UPDATED: Could the next P-I be electronic, and on a plastic sheet?
Hearst has been working on an e-paper project for the past year. Plastic Logic, a firm working on such a product, says Hearst won't be a partner.
Courtesy of Plastic Logic
While Seattle’s City Council and others debate questions of whether, and how, to revive Seattle’s print dailies, we thought Crosscut readers might like to get a look at what the next electronic iteration of the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, and perhaps a lot of other struggling newspapers, might look like.
Hearst declined to discuss its plans for The P-I with Crosscut, except to reiterate that it is trying to sell the print paper and will shut it down by the end of March if it can’t find a buyer. What happens to The P-I after that, however, could soon become clearer. Speculation by this author that Hearst would join with Plastic Logic, which plans to announce some publishing partners at a Feb. 9 at meeting called the O’Reilly Tools of Change for Publishing conference in New York, is apparently unfounded. Update: Plastic Logic's spokeswoman now informs us as of Feb. 2 that the company has no plans to include Hearst among the partners the company plans to announce at the O'Reilly conference.
Plastic Logic is a privately held Silicon Valley startup that plans to begin field testing its version of an e-reader later this year. Plastic Logic's Mountainview, CA., headquarters sits just down the road from Hearst's secretive FirstPaper e-paper project in Palo Alto. Plastic Logic officials confirm that their 8.5-inch-by-11-inch display screen is designed to accommodate traditional newspaper layouts.
Hearst had been looking at flexible screens for its new e-paper, but Plastic Logic spokeswoman Betty Taylor told Crosscut that while her company’s wireless e-reader can operate on flexible material like plastic film or foil, Plastic Logic’s consumer testing shows readers prefer a more rigid display. Plastic Logic’s reader will be about a quarter inch thick and have a considerably larger screen than Amazon’s wireless e-reader, the Kindle. Both devices are wireless and use the same low-power, high-resolution E Ink display technology, which is partly owned by Hearst. While the Kindle shifts screens when users press the sides of the device, Plastic Logic’s screen will be touch sensitive, turning pages with a finger swipe across the screen.
Amazon currently sells the Kindle for $359 and, according to the Web retailer, demand has been heavy, though it hasn’t released any numbers. Taylor said Plastic Logic’s reader should cost somewhere between $300 and $800, but will be “competitive” with other readers like the Kindle.
Perhaps not coincidentally Amazon is expected to unveil its updated 2.0 version of the Kindle at the same New York conference Feb. 9. For an advance peek at the new readers, click on Plastic Logic’s website.
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Comments:
Posted Thu, Jan 29, 11:26 a.m. Inappropriate
Will one be able to read the same material on Plastic Logic's reader that one can on a Kindle? I can't possibly see buying a Plastic Logic reader only to read newspapers (then again, I don't see myself buying a Kindle anytime soon, either).
I'm a believer in the "three screens" theory, at least for now: people can deal with three devices with screens, essentially a TV, a computer, and a cell phone. I really don't see a fourth or fifth option being nearly as ubiquitous. I hear they're bringing E Ink-type technology to cell phones — perhaps that'll be how things pan out. In the meantime, if I'm not going to read my newspaper on newsprint, I prefer reading it on my computer.
Good luck, though. I would like to see the P-I survive in some form.
Posted Thu, Jan 29, 12:17 p.m. Inappropriate
Most people who haven't tried a plastic reader or ebook seem to have difficulty imagining how adictive they can be. When an Eink newspaper reader is sold I will buy one. I will carry it everywhere. And this is a guy who doesn't own an iPod or send text messages from my cellphone.
But I love news and newspapers. The idea of instant news downloads excites the hell out of me.I bought a Sony Ebook when they first came out, and I carry it everywhere. I even have a special pocket for it. I have hundreds of ebooks, even ones I own in hardback.
Think of the possibilities! No more newspaper clippings! We can store electronic copies of stories we want to save. Mr. Lukoff makes a good point about "three screens," but for me the choice is easy. I don't watch TV anyway.
Posted Thu, Jan 29, 1:30 p.m. Inappropriate
According to Plastic Logic, their reader is wireless, like the Kindle, and will do everything the Kindle does. Should be an interesting horse race. I've used Kindles for a while and it certainly is a lot easier to read than a backlit laptop. Motorola also uses E Ink's print on some of their cellphones, as does Sony's reader. I do wonder how easy it will be to sell newspaper junkies on a tablet-size reader. We'll find out soon enough if Seattle becomes a non-newspaper town.
Posted Thu, Jan 29, 3:58 p.m. Inappropriate
Electronic newspapers were news in 1981 too. Check out this vision of the future past:
http://www.aphotoeditor.com/2009/01/29/newspapers-by-computer-still-a-few-years-off-in-1981/
Posted Fri, Jan 30, 3:56 a.m. Inappropriate
@ Benjamin Lukoff
- No you will not be able to read the same documents.
. - On your Plastic Logic reader you will not be able to read books purchased in a Kindle store. They are locked to the individual Kindle device registered to your account. You can register several devices to one account and they can "share" the content. One device can only be registered to a single account.
. - On your Kindle you can not read, as an example, complex graphical pdf documents formatted for A4 or Letter, or A4 or Letter documents scanned to a pdf - the screen is too small.
There *is* a cell phine with an e-ink display. Motorola Motohphone
http://www.motorola.com/motoinfo/product/details.jsp?globalObjectId=164
It is THE cheapest mobile phone you can buy here in my country over the counter.
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There are many exciting new e-ink devices being prepared. Like
Astak Mentor
Foxit e-slick reader
Wizpac txtr reader
Kindle ver. 2.0 (that might be announced on 9.2.2009
and many, many existing ones beside Kindle. See:
http://www.mobileread.com/
http://wiki.mobileread.com/wiki/E-book_devices
Posted Fri, Jan 30, 11:30 p.m. Inappropriate
FYI, in August, TechCrunch reported that Amazon had sold 240,000 Kindles. The source was an unnamed source "close to" Amazon; take with appropriate grains of salt.
Posted Mon, Feb 2, 9:35 p.m. Inappropriate
Who cares as long as the P.I. stops killing trees.
Posted Tue, Feb 3, 5:31 a.m. Inappropriate
A couple of issues: let's say you are willing to pay the price of a small flat-screen TV to buy one of these machines, but then there is the cost of the wireless connection, a monthly charge of say $75. Then there is the subscription to the newspaper.
THose questions aside, you talk about a piece of plastic you can roll up and put in your pocket. Really? I am not sure they are durable enough to be rolled up like that, but let us say they are. So you get on the bus for your morning commute, and you unroll your Plastic Logic for a read. You can fold newsprint to avoid bothering your seatmates, but you can't fold the Plastic Logic. Commute over, do you carry this piece of plastic around with you call day to stay abreast of the news?
And, hey, I have an alternative piece of plastic that is easy to use, and which I already carry around with me all day if I want to find news. It's called a laptop computer, and I am typing this on that computer right now. And it doesn't cost me the purchase price of Plastic Logic, or the wireless fees.
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