GADGET REVIEWS Just another GADGET NEWS

Pixel Qi’s low power displays could be a second screen for your laptop or smartphone. Pixel Qi has partnered with a German company to offer its 10-inch displays that can be hooked up to another device using USB.

The secondary display could come in handy for extra real estate or to show someone else screen information, says Pixel Qi. Customers can plug in the Pixel Qi display using a wired or wireless USB.

“This extra screen would be small and light enough to carry, very low power, offer crisp text for good reading and be readable in any light even in sunlight,” says Pixel Qi in a statement.

The USB-connected screens should help widen Pixel Qi’s reach among consumers. Since March, Pixel Qi has been offering a 10.1 -inch displays for $275. But the displays were compatible with only two models of netbooks–the Samsung N130 and Lenovo S10. And users had to take a screwdriver to their PC and swap out the screen themselves.

Pixel Qi first showed its screens in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The display called 3Qi operates in three modes: a full-color LCD transmissive mode; a low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective e-paper mode; and a transflective mode that makes the LCD display visible in sunlight.

While technically impressive, a major challenge for Pixel Qi has been finding ways to get these displays into the hands of consumers. That’s why it seems to have partnered with German company Display Solutions, which has developed a driver board that can be combined with the Pixel Qi screen.

The entire module can be plugged into a laptop or even some phones via USB to create a second screen. The modules will start selling next month. Pixel Qi hasn’t disclosed pricing for the module.

Photo: Pixel Qi

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

If you are willing to take a screwdriver to your computer, Pixel Qi’s low-power displays that can switch between color LCD and black-and-white screens could be in your netbook.

The 10.1-inch displays available through makershed.com look like standard LCD screens inside the room. But take them outside and they turn into low-power e-paper like display.

Pixel Qi first showed the screens in January at the Consumer Electronics Show in Las Vegas. The display called 3Qi operates in three modes: a full-color LCD transmissive mode; a low-power, sunlight-readable, reflective e-paper mode; and a transflective mode that makes the LCD display visible in sunlight.

Pixel Qi has started selling the displays directly to consumers though the company is also working with with PC manufacturers.

For now, Pixel Qi says it can guarantee the compatibility of the displays, which cost $275 each, with only two models of netbooks–the Samsung N130 and Lenovo S10. But the screen works in most other models, says the company.

Swapping out existing netbooks screens for those from Pixel Qi is a simple DIY tweak, says Pixel Qi founder Mary Lou Jepsen.

“Changing the screen of your netbook is easy, the process takes about 5-10 minutes using a small screwdriver. Its simple,” she wrote on her blog.

Users have to remove the front plastic bezel of the existing display in their netbook, unlatch the screen, plug Pixel Qi’s display in its place and snap on the screws.

But if you like to see what the process really is like, check out this video from Make magazine. The 10-minute long video shows how to remove the display off an Acer Aspire One netbook.

Seems like this will be a breeze to do at home and the results should be worth it. Pixel Qi screens consume 80 percent less power in the reflective e-paper-like mode, says Jepsen.

Photo: Pixel Qi screen/Priya Ganapati

[via Ubergizmo via Liliputing]

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews

Got a netbook? Specifically, got a Samsung N130 or a Lenovo S10-2? Even more specifically, do you use it in and outdoors, but find it hard to read in the sun? We have good news! The Maker Shed will sell you one of Pixel Qi’s dual-mode displays as a straight swap-in for your existing LCD-panel.

The 10.1-inch screen runs in one of two modes. When indoors, or watching video, you use the regular LCD display, which will look pretty much the same as the one you already have. When you’re in to mood for some reading, or you are outside in bright sunlight, or you’re just running low on battery power, you can switch to the e-ink mode.

This disables the backlight and shows you hi-res, grayscale pixels, much like you’d see on the screen of the Amazon Kindle. Because it only uses power when updating the screen, it sips power.

There is also a hybrid mode, which lets the sun reflect off the back of the display assembly and back out through the color LCD. This both saves battery power and lets you view a normal color display outdoors.

The panel will cost you $275, which puts it out of the “merely curious” bracket but is still cheap enough for people who do a lot of outdoor computing. The Maker Shed store page also says that the panel will likely work in any netbook: the Lenovo and the Samsung are just the only ones so far tested and guaranteed.

And according to the Pixel Qi blog, which first described the plan to sell these panels separately from the company’s own notebooks, the swap-operation (swaperation?) is easy:

Its only slightly more difficult than changing a lightbulb: its basically 6 screws, pulling off a bezel, unconnecting [sic] the old screen and plugging this one in. Thats it. Its a 5 minute operation.

Available now.

Pixel Qi display [Maker Shed]

Source:wired.com

Posted under Gadget Reviews