2006: The year of ePaper

I bought my first digital camera relatively late. It was Minolta Dimage F100 in July 2002. At that time I did not believe electronic pictures could come close enough to analog film. But a few hours later, after I "developed" my first photos with HP Photosmart 100 printer, I understood the game was over and I would never use my film camera again. The quality of the 4 megapixel shot was stunning, with vivid colors and no visible grain. I even made a 30x40 print of the Seattle Motherboard (taken from the Bank Of America building) that still hangs on my wall. And more important - the flexibility of electonic photography, with instant preview, at home photo processing, ease of archiving killed the film.

I have not bought a newspaper for several years now. Instead, my house is covered by WiFi and I've been experimenting with a variety of "electronic readers" for a long time. Laptops are a natural choice for their universality, but they never come close to the ease of use of traditional paper. They are heavy. And batteries do not last long enough to just forget about them. And they are hardly readable in sunshine. There are tablets. Lighter, better, but still having battery and readability issues. And they have hard disks to spin and Windows to patch and backup... shouldn't we just have a browser? A reader? With clear display, batteries that last a week or two and a simple wireless content distribution system enabling you to personalize your preferences?

It looks like the Illiad platform from iRex Technologies is the answer. The ER0100 is thin. And light. And it runs for days without charging. And is clearly readable in any conditions. And is very very easy to use. iRex has just signed a contract with Belgian De TIJD for test distribution of the daily paper. As we are nearing the Epic 2010, 2006 may be a milestone... And of course I would love to have the Google Reader on the Illiad :)