This screen-related gem was spotted by the sharp-eyed Michael Harris in the blog of Mary Lou Jepsen, formerly OLPC’s CTO and now running her own tech company, Pixel Qi:
"We’ve been a bit quiet in the blog, but have found manufacturers and kicked off development of some new screens that will be ready next year. These screens will go into both laptops and e-book readers and offer massively longer battery life, and much better readability in both room-light and in sunlight, as well as in the case of the laptop screens excellent color, contrast. We have been working hard and traveling constantly all over the world to meet with customers, manufacturers, partners and funders. We are in process of closing our series-A investment round and will announce it shortly."
Strong competition for E Ink? Remember, Mary Lou is talking about color, a handy capability for the textbook market. I wonder about refresh rates. Will the displays also be good for movies and all that.
Faust in reverse for Mary Lou?
Meanwhile I wonder if Mary Lou will link up with Amazon, now that the company is making a big push in textbooks. I’d have mixed feelings on that at best—given Amazon’s love of DRM and eBabel in the e-book area.
Hey, Mary Lou, could you do a Dr. Faust act in reverse (image)? Let Amazon strike a bargain with an angel, you, rather than the Devil.
"No miracle displays for you, Jeff, unless you stop trying to herd the whole bleepin’ world into Amazon-blessed formats."
Of course, we can hope that maybe Amazon on its own will let the Kindle render ePub natively, and will start a DRMfree e-book store.
Related, from Mary Lou: Higher resolution than we thought: The XO laptop screen.
David writes:
> “No miracle displays for you, Jeff, unless you
> stop trying to herd the whole bleepin’ world
> into Amazon-blessed formats.”
and:
> we can hope that maybe Amazon on its own will
> let the Kindle render ePub natively, and will
> start a DRMfree e-book store
Do you believe in porcine aviation, too, David? 😉
I dunno, Todd. Mary Lou obviously has a social conscience, so you never know. If she and friends control the tech, that would give ’em some leverage over Amazon.
As for flying pigs, you’d be surprised what’s ahead in bio engineering.
Cheers,
David
Amazon is Belzebub and it would be Mary Lou’s soul at play.
Stephen: Exactly why I suggested the reverse Faust act! That way, she might actually do good and well—and Amazon would have yet more incentives for doing the right thing. David
Well, she did say that only the laptop screens will have color, “as well as in the case of the laptop screens excellent color”, so either the tech is different for the two applications or she is trying to keep the cost low for the e-reader? Guess we’ll just have to wait and see if/when something comes to market.
TheRealBillC,
The olpc screen has two modes, one is color, the other is black and white and is sunlight-readable.
anyone find it ironic that in the picture, the OLPC screen looks dark? Kind of like an LCD that is being viewed at an angle.