Epaper.org.uk claims to have solved the riddle of the Chinese Iliad copy: an unnamed Irex representative confirmed their suspicion that the Ewind ebook reading device is an iLliad that is being sold in China to test the waters.
In another report, Epaper.org.uk claims that the screens for the Sony Librié, Sony Reader, Jinke Hanlin V2 and V8 and Irex iLiad are all produced by Prime View International (PDF spec-sheet), and that all these devices use the same Micronix screen driver chipsets.
From the first report:
It is interesting to note that the iLiad is already being offered for sale on the web site of a Chinese e-reader retailer, eWind. What is significant is that the device specifications on the Chinese site did not include any mention of either the touch screen input, or the content delivery system, and the quoted price of 5000Yuan, about Euro520, is also much lower.
When I first came upon this site I suspected that in line with an established practice amongst mobile phone manufacturers an early version of the device is being test marketed in China in order to iron out any software bugs. I mentioned this to iRex and they have just confirmed my suspicions.
And from the second:
The display for the iRex iLiad is manufactured in Taiwan by Prime View International, who also make the e-ink displays for both the Sony Librie, the Sony PRS500 Reader, and the Tainjin Jinke V2 and V8 e-readers. PVI use technology licensed from and developed by Philips. Another common factor between all these devices is their use of the Micronix screen driver chip set and that all are Linux systems. Does this mean that we could see the early emergence of a common format usable on all three?
Related: Vendor: Not all Electronic Ink displays created equal. Also see the news release Plastic Logic and iRex join IFRA eNews initiative and IFRA’s e-paper issue for free and another news release, Plastic Logic ereader mock-ups look just like real newspapers.
A little more info:
The iLiad machine has a bigger screen (about eight inches, not six) and more grey-scale levels than the Sony machine.
From an iLiad spec sheet: “16 levels of grey (160 dpi).”
The Sony has a 4-level grey-scale and 170 pixels per inch.
so it means that we can already buy iLiad from china, for a cheaper price?
thats pretty cool.
Yes, and it also means that Philips is doing a great job in R&D and the rest of the world is going to worship them for many moons to go … 😉
I seem to get the impression that European MNCs seem to doing more hard-science research that churn out cool stuffs like eink than US or other countries. Yes?
E Ink was developed in the US by Xerox and MIT.