Tomorrow at the FPD International 2010 trade show in Japan, the Chinese company Hanvon will unveil the first e-reader to include a color e-ink display, giving it a distinct advantage over rivals like the Amazon Kindle and B&N Nook.
Black-and-white e-ink displays are currently used in 90 percent of the world’s e-readers, says the NYTimes.
The Apple iPad and the recently launched Nook Color both use LCD color screens.
Jennifer K. Colegrove, director of display technologies at DisplaySearch, described the moment: “This is a very important development. It will bring e-readers to a higher level.”
While it is simple to make e-readers with LCD screens, the LCDs tend to take away many advantages of the devices. E-ink screens consume much less battery power and energy and are also readable no matter how bad glare is from sunlight.
Color e-ink screens do have their downsides, however, compared to LCDs. LCD screens will be much sharper, more colorful, and able to handle video. Color e-ink screens have “muted” colors and can only handle “simple animations,” notes the NYTimes.
Havon’s reader will begin sales this March in China at the equivalent of $440 USD. It will have a 9.68-inch screen and will include both Wi-Fi and 3G support.
The iPad sells for $600 in China.
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The popular developer/hacker Comex, the man behind the Web-based iPhone jailbreaking site, has released Frash today for the smartphone, certain iPod Touch models and the iPad allowing for Adobe Flash support on jailbroken devices.
Apple CEO Steve Jobs has long said that the company will not support Flash on “i” devices.
If you own the iPhone 3GS with iOS4, the iPhone 4, the iPod Touch 3G or the iPad you can now run Flash from within the Safari browser.
The installation is pretty simple. Add a custom Cydia repository, install the program and reboot your “i” device.
While the app is a great start, the developer is quick to note that the beta (version 0.02) can only support very simple Flash animations, making it useless for the most part unless you love invasive Web ads.
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Left Behind Games, infamously known for their Christian-themed PC games, have decided to expand their games to gaming consoles, announcing the launch of Bible Adventures for the Xbox 360 and the Wii.
The game is not a port of the old NES game by the same name but instead “a brand new game that happens to have the same title, this one set in their “Charlie the Church Mouse” series of educational games on the PC,” says 1up.
The new adventure will “educate young children by teaching them academic lessons vital to early childhood development through Bible stories,” added Left Behind CEO Troy Lyndon.
“Parents and kids already love the Charlie Church Mouse Bible Adventure games for the PC,” Lyndon continues. “Our strategy is to follow Nintendo’s example by including up to 18 story animations and mini-games, providing significant value for our customers. We expect our financial projections to grow exponentially as we transition from a PC game developer to a Wii & Xbox developer.”
There was no word on why the PS3 was dis-included from the new development.
