Mens mag debuts e-ink cover

Sony wants everyone to ditch paperbacks in favour of its Reader electronic book, but man-mag Esquire is keeping the printed world alive with an e-ink magazine. Can't see the video? Download Flash Player from Adobe.com The 75th anniversary issue of the US edition of Esquire features a small e-ink display on the front cover …

[Flocke Kroes]

Is it hackable?

Screw the dirty pictures. If I can use the front page as an extra monitor, I want a copy.

[breakfast]

Great.

Updating content after-sale sounds a great idea.

Retro-censorship, magazines that vanish after a couple of weeks. Pop-ups over articles you're trying to read. Oh yes, that will be wonderful.

[Matt]

i fell the need, the need to read!

full epaper cover? or a tiny square?? wany how.. where can i get my hands on one in ol' blighty???

[John Robson]

eInk low power?

Why use 6 batteries - why not a small solar cell, like that used to drive my calculator?

I htink it's a great idea - the contents page could actually be usefully sized (especially if it had a pause and "back up a bit" button...

[Alex]

I like it but...

how heavy would these six batteries be? Does it mean that the front cover will fold down under the weight of the batteries, just like it there was a CD on it?

Very intrigued indeed, and am still liking this idea :o)

[Andraž Levstik]

Sony this kindle that...

...what about Jinke and their really sweet E-ink readers...

[Joe K]

Blimey

Thats quite impressive how fast someones picked up this tech.

How long now till the magazine rack looks like a row of TV's trying to attract us with animated covers.

And the animated adverts can't be far off, hell they even have a proto-type in the vid up there.

[Chris Hembrow]

@all

Yes, it's supposedly hackable, according to an article in Wired a month or so ago. The advert is on the inside because Ford financed a BIG chunk of the experiment, and they had a specially designed thin battery which should last a couple of weeks

[Luke Wells]

Great marketing!

I bet this cost alot to roll out into the mags..... however, how many people who have never read esquire are going to buy it now?

I can't wait to find a copy

[Jerome]

Unbelievable

Seriously... Esquire is the first to market with an e-ink cover for a magazine, and they don't use it to show us a nice pair of Bulgarian airbags? What is the world coming to?

[Richard]

bit of a con really

Its just a variation on a flashing LED/LCD theme .. now if the text was actually built up using pixels of ink, not prefined shapes, then that would be more interesting and reusable (reflash the PIC etc). As it stands its just like a flashing T-Shirt. Fun but pointless not really high-tech.

I'd buy a copy if it were in the UK though .. if only to resell it on eBay in ten years 8-)

[John]

Not at fancy as it looks

I quite like the way they've done this - they've clearly used a (relatively) cheap monochromatic e-ink display and overprinted it (or possibly underprinted it) with a colour picture. The result is that it looks like a colour display, but it's not.

Notice that the colour parts (the photos on the front and the car on the inside ad) don't move - they just flash as the display moves from dark to light. The grey text appears and disappears, but the colour parts stay.

Still, as I say, it's a nice use of the technique. But I have to agree with some of the above comments: permanent publishing has definite advantages over electronic. I can't imagine much worse a fate than books and magazines becoming as full of popups and flashing ads as the Internet. At least on the net we have NoScript and AdBlock!

[fluffy]

@John, another thing I noticed

The text never changes, either - it's also just on/off. Reminds me of those old LCD games (Nintendo Game & Watch et al).

[Anonymous Coward]

*actual resolution may be crappier than Youtube can show

Seriously, this is a total non-event. Come back to me when the first wholly e-ink magazine launches: a single sheet of e-paper with enough memory to hold a whole magazine. Should fit nicely in the glovebox of my flying car.

[uhuznaa]

Do we need Adblock Plus for magazines now?

Flashing ads in magazines, that's what we all have waited for...

[yeah, right.]

eh?

So they have the brilliant new technology, and the best they came up with to use it in a marvellous new way was.... a fucking blink tag???

Shoot them. Shoot the bastards NOW before they breed more.