Amazon's Android tablet coming in 10- and 7-inch models with quad-core Tegra power?

We've pretty much accepted that Amazon will release a proper Android tablet in 2011. The details, however, are still unclear. Enter Silicon Valley analyst, Tim Bajarin, who claims to have some inside information from his sources in Taipei. If correct, then we should see Amazon launch a 10-inch LCD tablet before the holidays. He's also heard of a 7-inch model and plans to use NVIDIA's new quad-core Tegra SoC in order to blaze a path into the crowded tablet market. Interestingly enough, Tim's sources say that Amazon wanted to use a switchable "black and white E Ink-like display and a color LCD" hybrid but the two vendors approached (Qualcomm and Pixel Qi?) won't be ready with a suitable display until 2012 or 2013. Of course, Samsung -- the rumored DNA at the core of Amazon's tablet -- has plenty of experience with 10- and 7-inch Android tablets and the decision to go LCD aligns with those rumors of a Fringe Field Switching display reported by DigiTimes earlier this month. So while none of this is verified, at least it gives us something more to chew on while we "stay tuned" for whatever Bezos is cooking.

PC Mag

Mirasol showcases 4.1-inch smartphone concept at SID 2011, promises 'converged e-reader' this year

Another week, another look into the wild, mysterious world of Mirasol. We met with the company for an extended period here at SID 2011, and while the smartphone concept shown above was certainly intriguing, it's the behind-the-scenes story that truly piqued our interest. If you've kept even a loose eye on display technologies, Qualcomm's Mirasol branch has no doubt caught your eye -- in fact, the company seemed overwhelmingly sure that it'd ship consumer products soon after we met with 'em at CES 2010. Yet here we are, nearly 1.5 years later, without a single Mirasol product available on the open market. It begs the question: why? We found out. As the story goes, Mirasol's been shipping displays to partners for years, and it really did have confirmation that partners would be punching products out onto the market soon after 2010 began. But then, the iPad happened.

No, seriously -- that's the story. Apple's sudden and calculated tablet launch caused Mirasol's stable of partners to "reevaluate" their launch strategies, and that reevaluating led to the shelving / delaying of every single promising product in the pipeline. One angle in particular seemed to catch everyone off guard; prior to the iPad's launch, most companies (and consumers, for that matter) reckoned that people wouldn't even consider reading on an LCD. Digital bookworms would want E Ink, or better still, a colorized alternative like Mirasol. Come to find out, people actually don't seem to mind reading on LCDs, and in fact, they seem downright appreciative of the extra functionality baked into modern day tablets. As you can imagine, all of that spelled trouble for a display technology like Mirasol. So, where do we sit today? Read on to find out.

Mirasol concept smartphone eyes-on at SID 2011

Thankfully, we're in a much different place than the one we sat in 2010. Contrary to popular belief, Mirasol actually has no control over the shipment of end products. All it can do is ship panels to partners; it's on them to actually bring wares to market. The good news, however, is that the company's 5.7-inch, low-power display actually will see the light of day by the end of 2011, with at least one "converged e-reader" slated to bring a 3x battery life improvement to a mobile reader format.

We've reason to believe that the company's not just blowing smoke -- it's not too hard to imagine what kind of 5.7-inch tablet(ish) device could hit the market in the months to come, and with one Google-powered OS finding itself just about everywhere these days, we're also hazarding a guess that the e-readers that never materialized in 2010 will gain all sorts of new tricks when they try again in 2011. Oh, and if you're wondering why a Mirasol panel never made it to the Kindle? You didn't hear from us, but it's probably a matter of Qualcomm's single fab plant not being able to produce the kind of volume Amazon required.

And that brings us to smartphone concept we mentioned earlier. Debuting for the first time here at Display Week, this 4.1-inch mockup was seen sporting a WVGA resolution, and while the panel is as real as it gets, there were no brains powering any motion. In other words, we were left with a frozen image, albeit one that looked better than we expected. The company asserts that something like this may become a reality in three to four years -- a bit after its new Taiwan-based fabrication facility goes online in 2012 -- but one has to wonder just how big the market is for something like this. Sure, it'll increase battery life by a few orders of magnitude, but it also looks markedly less impressive than your average Super LCD / AMOLED. Have a gander at the gallery below, and keep your eyes peeled for more as the year develops.
Source: Engadget

Mirasol display gets lighting solution for reading alone at parties, bars

How do you solve a problem like lighting a Mirasol display? Sure, the technology provides something of a comprise between traditional E Ink displays and tablet LCDs, with full video and color, low power consumption, and the ability to be viewed in bright sunlight, but it still has some decided drawbacks: like a lack of backlighting. Qualcomm showed off a simple and elegant solution at this week's CES on the Hill, essentially embedding a book light into the device, lighting it from the front -- it's not the first time we've seen an e-reader arrive at this answer, but still, sometimes the easiest solutions are the best. The prototype shown off in DC this week had buttons on the rear for adjusting brightness, though according to The Digital Reader, Qualcomm will also be showing off a device with an ambient light sensor in the near future. The technology should be on store shelves this fall -- no word whether the device is capable of yelling at you for "ruining your eyes" by reading in the dark.

SlashGear

The Digital Reader