Oh Man I Want An E-Ink Display On My iPad [MWC 2013]

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mwc2013bug-coaBARCELONA, MOBILE WORLD CONGRESS – Here’s something I wish would come to a future iPhone, or — even better — an iPad: e-ink. Imagine being able to switch to an e-ink version of the tablet and read in bright sunlight. Or turn off the various radios and enjoy a battery life measured in months, not hours.

That’s what the e-ink phone can do.

Now, the iPad would need a fancy dual-tech display panel to turn into an e-ink device, and maybe Apple’s banking on LCD screen tech and battery life getting better in the future, but we can dream. After all, that’s what “analysts” do every day and that crap gets published as fact.

Back to the phone. In regular phone use, you get a week of standby time that is, time spent off line. Switch to airplane mode and that jumps to a month, just like a Kindle. And it’s no surprise to find a book reading app on the home page, either: with the big screen and super-light body (just 89 grams), plus a decent Cortex A5 CPU, capacitive touch and Android under the hood, this would be the perfect phone for the avid reader or Instapaperer. I managed to get through Philip Pullman’s entire His Dark Materials trilogy on a pre-retina iPod Touch, so I know what I’m talking about (eye strain is what I’m talking about).

Price, availability etc: nothing here, as this seems to be in the part of the Mobile World Congress where businesses sell to other businesses. Still, I’d be down with an e-ink iPhone. Or a Kindle that can make phone calls…

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