Many people were underwhelmed when Esquire ran the first eInk cover last year, so there’s been a degree of scepticism about an issue of Entertainment Weekly in September which will carry an ad with an embedded small video screen for Pepsi & CBS.
The technology for the battery-powered ads was manufactured by Americhip and has been 2 years in development. The screen is about 2.7mm thick and has a resolution of 320×240. The battery lasts for about 65-70mins of playing time but can be recharged via a mini usb cord as there is a jack in the back. The screen uses a thin film transistor liquid crystal display (TFL LCD) enforced by protective polycarbonate. At this stage, it is rumoured, that the ads cost several dollars per copy which whilst incredibly expensive, is really only reflective of the startup cost of this new technology. No doubt over time (and probably not a lot of it) the price will drop, the battery life improve and the resolution will increase. Once it does of course, we then have disposable video players as a reality. Movies or TV shows could be purchased from vending machines at airports, in newsagents etc, watched inflight and simply thrown away at the other end.
