ismael chang ghalimi

eFlyBook

Four years ago, I saw a demonstration for one of the very first electronic paper displays developed by E Ink Corporation. Recently, the technology was licensed by iRex Technologies BV, a spin-off from Royal Philips Electronics, in order to develop the iLiad electronic reader. And today, the reader has been adopted by ARINC in order to develop the eFlyBook, a portable electronic device that contains all of the U.S. digitized terminal procedures, IFR high and low altitude enroute charts, U.S. airport facility directory, the FAR/AIM, and can display other user installed eDocs. Through the use of E Ink’s technology, the eFlyBook remains readable even in direct sunlight, and offers more than 20 hours of battery life.

[...] Following my recent re-discovery of the ultra cool E Ink technology, I have been researching possible applications for conference name tags. I came across nTAG, which does pretty much exactly what I had in mind. If the rental price is right, I might use it for the Office 2.0 Conference that I am organizing in October. Ultimate geek factor! [...]

[...] When I have to fly to the East Coast or to Europe, I like to take a couple of books with me, in case the in-flight entertainment system does not offer any decent flick, or I find myself too lazy to get any work done. Problem is, books made of paper tend to be heavy, and the more you travel, the less you want to carry. Sony recently came up with an elegant solution to this problem, in the form of an electronic book reader based on the amazing E Ink technology I wrote about back in August. I recently received my Sony Reader, and I am pleased to report that it is working as advertised. The screen is very sharp, and the battery life absolutely incredible (7,500 page flips). I usually get my electronic books or abstracts from the Project Gutenberg and Soundview Executive Book Summaries. I also tried to use the reader for instrument approach plates that I downloaded in PDF format from the National Aeronautical Charting Office, but the resolution is not quite sharp enough to use it as primary resource during approraches. I might have to go for the eFlyBook instead. It has a larger screen, and much better input controls. It’s also a lot more expensive. The generic iLiad the eFlyBook is based upon might be a good alternative. I need to think about it some more… [...]