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ePaper To Be Used For Newspapers and Magazines 312
rustbear writes "The Guardian reports that cheap, paper-thin TV screens that can be used in newspapers and magazines have been unveiled by German electronics giant Siemens. The firm says the low production costs could see the magazine shelves in newsagents come alive with moving images vying for the customers' attention as they move along the aisle. The Siemens spokesman said that one square metre of the material costs around £30, and scientists working on the screens said they should be available by 2007."
moving magazine covers (Score:5, Funny)
Re:moving magazine covers (Score:5, Funny)
It is already there. (Score:5, Funny)
Re:moving magazine covers (Score:2, Funny)
Re:moving magazine covers (Score:4, Funny)
Re:moving magazine covers (Score:2, Interesting)
Imagine actually buying a magazine that has dynamic pages. No longer will kids have to pretend to read a book with a magazine hidden in it - a nice "boss" button will fix that problem in tomorrow's porno magazines! "See, I was reading a science journal - look!"
Re:moving magazine covers (Score:3, Interesting)
Sensible* investment (Score:3, Funny)
Oops...
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:5, Interesting)
This said, a lot of magazines are pretty pricey as it is, what'll they do to their prices if this new device is used on the cover of every issue, no matter what the cost of production? What if the main users of this device are a magazine's advertisers? How about you read an article if the adjoining page has a constantly moving ad? And is a moving image really better? A well composed still image can sometimes be more effective than a moving one. I am loathe to think that the likes of Newsweek or Time will turn into CNN lookalikes ith fancy current events themed graphics flying everywhere. I for one dread the advent of this ePaper. The only useful benefit I could see would be for a broadsheet newspaper to show a video of the top news story. That's it really.
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:3, Insightful)
Read screens now if you want to advocate them (Score:2)
"We think that at the moment the screens will appear first in more expensive magazines in the form of high-impact adverts. But as the price sinks we expect them to appear in papers as well, possibly as a really attention-grabbing front page."
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:2)
I can't think of a situation where an eNewsPaper would require more than one page of ePaper... isn't that the whole idea?
Animation is a very effective way of diplaying large quantities of continuous data that would be more difficult to comprehend statically, so this could appear in the articles of science/engineering publications. Also; sports clips, film trailers, short films, nature clips in publications like National Geographic, the list goes on.
It's unlikely that an entire page of this stuff will
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:2)
Sorry, slight brain malfunction there. Less than 10p.
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:2, Insightful)
moving images (Score:5, Insightful)
With TV and the internet, there are plenty of videos and animations to take in with, or as part of your information diet. The permanence and patience of newspapers and magazines is a nice diversion from the visual bombardment of those other mediums.
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:2)
IMHO animated ads are stupid, annoying, and do not work. But we still have them.
Re:Sensible* investment (Score:5, Interesting)
So, far from going against this trend, they are actually ahead of it. They have just raised the stakes in daily print media - and Rupe is now trying to find a suitable site to build his own color press. Which will take at least 18 months of unwelcome competition. Given the innate conservatism of serious newspaper readers, and the realistic rate of adoption of e-paper, the Guardian's press is likely to have an effective life of at least 10 years. That sounds like a good investment decision to me.
Disclaimer - I work for a print consultancy but my views do not necessarily reflect those of the business.
All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:5, Interesting)
and the downside... (Score:5, Insightful)
The federation does have enemies... (Score:2)
Re:and the downside... (Score:2)
Re:and the downside... (Score:3, Funny)
Well that is the last thing that I need...
A newspaper that watches me while I take a dump.
Re:and the downside... (Score:3, Interesting)
Gee, I could swear this chapter used to be critical of GW Bush and loaded with lots of facts critical of him, but now it's just glowing. It must have been found to be "pro-rerror" and "corrected."
Or someone will hack the system, and every book you buy will turn into The Unabomber's Manifesto on your way home from the store.
Or do more subtle hacks. I could have sworn this encyclopedia said that the Holocaust really d
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:5, Insightful)
... and they will self-destruct after you read them once. Welcome to the DRM world!
Also, Stallman's "Right to Read" may be sadly so true...
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:5, Interesting)
Bad, but it could be so much worse. Imagine this, though: you go back to your newspaper clippings from 2003 to check up on just what the Prime Minister had to say back then. 'Saddam Hussein is evil and must be removed,' you read. 'Whether or not he has weapons of mass destruction is irrelevant; this is a campaign to spread freedom and democracy.'
Hmm. Not what I remember. But it was a long time ago, and there it is in black and white. Guess we weren't lied to after all...
Oceania is at war with Eurasia. Oceania has always been at war with Eurasia.
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:2)
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:2, Interesting)
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:2)
If you can read it, you can photograph it. With a digital camera. And forward that to friends.
I use Scrapbook extension for Firefox (Score:2)
"ScrapBook is a Firefox extension, which helps you to save Web pages and easily manage collections... Save Web page; Save snippet of Web page; Save Web site; Organize the collection in the same way as Bookmarks tree; Full text search and quick filtering search of the collection; Editing of the collected Web page; Text/HTML edit feature resembling Opera's Notes."
Editor's Review
"Incredible page management -- June, 2005 Editors Pick"
"Do you save a lot of webpage files to your computer, but
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:2)
You mean like in E-books?
Somhow I don't think this will revolutionize the industry as much as you seem to think.
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:3, Interesting)
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:2)
Re:All the print- that's news to fit. (Score:3, Insightful)
There's something to be said for permanence. Even if an event is misreported, it is not without value: it shows us what people were saying and/or thought about the event at the time. We learn more from our mistakes than from our successes, and getting into the habit of erasing those m
wallpaper (Score:5, Interesting)
colour your livingroom to your mood, no more painting...
give room-wide slideshows...
You just invented... (Score:2)
Get with the program. Literally not literaturally. (Score:2)
I am (Score:2)
Movies on a 10m screen would be good, and games. Get a properly positioned webcam window up over most of the wall and video-conference. It'd be like having 'em in the room with you.
30quid per meter. That's what, 1 grand or two per wall?
*plots*
Pre.........
Three words why this will happen. (Score:5, Funny)
progress? (Score:5, Funny)
Re:progress? (Score:2, Insightful)
Flashblock / Adblock (Score:2)
OTOH, I won't use Adblock. I have Nuke Anything instead: If a gif ad gets really obnoxious, I just right-click and 'Remove Object' before reading the article. That way, the publication gets its chance to show me (non-obnoxious) ads.
With ePaper, (Score:2)
Great (Score:5, Funny)
My question. How the hell am I going to block popups in my magazines?
Re:Great (Score:2, Insightful)
These screens sound more and more like the novelty cards, and will need a switch on the page otherwise the batteries will flatten before you buy them.
So... just wait a couple of hours with the page open, and then carefully start hacking.
I think you could have a usable display soon afterwards.
One other thing, I went looking at their methods and this paper is not the same as e-ink, they say on the website (link below) it doesn't hold its display without power.
(On the Siemens [siemens.com]
Re:Great (Score:2)
Yes, but then I might block my magazine.
Yes, but... (Score:5, Funny)
Re:Yes, but... (Score:3, Funny)
I'm mystified (Score:5, Interesting)
How about selling blank screens to customers, then have them download content? I mean, we don't throw away our computer screens at every page update. Does anyone know why this guy seems to think completely backwards?
Re:I'm mystified (Score:5, Funny)
Re:I'm mystified (Score:2)
He's thinking about it like an advertiser, or like a consumer, but not like someone who actually reads books/magazines/etc.
Re:I'm mystified (Score:3, Insightful)
He works for the company that will be selling the screens, and you're wondering why he wants to sell as many as possible?
Re:I'm mystified (Score:2, Insightful)
You have to remember that this technology will not result in anything resembling your highly advanced ebook-readers with a lot of memory, rechargable batteries and wifi. Atleast not in 2007 and propably not in 10 years either. Instead these will only have as little memory as needed to show some
Re:I'm mystified (Score:2)
Because once they're manufactured in large quantity, they're going to be like a dollar apiece. It's hard to make money in that price range. Also, they're paper; they fall apart a lot quicker than our current screens.
But, you do have a point. Some people will try your approach, some will try his; the market will eventually determine which is "better".
Re:I'm mystified (Score:2)
What about the power supply, processor, etc.? (Score:5, Insightful)
Re:What about the power supply, processor, etc.? (Score:5, Informative)
Twirlip
Re:What about the power supply, processor, etc.? (Score:5, Interesting)
I don't know how high the power requirements are, but what about something like the Kinetic Power for watches [europastar.com]? Basically, they have self-winding main springs that are wound by the motion of the wearers wrist (spare us the obvious jokes). I don't have a link, but I know some of them can retain power for weeks, even after being removed from the wearer's wrist. They even had one that would go into lower pwoer mode if removed for a while, and would track the time for years. One flick of the wrist a year later and it would instantly snap to the right time.
Now, put one of these on an eNewspaper, and just carrying the thing in your briefcase might be enough to keep it charged.
Re:What about the power supply, processor, etc.? (Score:3, Informative)
Re:What about the power supply, processor, etc.? (Score:2)
The power supply is no problem, the processor will be very slow compared to todays computers if it is to be truely flexible.
Yeah, but we're talking about something that's displaying text and basic graphics. It doesn't have to be a multi-core 64-bit server CPU to show text and basic graphics
Tune in, turn on, drop out (Score:5, Interesting)
I admit I don't read much anymore except off a monitor, but reading requires thinking. A dog can watch and listen.
On a less serious note, this was already tried on cereal boxes in Minority Report [clickz.com], with mixed customer acceptance.
2007 (Score:5, Funny)
Translation: 2025
Great. (Score:2, Funny)
Could this be used.... (Score:3, Interesting)
Or is the resolution/refresh rate too poor?
eInk? (Score:2)
playboy magazine (Score:2, Interesting)
I hope so but don't hold your breath . . (Score:5, Interesting)
While the Harry Potter style pictures mentioned in the article sound cool, a low power, lightweight ebook reader could conceivably change publishing for the better. Maybe after high end advertising subsidizes the development of the technology enough, someone will release an environmentally conscious magazine format that can be refilled RSS style.
Since the pages only need to be powered when their updated, solar power might not be completely unrealistic. Would definitely face hurdles with the pulping industry . . .
Long term information access and credability (Score:3, Interesting)
What about historical research? Even with ordinary paper/ink based information future generations will probably have much less knowledge of our culture than we have of e.g. the culture of the ancient Rome.
With this kind of technology the historical horizon will move even closer to our own time.
Re:Long term information access and credability (Score:2)
Most news is about war, not peace...
Oh, did you mean peice?
Re:Long term information access and credability (Score:2)
Easy, that's gonna cost.
Print media will charge for such a service. Though can you scan it? Hmmm a new market.
Forgot the obvious? (Score:5, Insightful)
Details, image and thoughts (Score:5, Interesting)
It looks like at the moment its B&W, but colour is probably quite a quick upgrade. Resolution looks high, but with the electrode approach there will be a tradeoff I'm sure. Since it looks like the aim is a totally printed technology it should be possible to bring the cost right down.
The main market they seem to be targeting is the fast moving packaging market - fast moving so that printed batteries don't wear out. I would guess that they will seriously be looking at those large billboards as well. However, if you really let your imagination go to town there are many more opportunities for a cheap, large scale, printed display technology. When paired with the other devices which can be printed (chips, antenna, batteries, solar cells, keyboards, and flat panel speakers) you have the possibility of really putting computers anywhere and everywhere for the cost of the materials and a bit of printing. Think smart environment that your PAN interacts with as you move through it.
Techie heaven
DRM (Score:2)
You just know that we will have years worth of misery as each and every content provider implements their own DRM that demands the user purchase and use their particular brand of reader etc etc etc. Any gains in usefulness that we might get from having a cheap light easy to read electonic display will easily be offset by needing to carry around 12 different versions for each publication you want to read. I makes me really cross to see such great technology being scuppered by the petty greed of a small numbe
Re:DRM (Score:2)
Easy. Pick something that you care about or would like to see succeed. Then picture it failing for some stupid reason that is essentially unrelated to the thing you care about. I think you would agree that is at least frustrating and probably anger inducing.
Link to Siemens (Score:5, Informative)
Looks like the reason they are targeting it at packaging initially is because the images change slowly.
Hack that paper!! (Score:5, Interesting)
The original website will be promptly slashdotted to death, 13 seconds after the project is released into the wild.
And you thought flash was annoying!.... (Score:2)
£30 per square meter isn't viable for Newspa (Score:5, Insightful)
Some objections (Score:2, Interesting)
1. As others have posted, flashing ads are the least I wanted to see in a physical newspaper.
2. DRM issues. I, for one, wouldn't want to pay for information on a per-minute basis without being able to store it.
3. Archivation. Digital storage standards evolve, and so, without a physical copy, archiving old content will be increasingly more expensive and difficult because of keeping up with the latest stora
Decomposition (Score:2)
Adverts, yeah, brilliant (Score:2)
Re:Adverts, yeah, brilliant (Score:2)
Harry Potter movie (Score:2)
Reminds me of the Harry Potter movie with the "Criminal Escaped" poster
not likely (Score:2, Informative)
"We think that at the moment the screens will appear first in more expensive magazines in the form of high-impact adverts. But as the price sinks we expect them to appear in papers as well, possibly as a really attention-grabbing front page."
Newspapers and magazines, and any print media company for that matter, are all struggling with technology. Proprietary technology is the norm. There is rarely anything standard between one and the next. The advances in printing technology notwithstanding, no publishe
Limited word on quality FTA (Score:2)
Funny how Seimens is making this stuff, as I think that is just what covered my keyboard.. eeew stttttiiiiiiiiiiiicccckk^H^H^H^y keys.
Anyway, I can't wait until 'slightly lower quality' can be judged for ourselves.
Siemen's to be sued (Score:2)
Stop ironing the newspaper, microwave it instead (Score:3, Funny)
Top Headline (Score:2)
Coming soon, even MORE annoying advertising (Score:2)
I wish they would use this technology for anything OTHER than advertising. Ads for cars, beer and drugs are annoying enough without them 'jumping off the page' telling you about an erectile dysfunction solution.
Inquring minds ... (Score:2, Insightful)
What will we line our bird cages with?
I don't get it -- the technology will be used initially only on the front page? It's electronic and writable - why is there more than 1 page? And if there's only 1 page, why does it need to be paper-thin?
If this is just like paper, there is no UI. That means there is no way to STOP the stupid flash animation from looping? That would be torture - imagine trying to read an article with a never-ending animated dancing monkey
Screens are cheap, but... (Score:3, Insightful)
MadCow
Article is wrong - it's not cheap (Score:3, Insightful)
Note the line "To date, the engineers have been using silicon switching elements to control the device. The objective now is to use a printing process to manufacture the entire display, including the appropriate control electronics, from conductive and semiconducting plastics." The idea of making semiconductor arrays in a printing press has been around for years, but nobody has done it successfullyin production. Siemens hasn't done it either. They're still making the substrate for this in a wafer fab, and it's a big chip. So this is still an expensive technology. It might get cheap, but we've heard that claim before about "e-paper" type technologies.
The "printing semiconductors" idea has been applied to solar cells. There are plenty [fuellesspower.com] of announcements [microfab.com] of breakthroughs in this area, but somehow, nobody actually seems to be shipping product. [konarka.com]
So this requires another breakthrough, and in an area where there have been few successes. It's not here yet.
Old hat (Score:3, Funny)
Re:This does not bode well (Score:2)
Re:paper hacking (Score:3, Funny)
I can't wait for the first remote root hack for one of these ePapers.
Picture it. It's 2013. You're sitting on the Tube on your way to work reading the paper. A hundred other people are doing the same thing. At the other end of the carriage sits a geek with a laptop and some wireless kit. He's tapping away and grinning.
Next thing you know the page contents change.
... All copies of the Times on tha
Re:paper hacking (Score:2)
Re:epaper - What a truly awful technology (Score:2, Insightful)
True, but that's exactly why I think this will ultimately fail. They will try to control it to that extent and people won't go for it. So then they will try to shove it down everyone's throats. But others will produce freeware or even open source alternatives, and the more they try to shove their ePaper down out throats, the more those free or open source alternatives will catch on. Or maybe the ePaper won't catch on much at all - wasn't the wma hyped to completely replace the mp3?
Now if only there was an
Re:epaper - What a truly awful technology (Score:3, Interesting)
More to the point, ePaper wouldn't have any new restrictions built into it that regular paper doesn't already have. Wanna copy it? Photocopy it. This isn't new restrictions being put into media, this is having the same exact restrictions we have always had.
Re:gonna be great for reading foreign papers (Score:2)
Re:EPaper will never take over... (Score:2)