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Comment by Xichekolas | Hacker News Reader

E Ink's big problem is the Mirasol technology that Qualcomm has.

Mirasol supposedly has better power usage characteristics than E Ink, and does color and full-motion video to boot. It's also basically ready now, with Qualcomm promising both 5.7 and 10.5 inch tablet/readers using the display by the holiday season.

To see the Mirasol in action: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jmpBgaPGYKQ&feature=playe...

The rumor is that this is the display that will be found in the next Kindle, but who knows for sure.

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Thanks for linking to Mirasol, I hadn't heard of it before and am now terribly excited.

I think E-Inks main problems are two-fold: 1) It took forever to come to market in any meaningful way. I think I remember reading about it in the mid 90's if I'm correct.

2) It cost too much once it did come to market. I'd expect an 8.5"x11" display capable of showing PDFs to cost a fraction of what they do now.

okay, actually three-fold

3) It's dead slow and leaves artifacts all over the place unless you do an annoying blank out of the entire display area.

There's plenty of room for B&W digital paper displays in today's world, but it just seems to have come out all wrong, too late and too much money for the industry to stick with it. E Ink just won't be able to keep up with the technology demands of the market space it seems to have created.

The slow update is my main problem with E-Ink. I want to browse and make notes in documents/code on an A4-sized screen which is as easy to read as paper. (Preferably sized as two A4. Color and video would be nice, but optional. Minimal power need also optional.)

I don't really care if Pixel Qi, E-Ink, Mirasol or one of the others solves this, but is seems I'll finally be able to buy one in less than a year.

There's also Pixel Qi tech, which will start appearing in devices in a few months.

See http://www.fastcompany.com/blog/erica-westly/science-inc/pix...

That's an amazing demo. What's the price-per-pixel compared to E-Ink?

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