Two separate groups of people have managed to get Android running on eInk screens. They’re both using the eInk BroadSheet test kit that PVI/eInk Corporation makes available for testing.
The flickering from the eInk screen is distracting, to say the least. The important thing though is that this obviously is a much better OS than what any eReader on the market currently has. And I’m talking about the rudimentary OS interfaces that Kindle 1 and Sony PRS-700 have. They look nothing like these two demos.
Android on eInk from Moto Research
First, we have Moto Research in San Francisco showing off their work.
I love seeing that screen with all those apps. If the Kindle 2 has an OS anything like this – wow. I’d even be ok with Kindle 3 having a nice OS with Apps laid out, folders and maybe even multiple windows. It does run on Linux – no reason to shy away from using the OS fully.
Android on eInk from Jaya Kumar
There’s a picture and a post at Jaya’s blog who is looking for collaboration opportunities with Vendors. Don’t understand what’s being tried at the end, as the touchscreen obviously isn’t working. Its pretty amazing to me that he hacked this together. Moto Research after all has the backing of Motorola. This is, to the best of my knowledge, one single person working independently.
The fact that Android is being run on eInk is great. Obviously the eInk technology needs a lot of improvement to catch up with displaying advanced OSes well. However, it’ll make for a really exciting release 1.5-2 years down the line when the first Android/eInk eReader comes out. There will be a lot of Android Apps that will be available, and existing eReaders will have to scramble to match the range of apps that will suddenly become available.
Finally, you can bet that Google will have a Google Books App available for Android soon that lets users buy ebook versions of the books available through Google Books. This is great as competition means lower book prices.
Filed under: kindle Tagged: | eInk Android, kindle killer
Android will never be suitable for e-ink displays, they will not be able to batch the refresh rate required and have ghosting. E-ink is great for its purpose, low power, slow frame-rate applications like book reading, electronic signs, etc. It simply takes too long to physically update the bi-stable ink to ever be a good browsing or general purpose internet tablet display technology.