E-paper tablet race heats up

September 29, 2008 - 1:35pm — Blake

E-paper tablet race heats up: Two startups are claiming the world's first letter-sized electronic paper tablet.

IRex Technologies BV (Eindhoven, Netherlands), a spinoff of Philips Electronics N.V., and Plastic Logic Inc. (Mountain View, Calif), a spinoff of the Cavendish Laboratory at University of Cambridge, U.K.

Both the iRex 1000 and the Plastic Logic Reader have outer dimensions approximating the size of an 8.5- by 11-inch tablet. Both use reflective, high-contrast gray-scale electrophoretic material from E-Ink Corp. (Cambridge, Mass.). The iRex 1000 is available now. Plastic Logic's Reader won't be available until 2009, but the company claims its tablet is slightly larger.