It seemed obvious back in mid-December of last year that Polymer Vision wasn't going to nail its timetable for production versions of the 3G-equipped, e-ink wonder known as the Readius. Now word is that the company will have a commercial version of the phone / e-book reader available sometime in mid-2008 in Italy via Telecom Italia -- provided that everything goes according to its diabolical plans. If you'll recall, the device features a foldable, grayscale, 5-inch QVGA display, and boasts a slew of features, including HSDPA, a 400MHz ARM CPU, and a battery life up to "six times longer" than current mobile phones. We'll admit we're intrigued, but don't make us wait too long over here, okay?

An e-ink primary display on a cellphone? Eh, that's so 2006. On display at Japan's CEATEC show this week is a prototype clamshell that flips the concept on its head, moving the e-ink down below. The benefits are pretty obvious -- different keypad configurations can be shown in different phone modes, a tactic that's been explored before -- but unlike phones that use OLED or LCD displays, e-ink only requires power when it's being changed, so you get the combined benefit of configurable keys while consuming virtually no additional energy over a standard layout. Combine the concept with physical ridges between keys and we figure this could be a pretty killer setup since you wouldn't be losing tactile feedback, either. We see a good fifteen or twenty concept phones for every device that actually sees production, but since some folks bothered to throw together a physical prototype here, we're cautiously optimistic this thing might see the light of day.

[Via Ubergizmo]

It may not have the same sort of high-tech impact as e-ink, but there's something to be said for reading stuff the old fashioned way with a nice, thick stack of paper -- and Epson would like us to use our phones to do it. The Japanese company has hooked up with Sammy NetWorks to include its muPass platform in printers and phones for managing DRMed e-book content via IrDA -- in other words, buy a book on your phone and beam it straight to your printer over an infrared connection. Epson and Sammy are thinking that the setup will be perfect for distributing periodicals (magazines, newspapers, and the like), individual articles, and out-of-print or limited audience material that can't be justified for a regular production run on the press. Integration should be a snap for phone manufacturers, since Sammy's now managed to cram the muPass system into software. War and Peace, anyone?