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No, when I say e-ink I mean e-ink. I want a display that looks like a printed page, lit by reflecting whatever ambient lighting is around. Like the displays sho

No, when I say e-ink I mean e-ink. I want a display that looks like a printed page, lit by reflecting whatever ambient lighting is around. Like the displays shown in the page this post is about except with a better refresh rate and better dot density. Maybe with a front light for working in the dark. I would love to stop staring into a big light panel all day long when I work. Replacing a bunch of complex filters over a big white light with a bunch of tiny lights is still staring into a light panel.

mdp2021 5y ago
> No, when I say There is a misunderstanding there: I meant, your current machine probably uses OLED. I meant that your struggle for working outdoors, hindered by power consumption and screen visibility, can be already supported maybe by a portable power sources and tricks (solar etc.), but if the display you are using is OLED then I guess (by experience, not by numbers which I have unfortunately never checked) that you are using the "least" outdoors-friendly option. > I mean e-ink A bit pedantically, 'E Ink' refers to a producer of ElectroPhoretic Displays (EPD). You probably "dream of" a "good EPD" for working outdoors, but the limits of EPD, as seen in 'E Ink' products, do involve a number of compromises. Contrast can be an issue, and real EPD instances may require care in lighting similarly to (and in a way more than) more traditional displays. Saturation will similarly be a "difficult" area.
- egypturnash 5y ago
  You are getting lost in implementation details when interpreting my statement. If you insist on being excruciatingly precise, then what I have been wanting for multiple years is a Mac that has a display that works via reflection, rather than emission. I do not care in the slightest whether it is by moving around electrically-charged bits of ink, flipping around tiny little tiles, shivering the atoms of the screen into a new configuration that reflects the desired wavelengths, by broadcasting a magical sigil into my brain that makes me think I'm seeing an image when I'm actually seeing a piece of bare wood with a spell carved into it, or any other implementation details. I merely care that it is working with the sunlight instead of fighting it. And I am sad that the R&D funding for reflective display technologies seems to have largely dried up, leaving only a slow series of underwhelming announcements of new displays from E Ink Holdings, Incorporated. Whose name is sufficiently generic that it would probably be at risk of becoming a generic name for any reflective display technology even if they weren't the only people making any attempt to push it forwards. This is what "I have been wanting a color e-ink Mac I can work with under direct sunlight for so long now. I will be waiting many years longer." is intended to unpack to.
  - mdp2021 5y ago
    > what I have been wanting for multiple years Right. Very many of us have been wanting that, you know. And we are all very «sad that the R&D funding for reflective display technologies seems to have largely dried up». Last time, when CLEARink vanished. So, again: practically, for your work outdoors, if it involves graphics, * you may have a chance within some months to combine your Mac with a VNC connected large enough Kaleido or ACeP based tablet, and bear with the compromises each involves, or * bring around some batteries, but if your Mac is OLED based that will make little sense, unless * you bring around an effective shader (umbrella, shield, pizza delivery box etc.) - many of us do. This was the suggestion.

mdp2021 5y ago

> No, when I say There is a misunderstanding there: I meant, your current machine probably uses OLED. I meant that your struggle for working outdoors, hindered by power consumption and screen visibility, can be already supported maybe by a portable power sources and tricks (solar etc.), but if the display you are using is OLED then I guess (by experience, not by numbers which I have unfortunately never checked) that you are using the "least" outdoors-friendly option. > I mean e-ink A bit pedantically, 'E Ink' refers to a producer of ElectroPhoretic Displays (EPD). You probably "dream of" a "good EPD" for working outdoors, but the limits of EPD, as seen in 'E Ink' products, do involve a number of compromises. Contrast can be an issue, and real EPD instances may require care in lighting similarly to (and in a way more than) more traditional displays. Saturation will similarly be a "difficult" area.

egypturnash 5y ago
You are getting lost in implementation details when interpreting my statement. If you insist on being excruciatingly precise, then what I have been wanting for multiple years is a Mac that has a display that works via reflection, rather than emission. I do not care in the slightest whether it is by moving around electrically-charged bits of ink, flipping around tiny little tiles, shivering the atoms of the screen into a new configuration that reflects the desired wavelengths, by broadcasting a magical sigil into my brain that makes me think I'm seeing an image when I'm actually seeing a piece of bare wood with a spell carved into it, or any other implementation details. I merely care that it is working with the sunlight instead of fighting it. And I am sad that the R&D funding for reflective display technologies seems to have largely dried up, leaving only a slow series of underwhelming announcements of new displays from E Ink Holdings, Incorporated. Whose name is sufficiently generic that it would probably be at risk of becoming a generic name for any reflective display technology even if they weren't the only people making any attempt to push it forwards. This is what "I have been wanting a color e-ink Mac I can work with under direct sunlight for so long now. I will be waiting many years longer." is intended to unpack to.
- mdp2021 5y ago
  > what I have been wanting for multiple years Right. Very many of us have been wanting that, you know. And we are all very «sad that the R&D funding for reflective display technologies seems to have largely dried up». Last time, when CLEARink vanished. So, again: practically, for your work outdoors, if it involves graphics, * you may have a chance within some months to combine your Mac with a VNC connected large enough Kaleido or ACeP based tablet, and bear with the compromises each involves, or * bring around some batteries, but if your Mac is OLED based that will make little sense, unless * you bring around an effective shader (umbrella, shield, pizza delivery box etc.) - many of us do. This was the suggestion.