popSLATE, Giving Your iPhone 5 An E-Ink Screen One Case At A Time

I long for the day when Apple introduces a hybrid E-Ink, Retina display on their devices. One for all things iPad, and one for all things reading. Click a toggle, and you can jump between the two states. We’re probably a long way from that at this point, but popSLATE seems to have come up with a creative solution to bring E-Ink to the iPhone, and it involves Indiegogo and a case.

Already well on its way to the $150,000 goal set on Indiegogo, the popSLATE is an E-Ink case that has a fully customizable E-Ink backplate so you can display a nice stream of images and change up how your case looks at a moment’s notice. Using the popSLATE app you can take a photo and immediately send it to the display on the back of your case.

It also seems like the device could have deeper integration with your iPhone, displaying notifications, and other important information like todo lists and other goodies depending on developer interest. The device includes a Micro e-reader, and an Open API so developers can interface with the device.

If the case works as advertised, and is as slim and seamless as the promotional video makes it out to be, we could be looking a whole new breed of iPhone cases. Cases that both provide some protection and useful information to its owners.

It’s a pretty amazing idea.

Joshua is the Content Marketing Manager at BuySellAds. He’s also the founder of Macgasm.net. And since all that doesn’t quite give him enough content to wrangle, he’s also a technology journalist in his spare time, with bylines at PCWorld, Macworld and TechHive.