E Ink iPhone case brings all the display to the yard

Is it an iPhone or an e-reader? Well, still an iPhone. But one with a case that does some really great things.

If you had an E Ink display on the back of your iPhone, what would you use it for? Gregory Moon and Yashar Behzadi have a few ideas. The pair are the minds behind PopSlate, a new concept on Indiegogo: an iPhone case with an E Ink display.

We're pretty big fans of E Ink; its low power demands and high visibility in strong lighting conditions are its main two advantages, and Moon and Behzadi want to bring that to the iPhone. The case contains a rugged E Ink screen that's paired with an app (there is no mention of whether the screen is Vizplex, Triton or Pearl, or what the resolution is).

The first and most obvious thing it can do is display your photos for personalisation purposes, hooking into Instagram (and with its own social network) so that you can use it to share photos and messages with your friends. But that's not the coolest part. The coolest part is its possibilities.

Since the PopSlate screen is ultra-low power, it is always on. This opens up a bunch of possibilities. Urgent notifications, sports scores, maps, notes, calendar, talking points — you name it — will now be available at a glance.

That is, apps that usually eat away at your iPhone's battery by turning the screen on will no longer do so; the only time it uses power is when the image changes, so it's a much lower drain on your battery life.

The video looks like it's more of a mock-up than the actual product (we've never seen an E Ink screen that doesn't ghost, and certainly not one with that refresh rate), so we're reserving final judgment for now. But the idea is an interesting one, to say the least, and we love the idea of display options.

Head on over to Indiegogo to check it out.

Via www.wired.com