Mobile/PDA About Us Advertise here


		User name	Password

		Not registered yet? Register here. Lost your password? Click here.

Browse by topic

News

3G phone with e-book reader and 5 inch screen to be available this year

22 January 2008 1:56 by Rich "vurbal" Fiscus | 13 comments

A Dutch company called Polymer Vision hopes to make a big splash this year with the introduction of their new Readius, a 3G mobile phone with a 5 inch display that folds into the device when not in use. The technology that makes this possible is called the Rollable Screen, which involves a display that can literally be rolled up to fit into the device.

In addition to being a phone, the Readius will also be an e-book reader, using the same E-Ink material for its display as the Amazon Kindle, a reader introduced last year by Amazon.com which has no phone functionality. E-ink is primarily notable for appearing very similar to paper, including it's reflective properties. For this reason it makes a superior display for reading from. It's also capable of retaining an image without requiring any electricity, resulting in devices that are more energy efficient than those using conventional LCD displays.

"You get the large display of e-reading, the super battery life of e-reading, and the high-end connectivity ... and the form factor and weight of a mobile phone," said Karl McGoldrick, chief executive of the company, in which electronics giant Phillips has a 25% stake.

Polymer Vision has announced that the Readius will be available some time near the middle of 2008. As of this time no price has been set.

Permalink to this article | Topics: Gadgets Phones

'Kindle' rival coming soon (24 December 2008)

E-books coming to Nintendo DS (10 December 2008)

Amazon Kindle sold out until 2009 (29 November 2008)

LG launches 10,000:1 PC monitor in UK (3 March 2008)

Sony to begin buying LCD TV panels from Sharp (24 February 2008)

New modular phones available in October from USB flash drive innovator (7 February 2008)

Amazon MP3 to go international in 2008 (27 January 2008)

AT&T will offer iPhone to business accounts (20 January 2008)

iPhone holds almost 20 percent of smartphone market (15 January 2008)

Touchscreen Blackberry coming? (22 December 2007)

New 3G iPhone coming in 2008 (1 December 2007)

European iPhone will support 3G, have 16GB storage? (12 September 2007)

Nokia to ship 3G phones to China starting in 2008 (28 May 2007)

« Previous news article
Canadian Privacy Minister expresses concern over copyright amendments

Next news article »
Blu-ray players sell almost 13:1 against HD DVD

Post your comment

Discuss this article!
red2tango (Inactive) 22 January 2008 6:38
ugly [ + quote]
pieman (Senior Member) 22 January 2008 7:56
What, you or the phone?:) [ + quote]
fgamer (Member) 22 January 2008 8:44
they can keep it. [ + quote]
tefarko (Junior Member) 22 January 2008 10:37
they had phones like that in "Earth Final Conflict"... [ + quote]
ikari (Junior Member) 22 January 2008 10:57
*Originally posted by tefarko:* they had phones like that in "Earth Final Conflict"... I have been waiting for a phone like this. I am sure the first, maybe second generation wave of these kinds of phone will not be that good, but it is a start to some pretty cool phones. More energy effient means more talk and standby time. [ + quote]
vinny13 (Inactive) 22 January 2008 11:12
Cool [ + quote]
neo1000 (Junior Member) 22 January 2008 14:32
seems pretty interesting,i�m sure they�ll find a lot more uses por it. [ + quote]
mark5hs (Senior Member) 22 January 2008 14:39
Is this OLED? [ + quote]
tripplite (Senior Member) 22 January 2008 21:29
ha ah ah a h poor Europeans always behind the edge, poor souls [ + quote]
sachxn (Inactive) 23 January 2008 1:04
They are just trying to hit Kindle and iPhone with one stone but because of its design its sure to be a flop. <a href="http://apple-iphone.blogspot.com">Sachin</a> <a href="http://sql-plsql.blogspot.com">Sachin</a> [ + quote]
sachxn (Inactive) 23 January 2008 1:28
They are just trying to hit Kindle and iPhone with one stone but because of its design its sure to be a flop. Sachin Dhall [ + quote]
mrturtle (Newbie) 9 February 2008 16:36
This this is so cool its a must. in 3 years it will be a color. color screen and you can watch a movie on it. Think about it rss feed live how cool is that on your phone easy to read I want it now [ + quote]
borhan9 (AfterDawn Addict) 18 February 2008 1:51
*Originally posted by red2tango:* ugly I would have to agree. it is good idea but design needs major change. [ + quote]