Sitening Conquers E-Ink

Every week at Sitening we have a staff meeting where we all gather in our conference room and talk about the different projects that everyone is working on and how things are looking for the company. When I sat down at the table this morning, I noticed someone had left October’s Esquire out for us to see. You know, the one with e-ink. E-ink? Yeah, don’t worry, I had to look it up too. The e-ink displays, sponsored by Ford and their new SUV model Flex, are included in 100,000 copies of the magazine. From Cnet.com:

Neither Esquire, Ford, nor E-Ink would say how much it cost to produce the special cover, but we imagine it wasn't cheap. As for the built in battery that powers the 2.0 by 4.75-inch electronic paper display (EPD), Esquire Editor in Chief David Granger said they initially expected it to last 90 days but it appears it will last significantly longer--upwards of 250 days. Once the battery dies (it's not replaceable) a static image will be left on the EPD. In other words, part of the display will remain "on" with the ghosted remnants of the E-Ink, much like what Amazon's Kindle does with its screensaver images.

Being the curious nerd that I am, my first thought was, “I really want to take this apart!” So that’s just what the developers and I did. Mind you, by “take it apart” I really meant “mangle it beyond recognition so that it looks like crap when we film the inside parts!” Maybe I was a bit overzealous in the quest to see just what makes e-ink tick, but here’s what Scott, Jason, and I found.