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Earl, the "Back-Country E-ink Android Tablet", Now has a Flexible Mobius E-ink Screen

new earl screenUpdate (26 October 2014): Here’s the latest on the Earl.

When the Earl tablet was announced earlier this year it got a lot of attention for its rugged design and for its focus on a unique market niche. It has a 6″ flexible epaper screen, long battery life, and runs Android, making it a rare device indeed at the time.

Today I have learned that this back country tablet  is getting even more rugged. There’s a status update on the Earl website with new details about the tablet, and it says that the Earl is losing a few sensors and gaining a better screen.

This tablet is going to be the first to use a 6″ flexible E-ink screen based on E-ink’s recently announced Mobius screen tech. It uses a flexible plastic backplane just like the one found on Sony’s 13.3″ writing slate.

new earl screen

Now, if you’ve been following the news about the Earl then you probably know that it already had a flexible screen (made by LG Display, in fact); this one is better. The Earl developers are reporting that it is more rugged, and they have also mentioned that this panel also integrates the latest Regal waveform refresh tech. That should reduce the number of full page screen refreshes somewhat, although at the expense of a slightly grayer screen.

And that’s not the only change the Earl has gone through since it was announced in May.  The developers tell me that they have swapped out the touchscreen, modified the design to remove components, worked to reduce cost.

This tablet now has a capacitive touchscreen, not IR. The developers made this change because they weren’t sure that the IR sensors could be made rugged enough to meet the IP67 standard. Sure, an IR touchscreen is glove friendly (an important detail), but so is the replacement capacitive touchscreen (or so the developers report).

The Earl has also lost a few sensors. The infrared blaster is gone, a victim of its general uselessness in the outdoors. The developers have also dropped the d-pad found on the Earl prototype; with a larger touch area due to the new capacitive system used in Earl, along with the additional buttons built into Earl’s shell, they thought the d-pad was unnecessary.

The anennometer (wind speed sensor) was removed from the design because it was unreliable and a little power hungry. And finally, the eye-catching kickstand has been droped from the design; the developers decided it wasn’t sturdy enough.

This 6″ Android tablet was announced in May and was supposed to ship by the end of the summer. It has unfortunately been delayed until (at least) early 2014.

You can find more details on the Earl website.

Thanks, Nom!

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Comments


Earl – un eReader cu ecran flexibil – bookreader.ro November 15, 2013 um 11:08 am

[…] Sursa […]


Caleb November 17, 2013 um 11:52 am

I’m eagerly awaiting the first reviews of this one. I used to do a lot of camping and field work. The radio alone makes it intriguing, but if it’s as durable as they suggest I’m totaly on board.


I Seriously Doubt that the next Kindle Paperwhite will have a High-Res Flexible E-ink Screen – The Digital Reader April 30, 2014 um 1:37 pm

[…] one thing, while there is a 6″ Mobius screen in the works for the Earl back-country tablet, I have been told by the developers that its screen resolution is […]


Wexler FlexOne eReader Now Listed on Amazon for $49 – The Digital Reader May 1, 2014 um 9:38 pm

[…] it was only used on the FlexOne. It was going to be used in the Earl back-country tablet, but they swapped out the LG screen for a Mobius Carta screen from E-ink. The latter screen is cheaper, I’m […]


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