Re: [NTLK] New Sony eReader PRS-600: Newton/Kindle Killer?

From: Aaron Brigati <abrigati_at_gmail.com>
Date: Wed Sep 02 2009 - 09:38:05 EDT

On Sep 2, 2009, at 9:00 AM, James Fraser wrote:

> An eReader manufacturer that doesn't see fit to include a backlight
> into their not-inexpensive product is not giving me what I want,
> but what they think I ought to have. And until that former
> condition is met, my money tends to stay in my pocket. Other folks
> might feel differently than I do and I respect that.
>

An eReader product using an e-ink screen CANNOT have a backlight.

The technology does not permit it. e-ink pages are opaque.

It would be like backlighting a paper page.

The way e-ink works, each pixel is a little chamber filled with fluid
and light and dark particles.

For a pixel to be 'black', the dark particles are pushed to the top
and the light ones to the bottom.

For it to be light, the black pixels are pushed to the bottom, with
the light ones on top.

If you backlit an e-ink page, if any light got through at all it
would be solid grey, since it's not like the pixels are 'on' or 'off'
- think of it like the page is made if millions of ping-pong balls
painted black on one site, that are rotated to make the display.

This is why it uses no power to display a page, only change the page
- once the particles are in place, they stay there.

Frankly, I find my entirely non-backlit Bookeen CyBook v3 to be
readable in more light conditions than my Newton - except total
darkness, of course.

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Received on Wed Sep 2 09:45:49 2009

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