After getting my bash-scripting-fu on I was able to load my own content on the display:

Image Load Test 2
Originally uploaded by flash5.

Eventually I am going to have to recompile the OS of this puppy (it won’t do a DNS lookup for instance - let alone not having Perl or Python on board)… but I am going to try and put it off for as long as possible.

Ok having nutted out how to talk to my dev board using the USB-serial connection… I then wanted to use the USBNET connection. Again this required some new drivers - but it was basically done by following the instructions outlined here.

The biggest hassle was setting up USB Ethernet on the Mac. You don’t have a comparable ifconfig call to make as you would under Linux. You need to install the USB drivers (additionally this if you’re running 10.5.x), wait for OSX to do it’s stuff and then set up the network connection in the ‘Network’ prefs panel. Once you’ve done that you can execute the relevant ifconfig call via the serial connection and then ssh using the OSX terminal.

I have started playing with the e-ink dev kit (it uses a Gumstix as the controller). The first problem was talking to the dev board using the usb-serial connection and OSX. I got it working ok last night using my XP virtual machine. This morning I got it up and running using OSX. The key steps:

1. Install the USB drivers for the serial port.
   I needed to install the FT232R drivers - which you can find here.
   You will need to reboot your Mac and then when you plug the USB into your machine you will be treated to a new tty under /dev (in my case /dev/tty.usbserial-A1002bao).
2. Install ZTerm
   I couldn’t get an intelligible connection using ’screen’. ZTerm allows you to set up the serial connection correctly.

Hey hey! It arrived. Lots of photos on flickr:

P1000415.JPG
Originally uploaded by flash5.

My devkit is literally sitting down the road at the FedEx office waiting for the customs paper work to get sorted. The next trick will be to find time… don’t even have time to blog evenly these days.

LG Philips have shown of the next size up in flexible displays.

• WXGA
• 14.1″
• 300ms response time

More photos over at AVING.

Hey! Hey! Now
we’re talking:

The Antwerp-based daily De Tijd will soon become the world’s first
newspaper to publish a digital version on so-called ‘electronic paper’.

Instead
of buying your daily paper, from April 2006, 200 subscribers will be able to start
the day by connecting a portable electronic device supplied by De Tijd to the internet
and start downloading their daily paper. Updates will be automatic during the day,
if subscribers have access to wireless technology…

…De
Tijd will appear on several screens. ‘One shows the complete page as in the printed
paper, the second lists only the headlines and the third displays the single article,’
Bruynseels said.

The display is the size of two laptops,
but needs 100 times less energy than a normal laptop screen. Based on an average use
of three hours a day, the battery runs for more than a week.

A
storage space of 244 mega bytes is sufficient for filing one month of newspapers,
plus 30 books, as well as office documents in different formats.

src: MAKE:Blog

Anthony Reed has
created a slick rendering of a cellphone that uses an E-Ink display:

src: Gizmodo.

A Philips spin off iRex is bringing
a new E-Ink eBook reader to market: