8 ms·

PopSlate, an E ink case for your iPhone

67 points by jdoliner 12y ago

Tepix 12y ago
Popslate is pretty cool, I saw it at MWC 2013 in February of 2013. I guess it never took off because it was too expensive. Guess what - it's gotten more expensive ($129 now). Bummer.
- pjc50 12y ago
  I came here to wonder about the price, and there's the answer. It's a pity that eInk is a great technology that remains horribly expensive. Not sure why; manufacturing yield? Rare inputs? Small volumes?
  - jokoon 12y ago
    ... patents ?
  - unwind 12y ago
    There's no proof that the product is at a particular price point just because one of the needed components is expensive. It might just be priced at what they perceive that the market is willing to pay, this is kind of a luxury product with very little competition, after all.
    - olefoo 12y ago
      Also it could be that they are going for the profit maximising price curve. $129 is worth it; if you would use the functionality a lot. And they must be selling enough units at that price to make it worthwhile for them. Without knowing their cost structure it's hard to say; if their production capacity is limited there may be no way to make enough to meet demand at a lower price. The wiki page is interesting read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_maximization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_maximization
  - ddeck 12y ago
    I'm sure volumes have a lot to do with it, but I doubt it's the display that is driving the cost here. I recently bought a replacement 6" E Ink screen for my kindle at it cost $30. This device has a 4" screen, not sure on the relative resolutions.
- RBerenguel 12y ago
  I missed them at MWC2013 but saw them in 2014 (or was it a ripoff of them?.) Although I found them nice and interesting, they didn't feel "that" groundbreaking.
- nether 12y ago
  $129, jesus. A Kindle Paperwhite is $119.
devnonymous 12y ago
Interesting. Tho' since I already know about yotaphone [ http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ ] this seems like a compromise. The 'second display' as a case does not seem to have the interactivity that the built-in display of yotaphone has. Also, you'd have to turn the bluetooth on to change display ...and yet another 'device' to charge, so well not for me. I am waiting for yotaphone2 to be released
nolk100 12y ago
I used to wear a Pebble watch every day and found it useful but not overly so. That needed charging every 5-7 days, and this claims to last a week on a single charge. I don't wear the pebble watch any more because as lazy as it sounds, I kept forgetting to charge it when it ran out of battery, and there were days where I was walking around with a dead watch, which was at that point essentially an expensive wristband. With my phone, I know I need to charge it every day and it is a habit to plug it in just before I go to sleep every day. With the pebble, and I think this too, sometimes the battery would last 5 days, sometimes 8, and that irregular charging cycles means it's hard to form habits around charging. It became annoying to remember to charge the Pebble and take it off and put it on again. The benefits from having it became less appealing. I fear the same might happen with this if I were to own it, and it would become a bulky iPhone case. At $129 it might be worth a punt but I'm skeptical.
- madeofpalk 12y ago
  > That needed charging every 5-7 days, and this claims to last a week on a single charge. I don't wear the pebble watch any more because as lazy as it sounds, I kept forgetting to charge it when it ran out of battery. Personally, I think this is why Apple will aim for a one day battery life for the Apple Watch. It's much easier to remember to put you watch on to charge every night, than to remember every 3 or 4 days.
  - philippnagel 12y ago
    You are implying they could have built a watch that lasts longer but didn't?
    - madeofpalk 12y ago
      Definitely not - I'm saying that an Apple Watch with a one day battery life would not be a failure and would (IMO) be preferable over a 2 or 3 day battery life (regardless of whether they could make it now or in the future). As many have pointed out Apple (and others) seem to 'solve for X' in regards to battery life. One day seems like an ideal 'X' for a smart watch.
arethuza 12y ago
I was standing behind someone in a queue for boarding a flight whose phone died from lack of charge as they were about to hand it over to be scanned - so having your boarding pass on an e-ink display might actually be a pretty good idea...
- caractacus 12y ago
  Is it really worth $129 so that you don't have to print out a paper copy of your boarding pass when your battery is low?
  - ctdonath 12y ago
    If you don't have a printer handy, yes.
  - arethuza 12y ago
    Well, that's only one scenario - it's definitely useful - would be nice to have it built into the back of a phone.
  - vertex-four 12y ago
    A lot of people no longer have printers, or at least working ones. They'd have to find an Internet cafe and brave the risk of keyloggers, print things off at work, or get a document printing company to do it.
    - uptown 12y ago
      Or print it at a kiosk upon check-in?
      - bhaak 12y ago
        I can check-in from my phone. Edit: downvotes don't make that any less true. The situation the OP was observing could very well have been that the person had checked-in via phone and when boarding was starting, the phone's battery died.
johnchristopher 12y ago
>SAVE POWER > Use the ultra low-power, ePaper screen to extend your battery life That's one way to put it but: s/extend/save is more honest.
- KnightHawk3 12y ago
  Minor nitpick, but shouldn't it be s/save/extend/
  - yiyus 12y ago
    no
deleted 12y ago
[deleted]
jbverschoor 12y ago
Reason to buy for me: read an ebook in the sunlight.
- aakilfernandes 12y ago
  If these perform well, it might be the perfect reason to move to a phablet sized device. I don't really need the extra real estate for my phone, but I'd need it for reading.
listic 12y ago
Like the InkCase, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378232716/inkcase-plus-e-ink-screen-for-android-phone https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378232716/inkcase-plus-... but for iPhone. Nice.
- michaelmior 12y ago
  Thanks for sharing this! PopSlate looks cool but I was a little sad that this would be difficult to pull off for Android due to fragmentation.
covercash 12y ago
A lot of people are commenting on the price but the thing that struck me was the thickness. Based on the images it looks to at least double the thickness of the phone!
harel 12y ago
(silly) Price aside, why is it only for iPhones? Surely the bigger market is Android devices... or both... I see a similar trend with docking station/speakers. I've yet to find a model that has a dock for micro usb. All of them are iPhone centric with an optional cable to the headphone jack of other phones.
- gambiting 12y ago
  Bigger market with Android devices? Very few Android phones will get even close to what any of the iPhone models sold. And docks for iphones are a lot more interesting, because there is an established standard for controlling iOS devices externally, which works with music and many many iOS apps. Not to mention, that for both 30-pin and Lightning connectors the device playing the music is the iphone, not the dock. With Micro USB the only way to do anything would be to access the filesystem and play all the music files found. But that's incredibly difficult, because of different standards, root Android directory being polluted with files for apps, and there is no way to control apps on the phone. Android phones are horrible for standards - mine doesn't even work with a regular remote(next/back + mic) on my headphones.
  - anonymfus 12y ago
    This is not true, most modern Android devices support USB audio class as "very strictly recommended" in Android Compatibility Definition Document and everything supports USB HID devices. Just implement USB sound card and USB keyboard to play music and control it.
    - gambiting 12y ago
      In that case - fair enough. But we are yet to see a single dock which would support this.
- aakilfernandes 12y ago
  The android market is fragmented in many different manufacturers. I'm pretty sure that none of those individual manufacturers comes close to the market share the iPhone has.
romaniv 12y ago
I want a proper E-Inc smartphone, damn it! With no OLED screen. The number of times I used my cellphone to watch videos: 0, as far as I remember. Number of times I wished my phone had longer battery life and didn't auto-dim after 30 seconds: well, every single time I use it for more than 30 seconds. Yeah, yeah, I know that you need fast screen for shooting videos. Whatever. I would settle for a phone with no camera and EInk screen without thinking twice.
- organsnyder 12y ago
  The problem is, that would be a vastly different interface from what app developers (and web developers) are expecting. You might as well get a dumb-phone, since the vast majority of apps will work poorly (if at all).
- devnonymous 12y ago
  I know what you mean. I feel the same way about not just the display but about phone having physical keys or qwerty keyboards ...I mean, the old casio and palms had it right for useful phones to get shit done as the primary function and taking funny cat pics/videos or playing games as secondary. Ah well, I guess I am just old. BTW, as far as E-ink displays are concerned, do you know about the yotaphone ? http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ ? The yotaphone2 is scheduled to be released sooish; I plan on getting one.
- lisnake 12y ago
  YotaPhone 2 is able to fully function using only its eink screen, it will mirror android interface with some customizations considering eink refresh rate and color (but the phone still has OLED screen at the front). The phone already available in Russia and some European countries
jPaolantonio 12y ago
Does anyone know if the screen is only configured via their app?

67 points by jdoliner 12y ago

Tepix 12y ago

Popslate is pretty cool, I saw it at MWC 2013 in February of 2013. I guess it never took off because it was too expensive. Guess what - it's gotten more expensive ($129 now). Bummer.

pjc50 12y ago
I came here to wonder about the price, and there's the answer. It's a pity that eInk is a great technology that remains horribly expensive. Not sure why; manufacturing yield? Rare inputs? Small volumes?
- jokoon 12y ago
  ... patents ?
- unwind 12y ago
  There's no proof that the product is at a particular price point just because one of the needed components is expensive. It might just be priced at what they perceive that the market is willing to pay, this is kind of a luxury product with very little competition, after all.
  - olefoo 12y ago
    Also it could be that they are going for the profit maximising price curve. $129 is worth it; if you would use the functionality a lot. And they must be selling enough units at that price to make it worthwhile for them. Without knowing their cost structure it's hard to say; if their production capacity is limited there may be no way to make enough to meet demand at a lower price. The wiki page is interesting read http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_maximization http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Profit_maximization
- ddeck 12y ago
  I'm sure volumes have a lot to do with it, but I doubt it's the display that is driving the cost here. I recently bought a replacement 6" E Ink screen for my kindle at it cost $30. This device has a 4" screen, not sure on the relative resolutions.
RBerenguel 12y ago
I missed them at MWC2013 but saw them in 2014 (or was it a ripoff of them?.) Although I found them nice and interesting, they didn't feel "that" groundbreaking.
nether 12y ago
$129, jesus. A Kindle Paperwhite is $119.

devnonymous 12y ago

Interesting. Tho' since I already know about yotaphone [ http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ ] this seems like a compromise. The 'second display' as a case does not seem to have the interactivity that the built-in display of yotaphone has. Also, you'd have to turn the bluetooth on to change display ...and yet another 'device' to charge, so well not for me. I am waiting for yotaphone2 to be released

nolk100 12y ago

I used to wear a Pebble watch every day and found it useful but not overly so. That needed charging every 5-7 days, and this claims to last a week on a single charge. I don't wear the pebble watch any more because as lazy as it sounds, I kept forgetting to charge it when it ran out of battery, and there were days where I was walking around with a dead watch, which was at that point essentially an expensive wristband. With my phone, I know I need to charge it every day and it is a habit to plug it in just before I go to sleep every day. With the pebble, and I think this too, sometimes the battery would last 5 days, sometimes 8, and that irregular charging cycles means it's hard to form habits around charging. It became annoying to remember to charge the Pebble and take it off and put it on again. The benefits from having it became less appealing. I fear the same might happen with this if I were to own it, and it would become a bulky iPhone case. At $129 it might be worth a punt but I'm skeptical.

madeofpalk 12y ago
> That needed charging every 5-7 days, and this claims to last a week on a single charge. I don't wear the pebble watch any more because as lazy as it sounds, I kept forgetting to charge it when it ran out of battery. Personally, I think this is why Apple will aim for a one day battery life for the Apple Watch. It's much easier to remember to put you watch on to charge every night, than to remember every 3 or 4 days.
- philippnagel 12y ago
  You are implying they could have built a watch that lasts longer but didn't?
  - madeofpalk 12y ago
    Definitely not - I'm saying that an Apple Watch with a one day battery life would not be a failure and would (IMO) be preferable over a 2 or 3 day battery life (regardless of whether they could make it now or in the future). As many have pointed out Apple (and others) seem to 'solve for X' in regards to battery life. One day seems like an ideal 'X' for a smart watch.

arethuza 12y ago

I was standing behind someone in a queue for boarding a flight whose phone died from lack of charge as they were about to hand it over to be scanned - so having your boarding pass on an e-ink display might actually be a pretty good idea...

caractacus 12y ago
Is it really worth $129 so that you don't have to print out a paper copy of your boarding pass when your battery is low?
- ctdonath 12y ago
  If you don't have a printer handy, yes.
- arethuza 12y ago
  Well, that's only one scenario - it's definitely useful - would be nice to have it built into the back of a phone.
- vertex-four 12y ago
  A lot of people no longer have printers, or at least working ones. They'd have to find an Internet cafe and brave the risk of keyloggers, print things off at work, or get a document printing company to do it.
  - uptown 12y ago
    Or print it at a kiosk upon check-in?
    - bhaak 12y ago
      I can check-in from my phone. Edit: downvotes don't make that any less true. The situation the OP was observing could very well have been that the person had checked-in via phone and when boarding was starting, the phone's battery died.

johnchristopher 12y ago

>SAVE POWER > Use the ultra low-power, ePaper screen to extend your battery life That's one way to put it but: s/extend/save is more honest.

KnightHawk3 12y ago
Minor nitpick, but shouldn't it be s/save/extend/
- yiyus 12y ago
  no

deleted 12y ago

[deleted]

jbverschoor 12y ago

Reason to buy for me: read an ebook in the sunlight.

aakilfernandes 12y ago
If these perform well, it might be the perfect reason to move to a phablet sized device. I don't really need the extra real estate for my phone, but I'd need it for reading.

listic 12y ago

Like the InkCase, https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378232716/inkcase-plus-e-ink-screen-for-android-phone https://www.kickstarter.com/projects/378232716/inkcase-plus-... but for iPhone. Nice.

michaelmior 12y ago
Thanks for sharing this! PopSlate looks cool but I was a little sad that this would be difficult to pull off for Android due to fragmentation.

covercash 12y ago

A lot of people are commenting on the price but the thing that struck me was the thickness. Based on the images it looks to at least double the thickness of the phone!

harel 12y ago

(silly) Price aside, why is it only for iPhones? Surely the bigger market is Android devices... or both... I see a similar trend with docking station/speakers. I've yet to find a model that has a dock for micro usb. All of them are iPhone centric with an optional cable to the headphone jack of other phones.

gambiting 12y ago
Bigger market with Android devices? Very few Android phones will get even close to what any of the iPhone models sold. And docks for iphones are a lot more interesting, because there is an established standard for controlling iOS devices externally, which works with music and many many iOS apps. Not to mention, that for both 30-pin and Lightning connectors the device playing the music is the iphone, not the dock. With Micro USB the only way to do anything would be to access the filesystem and play all the music files found. But that's incredibly difficult, because of different standards, root Android directory being polluted with files for apps, and there is no way to control apps on the phone. Android phones are horrible for standards - mine doesn't even work with a regular remote(next/back + mic) on my headphones.
- anonymfus 12y ago
  This is not true, most modern Android devices support USB audio class as "very strictly recommended" in Android Compatibility Definition Document and everything supports USB HID devices. Just implement USB sound card and USB keyboard to play music and control it.
  - gambiting 12y ago
    In that case - fair enough. But we are yet to see a single dock which would support this.
aakilfernandes 12y ago
The android market is fragmented in many different manufacturers. I'm pretty sure that none of those individual manufacturers comes close to the market share the iPhone has.

romaniv 12y ago

I want a proper E-Inc smartphone, damn it! With no OLED screen. The number of times I used my cellphone to watch videos: 0, as far as I remember. Number of times I wished my phone had longer battery life and didn't auto-dim after 30 seconds: well, every single time I use it for more than 30 seconds. Yeah, yeah, I know that you need fast screen for shooting videos. Whatever. I would settle for a phone with no camera and EInk screen without thinking twice.

organsnyder 12y ago
The problem is, that would be a vastly different interface from what app developers (and web developers) are expecting. You might as well get a dumb-phone, since the vast majority of apps will work poorly (if at all).
devnonymous 12y ago
I know what you mean. I feel the same way about not just the display but about phone having physical keys or qwerty keyboards ...I mean, the old casio and palms had it right for useful phones to get shit done as the primary function and taking funny cat pics/videos or playing games as secondary. Ah well, I guess I am just old. BTW, as far as E-ink displays are concerned, do you know about the yotaphone ? http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ http://yotaphone.com/in-en/ ? The yotaphone2 is scheduled to be released sooish; I plan on getting one.
lisnake 12y ago
YotaPhone 2 is able to fully function using only its eink screen, it will mirror android interface with some customizations considering eink refresh rate and color (but the phone still has OLED screen at the front). The phone already available in Russia and some European countries

jPaolantonio 12y ago

Does anyone know if the screen is only configured via their app?