So, since you've missed my tech-related blog posts, I have two incredible new technologies to tell you about today: Spritzing (I'm not sure if Spritz has made up that word yet, but they should!) and a little flexible e-reader called the Wexler Flex One.
I've heard a lot of talk recently about flexible displays, but I was honestly having trouble envisioning their value. Why does my smartphone need a flexible display? Why does anything else need one for that matter? And then a friend showed me his little flexible e-reader. The Wexler Flex One is made by a German company, and wasn't even released in the states, but the flexible display is by LG. It cost $300 when released, but folks on eBay are selling them as low as $50 already. My friend said he'd already broken several e-reader screens, but this one with it's flexible display wouldn't break when dropped (at least not as easily - the company warns against folding and such, which could probably destroy the electronic parts inside). It is also extremely thin and lightweight.
Well, I wanted my own, and this little cutie has become my purse/travel everywhere e-reader. It doesn't have the awesome backlight of my Kindle Paperwhite, but it is so much lighter that I can't even tell it's in my purse by comparison. Nor does it have a touch screen or wireless (yep, you have to plug it in to your computer to transfer books over to it). But now, I see a future for flexible displays.
Have you imagined a time when we all carry around sheets of electronic displays rather than ever printing anything? I have, actually for years, which is one big reason I knew Darrell and I couldn't keep working in the printing industry long-term. You might view the iPad and tablets in general as the first glimpse of that, and I guess that may be true. But to me, the first evidence of that truly easy, portable, and sturdy future electronic paper is this little flexible e-reader. I would also tell you about the real benefits of e-ink over LCD displays as well, but that would take another blog post.
Here's my cute little Wexler Flex One (if you see me in person, you need to also view it's flexibility and how lightweight it is):
Next up is Spritz. I just heard about this a few weeks ago, but this one little piece of technology is something that I truly believe will change the world. We have so much more information at our fingertips than we did a few decades ago. But, with the exception of some speed reading methods that some have learned, we cannot read and absorb it any faster than we could then.
Wikipedia says: "While the average adult reading rate is 250 words per minute with 70% comprehension, speed reading programs typically claim that improvements to 500 words per minute or more while maintaining or improving comprehension are possible."
But what if you could read at three or even four times the average rate, WITHOUT LEARNING ANY NEW READING METHOD?!?!? What if you could read a novel in an evening (and I mean without staying up all night)? What if you could breeze through 50 emails first thing each morning at work? What if you could read several interesting articles online while you rush to eat your lunch sitting at your desk so you can get out of work in time to pick up your kids? What if you could make it through that extremely boring chapter in your textbook so quickly that you could actually go back and study the important parts rather than falling to sleep halfway through the first read? Are you interested now? I think you should be.
Seriously folks, check out Spritz. I am interested enough in them that I am thinking about getting a Samsung Galaxy S5 smartphone soon after it comes out next month, simply because it has some Spritz capability built in. I can't wait until this functionality is included in e-books and online. Technology has long promised to improve our lives and give us more time. This, my friends, is a technology that I think can finally, really deliver on that promise.
