A long time ago now, we did a presentation at Charlie Beckett’s LSE journalism thinktank POLIS about the future of journalism on the web (take a look at our funny little Powerpoint presentation comparing new media and Moses). During this presentation, I advocated quite strongly for an all in one device, a sort of mash-up of all the things that we carry around today (phone, mp3 players, newspapers, magazines, notebooks, pens, etc). Back then, in the PI era (pre-Iphone) it seemed sort of radical and my prediction didn’t go down very well, possibly because the technology I was talking about seemed a little far-fetched for non-gadget followers. Now, with the release of the first consumer product that takes real advantage of thin, flexible electronic paper, I hope my future seems a little more possible. Sure, its a year late (here’s a link to the slightly cooler prototype) but the Phillips Readius is slick, small, a mobile phone and, crucially, has a very very legible screen that is bigger than the device itself (5″). The guy who made it thinks it he can increase the screen size by almost 50% and make it color in 5 years. Of course, its probably about 10 years down the road (these things always are) but I am sure it will be worth the wait. Also, see Richard’s posting on e-paper last week.
January 22nd, 2008
