylus is pretty
responsive.

> How smooth is the experience with PDFs?

Scrolling a PDF is a little weird on the e-ink screen - the refresh rate is
kind of low, so it looks a bit like the old Windows Freecell victory animation
while scrolling is happening. Switching between pages is smooth.

> Is it any good for annotating on top of PDFs?

Haven't tried it yet

> What file types does it support?

So far I've opened up PDFs, EPUBs and MOBIs. I believe there's more in it's
app store, but I haven't needed to explore that yet.

> What is it's battery life like?

I charged it up when I got it at the beginning of March, and it's still at
around 50%, with the Wifi enabled.

------
tjoff
The only weird thing about this product is that it is so expensive. There has
been numerous examples of products identical to this one, almost a decade ago
I was drooling for one so bad.

I'm blaming apple. The iPad killed eink just as it was about to take off. Who
would want a slow black-and-white display when you can have a fancy glossy
color display? Nevermind that you can't read properly on an glossy screen and
that the battery life is measured in hours rather than days/weeks.

We lost out on so much potential for the gimmick that is the tablet.

~~~
jonnathanson
You could make the counterargument that tablets floundered in obscurity for
years until Apple released the iPad. The iPad made tablet ownership nearly
ubiquitous among the types of people who might someday want to use a tablet
for business purposes. The iPad isn't a business device, but it's breached the
doors to the business market. It hasn't just tapped latent demand; it's
created demand. In doing so, it's shown the way forward -- into a _much_
bigger market than would have existed without it.

~~~
tjoff
Eink devices are not (or rather, should not be) competing with the tablet that
is the iPad.

The public didn't realize this because of the ipad hype. I'm not arguing that
the ipad isn't a success, I just wish the ipad would never have been created.

~~~
jonnathanson
_" Eink devices are not (or rather, should not be) competing with the tablet
that is the iPad."_

I'm not arguing that they should compete. Rather, I'm arguing that the iPad
can be seen as having opened the door to mainstream usage and acceptance of
tablets -- both as devices and as form factors.

Many of the consumers who are now comfortable using tablets are more likely to
use an e-ink based business tablet than they would have been if they'd never
used a tablet before. And it's likely they'd never have used a tablet before
if the iPad hadn't made tablets mainstream.

And _precisely because said tablets wouldn 't compete with the iPad_, those
consumers might buy both. Or have one provided/subsidized by their employers.

------
anon1253
This seems really interesting. But what I've been more interested in is a
LCD/e-Ink hybrid display for my workstation. LCDs are basically transparent,
so I think you could overlay them in front of a back-illuminated e-Ink
display. Say 23"? For things like programming this would be ideal for me. You
can put the high-refresh rate things on the overlayed LCD, and the slow
documentation, typing, stuff on the e-Ink display. I don't even need a pen,
those never work for me (too much input latency).

Another idea would be to pair a large e-ink display with a Macbook Pro style
"magic bar" (or whatever they call it). So you can do the typing on the e-ink,
with a Submlime text-like minimap for scrolling and context. Anyway, I don't
have the chops to pull it off…but it would be great I think!

~~~
j_s
The OLPC project had something special for its display; not sure it lines up
exactly with what you're proposing (especially the size!) but perhaps in the
same ballpark ("two screens sharing an LCD"). Looks like around $80 shipped on
eBay.

[http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Display#Screen](http://wiki.laptop.org/go/Display#Screen)

~~~
jimmies
It's the PixelQi display. I was impressed with the OLPC screen when I first
saw it in person in 2009 or so. Just a year or two ago I decided to get a
netbook and install one of them. It turned out to be not impressive at all,
the screen looks muted and it is like the backlight is not working rather than
being great like e-ink.

------
ksk
The article doesn't explain why the author considers the tablet weird, or why
anyone else should.

~~~
GuiA
"Weird Sony" is a (maybe niche) expression in tech that refers to weird
products Sony has released over the years, hinting that there are some crazy
innovative designers working there that upper management sometimes listens to.

[http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/29/4783132/the-amazing-
produc...](http://www.theverge.com/2013/9/29/4783132/the-amazing-products-of-
weird-sony)

~~~
112233
really nice list. sony still continues to make very well engineered weird
gadgets. want wireless headphones with active NC? sony has ones that it lists
as 8gb mp3 player (which it also is). Then there was PCM D1, and the current
DSC RX1 is bordering on weird, too.

~~~
ksk
Yeah.. they bundled active NC IEMs with Sony VAIO Z21 laptops 6 years ago
which worked through the 3.5mm headphone jack.

------
rb808
I'd love a 10in epaper tablet with modern android. How hard can that be? You'd
think with dozens of color tablets on the market it would be easy, but is
impossible apparently.

~~~
peatmoss
Yes, and with a cpu that can render complicated PDFs with big vector plots
without needing a cup of coffee between page turns.

The Kindle DX graphite was almost workable in grad school for journals, until
a vector-based montecarlo convergence plot or even a scatterplot with many
points would bring the poor thing to its knees.

~~~
ianai
I just want an external eink display for Mac/windows. I know of only one on a
crowdfunding site right now.

~~~
j_s
Would you mind sharing a link?

~~~
ianai
Sad it's so unfunded. I think is shows the technology is just too expensive
right now. [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paperlike-world-s-
first-e...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/paperlike-world-s-first-e-ink-
monitor-13-3#/)

~~~
rb808
From that link it looks like it shipped. Mix of happy users and Mac users
where it doesn't look like its working well.
[http://dasungtech.com/](http://dasungtech.com/)

------
mbroncano
Does anybody know why Amazon stop selling the DX? I use my paper white every
day, but I miss the possibility of using a bigger display, or the easy
annotation feature. The prices for second-hand DX are quite steep, so I might
not be the only one.

~~~
duskwuff
> Does anybody know why Amazon stop selling the DX?

The Kindle DX was exorbitantly priced (nearly $500 at launch), inconveniently
large, and poorly marketed. And it didn't really play into the primary market
for the Kindle, which was light reading.

------
jlebrech
I was wondering if someone could create a monocrome eink screen for a
workstation, it would make for a great workstation for enhanced productivity.
colour is a distraction unless you need to create something that's color (a
programmer mostly doesn't)

~~~
csours
I don't agree with you about color, but I would love to have an e-ink monitor
for documentation and PDFs to augment my other other monitors.

[https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13771203](https://news.ycombinator.com/item?id=13771203)

~~~
jlebrech
I yearn for the old workstation of old that were just for work and couldn't be
used for entertainment.

~~~
moftz
Huh? That is as simple as not installing any games on your computer, using
GPUs like Quadros if you do CAD, and using quality components that don't have
1000 RGB LEDS all over them. This is not impossible to do.

~~~
jlebrech
so you don't get distracted by video or pretty articles. and it's an exclusive
coding machine.

~~~
moftz
Ok so don't install a browser if you really can't control yourself from being
distracted by the internet. Install a block list of all news sites, social
media, and whatever sites you waste time on if you need to go online.

------
thinkloop
What's weird is the article not discussing what's weird

~~~
ctdonath
Yes, the article fails to expand on the title's point which I've observed for
a long time.

I used to be a hardcore Sony fanboy (still have the original AIBO). Great
innovative stuff, pushing limits with abandon, bringing the sci-fi future to
life. Except...they _always_ got it a little wrong, in the "uncanny valley"
way. Everything was built to specs - barely. Key ports were implemented
cheaply. Compatibility was often trumped by proprietary - the latter being
_better_ , but in the "Beta vs VHS" losing way. Device driver software
was...lacking. Once the device was sold, there was a sense of abandonment -
great product, but you're on your own now. Crapware was common (software was
delivered with the device just to get the hardware sold). UI/UX was more
focused on "cool" than "useable". Overall, the focus was on bringing
futuristic to life, failing to make it really _usable_ ; as a result, "cool"
slides sideways into "weird" \- it's neat, but ultimately infeasible.

Examples of Sony weird? MagicGate memory sticks _everywhere_ , whether a
device needed it or not (like a pen), incompatible with dominating standards
(SD, MicroSD, etc). Innovative remote controls of a type used by nobody else
for a reason. Pocketbook-sized notebooks with "retina" displays (before Apple
got to "retina" and "Air") so small as unreadable. HDTVs with gorgeous styling
suitable only for hyper-minimalism homes. Disc players loaded with demo
software that made a Wii look _good_ (trailers for "Salt" at 320x200
resolution, on a 1920x1080p display? really?). UI that looked great yet
required steps that would make Jonny Ive choke. Elegant e-readers that were
incompatible with pretty much any book formats.

This new tablet looks great, sure - it's big, flat, minimalistic, and has
great specs. From experience, I'd hesitate to buy one because I expect it will
run slow in odd conditions, have questionable real-world battery life, use
proprietary chargers, suffer odd document compatibility issues, have a general
sense of post-sale customer abandonment, and some specs will be met only in
the most strict & strained sense. Out of the box I'd love it, then slowly
develop a sense of irritation by something proving subtly but pervasively
unusable. It looks cool on its own, but will predictably look out-of-place
amid other serious competition, leading the way in a direction that the
industry ultimately won't go. I'm not saying this particular device _is_
defective in such ways, but having been disappointed by numerous products
(despite valiant attempts to live & defend them), I expect I'd start using it
with a sense of "this is awesome" soon morphing into a nagging sense of
"...but something's _wrong_ here" and ultimately buying something comparable
that hits the market not long after.

~~~
Mattasher
So true. And even when they nail it, as they did with Vaio G1 10 years ago (~2
pounds, 10-hr battery, optical drive, a combination you still can't get
today), they abandon that product. If Sony had kept iterating on the G1 I
would have never switched to MBP.

~~~
SamReidHughes
You can get it today! Let's Note SZ6.

------
buzzybee
I thought I wanted one of these e-ink based devices for sketching or notes,
but it turned out that I actually wanted a Boogie Board. [0] The eInk-based
notepaper has been a long time in coming and you don't even get good latency,
while reflex LCD, which the Boogie Board uses, is instant.

[0]
[https://www.myboogieboard.com/ewriters](https://www.myboogieboard.com/ewriters)

~~~
setr
Woah damn that is some ugly product design

who are they targetting, toddlers?

~~~
pasquinelli
if you look at the clear one it's shown with a set of flash cards for tracing
letters, so maybe not toddlers but young.

------
dmix
> The DPT-RP1 still only works with PDF files, so you won’t be able to use it
> to replace your Kindle anytime soon

Oh that sucks, I've got a large epub/mobi collection, I'd hate to have to
convert them all to PDF, but it probably serves a different purpose than a
device for reading your standard books. It looks like a textbook device.

This looks amazing for me personally. I love the idea of having the PDF on one
side and notes on the other. It would be great for the various math /
programming books that I read. The price might be a deal breaker though.

Edit: it looks to be competing with these types of devices by Onyx, the
reviews indicate it's ideal for technical books [https://www.amazon.com/Onyx-
Max-13-3-Flexible-Handwriting/dp...](https://www.amazon.com/Onyx-
Max-13-3-Flexible-Handwriting/dp/B01EVACVHY/)

------
mato
This is awesome. Hopefully a step towards my dream laptop with an e-paper
screen for coding outside.

------
beezle
Any feel on how the Sony's IAP140 ARM53 processor stacks up against the A9 in
the reMarkable? Little I could find seems to indicate edge still with the A9.

The Sony also has 16GB vs 8B storage, 11GB usuable, not sure how much of that
8 will be free on reMarkable.

I really hate Sony - many bad experiences but have to say, the near 8.5x11
format is very attractive and my one disappointment on my reMarkable preorder.
Bummer that it only does pdf but not hard to go epub -> pdf

Will be interested to read the full reviews of the Sony though tend to think
I'd wait at least a year before contemplating a purchase even if the reviews
turn out to be good.

To save you the math:

Sony: 8.8x11.9" 8x10.6 display 207 dpi 349gm reMarkable: 6.9x10.1 6.1x8.2 226
dpi 350gm

------
kasperset
What happened to Pixel QI? There is a wikipedia page:
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pixel_Qi)
why did it never took off?

------
walterbell
The 12" iPad Pro is a bit more expensive, but has much broader software
support, including ePub, drawing & file synchronization services. Optional
keyboard & stylus. Will hopefully be getting smaller with new version that
reduces bezel size. As a bonus, good speakers and retina screen.

E-ink has the advantage of being easier on the eyes, but iOS has improved in
this area with night mode (blue light reduction). You can also invert the
screen for white text on black background.

EDIT:

As a user of the Sony DPTS1, one good thing is that it supports WebDAV for
private synchronization of files, along with a removable microSD card. But if
you're already carrying around an iPad Pro of the same screen size, it's hard
to justify also carrying the DPTS1. With SanDisk's iXPand USB drive, iOS apps
can now support removable storage.

Sony should consider adding an app that makes their e-ink screen a second
display for iOS, Android, Windows & MacOS. That way you can use the broad
software portfolio of iOS & Android with the low-power large display of the
Sony Device. You could connect the Sony to your phone via bluetooth and the
e-reader device would only need power when doing a screen refresh / page turn.
Duet Display does this today for iPad,
[https://www.duetdisplay.com/](https://www.duetdisplay.com/)

------
laughfactory
This looks almost good enough. I love the form factor, and the interface looks
good. The remaining issue which needs to be solved for something like this to
take off is the responsiveness issue. Just because I'm using e-ink doesn't
mean I'm going to tolerate slow transitions, or delay in writing on it. I want
it to be what it is, but much faster, and with way better (Surface-like) pen
responsiveness. I watched the video and noted that page transitions were
better than my Paperwhite, but still jarring, and their was obvious delay from
when the pen strokes occurred and when the writing showed up on the screen. I
know these issues are hard ones to solve with e-ink, and in a svelte form
factor, but I suspect eventually someone will nail it. And that's when I'll
buy one. I do vastly prefer reading on a high resolution e-ink screen. It's
just soothing on the eyes.

------
dluan
I feel like Sony took over the mantle from Apple several years ago for putting
out high quality and innovative products. Stuff like this is really cool to
see.

Sony's cameras are the perfect example of modern prosumer tools, incredible
quality, and thinking outside of the box. It would awesome if this translated
into an iphone killer.

~~~
_ph_
You are too young :). There was a time, when Sony was what Apple today is -
the technology giant who puts out amazing new devices all the time. Their
advertising slogan "Its not a trick, its a Sony" was justified back then (up
to the late 80ies, perhaps early 90ies). But I am very happy to see, that some
of that old Sony is coming back.

~~~
mathewsanders
And the industrial design was fantastic. I remember a kid coming to high
school with this walkman ([http://www.walkman-
archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_05_701c_...](http://www.walkman-
archive.com/gadgets/walkman_sony_05_701c_v3.htm)) after his Dad had visited
Japan, I was amazed that it was only fractionally larger than the tape it
held. 30 years later and IMO it still looks modern.

------
ungzd
Seems that it's first of a kind device: it's definitely not just a dumb book
reader but something aimed for content creation. So there are no off-the-shelf
software for such devices, and I doubt Sony is able to make decent software
for it. Also, e-ink screen might be too slow for handwriting.

~~~
douche
I recently got one of these [https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-
android-e-reade...](https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/13-3-inch-android-e-
reader). It's pretty fantastic so far. The stylus and e-ink screen do work
pretty well for handwriting with the built-in notebook software.

~~~
nkrisc
That looks like just what I'd want. Still a little more than I'm willing to
pay at the moment. I don't even mind the slower refresh rate of the screen for
handwriting and drawing. I'm not making art, just taking notes and sketching
concepts.

------
seanwilson
I wish they could make one either without a bezel or a bezel that was
indistinguishable from the screen so it would look as close to a piece of
paper as possible.

------
zem
I will wait for someone other than sony to make a product like this; for
better or worse I have a knee jerk aversion to buying anything from sony or
apple because my expectation is that the device will be able to do a lot of
neat things that they will spend tons of time and money trying to lock me out
of.

------
Nomentatus
I want one. Now. There is another technology with a high refresh rate,
transflective.
[http://t17.net/transflectiveTFT/](http://t17.net/transflectiveTFT/)

And I've seen a presale or kickstarter for a fast epaper tablet not from Sony.

------
tapia
Am I the only one who is still waiting for tablets/e-readers to use Mirasol
technology [0]?

\--- [0]
[https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric_modulator_disp...](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Interferometric_modulator_display)

------
skizm
Can this create new PDFs at least? Like can I just open a blank page, doodle a
bit, and save it as a PDF?

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0xxon
Even their old device (DPTS1) can do that - so I would assume yes.

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WalterBright
I want one.

I have a Kindle DX, which is pretty good. I sure wish, though, that the
screensaver was the last page read. That way I could open up a quick reference
pdf, prop it up next to my screen, and not have it continually switch off.

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ubersoldat2k7
Got an eBook reader from Sony a few months before they totally abandoned their
store and now all I've got is an outdated product. OTOH, it works quite well
with different formats. Great hardware, so-so software, crappy post-sales
service.

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leecarraher
man it's expensive, but totally want this device. I read and regrettably print
out a ton of research documents for note-taking and reference, that 6" readers
just can't seem to match.

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EvgeniyZh
Those were exactly my thoughts.

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spott
Is the refresh rate on e-paper screens good enough for drawing on yet? I was
under the distinct impression that they still have a long enough refresh rate
to make the delay... distracting.

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baron816
I'm pretty sure paper will never truly die. The ability to fold it, dispose of
it, and manipulate it in a thousand different ways are some pretty killer
features.

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downrightmike
The end factor against large adoption is that: paper is cheap

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bmuon
I wonder if they've made any significant advancements in input latency.
Something like this was my dream device when I was in college.

