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Sony Digital Paper — Reinventing paper. Sony's e-ink tablet.
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Andreas Duess
What's better than paper? Nothing, in my opinion. I am the typical early adopter and I think I must have tried most of the paper alternatives out there, from iPad apps to digital notebooks. Nothing, for me, beats a large black notebook, where I can staple stuff to pages, flip through pages, see progress across pages and have a tool at my disposal that needs no batteries, is cheap to buy, works on planes and doesn't rely on cloud storage for its usefulness.
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The quality of Sony's products is unquestionable but they've always had problems with marketing and pricing them. 700$ for this? C'mon Son...y.
damn, more early adopter tax i'll be paying out then...brilliant...but this kind of thing will be < $150 in 2/3 years time. still, i have to have one now! :)
The video doesn't work in Safari. Only in Chrome, I can watch the promo video. With this type of advertising, Sony will never regain former glory. Just compare this promo and web site with iPad Pro. Product looks interesting but super expensive. And this screen doesn't work in the dark, right?
I love the prospect of a digital paper tablet, but the cost right now makes it so out of reach. I'd expect to pay about half of what I'd pay for an ipad. Right now, iPad or Surface / Surface Pro seems like it makes more sense, plus I'd bet the pen latency on the Sony is a lot worse than the other 2 options given it's e-ink.
@tonybrix I reckon they are implying you can thrown it at someone across the room, or the neighbourhood, like a boomerang..
This is how it works, right? Expensive cutting edge tech floated out there to gauge user feedback and interest, and then if it performs even remotely well, then we see the cost gradually drop/various tiers/models released. Kudos to Sony for doing something different.
For me, though? A smartpen with data capture built in + my Moleskin are great, or my Surfacebook, and my Kindle Oasis for reading. I'm all about the device consolidation, and if I'm to carry another battery-powered piece of kit, it has to be truly integral to my process.
Let's see how this does - it's a damn pretty piece of kit, I'll say!
While this is very cool, it doesn't seem to support anything other than PDF. What about EPUB or MOBI or any other ebook format?
This is cool, but I want an e-ink device that can do color. I'm not buying another e-ink device until that happens.
A big Kindle that only runs Acrobat Pro for $699? Maybe I'm missing something, but how did this get beyond the "i've got a neat idea" phase?
@eonpilot https://myboogieboard.com/ looks like the boogie board has departed largely from where it started, but it used to be more similar to what Sony just released...albeit shittier
@xtoq @m_rlons Ahh. Seems like this space is getting crowded: Even a company from my home-country Norway has a eInk-Tablet: https://getremarkable.com/ This one is 55ms refresh-rate. The new IPad pro is 20ms. Smaller is better. I guess there is a reason they always draw slow in these promo vids 🔑
@jerrebm "[…] battery life of up to 3 weeks" That's why. ;) I guess it's great f.e. for teacher and a fluent replacement for analog stuff.
@jerrebm maybe to increase the user base and boost the market of this product; so that it will, in turn, push forward the development of future products using this R&D as a base.
I've been waiting for years now for electronic paper to take our need for paper to the lowest as possible. Trying to save what's left of our forests seems a decent goal and reducing paper consumption is one of the most credible ways to get there IMHO.
Kudos to Sony for trying again and again in this domain.
@ch_mandel @jerrebm Definitely, if nothing else it will push more R&D into this field and hopefully halt or at least slowdown deforestation. A lot of really cool tech out there trying to solve environmental issues nowadays, it's quite inspiring.
@ch_mandel I would think producing paper is 'greener' than producing this and similar products. At least to get more paper we have to plant more trees.
@jerrebm So you can use it on the beach! Outside and all. And not have to charge it everytime. But I'd agree for the price between it and an iPad Pro I dunno...
How about "e-paper" mode on ipad pro which would automatically hibernate all other apps to minimize the battery usage? Just crazy ideating.
Bigger than the iPad Pro, but lighter than the mini? Now if they can just bring the price down to something closer to paper...
It looks like Sony searched through ProductHunt, saw reMarkable https://www.producthunt.com/post... that we got presented here few months ago, then created their own, but just more pricey :)
Heh I like this. It's essentially a gigantic electronic notepad.
Still I gotta ask: Whats the plan when someone can buy
A decent tablet and evernote for less?
knowing Sony, this is going to be locked down to their own service.
i wonder if it runs its own OS or a stripped down version of android?
Not a bad idea, the price point is kind of a downer. Why force an application to sink? There are tons of cloud solutions that could probably be much more suited for storing your notes.
This concept is definitely praise-worthy, especially considering how it helps edge towards the paperless office. However, aren't mobile forms delivering somewhat similar functionality minus the price of a device?
I remember Sony announcing this years ago, and just figured they had abandoned the concept. It's an interesting idea, I just think it may be too late.