• andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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    7 months ago

    I’m probably an outlier, but I don’t understand the reason of an e-ink device if you put android on it, add colors, add touchscreen and constant connection. Why not just go with amoled if you want all of that? Probably it’s even cheaper.

    E-ink is a specific technology that has it’s advantages in powersaving and reduced eye strain, it was never a replacement for our pocket led flashlights we call smartphones. All beauty of it is it can take one physical form and stay in it infinitely before something refreshes it.

    It excels at some tasks, and on a custom OS made with it’s quirks in mind can serve as a book or some indicator that would consume that little in years it can as well be a rounding error. Books, digital price tags, the tablets from Star Trek, variable road signs, billboards? If it stays the same before you boot in and change it, that sure has it’s uses.

    But no, they want to add complexity to it’s design, add additional battery drain, up the price, to compete with a tech that plays another sport. It’s stupid. Like cracking up nuts with a microscope.

    What I personally want is that additional R&D make it cheaper to produce b\w screens, make them sturdy and affordable up to the point we’d give them out in the classrooms for free instead of paperbacks, and for it to become the default device to read long-form un-interactive content, and to use them in devices that don’t refresh too often like some house and car indicators.

    • wagoner@infosec.pub
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      7 months ago

      To reduce eye strain, enhance readability in sunshine, and extend battery life.

    • Possibly linux
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      7 months ago

      The eye strain thing is a myth. However sink is visible in broad daylight which is nice. I think these would be good for industrial use cases.

      • andrew_bidlaw@sh.itjust.works
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        7 months ago

        The eye strain thing is a myth.

        I mean, reflected light is less harmful. We aren’t looking directly at the sun for it leaves ghost shapes even after we turn our head, but it’s lights’ reflections is what makes or eyes see. Basic e-Inks don’t emit light, some backlit it from the side, or from the back, but they are still more safe than displays that do work by emmiting light of some color directly to you, and there was a race to reach the wider angle they can do it too, for older devices had colors nearly inverted if seen from the sharp angle.

        • Possibly linux
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          7 months ago

          Eye strain isn’t caused by light. It is caused by focusing on a single point for to long. You would get eye strain by staring at anything for long enough.

          It is also made worse by not moving the rest of your body. When you focus on your screen you aren’t focused on if your mussels need to move or be stretched.

          Eink displays don’t change anything. There were a few studies on eye strain and they found that light isn’t the cause.