What's Happening at Pixel Qi - Mary Lou Jepsen's Blog

Content Really Matters for Tablets

mary_lou_jepsen — Wed, 12 Oct 2011 13:08:46 +0000

This week we announced a new tablet with a company called Shi-Zhu Technologies. Shizhi is pronounced Sher-Ju and is a clever wordplay on a character combination for Bamboo and its use for paper. The Chinese word for Bamboo is Zhu (pronouced Ju).

Shi-Zhu is closely allied with, and creating a tablet for, one of China’s leading publishing and media groups called Southern Media Group. Southern Media Group ships more paper newspapers per day than The New York Times and The Wall Street Journal combined by some counts!

The Economist describes Southern Media’s Group ability to capture new newspaper markets in the state controlled media system of China quite succinctly. They say that Southern Media is doing something novel – appealing to its readers. Southern Media has been at the forefront of investigative journalism frequently breaking news on corruption scandals, with a revolving door for its top journalists – in and out of jail in China. The group have also been busy with pioneering efforts in gossip and celebrity reporting that have many glued to coverage, and eager for the next issue. The combination of the two (gossip and investigative journalism) has proven irresistible to mainstream Chinese audiences, a content combination that is powerful everywhere.

The tablet is gorgeous with a distinctly high brow Chinese aesthetic, all the content, and runs the latest Android OS. It’s long life battery and indoor/outdoor full-function screen also reduce eye strain for long-form reading especially in bright environments.

On display NOW at GITEX in Dubai

Pixel Qi announces new partnerships.

mary_lou_jepsen — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 14:30:36 +0000

While this blog has been quiet for a few months, we have been creating a larger infrastructure behind the scenes and are beginning to announce some of what we have accomplished. Today we announce A Partnership with All American , one of the largest and most respected component distributors in the world. We are thrilled to join their product line-up and view our partnership with them as critical to enabling engineers everywhere to design transformative products with Pixel Qi screens.

In addition, 3 weeks ago we announced A Major Partnership with 3M which we believe will allow us to bring our technology into mass adoption worldwide.

I’m often asked how Pixel Qi is doing and when our products will be widely available. I’d like to report that over 3 million people are already using my screens, and we are now ramping into even higher volumes. Already, our screens are used by soldiers jumping out of airplanes, children in the developing world on their OLPC laptops, in a variety of tablet and netbooks, and in many applications that find desirable a combination of low power, outdoor usability and low perceived eye strain.

We are introducing two new products into mass production in the coming months. Their sizes and resolutions:

7″ Diagonal 1024×600 screen
10″ Diagonal 1280×800 screen with color even when backlight is completely off

These screens will be widely available in the market and we will be announcing more details soon.

Pixel Qi launches new displays at Computex

mary_lou_jepsen — Thu, 19 May 2011 13:42:32 +0000

At Computex 2011 we will show two new additions to our family of sunlight-readable low-power displays. Both the new 7″ display (1024×600 resolution) and the new 10″ display (1280×800 resolution) build on Pixel Qi’s award-winning technology delivering excellent rendering of multi-media and e-reader content under any conditions – and at a power savings of up to 80% over conventional LCDs.

Our booth space is located directly off the entrance lobby of the Taipei International Convention Center (TICC). Please contact Courtney Wang to set up a meeting time with us (courtneywang@pixelqi.com)

Addendum: We will exhibit several new devices and platforms, including tablets from Notion Ink, a windows tablet from Innoversal, the Sunbook a netbook computer, Sports in Motion’s swing analysis device for athletes, reference designs and other devices using Pixel Qi’s sunlight-readable low-power display technology.”

ZTE introduces 7” Tablet PC with Pixel Qi’s Sunlight Readable Low Power Display

mary_lou_jepsen — Mon, 14 Feb 2011 12:27:01 +0000

The innovative ZTE Light 2 tablet provides excellent internet browsing and multi-media experience in any light

Mobile World Congress (MWC) – Barcelona, February 14th, 2011 – ZTE Corporation, one of the world’s largest providers of telecommunications equipment and network solutions, and Pixel Qi Corporation, designer of innovative low-power sunlight-readable liquid crystal displays, today announced introduction of the ZTE Light 2 tablet PC with Pixel Qi’s award-winning liquid-crystal display at MWC. Leveraging leading edge technologies from both companies, the Light 2 tablet combines the features and performance of a 1GHz processor running the Android operating system with a 7-inch high-resolution Pixel Qi display to offer an excellent multi-media experience in a slim, light weight design with extended battery life.

“We are excited to partner with Pixel Qi to bring their innovative display technology to market,” said Adam Zhang, VP & President of ZTE Mobile Broadband Device. “It brings a new level of performance to our family of tablet PC’s, rendering excellent images under any light conditions.”

“Working with ZTE, a world-leading telecommunication company with a global customer base, provides us with an extraordinary opportunity to address a world-wide market,” added Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO and founder of Pixel Qi. “We look forward to a long-lasting partnership.”

The display is manufactured in a Pixel Qi partnership with CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes Ltd.). Based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, CPT manufactures nearly 40 million displays per month and is the #2 manufacturer of small and middle sized LCDs in the world.

The ZTE Light 2 tablet PC features a 12.6mm super slim design, Android 2.2, a hi-speed 1GHz processor and 4GB of memory. The 7-inch low-power Pixel Qi display has multi-touch capacitive touch screen and a screen resolution of 1024×600 pixels delivering a pixel density of 170 pixels per inch.

Pixel Qi’s award-winning 3Qi display technology renders quality full-color images plus full-motion video and, in high ambient light levels, its reflective mode contributes to the image allowing the backlight to be turned down or off. This delivers significant power savings and a very comfortable reading experience.

For further information on ZTE and Pixel Qi, please visit booth number 8B145，HALL8 during the MWC 2011.

###

About ZTE
ZTE is a leading global provider of telecommunications equipment and network solutions with the most comprehensive product range covering virtually every sector of the wireline, wireless, service and terminals markets. The company delivers innovative, custom-made products and services to over 500 operators in more than 140 countries, helping them to meet the changing needs of their customers while achieving continued revenue growth. ZTE’s 2009 revenue led the industry with a 36% increase to USD 8.8 biillion. ZTE commits 10 percent of its revenue to research and development and takes a leading role in a wide range of international bodies developing emerging telecoms standards. A company with sound corporate social responsibility (CSR) initiatives, ZTE is a member of the UN Global Compact. ZTE is China’s only listed telecom manufacturer, publicly traded on both the Hong Kong and Shenzhen Stock Exchanges (H share stock code: 0763.HK / A share stock code: 000063.SZ). For more information please visit www.zte.com.cn.

About Pixel Qi Corporation
Pixel Qi Corporation, the world’s only non-captive LCD screen designer, has pioneered a new class of screens combining an e-paper look with color and video. These screens offer dramatically lower power consumption, full sunlight readability, and stunning text rendering for reading. The screens use standard LCD manufacturing equipment and materials with a full suite of new inventions to give users real benefits they can see. Pixel Qi, with offices in Silicon Valley, California and Taipei, Taiwan, is a spin-off of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and was founded by OLPC‘s former CTO Mary Lou Jepsen. Pixel Qi believes that the future of computing is all about the screen and is dedicated to continuously delivering innovative screen technologies rapidly into high volume mass production. For more information please visit www.pixelqi.com

Trademarks are the property of the respective parties.

Media Contacts:
Akris Zhang
ZTE Corporation
Tel: +86 755 26775679
Email: zhang.qian12@zte.com.cn

Sung-Lin Yang
Pixel Qi Corporation
Tel : +886 2 2797 8746
Email: sunglin@pixelqi.com

中興通訊和Pixel Qi合作推出陽光下可視且低功耗的7吋平板電腦

中興通訊Light 2提供了在任何光線下極好的互聯網瀏覽及多媒體體驗

世界通信大會（MWC）- 巴塞羅那，二月十四號，2011 – ZTE Corporation 中興通訊股份有限公司，世界上最大電信設備和網絡解決方案的供應商之一，Pixel Qi Corporation，一家創新低功耗且在陽光下可閱讀液晶顯示器的設計公司，今天共同宣布推出搭載Pixel Qi受獲獎肯定創新顯示屏的Light 2平板電腦。憑藉著兩家公司領先的技術，Light 2平板電腦結合了在Android操作系統1GHz的處理器上運行的特點和性能，同時Pixel Qi 7英寸高解析度顯示器能提供卓越的多媒體經驗，超薄，輕巧的設計與延長電池壽命。

我們很高興能與Pixel Qi合作, 共同將其創新顯示技術推向市場，中兴通讯移动宽带产品总经理张亚东說： “藉重其能在任何光線條件下呈現出色且流暢影像的特性, 將我們的個人平板電腦產品提升到更高的應用層次。

“與世界領先且擁有全球客戶群的電信公司-中興通訊合作，，為我們提供了一個能將這創新顯示技術向全世界推廣的難得機會，“Pixel Qi首席執行官和創始人瑪莉羅賈普森博士說：“我們期待著一個長遠共榮的合作關係。“

此一顯示器是由Pixel Qi合作夥伴-中華映管（中華映管股份有限公司）所製造。其總部設在台灣桃園，中華映管每個月可生產近40萬的顯示器，是全球第二大的中小尺寸液晶顯示器製造商。

中興通訊Light 2平板電腦的規格為十二點六毫米超薄設計，Android 2.2，一個高速1GHz的處理器和4GB內存。 Pixel Qi 的7英寸低功耗顯示器搭配多點觸摸電容式觸摸屏，屏幕分辨率1024×600像素提供每英寸170像素的優質畫面。

PixelQi在國際受獲獎肯定的3Qi顯示技術呈現品質全彩色圖像加全動態視頻，其反射模式能讓使用者在高亮度環境下，讓背光適度調降甚至完全關閉。此項特性提供了卓越的節能效果和舒適的閱讀感受。

如需進一步關於中興通訊和Pixel Qi的資料，歡迎到2011年的MWC HALL8，8B145中興通訊展位參觀。

中興通訊
中興通訊是全球領先的電信設備和網絡解決方案供應商, 產品範圍涵蓋幾乎所有有線，無線，服務和終端市場。該公司提供創新的，定制的產品和服務超過 500個運營商在140多個國家，使其能滿足客戶不斷變化的需求，同時實現收入的持續增長。中興通訊2009年收入成長36％增加至8,820.7億美元領先同業。中興通訊將其百分之十營收投注於技術及產品研發並維持其各方面的領導地位持續開發新興的電信標準。中興通訊同時是一家擁有良好的企業社會責任（CSR）的企業，是聯合國全球公約組織成員之一。中興通訊是中國唯一上市的電信製造商，同時在香港和深圳證券交易所上市（H股股票代碼：0763.HK/ A股代碼：000063.SZ）。欲了解更多信息，請至 www.zte.com.cn

Pixel Qi 觀儒股份有限公司
Pixel Qi Corporation是世界上唯一的專精的液晶螢幕設計商，開發了一個創新能結合電子紙模式以及彩色多媒體模式的顯示器。這些屏幕具有顯著降低功耗，在陽光下仍可閱讀和卓越的閱讀內容顯示效果等特性。使用標準LCD製造設備和材料就能生產此一讓消費者耳目一新的劃時代產品。Pixel Qi，辦事處設在美國加州矽谷及台灣台北，是One Laptop per Child（OLPC）相關企業，由OLPC的前首席技術長瑪莉羅賈普森創立。Pixel Qi認為，未來的運算皆與屏幕有關，將持續致力於不斷推出創新屏技術發展並使其達到量產規模。欲了解更多信息，請至www.pixelqi.com

商標是各公司的資產。

CES 2011 – from a Pixel Qi perspective

mary_lou_jepsen — Mon, 10 Jan 2011 04:08:08 +0000

Here is a quick video from our booth at CES this week in Las Vegas – seeing is believing:

We also announced a netbook from Clover Systems called “Sunbook” that uses a Pixel Qi screen with Windows, and an Intel Atom Chipset. We debuted a netbook from Genesi running Ubuntu and using an ARM CPU. Both sport extremely long battery life, sunlight usage, and great text readability as offered by the Pixel Qi screens.

We also showed a number of tablets, some of which are already on sale. This includes the Notion Ink Adam tablet, Realease’s Shogo Tablet as well as a few others that are in development or nearing production for example the Accusee tablet from Accusee.

In addition we showed a auxiliary screen powered only by USB cable that also delivers the data to update the screen. This from Display Solutions AG in Germany with a Pixel Qi screen.

From the CES show floor it became apparent that purely Eink readers or purely LCD tablets were both missing the mark. The former lack color, speed and backlight, the latter lack crisp text, readability, long battery life and ability to use outdoors. Pixel Qi is showing a way to have both and we have brought on board some of the largest LCD manufacturers in the world to deliver this to you all in the coming months.

Pixel Qi and CPT announce manufacturing partnership

mary_lou_jepsen — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 13:04:46 +0000

Pixel Qi and CPT (Chunghwa Picture Tubes) announce today their LCD manufacturing partnership. Together the companies are developing three new screens of various sizes which will reach the market at various times in 2011.

This alliance started early last summer when CPT showed a transflective screen of its own design at a Taiwanese trade show. Discussions between the two companies at that show made it apparent that Pixel Qi and CPT should work together to bring stronger product to market faster. A close alliance was formed and the teams have been working together quietly all fall. They have created samples of a 7” 1024×600 screens scheduled for mass production in early Q2 2011, which will be first publically shown at the CES 2011 exhibition in Las Vegas in early January 2011. This represents an expansion of Pixel Qi’s manufacturing strength beyond its first LCD manufacturing partner who has been shipping Pixel Qi’s 10” screen.

CPT commented this afternoon: “We are excited to be working with Pixel Qi to bring their new transflective LCD technology to market. The combination of Chunghwa Picture Tubes expertise in volume LCD manufacturing and Pixel Qi’s innovative low power and sunlight readable display technology promises innovative LCDs for smartphones, tablets and notebooks in 2011.”

CPT, based in Taoyuan, Taiwan, manufactures nearly 40 million screens per month, and is the #2 mid-size LCD manufacturer in the world.

Dr. Belle Fu (傅珮倫 ), vice president of manufacturing at Pixel Qi, said ”This great alliance will bring out a robust sequence of exciting screens during 2011 and it’s an exciting development for the whole industry”

Pixel Qi, based in Taipei, Taiwan (Neihu) and San Bruno, California , is the first fab-less LCD designer in the world and focuses on high-performance, low-power, innovative LCDs. Its technologies have won multiple display-industry and electronics innovation awards. Pixel Qi is a spin-off of One Laptop per Child where this screen technology was initially developed for the $100 laptop; nearly 3 million screens using this new technology have shipped in the last three years.

Contact Courtney Wang (courtneywang@pixelqi.com) for further information.

Notion Ink Tablet with Pixel Qi screen sells out

mary_lou_jepsen — Sat, 11 Dec 2010 06:16:24 +0000

Notion Ink started pre-orders of its tablet with the Pixel Qi screen yesterday and sold out or the version with our screen within an hour. see here and here.

Rest assured Notion Ink is ordering a lot more screens from us!

Thank you all for your interest and support of both Notion Ink and Pixel Qi.

- Mary Lou

Progress and a couple of awards

mary_lou_jepsen — Sat, 27 Nov 2010 01:47:02 +0000

Please come and see us in Las Vegas at CES this year, we won’t be on the floor, but in a meeting room just off the floor. Please contact us to arrange an appointment. We will have some new exhibits at CES, and will have some big customer news even before that.

In the very near future: We will be getting to you more information about our new 7″ screen, as well as other new screens sizes for 2011. The difference in these new screens isn’t just size – but all new performance levels.

And, Pixel Qi is delighted to announce that we have won two awards this month:

1) We have been honored by Popular Science. The Pixel Qi screen was named 1 of the 100 top innovations of 2010 in this week’s Popular Science “Best of What’s New” issue. See the piece here

2) EE Times has put us on their “Silicon 60″ list – a list of the hottest new companies and technologies in Silicon. A great club to be a member of – See the piece here

We are in the process of hiring senior team members in both San Francisco and Taipei (check our web site for more information and job descriptions: www.pixelqi.com)

Low-power, wireless displays made possible!

mary_lou_jepsen — Tue, 28 Sep 2010 06:07:24 +0000

Wireless Pixel Qi display module can be controlled by another device, using new Display Solution AG board solution

Gilching, Bavaria, Germany, and San Bruno, California, USA
September 28th, 2010

Have you ever wanted an extra reading screen for your laptop – one that could be plugged in via USB (or wirelessly driven) when you need the extra screen real estate, or need to show someone else screen information? Of course, this extra screen would need to be small & light enough to carry, very low power, offer crisp text for good reading and be readable in any light – even in sunlight.

Download short movie clip here. An outdoor comparison of Pixel Qi screen running off of USB-only compared to a standard LCD screen with 5-fold the power consumption (causing rapid battery drain in the case of standard LCD). Even with the high power load the standard LCD screen images aren’t visible, and the Pixel Qi screen images are crisp while just sipping low power from USB-only. We have also enabled wireless-USB solution is also enabled to allow driving the screen without tethers or wires at all – a new kind of tablet with connection to laptop or cellphone!

Today we announce such a solution, the Display Solutions d-screen-Qi10. Display Solutions AG has developed the d-screen-HYBRID driver board which has been combined with the low power, sunlight readable Pixel Qi 10” screen. This module can be plugged into a laptop (or even some phones) via USB for easy access to a second screen. Even better, you can skip the cables completely and use this second screen via wireless-USB: meaning the data is sent to the screen wirelessly and the screen runs on batteries alone.

The Pixel Qi screen used is an innovative 10.1” TFT Liquid Crystal Display with LED backlight which supports 1024×600 mode and can display 262,144 colors in the transmissive mode. The screen also uses any roomlight or sunlight available to support two low power modes: a transflective mode where the backlight stays and any roomlight adds to the screen brightness, and a pure reflective mode that is black and white (with 64 grayscales) which is bright and clear even in direct sunlight. This technology enables subpixel rendering, standard now with most operating systems, and higher actual (native) resolution (3072×600) for very crisp text.

In order to make the Pixel Qi display technology available for the embedded market and for developers and individual users, Display Solution AG adapted this screen to their latest board generation (d.screen-HYBRID) which supports USB / Wireless-USB (based on DisplayLinkTM technology) as well as Ethernet (10/100Mbit, Gigabit) connected displays. We announce here a sunlight readable USB-connected system solution with a total power consumption of 1.5W, only. All of the power is delivered from USB, no battery or power adaptor is needed.

Norbert Feuchtgruber, CEO of Display Solution AG, said “our working with Pixel Qi screens is enabling an important step forward in low-power systems – and we believe these will find great use in many fields where portable screens are needed.”

Dr. Mary Lou Jepsen, CEO and founder of Pixel Qi Corp., said “We are pleased that Display Solutions has adopted our low-power, use-anywhere screens in a way that will enable many new applications and device types. This solves a problem that other tablets have not yet addressed.”

Display Solutions will start selling the newly designed d-screen-Qi10 in October.

About Display Solutions AG
Display Solutions, based in Gilching, Bavaria, Germany, is a leading developer and marketer of customized LCD solutions for existing and future markets, combining leading-edge screen and electronic technologies. Products range from single components to complete system solutions built around TFT displays for commercial and industrial use with application in such areas as digital signage, point-of-sale, point-of-information, automation, measurement engineering, medical instruments, and other mobile and embedded applications.
www.display-solution.com

About Pixel Qi Corporation
Pixel Qi Corporation, the world’s only non-captive LCD screen designer, has pioneered a new class of screens combining an e-paper look with color and video. These screens offer dramatically lower power consumption, full sunlight readability, and stunning text rendering for reading. The screens use standard LCD manufacturing equipment and materials with a full suite of new inventions to give users real benefits they can see. Pixel Qi, with offices in Silicon Valley, California and Taipei, Taiwan, is a spin-off of One Laptop per Child (OLPC) and was founded by OLPC‘s former CTO Mary Lou Jepsen. Pixel Qi believes that the future of computing is all about the screen and is dedicated to continuously delivering innovative screen technologies rapidly into high volume mass production.
www.pixelqi.com

Trademarks are the property of the respective parties.

Pixel Qi Tablet Availability, DIY Screen Success and other updates

mary_lou_jepsen — Fri, 17 Sep 2010 16:53:56 +0000

A few quick announcements from Pixel Qi:

User comments on DIY kits – easy to use and well worth it
Pixel Qi has completed the first tranche of its Series B funding
7 inch Pixel Qi screen in development now
Tablet availability update – with Pixel Qi Screens

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Pixel Qi DIY kits are easy to install and awesome
Go to Make Magazine and order a DIY kit for your netbook. It’s easy to replace the screen, even if you aren’t a techie – the reward is both longer battery life for your netbook and crisp readability in any light – even direct sunlight. Here are a few comments from people that have done it already:

Awesome
“Finally found a way to work at the beach. I was a little nervous about taking apart my netbook (never done anything like that before), but it was simple and the results couldn’t be better. Plus, my laptop now gets more than ten hours of use without charging. Well worth extra money of purchasing this display.
– A Happy User – August 2010

More Readable
When reading from the screen at night I prefer to take advantage of the reflective nature of the screen by shining a lamp straight one the screen as you would when reading a book. The reflection off the screen is not quite sufficient to read the screen comfortably this way so I turn on the backlighting ever so slightly, one or two notches up only. This way I read the screen in the transflective mode. I find this more comfortable than reading in the transmissive mode as I would on a traditional LCD computer screen. It gives me less eyestrain.
– A Happy User – September 2010

Funding
We have now fully completed our first tranche of series B finance.

New Screen Development: 7″
We are developing a 7” screen for tablets and ereaders that is planned for mass production in H1 2011. Samples will be available earlier, perhaps by late Q4 2010. Contact us to be an early access partner: send email to admin@pixelqi.com

Pixel Qi Tablet availability:

Tight supply chain and 100% factory usage this spring and summer coupled with Apple’s disruptive iPad effectively had a 1-2 punch impact: delaying most tablet makers from coming to market as early as they wished. The situation has eased: the supply chain is more robust and factory capacity is widely available. Many of our device makers used this downtime to refine their designs with the result being even more exciting offerings that are highly differentiated from the iPad with options well beyond ATT for carriers. These device maker partners will be making more announcements coming this fall. More information about two of our early partners is available at Innoversal and Notion Ink .
The dramatic power savings our screens offer allows much lighter devices by saving on battery weight and housing needed for battery safety. Our screens are also readable in any light even direct sunlight and are optimized for easy reading in any light and crisp text.

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Finally, we will be announcing other products carrying Pixel Qi screens here in this blog; stay tuned.

- Mary Lou Jepsen