Bookeen Launches Solar Cover for the Cybook Ocean
For the past 18 months Bookeen has been working with SunPartner Technologies to develop its Wysips solar panel into a cover, and today that was released to market.
The Leaf Solar Cover is a 59-euro cover for the 8″ Cybook Ocean (as well as Carrefour’s rebranded 8’’ Nolimbook XL ereader). It features a solar panel developed by Sunpartner Technologies, and incorporates its Wysips solar panel tech.
Wysips is supposed to be a transparent material which can be used over a device’s screen, where it will act as a solar panel. That is how Bookeen had intended to use the tech when the deal was originally announced in 2015, but then they changed their mind earlier this year and switched to making a cover.
Bookeen changed plans because Wysips still cannot work as promised. Sunpartner has been working on this tech for six years and they have yet to produce a commercial design with a solar panel covering a device’s screen.
So instead Sunpartner has made a cover for the Cybook Ocean rather than putting a solar panel on the ereader’s screen.
The cover is available today on Bookeen’s website. Here’s an actual product photo:
Do you see the ghost-white panels on the cover?
That’s the solar panel.
That’s not very attractive, but according to the press release one hour of sunlight is enough to charge the ereader for 30 minutes of daily reading.
So there is a benefit, but is that enough to spend 59 euros on the cover?
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