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Home / News / iPad 3 to feature E Ink-LCD hybrid screen?

iPad 3 to feature E Ink-LCD hybrid screen?

Apple's auto-detecting hybrid displays could be taking the tablet war to Kindleville

The Apple iPad 3 may have a hybrid LCD E Ink display, if a patent filed in October 2009 and revealed publicly today, goes into production. The system will automatically recognise what it’s displaying and change the screen display to suit. So when reading a book the E Ink display will be activated, with a backlight if needed.

It doesn’t stop there – the device will even be able to layer LCD and E Ink at the same time using multiple composite display regions. The translucent E Ink display will sit atop the LCD and below the touchscreen. This is just the kind of groundbreaking development Apple needs to get people queuing for its next release, tipped to ring in significant changes for Apple’s tablet. Even if it doesn’t need that to stir up a queue.

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Profile image of Dan Grabham Dan Grabham Editor-in-Chief

About

Dan is Editor-in-chief of Stuff, working across the magazine and the Stuff.tv website.  Our Editor-in-Chief is a regular at tech shows such as CES in Las Vegas, IFA in Berlin and Mobile World Congress in Barcelona as well as at other launches and events. He has been a CES Innovation Awards judge. Dan is completely platform agnostic and very at home using and writing about Windows, macOS, Android and iOS/iPadOS plus lots and lots of gadgets including audio and smart home gear, laptops and smartphones. He's also been interviewed and quoted in a wide variety of places including The Sun, BBC World Service, BBC News Online, BBC Radio 5Live, BBC Radio 4, Sky News Radio and BBC Local Radio.

Areas of expertise

Computing, mobile, audio, smart home