[HN Gopher] BOOX Palma
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       BOOX Palma
        
       Author : HuwFulcher
       Score  : 11 points
       Date   : 2023-09-26 20:29 UTC (2 hours ago)
        
 (HTM) web link (shop.boox.com)
 (TXT) w3m dump (shop.boox.com)
        
       | rcarr wrote:
       | Kit Betts-Masters has some good videos on this and other Boox
       | devices, I think he said that the regulations on entering the
       | phone market are a bit of a nightmare which is why this doesn't
       | have mobile phone capability at the minute.
       | 
       | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=F5-eExd_F00
        
       | RattlesnakeJake wrote:
       | I don't know what I'd use this for, but the pictures are hitting
       | that part of me that loves grayscale Palm devices really, really
       | hard.
        
       | FirmwareBurner wrote:
       | Excuse me but what's the point of this? First I thought that it's
       | a phone and I was really into it, but then I realizes it's just a
       | phone shaped e-reader so what gives? What's wrong with the
       | traditional e-readers that have the aspect ratio of a ... book?
       | 
       | If I wanted to read books on a phone shaped e-reader I'd just use
       | my phone without carrying an identically shaped device for the
       | same purpose, and if I wanted a separate device just for reading
       | e-books then I want that to have the aspect ration optimized for
       | e-books, not to mention the lower price tag that regular
       | e-readers come with not something expansive just to read books.
       | 
       | It just feels pointless on so many levels.
        
       | turnsout wrote:
       | This makes me wish there were more e-ink smartphones... Really
       | nice execution on the hardware and software!
        
         | dragontamer wrote:
         | As cool as e-ink is, I'm fully convinced that LCD technology
         | remains superior today in practice.
         | 
         | E-ink needs a surprising amount of voltage/current to change
         | the screen, leading to a high "energy-per-screen change". LCDs
         | on the other hand, are ephemeral. The liquid-crystals unalign
         | themselves within fractions of a second, so they require a
         | constant source (though very small amount) of electricity to
         | remain on.
         | 
         | As such: today's methodology of showing information when the
         | user is interacting (especially information that moves and
         | needs to change within 2 or 3 seconds), is superior on an LCD
         | screen.
         | 
         | ------------
         | 
         | In fact, the lowest-power monochrome LCD screens are something
         | like 0.1 mA (or ~100 uA) of power usage, meaning an e-ink
         | screen needs to change once-per-15 minutes (!!!) or less to
         | match this level of power consumption. (And the LCD screen can
         | constantly change in those 900 seconds with full animation).
         | 
         | https://mm.digikey.com/Volume0/opasdata/d220001/medias/docus...
         | 
         | The spec-sheet claims 12uA typical, 130 uA worst-case for this
         | 1.3" Sharp memory-lcd (rumored to be the Pebble smartwatch's
         | screen).
         | 
         | ------------
         | 
         | That being said: e-ink is still cool technology and I'd like to
         | see more designs using it.
        
       | charleshan wrote:
       | TLDR; a phone sized e-ink reader without the phone capabilities
        
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       (page generated 2023-09-26 23:01 UTC)