cross-posted from: https://lemmy.world/post/19284817
I know E Ink is a company, but for most of us itโs become a de-facto term referring to the technology, like kleenex, or q-tips.
I have every Pebble model, and used them until the last oneโs battery finally gave out. Iโve been using various e-ink (e-paper) readers, from the first Sony to my current Kobo & reMarkable (one for leisure reading, tโother for PDFs and writing). Are those displays different technologies than E Inkโs? Does the display process E Ink uses differ from other e-paper technologies? Are they not all based on polarized, bi-colored balls?
I have nothing against pedantry, but I also think E Ink has lost (or won, depending on how you look at it) the identity game; I suspect the majority of people - if surveyed - would neither realize E Ink is a specific company, nor that the correct generic term is โe-paper.โ Everyone I know (with whom the topic comes up) just call it โe-ink,โ whether or not it comes from that company. Similarly, Iโve never heard anyone call it โe-paperโ IRL.
P.S. I just did a search for โe-paper watchesโ, and most results call them โe-ink.โ Maybe they all use E Ink-brand displays, but I canโt really tell since none seem to capitalize or โข the term. Thereโs a bunch of cheap watches on Alibaba which are called โe-inkโ watches - are those all really using E Ink brand displays?
E-paper is the category for any display that looks kinda like paper. E-ink is a specific technology (by a specific company, yes,) that uses blobs suspended in oil in small capsules that are controlled by magnetic fields.
Pebble uses a Sharp memory LCD, which as the name suggests, is a liquid crystal display. If you categorize pebbles as a โeink watchesโ, then a gameboy is one low-power memory chip away from being an eink handheld gaming console, the display tech is otherwise identical - a transflective lcd.
