Can someone explain to me what the obsession with e-ink is on hackernews?
I understand that it has a lot of great qualities to it but it so far out of price range that it negates the upside. Or am I completely misreading the benefits?
It's hard to explain, but I also have a bit of a love of e-ink. I'd describe it as more of a fascination than an obsession. I think it's because it so closely resembles its analogue equivalent (paper & paint) and draws no power. For me, the holy grail will be when I can build, for less than 50 USD, a colour e-ink photo frame, of at least 12 inches diagonal, that I can wall-mount and have it display my photo memories each day, forever changing. Seriously excited about that day.
PS: I un-down-voted you. I think it's a fair question.
e-ink has a cool and unique aesthetic that LCDs simply can't offer. It also, theoretically, can be permanently displaying information without being connected to the grid.
Neither of these two things are tradeoffs for price - a higher price can't get you an LCD that provides the e-ink aesthetic, and while you could buy a big solar/battery array for LCD, it'd be heavier/less portable and would be more expensive overall, anyway.
Also, the cost is basically zilch:
>For this project I went with a Nook Simple Touch Reader. You can find them on eBay or Facebook Marketplace for $10-$30 used.
$30 for a hobby project is nothing. You can spend more than that on wood.
Note I said it wasn't clear that they meant to be, just that you can see how people (those downvoting) could read it that way. It was quite categorical, and "obsessive" has negative connotations.
I understand that it has a lot of great qualities to it but it so far out of price range that it negates the upside. Or am I completely misreading the benefits?