07/23, 2:50pm
Qualcomm will focus on licensing out Mirasol screen tech, but ship some devices
During an earnings conference call last week, Qualcomm CEO Paul E. Jacobs revealed that the company will not focus on building many portable devices equipped with Mirasol touchscreens. The company, known better for its mobile chipsets, will instead focus on licensing the next generation of its technology. It will, however, continue to develop and sell some of its own Mirasol products.
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01/30, 9:15pm
Koobe Jin Yong Reader gen 2 gets new mirasol tech
Koobe became just the third company to use Qualcomm's next-generation Mirasol display with a new version of its Jin Yong Reader. The Taiwanese Android 2.3 device is a very close cousin of the Kyobo eReader and Shanda BamBook and blurs the lines between tablets and e-readers. The Mirasol display has the outdoor friendliness and weeks-long battery life of e-paper but adds color and fast enough touchscreen responsiveness to be used as a tablet in some areas.
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01/25, 8:15pm
Qualcomm acquires Pixtronix for is MEMS tech
Qualcomm has acquired Pixtronix for its PerfectLight MEMS-based display technology. Qualcomm confirmed the purchase, but did not disclose the reasons behind the acquisition or the price, which is rumored be between $175 million and $200 million. It is thought that the Pixtronix technology may either complement Qualcomm’s existing MEMS-based Mirasol display tech, or push Mirasol beyond its current capabilities.
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01/13, 2:00am
Claimed thinnest Mirasol reader
Many companies came to Las Vegas this week to show off their high-end tablets, however a few companies, including Hanvon, brought along their latest e-book readers. Qualcomm helped show off Hanvon's C18, which Electronista had a chance to try out on the CES show floor.
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01/09, 2:20pm
Qualcomm Bambook Sunflower reader pre-orders live
Chipmaker Qualcomm has unveiled a new eBook reader together with China's Shanda, a multimemedia content and social network provider. Dubbed Bambook Sunflower, the device uses a 5.7-inch Mirasol touchscreen and runs on a very customized Android 2.3 OS. The major specs include and are shared with the Kyobo Mirasol eReader and include a 1GHz Snapdragon processor.
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11/22, 5:45am
Qualcomm brings its Mirasol technology to life
Qualcomm has teamed with Kyobo Book Center to launch the world's first e-reader to use a Mirasol-based color e-paper display. After killing what would have been the first generation version of the device in June before its planned launch, Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs has now made good on his promise to deliver a 5.7-inch Mirasol device. The Kyobo eReader, which also runs Android 2.3 has now gone on sale in South Korea for the equivalent of $310.
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06/02, 5:50am
Qualcomm CEO axes first Mirasol device launch
Qualcomm CEO Paul Jacobs has told a media briefing in San Diego that he has already axed the first planned Mirasol device before it launched. The device, which was to be an e-reader, did not satisfy him that it was ready. Instead of a first quarter launch as had previously been planned, Qualcomm is instead focusing on launching a second-generation iteration of the technology.
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01/07, 9:20pm
Qualcomm mirasol 30FPS display reaches CES
Qualcomm at its CES booth had its new, second-generation mirasol display on show in prototype form. The model hits the promised 30FPS, twice as much as the old model, and was noticeably much improved. Video and animations were now what you'd expect and were clearly good enough for certain use.
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01/03, 8:40am
Displays offer advantages for tablets, e-readers
Qualcomm will invest an additional $1 billion in a Taiwanese computer display plant to produce its mirasol displays, according to a posting on Taiwan's Ministry of Economic Affairs website. A spokesman from the ministry clarified that the newest investment will be in addition to the joint venture Qualcomm formed with Taiwan's Cheng Uei Precision Industry Co. in 2009 to produce the displays. The very low power screens don't require backlighting, are responsive enough for animation, and should dramatically extend battery life in e-readers, smartphones and tablets.
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11/24, 10:30am
PocketBook mirasol e-reader due mid-2011
PocketBook today inadvertently confirmed that it's developing an e-reader based on Qualcomm's mirasol display technology. In a since-retracted update, the company said it would show the hardware at the CES expo in January. Specifications aren't official, but Digital Reader was told by a source that a prototype was using a 12 frames per second screen, slightly slower than the 15FPS Electronista has seen, and that the display has a raw cost about 50 percent higher than for regular e-paper.
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10/07, 1:50am
Qualcomm expects mirasol to be cheap
Qualcomm sat down with Electronista this past evening to discuss its mirasol display tech and provided a handful of insights beyond what's known. Spokespeople told us that mirasol likely won't have a significant price premium over existing displays. While the device makers will set the final price, Qualcomm wants to proliferate the unique color, very low power screens and doesn't want to ask for significantly more.
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10/04, 4:05pm
Qualcomm says mirasol already in production
Qualcomm today updated its plans for the first mirasol display devices. The company acknowledged to Engadget that the formal launch should still be in early 2011 but that the first screens are already in mass production and should ship this fall. Initial screens will usually be 5.7-inch, XGA (1024x600 or 1024x768) models.
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10/03, 12:30pm
Qualcomm says mirasol not ready in 2010
Qualcomm at the Mobilize conference this week quietly said that its mirasol display technology wouldn't be ready this year. Originally promised for 2010, the unique technology now won't ship until early 2011, the company mentioned to GigaOM. No reason has yet surfaced for the delay, though the format is still considered very new.
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07/29, 10:05am
Amazon sees e-books outrun paper, mulls Mirasol
E-book sales will overtake the paperback format within the next year, Amazon's Senior VP Steve Kessel said today following the launch of the new Kindle. Having just overtaken hardcovers, Kindle book sales should outrun paperbacks before the end of 2011. The executive added to Pocket-lint that e-books would overtake all paper books "sometime after that."
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02/05, 10:55am
PVI says e-paper to be faster, brighter this year
PVI chairman Scott Liu today told the press that his company will produce some of the earliest fully touchscreen and motion-capable e-paper displays this year. Current screens often need a separate touchscreen layer and are too slow to show video or other animations, but screens with either feature should be ready by the end of 2010. PVI's touchscreen technique would put the touch underneath the e-paper and eliminate the unintentional dimming of the display, a problem that has affected e-readers from Sony and others.
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11/19, 3:10pm
Qualcomm mirasol e-reader doubles as game console
The recently highlighted Qualcomm Mirasol e-reader prototype may be the first to offer the capability to play action games, thanks to a gaming controller accessory revealed on Thursday. The mirasol display technology is capable of reproducing colors and can play back video and the company behind it is seeing a potential as a gaming platform for its device. The plug-in controller has two control sticks, like many popular gaming consoles.
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11/18, 4:30pm
Qualcomm mirasol e-book reader coming
Qualcomm today showed off a new implementation of its mirasol technology that could lead to a major advancement in e-book readers. The semiconductor designer has developed an early mockup of an e-book reader that has a 5.7-inch, 1024x768 color e-paper display. While not fully functional, it represents a design that should not only be capable of supporting richer colors than any other reader but also playing video.
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02/16, 11:30am
Inventec mirasol handset
At the Mobile World Congress that has kicked off on Monday, Qualcomm and Inventec are showing the first smartphone to use Qualcomm's mirasol display, the Inventec V112. The 1.1-inch bichrome display sits below the main display and saves energy and is perfectly visible in broad daylight thanks to the technology inherent to its design. Mirasol screens use conductive plates to reflect light and change the wavelength to produce different colors in many small elements that make up each individual pixel.
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09/12, 3:05pm
1st mirasol Color Displays
Freestyle Audio and Skullcandy have together introduced the first devices to use color mirasol displays. The still rare technology uses conductive plates to reflect light and change the wavelength to produce different colors in many small elements that make up each individual pixel. As the approach not only doesn't require a backlight but actively reflects ambient light, the displays are both very thin and power efficient but also near-perfectly visible outdoors, making them ideal fits for technology used outside. The small size also creates very sharp output compared to large LCD or even OLED pixels.
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