Notion Ink Adam Tablet vs Kindle & an LCD tablet in sunlight. Kindle for webOS.

NOTION INK'S ADAM, WITH PIXEL QI, VS KINDLE AND PANDIGITAL NOVEL IN DIRECT SUNLIGHT

The long awaited Adam Tablet by Notion Ink has a combo display of LCD switchable with an E-Paper display, with backlighting Off.

Good E-Reader Blog has a report and VIDEO and I've linked you to the larger YouTube one.


Here's an image-link to another, separate video, by Charbax, that also shows the e-paper display with backlight off.  When the backlight is On, the display is a sort of light blue-gray in the videos.  Nevertheless, both videos show reflections from the glass from the lighting above.

The first video gives you an idea of how the Adam looks in direct sunlight and how it compares with the e-ink and LCD displays.

They were disappointed to see that the dual layer of glass that it uses was "highly reflective in the sun, and even the matted screen protector is pretty useless."

' Our first comparison is with the Amazon Kindle and the Notion Ink Adam in Pixel QI mode.  We give you a great visual example of how the Adam ranks against one of the premier e-ink based electronic readers.  We have to give the advantage in this test to the Amazon Kindle.

The next comparison we show is how the Notion Ink Adam ranks with the Pandigital Novel 9 inch edition.   This test is mainly ... to show how Pixel QI in the Adam compares to the standard LCD based tablet and e-reader combination found in most competing devices.  We have to decide this contest in favor of the Adam, as the LCD was unreadable in direct sunlight. '

AMAZON ANNOUNCES KINDLE FOR PALM's webOS IS COMING
This is in connection with HP's Palm webOS press conference today.
  Of special interest was the last part of the following statement:

' "We're working with Amazon to bring HP customers the free Kindle app and, along with it, the largest selection of the most popular books," said Jon Oakes, director, TouchPad Product Marketing, HP. "TouchPad's beautiful, fully featured Kindle app supports the Kindle features users already know and love, and it's one of the first Kindle applications to support the latest Kindle features like Collections." '

Collections.  That last is key and I hope it shows up soon in the Kindle for PC and for Mac etc.


Kindle 3's   (UK: Kindle 3's),   DX Graphite

---

Check often: Temporarily-free late-listed non-classics or recently published ones
  Guide to finding Free Kindle books and Sources.  Top 100 free bestsellers.
UK-Only: recently published non-classics, bestsellers, or highest-rated ones
    Also, UK customers should see the UK store's Top 100 free bestsellers.

Pixel Qi combines e-ink challenger and color for sometime next year

The Pixel Qi will be quite a combo and I hope Bezos is looking at it for the next generation Kindle, beyond the Kindle DX.  A lot of work is needed first.

It combines an e-ink type of screen mode with a color screen mode.  As for the time-frame we can expect this to beocme a reality for actual devices on the market, Josh Quittner writes:

' The displays still have a way to go, of course.  A third party would need to build a proper motherboard, optimized for the display and an e-reader.  (Simply slapping a PQ display on the Acer gives it an extra hour or so of battery life; an optimized e-reader essentially goes to sleep between the turn of each page, saving far more power, among other things.)  But Mary Lou said that a manufacturer could buy PQ's technology today and have an e-reader that could render high-def text, on a full color page, and video, by the first quarter of next year.  The screens are cheap to produce, too—well under $200, she said. Such a device ought to enjoy 40 hours or so of use as an e-reader, between charges.  Video would drain the battery faster, obviously. '

I can't imagine that if this is workable that Bezos won't make an effort to use it for future Kindles.

UPDATE - 6/1/09 (Original posting: 5/31/09 - 9:03 PM)   In an earlier entry on this blog about the cost of the components for the Kindle, iSuppli's supervising analyst, Andrew Rasseiler, estimates the cost of the e-ink display at $60 "or about 42% of the cost of materials."  So, the Pixel Qi screen costing "well under $200" indicates a fairly costly device, when the wireless is included as it is now.

  Also, Taiwan’s Prime View International is buying E-Ink in Cambridge, Massachusetts, for $215 million.  They are the company that currently integrates the Kindle's E-Ink screen into the final module and will combine the two companies now into a single public company.  E-Ink's founder and CEO, Russell J. Wilcox, says they can now "streamline the supply chain and speed up new product." It'd be nice to lower the costs while they're at it. :-)

UPDATE - 6/3/09 - CNet offers more info on what PVI does and what its relationship has been with epaper manufacturer E Ink of Cambridge, Mass.  They worked together on Sony readers as well.  As a wholly-owned subsidiary of PVI, once the deal is approved, E Ink will likely add another 20 workers to its 120-member staff.

UPDATE - 6/3/09 - (Original posting: 5/31/09 - 9:03 PM)   A closer look at Pixel Qi's images.
  Kindle Zen's Steve Bains has an interesting article on Pixel Qi's images and the lighting and angles involved, and there's a video demo of the prototype screen in action on the streets in sunlight.  Bains points out that CNet's Peter Glaskowsky has cautioned that some of the marketing in the past by Mary Lou Jepson, Pixel Qi's founder, who was CTO for the One Laptop Per Child project, has included claims that Glaskowsky doesn't find quite supportable and which he terms "hyperbole." I'm not quite sure why Glaskowsky finds PQ's focus too narrow when I'd think that would be a criticism of companies like E Ink also - and Pixel Qi's technology looks quite promising.

Pay a visit to Kindle Zen to see the full report by Bains and the many other interesting stories on their site, somewhat off the beaten path.

UPDATE - 6/8/09 - New video of Kindle 1 next to Pixel Qi in all kinds of light.  I was surprised at how green the Pixel Qi screen looks, next to the Kindle.