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E Ink faces growing competition in the "paper-like" display space - Liliputing (liliputing.com)
submitted 2 years ago by to c/technology@lemmy.world
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cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19284817

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[–] 137 points 2 years ago (32 children)

More and better e-ink, please. It's just the best at the things it's good at. Give me a foldable phone with one e-ink screen!

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  • [–] 48 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    "E Ink" is a company, producing displays with a very specific proprietary technology. I think you mean to say more "e-paper", which is a generic term for "paper-like" displays. And unfortunately, right now the only real competition is RLCD (reflective LCD), which is arguably not paper-like enough to qualify. Yes, it's reflective, but other than that, it's just a higher density Game Boy screen. Which is great and all, but it can't compete with E Ink in a lot of aspects. It doesn't have retention, you gotta power the screen, so no signage and stuff. It has LCD-grade bad viewing angles.

    RLCDs are cool for certain uses though. For example, I sometimes choose to play on my AGS-001 over my Analogue Pocket if I'm outside in bright daylight.

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  • [–] 32 points 2 years ago (20 children)

    I wish they made more e-ink watches

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  • [–] 26 points 2 years ago (11 children)

    I'd love a successor to Pebble which doesn't require an account. There are a number of options, but my issue is that most require creating an account with vendor, and app integration with - no doubt - copiuos data harvesting and reselling. Many are absurdly expensive.

    There are several cheap options on Alibaba.

    Goodreader.com lists a number of expensive e-ink watches, some of which look quite nice.

    But I've got my eye on Watchy (github, old review); it was introduced a couple of years ago and is still being updated. It's also available from a couple of vendors, including preassembled through Amazon.

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    my eye on Watchy

    Have one after the Pebble, let me know if you have questions.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (1 child)

    let me know if you have questions.

    I have all the questions. I'm peripherally aware of ESP32; my experience with it, and its capabilities, is severely limited, and IME interface changes require recompiling and re-flashing things. Many of my questions stem from that ignorance.

    1. Integration support. I assume GadgetBridge on Android is how you'd do it? Or is there another app?
    2. How is the battery life IRL?
    3. What does the watch face & app space look like? The FAQ mentions a "gallery", and instructions for contributions describe the github PR process. Is the gallery just the list of watch faces on the sqfmi website?
    4. What's the process for changing faces, and installing additional functionality? From the docs, it looks as if this must be done over a serial cable, despite the device having WiFi capability. I assume that's because adding faces is basically re-flashing the firmware, which is not supported over wireless? So, to get a new face, you clone the repo, compile a new firmware, and flash the device over a serial cable?
    5. The FAQ verbiage is confusing regarding the display technology, but I think it's saying the display isn't reflective LCD like the Pebble.
    6. Can you have multiple faces on the device, or do you have to re-flash it to change the face? The FAQ says the face is the entire firmware, implying only one face on the device at a time.
    7. If you're part of the community: have there been any discussions about future development to add, e.g. health monitor hardware?
    8. Is there any integration with a phone, such as notifications? This is sort of the GadgetBridge question, but more about what integrations - if any - are supported. Vibrate on phone ringing? Quick responses to texts? Phone calls over the watch - yeah, I know it's not that advanced, but for example.
    9. What's your opinion of the device? Do you use it as a daily driver?

    At under $70, I'm not expecting much, but it'd be nice to know what you expect. The sqfmi site is pretty sparse on details. If there's an additional, deeper FAQ or Wiki, a link to that would be great.

    Thanks!

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago*
    1. I'm not using that
    2. about a week
    3. it's indeed like the gallery
    4. yes, you need to compile the firmware and flash it over USB. The first time is a tricky but then it takes just few minutes
    5. strangers have said it looked like actual paper. It's extremely readible
    6. indeed it's one face per firmware... but assuming there is enough space, you could imagine modifying it in order to have more faces
    7. for now I just briefly chat on Discord to get the basics going as I was one of the very first to have the new ESP S3, cf https://github.com/sqfmi/Watchy/issues/252
    8. cf 1 but I bet there is, I was thinking of changing the WiFi HTTP server to possibly send data to HomeAssistant but I didn't explore that yet
    9. it's my daily driver, it's a HUGE thing but it works and often sparks interesting conversations, I like it

    Happy to clarify a bit more if need be.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago

    I had an Amazfit BIP for a while that had a color e-paper display with a battery that lasted over 30 days. I think they have since gone OLED but one cool thing about it was, while they had their own app with a login, I could alternatively sync it directly with a third party app on Android that was called "Notify And Fitness". I only mention it because within this particular app the info never left the device. Perhaps there is something similar today, but I have since just given in and gone Garmin.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (6 children)

    Tried https://bangle.js? Loving mine so far. Edit: my bad https://banglejs.com/

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago (2 children)

    What battery life are you getting on that?

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago* (6 children)

    Which one do you prefer?
    And don't say Pebble, that's an e-paper (sharp memoryLCD), not an eink. I personally haven't really encountered any actual eink watches that would seem any good.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (2 children)

    I know E Ink is a company, but for most of us it's become a de-facto term referring to the technology, like kleenex, or q-tips.

    I have every Pebble model, and used them until the last one's battery finally gave out. I've been using various e-ink (e-paper) readers, from the first Sony to my current Kobo & reMarkable (one for leisure reading, t'other for PDFs and writing). Are those displays different technologies than E Ink's? Does the display process E Ink uses differ from other e-paper technologies? Are they not all based on polarized, bi-colored balls?

    I have nothing against pedantry, but I also think E Ink has lost (or won, depending on how you look at it) the identity game; I suspect the majority of people - if surveyed - would neither realize E Ink is a specific company, nor that the correct generic term is "e-paper." Everyone I know (with whom the topic comes up) just call it "e-ink," whether or not it comes from that company. Similarly, I've never heard anyone call it "e-paper" IRL.

    P.S. I just did a search for "e-paper watches", and most results call them "e-ink." Maybe they all use E Ink-brand displays, but I can't really tell since none seem to capitalize or (tm) the term. There's a bunch of cheap watches on Alibaba which are called "e-ink" watches - are those all really using E Ink brand displays?

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago* (last edited 2 years ago) (1 child)

    E-paper is the category for any display that looks kinda like paper. E-ink is a specific technology (by a specific company, yes,) that uses blobs suspended in oil in small capsules that are controlled by magnetic fields.

    Pebble uses a Sharp memory LCD, which as the name suggests, is a liquid crystal display. If you categorize pebbles as a "eink watches", then a gameboy is one low-power memory chip away from being an eink handheld gaming console, the display tech is otherwise identical - a transflective lcd.

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  • [–] 1 point 2 years ago

    Thanks; TIL.

    Pebble advertised their displays as "e-ink", and I never thought to question it. The best lay resource I found while digging into this was an article on TechRadar, which was about a new product but gives a good overview of the technology and history.

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  • [–] 10 points 2 years ago (8 children)

    No foldable but screens on both side.

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  • [–] 6 points 2 years ago (5 children)

    Seen a noname Aliexpress phone with a normal display on one side and an e-ink one on the other.

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  • [–] 4 points 2 years ago (4 children)

    Now make that an option on a flagship device (preferably a non-chinese manufacturer) and I would definitely look into it.

    If I remember correctly there was also a flagship producer that produced such a phone as a sort of prototype some time ago, no?

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  • [–] 3 points 2 years ago (3 children)

    The only one I can think of is Yotaphone.

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  • [–] 2 points 2 years ago (2 children)

    The phone might look like the thing I remember. But my god does it look like the old 2010s devices :D

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