Kindle, iPad, Droid—these compact mobile devices are essentially all display. But the screens aren't all we'd like them to be. Yet.
Image: Sean McCabe
BY JASON HEIKENFELD // MARCH 2010
It’s 2020, and it’s sunny outside. In fact, it’s so bright in your kitchen that you have to squint to see your grapefruit. You flip on your e-reader and the most recent e-issue of IEEE Spectrum pops up on-screen, the colors and text sharp and brilliant in the sunlight. There’s e-mail to answer, but you want to make the early commuter bus, so you roll up your e-reader and stuff it in your jacket pocket.
On the bus, you switch the device to physically rigid mode and half the screen becomes a large keyboard. You bang out a few messages, then watch a short video. All the while the unit is charging its battery through a built-in organic solar cell.
