Nikkei Electronics Asia Online goes deep into the current state of Electronic Ink technology and its ongoing march toward consumer electronics. E-Paper Enters Practical Use is a pretty long read. But here are a few highlights for the nontechnical: "E Ink has developed an electronic ink with improved after-image characteristics, and has already begun to supply it to equipment manufacturers. 'The ink we supply now is the one with no after-images,' said Ryosuke Kuwada, vice president at E Ink." One of the problems users of the Sony Librie noted was the problem of "ghosting," or what is technically called an "after-image." ...

Christian publisher Thomas Nelson "gets" the importance of e-books. What remains to be seen is whether CEO Mike Hyatt "gets" the importance of universal compatibility as opposed to proprietary formats and fence-'em-in DRM. In an article for The Book Standard, Jerome Kramer reports on an interview Hyatt recently gave to a group of Wall Street analysts about Thomas Nelson Publishers. Hyatt talks about the importance of preparing for the "digital revolution" of the publishing industry. Sees 5 to 7 percent shift to e-books over five years Hyatt foresees a 5 to 7 percent shift over the next five years to e-books...

iRex has updated the photos page of its website with these two new high-resolution photos of an iRex-branded iLiad in action. These photos give us a further glimpse into the capabilities of The iLiad, as well as our first looks at some of the various ports and connections. The photo on the left shows The iLiad's booklisting scheme, which not only includes title and author information, but also such meta-information as what font type and size is used, as well as a description of the book. Across the bottom of the display, there are a number of soft "buttons" that...

iRex Technologies has tapped Wacom's battery-less Penabled technology for use in the forthcoming iLiad. So says Wacom's European European subsidiary. According to a news release, Wacom's technology is capable of providing 256 levels of pressure-sensitivy, meaning the iLiad's touchscreen will "respond" to the amount of pressure applied and will produce writing with the appropriate thickness or thinness. An "eraser," also with 256 levels of sensitivity, is also incorporated into the technology. About that battery-less design: Wacom Penabled is a patented technology that communicates via an electromagnetic signal with a sensor-board embedded behind the device display to determine position and pressure...

New color-capable displays from Fujitsu won't need a power source--because they'll rely on energy from wireless transmissions beamed to them to update the images. So reports The Age in Australia. The flexible displays are to be available commercially in 18 months. Alas, the company apparently expects first uses to be advertising, point of sales systems for real-time pricing of merchandise, and public transportation signs--rather than e-books. But if the technology does reach e-bookdom, could the displays even serve up high-res, fast-streaming video with the text, using batteries if need be? Also, how about the devices as auxiliary gadgets for other...

Jared Ranum, an American based in Japan, aka Gadget Central, is our latest TeleBlog contributor. Let's see how the Japanese repond to the Iliad--perhaps he'll be among the first of us to behold Librie II or whatever. Welcome, Jared! - David Rothman, moderator. Greetings, TeleRead-ers. I've been e-reading books for years. My first book gizmo was a Franklin handheld Bible that displayed all of three lines of text on its glorious, calculator-style display screen. "Display strip" is probably more accurate. This was followed in more recent times by a Compaq iPaq that briefly used for trying to read books using...