‘We’ve been waiting and waiting to see Pixel Qi's 3Qi e-paper screen in a device, and we were hoping to see some sort of solid announcement at CES, but looks like we will still be waiting. Though the company has ramped up production on its E ink killer, which allows you to turn the backlight off on an LCD screen, they're still working with its half a dozen partners. We were told that within the year we will see a manufacturer that “everyone is familiar with” announcing a device that uses the technology. No word on if it will be a netbook, e-reader or tablet.’

Rampant speculation surrounded Pixel Qi as the likely supplier for Apple’s iSlate device but it doesn’t seem as likely at the moment, at least based on rumored suppliers and price point.  Stay tuned, however.  Anything’s possible.

via Pixel Qi screens to be used by a major manufacturer in 2010 — Engadget.

More on the upcoming slate.

DIY, Pt. II – Neven Mrgan’s tumbl.

Andy Ihnatko is a super great tech industry writer, and this article on the upcoming Apple slate thingy is about the best out there.  Some of what he said:

‘You get a lot of overlap and internal head-butting in other tech companies. The people who run the netbook division of DiscoWare wish no harm to any other living creature, but if the people in charge of DiscoWare’s notebook division were to fall facefirst into a stump grinder, they’d have an immediate proposal for how that division’s budget and personnel could best be absorbed by the netbook group.

‘Apple’s different. If The Coca-Cola Company were run like Apple, they’d have just one brand of zero-calorie cola, not three. Apple sees its product line as a cast of characters, through which they tell a single story. If two products seem to do the same job, then one of them needs to go.’

via Thoughts on what an Apple tablet should be – or not :: CHICAGO SUN-TIMES :: Andy Ihnatko.

This attempt at copying Apple is even worse than the Microsoft Store concept.  Then again, nobody has any idea what Apple’s going to unveil later this month.  It’s just sad the furthest their vision takes them is a recycled tablet named a “slate” to preemptively rip off Apple’s most likely product name.

Where’s the innovation?

Microsoft’s Slate: Exactly Unlike Apple’s Upcoming Tablet.

I completely agree, it does feel like this sometimes.