6 ms·

I find myself frustrated by a different way in which the "Future Book" is slow to arrive - specifically, the glacial pace that e-Ink displays are improving. I b

I find myself frustrated by a different way in which the "Future Book" is slow to arrive - specifically, the glacial pace that e-Ink displays are improving. I bought each generation and found them better and better, and yet... every generation seems further apart and slower and slower to finally close in on the ideal: black ink on a white, non-glowing background. The. Background. Is. Still. Gray. Dammit! So frustrating - I'm an enthusiast for these (for travel). I love owning physical books, but would happily cull all but my top books (you know, 60-80 linear meters of shelf space) and keep a lot of things on e-books. But only if e-Ink displays can finally get to a white background!

spookybones 7y ago
I'm still waiting for decent note-taking. I like marginalia in physical books. I own the latest paperwhite, which is supposed to have the best note-taking capabilities, and typing is excruciatingly slow.
- glangdale 7y ago
  There were a couple things on the market that were claiming this (the ReMarkable and one other new one) as a feature. To me the note-taking would be pretty good also, but the fact that it's black-on-gray is the full-on deal-breaker (or at least, I already have a latest-gen display in the current shade of gray and until it improves, I'm not getting another one, even if it's bigger or good for note taking).
Tepix 7y ago
eBooks displays appear to be getting faster. The main problem is that large eInk displays are still very expensive. An eBook reader with a DIN A4 (14.32 inch diagonal) screen costs around $800 or so. There aren't many to choose from. They would be extremely useful to read (and annotate) scientific papers. Perhaps the next version of the reMarkable ebook reader will feature a backlight.
criddell 7y ago
Other than Kindle, which e-Ink devices have you tried?
- glangdale 7y ago
  It's not Kindle vs ... (I've tried Kobo, and seen a good range in stores). The point is that e-ink has a effective monopoly and even all the Carta (the newest ones) displays are the same color when they are trying to be 'white'. Apparently the black tends to show through a bit from the back of the cell, so I think this is a hard physical problem. But trying to make it white again by shining a light on it is a hack, and not one that is really in keeping with the promise of the tech. In the absence of competition, and the fact that this isn't really a very dynamic area (apparently a lot of other people are happy to read on their phones or not read at all), I'm not optimistic this problem will be fixed.
  - criddell 7y ago
    I see. Thanks for clarifying. I'm pretty happy with e-Ink. I have the poorly named Kindle Paperwhite. I sometimes read on my iPad and I tend to set the colors to either light gray text on a black background or black text on a light gray background during the day. For me, pure black on white isn't comfortable to look at so I dial the contrast down a bit.

spookybones 7y ago

I'm still waiting for decent note-taking. I like marginalia in physical books. I own the latest paperwhite, which is supposed to have the best note-taking capabilities, and typing is excruciatingly slow.

glangdale 7y ago
There were a couple things on the market that were claiming this (the ReMarkable and one other new one) as a feature. To me the note-taking would be pretty good also, but the fact that it's black-on-gray is the full-on deal-breaker (or at least, I already have a latest-gen display in the current shade of gray and until it improves, I'm not getting another one, even if it's bigger or good for note taking).

Tepix 7y ago

eBooks displays appear to be getting faster. The main problem is that large eInk displays are still very expensive. An eBook reader with a DIN A4 (14.32 inch diagonal) screen costs around $800 or so. There aren't many to choose from. They would be extremely useful to read (and annotate) scientific papers. Perhaps the next version of the reMarkable ebook reader will feature a backlight.

criddell 7y ago

Other than Kindle, which e-Ink devices have you tried?

glangdale 7y ago
It's not Kindle vs ... (I've tried Kobo, and seen a good range in stores). The point is that e-ink has a effective monopoly and even all the Carta (the newest ones) displays are the same color when they are trying to be 'white'. Apparently the black tends to show through a bit from the back of the cell, so I think this is a hard physical problem. But trying to make it white again by shining a light on it is a hack, and not one that is really in keeping with the promise of the tech. In the absence of competition, and the fact that this isn't really a very dynamic area (apparently a lot of other people are happy to read on their phones or not read at all), I'm not optimistic this problem will be fixed.
- criddell 7y ago
  I see. Thanks for clarifying. I'm pretty happy with e-Ink. I have the poorly named Kindle Paperwhite. I sometimes read on my iPad and I tend to set the colors to either light gray text on a black background or black text on a light gray background during the day. For me, pure black on white isn't comfortable to look at so I dial the contrast down a bit.